At Swim - Lisa Hannigan

Track list:

1. Fall
2. Prayer For The Dying
3. Snow
4. Lo
5. Undertow
6. Ora
7. We The Drowned
8. Anahorish
9. Tender
10. Funeral Suit
11. Barton

Running time: 39 minutes
Released: 2016

So a second interlude in the midst of the DiFranco discs. This arrived before Astronaut Meets Appleman, but I didn't get to it before the latter arrived, so At Swim got relegated. It has now been sat around, un-listened to, for over a month.

I was trawling around online looking for new music and saw that Lisa Hannigan had a record out. I raised an eyebrow - whilst I loved Sea Sew, I found Passenger much less interesting. However I looked into it, to find that this album is produced by Aaron Dessner of The National whose work on This is the Kit's Bashed Out I liked a lot. Sold, then. Now to find out if that was wise...

It opens with a gentle little strum, and then a typically husky intonation from our singer. It is a laid back beginning, low key and approachable. Ooh, a swell and a hint of harmony in the vocal; pity it comes on wandering, directionless notes not in more defined lyrics. That said, the general tone of this first track is a big winner for me. It harks back a little, more reminiscent of Sea Sew than Passenger for me. Before Fall ends I find myself getting impatient for the close, but that did not manifest until the denouement so I don't hold too much against it. I'm sure the second track will be cheerier... oh, wait. No - it matches the title in tone.

The reasons for the sparse September around these parts are many and varied. From business travel to Boggle, family to fatigue, spending to... exercising? I am trying to shake some of my overall inactivity in favour of a healthier approach. Time is yet to comment on the merits or longevity of this idea. I find Prayer for the Dying quite tiresome on initial exposure. It sounds as though there might be something of interest there, but it is buried in the supporting sounds if so. The vocal is drifting, the pace plodding and my overuse of alliteration is annoying even me by now. This is a candidate for the chop, but as with other things in the past I don't feel that ridding myself of tunes I have given no chance is helpful. It might be a grower.

Ah! More like it. Snow has a simpler sound, and a hushed, whispering singing that feels like a caress to my ears, gently drawing attention away from the nice but muted melodies that hide behind Hannigan's song. I love this woman's voice when she uses like this - all soft edges - it has a soothing quality. The synergy with the rest of the composition is pretty great too, in particular the way her tones interweave with the piano part in the arrangement. Its glorious how my ears did not know which to follow, drawn keenly to both. If this isn't the stand out track from the album I will be very surprised.

I am feeling good about the purchase at this stage - actually I think Snow probably justifies it outright for me. It is not a complete retread of old ground. The general sound of these tunes is different from either of the other albums I have thanks to changes in the arrangement - Dessner's impact perhaps? I like that it is so, for as much as I love Sea Sew, a retread offers nothing (and a retread of Passenger would be forgettable I suspect). It isn't all great, but there are some great moments.

Undertow is an odd track. I suspect it is a grower. My initial response to it is not positive, but there are elements there that I really like - the staccato strings, the general progression of the backing that provides the rhythm and structure - and I think with a few listens I might appreciate other elements of the sound more. That said, by the end of the piece it felt a little repetitive and I am glad when the next number reverts to piano to support Hannigan's ethereal singing. Her vocal style glides over and under and around the tune, which left to itself is nice distraction but no more. The song finishes rather abruptly - or it feels like it does to me, at least.

It is not a cheery album, not a bit of it. Any uplift comes from the enjoyment of her voice and the occasionally light touches of the keyboard. Pace is generally slow, funereal even, and tone is primarily sombre. This does not prevent it from having moments of real charm. There is a spot in We, The Drowned where the arrangement is left to it that is wonderfully tuneful, peaceful and absorbing.That tune is replaced by an a capella number which showcases some unusual harmonies and choices in terms of the singing. I am not sure what I make of it. On balance I am probably glad when a more expected song structure returns for Tender. Having said that the slow tempo and downbeat nature of the songs is starting to wear on me a bit.

There is real beauty in her singing, and I can hear touches of class in how the pieces have been put together. It feels really well crafted more than anything. However the darkness of the tones starts to grate after a while. What it needs is another Snow to pull up the rooting doubts. However a song titled Funeral Suit was never likely to be the shot in the arm I was after, and indeed it isn't; more of the same - nicely sung, nicely played, nicely put together but overwhelmingly morose. I think I would enjoy this more in bitesize installments rather than as a full meal. They say the album is a dying art, as good as dead, even; maybe I am finally starting to see it that way. Or maybe I am just tired; that seems more likely.

To say the last song is cheery would be misleading, but it doesn't have the same tones that have grown to irk me. There are some nice uses of electronics here too - it has a very different feel, actually and does work as a nice closer, cleanser, even uplifting things. The key line is crucial to the lightness here, but it is the electronic percussion that makes the track - a really significant part of the arrangement, front and centre in its usage but with subtle application in that despite being the thing that most draws my ear it never dominates. Most importantly it synchronises darn well with everything else used.

I feel much better about the album after that final track. Two standouts then, but if asked to pick I would have to chose Snow every time. Hannigan returned, I am happy for that, but I doubt I will consume all of this in album form again; maybe once in the car to try to let the other songs grow on me, perhaps...

At Least For Now - Benjamin Clementine

Track list:

1. Winston Churchill's Boy
2. Then I Heard A Bachelor's Cry
3. London
4. Adios
5. St-Clementine-On-Tea-And-Croissants
6. Nemesis
7. The People And I
8. Condolence
9. Cornerstone
10. Quiver A Little
11. Gone

Running time: 50 minutes
Released: 2015

So as is traditional for me at this time of year, I have perused the list of Mercury nominated artists and picked up the ones that interest me. Including, this year, the winner. I am already certain that I won't want all of this from the samples I have heard, and if I had the patience to listen via streaming services before committing then, well... I wouldn't be here doing this now, would I?

I was interested not because it won, but because I saw it described with an emphasis on the piano melodies. On the evidence of the opening track (some horribly mangled English in the opening lyrics that reference Churchill's famous speech about the Battle of Britain aside) there could well be something to back up that initial interest. However this listen is going to be a challenge - I am battling not just the habitual tiredness that I can never escape (even after 12 hours in bed!) , but also a hangnail or something that means that it hurts whenever I use the little finger of my left hand. As that happens a fair bit when typing (a!) this could be a painful stretch.

First impressions are mixed. The language mess-up on the one hand balanced by a nice melody on the other. By the time the second track is well underway I am pretty sure I don't much like Clementine's voice, though I see some traces of Nina Simone in his vocal approach and appreciate the way his words are shaped, the actual sounds produced leave me a little cold. The structure of the tunes though... that is very likable, particularly the more upbeat opening to London. This song finds me less alienated by his singing voice too. Now the disc won the Mercury prize, I half expect this tune to crop up everywhere as backing music to adds, TV trails etc. It has that kind of universal appeal - the same sort of draw as To Build a Home by The Cinematic Orchestra, which also ended up everywhere after Ma Fleur was released.

Adios is a clear step down for my money - the move to a staccato style of playing makes for a far less engaging melody and it is really only the melodies that I am interested in here. This track redeems itself with a second half a world away from the first, and crams 3 movements into 4 minutes, an interesting contrast to the sameness of some things I have listened to recently. I haven't heard much more random than the 1 minute long insert with hyphens that is St-Clementine-On-Tea-And-Croissants; it just seems completely out of place and adds nothing. There is no tune, just a strained voice and a lyric that leaves much to be desired.

Thankfully it does seem to be a random insert because the next track is back to a pleasant melody. Like most so far it is piano-led with strong backing from strings and percussion, and here Clementine manages to make his voice fit well to the point that it no longer grates on me. Rather than the piano, this track is made by the string arrangement, the keyboard providing bass structure as much as anything else. The tracks seem longer than they are - not because they are dragging (as has been the case on some prior listens) but because they achieve the change ups and movements. My head has gone. It happened about the same time yesterday evening too - I just simply crashed and started feeling ready for bed very early in the evening. Yesterday I had an excuse of being busy with people all day, today I've done very little but recover and yet it still hits me. I am afraid that makes this listen largely void - I can barely concentrate all of a sudden.

The opening of Condolence is pretty special, high tempo but low key. The roll of the track continues after the vocal starts but it loses some of its hypnotic magic. Still a fine track though, my favourite so far. I find myself with little to say - tiredness, no doubt. I am very much on the fence about some of what I am hearing. Not all of the tracks have managed the different movements or got the balance between melody and structure, or allied well with what is not the most natural singing voice I have ever heard. I think I am going to have to listen again sometime soon, in a different mood, at a different time of day (of year? Winter gets to me so...) before rushing to judgement. However there is no way this would have been my British album of the year, though I have not bought that much this year it seems, my favourite release from 2015 has been Bashed Out; I called it as a potential album of the year when I picked it up months ago, and for me This is the Kit has not been topped. I find myself surprised that At Least for Now actually won the Mercury Prize, but also happy that something like this could win.

I feel that if his voice were a touch more musical then this could have been a lot more approachable. Getting past the rough edges and distinctive accent is causing me some issues, keeping me at a distance. I am happy to report that I didn't get turned off by anything in a big way, which I expected to from the track previews I had heard, except for the crazy out-of-place interlude. Wow, that is a lot of waffle for nothing really. More digression than discussion. Long story short I need to give Benjamin Clementine another chance.

Blue Roses - Blue Roses

Track list:

1. Greatest Thoughts
2. Cover Your Tracks
3. I Am Leaving
4. Can't Sleep
5. I Wish I...
6. Coast
7. Does Anyone Love Me Now?
8. Doubtful Comforts
9. Rebecca
10. Imaginary Fights

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2008

For the second time in recent days, two things in a row with the same duration (assuming I don't slam Benjamine Clementine in between, at least). I have a vague recollection of why I bought this - some Amazon recommendation or other based on other female singer/songwriters. That's not much of a stretch, as it is a musical furrow that I have ploughed regularly in search of new material over the years, mostly coming up disappointed as not much lives up to early Thea Gilmore for me. I don't really recall how any of this goes though and I'd rather not prejudge it.

We open with a piano melody. I guess by default I was expecting guitar so that was a nice surprise. The vocal is a little too ethereal for my liking, floral in places it does not always mesh ideally with the stresses on the notes beneath. The melody has nice crescendo and diminuendo, filling out growing in volume and then retracting back to simple quiet notes. The volume (in terms of mental space) is well aided by the vocal, even if it it is a little too shrill here and there. I end up on the fence over the song, but I think the melodies show promise.

There is a longer lead in to Cover Your Tracks, a nice combination of keyboard and violins. Oh, wait; it wasn't a lead in, it was the entirety of a short tune. Huh. No. It was the lead out to Greatest Thoughts - I did not see that, and it didn't feel like a lead out. There appeared to be a clean break before the melodies struck up. Interesting. When Cover Your Tracks starts for real it is a spangly plucked melody, nice. The vocal is piercingly high when it starts but there is a good sense of emotion in Laura Groves' voice as it moves over the registers with the tune. After the initial line, which felt far too high to be comfortable I rather like the singing here. In places it swamps the guitar, but that just makes the plucking more special where it recaptures the ear. Again we have a weird break mid-piece and what seems to be a new melody strikes up, but here it is more clearly a bridge.

I think this style may wear on me over 45 minutes. Nice little moments, but a little same-y in album form, perhaps and three quarters of an hour is a long time for the higher-reaching strains of her voice to worry my tolerance for high pitches. I have been sleeping like garbage this week too, so my patience is somewhat eroded through tiredness. Nothing like a nice lie-in on a Saturday to redress that, but I shall not be getting one because there is fun to be had. Can't Sleep seems like an appropriate song to start up as I am digressing into my poor sleep cycle, though the song itself is fairly snooze inducing. A simple picked melody with a bit of string support, it is not particularly stirring and as much as the pattern is pretty, I can't stare at it for ever. I find my mind drifting away because of the twee-ness.

I think these songs are too long for what they are. 5.00, 5.16, 6.53 - its a long time for tunes that lack many layers or changes of tone. I didn't write anything specific about I Am Leaving but it was the best of the tracks to date because it got through itself before the construction got dull or the voice wore on me, thus leaving the soothing melodies - Groves constructs hooks nicely - to have their positive effect before moving on. To be fair, I Wish I... feels as though it is trying to justify the longer run and I am better inclined to it because it is piano-led and less reliant on pattern. Changes of tempo help break it up, giving us movements. I take a moment to check Blue Roses' similar artists on LastFM and scratch my head; there is very little Alessi's Ark here, and definitely no She Keeps Bees. Not enough This is the Kit either. For all that, and despite the 7 minutes, I Wish I... is very nice.
 
There is something here. As much as I am not particularly enamoured of her singing, with too many high notes for my liking, I do like bits and pieces of what Groves has done here. If there was a bit more depth to the tracks - a little more to back up the nice little central themes - they could be really very catchy and memorable. As it is the veneer feels a little thin, there is not quite enough to the tracks for them to catch in the way their hooks warrants. I like the way she uses her voice, even if I think most of it is pitched too high for my taste - when she changes pitch, tone and tempo there is a real warmth to it but most of the time it has that slight warble and coldness of strain in the pitch. The biggest disconnect is between the voice and the tune behind it though; it feels like one is drawing you in whilst the other is keeping you at arms length with all its might.

That dissonance is a shame; if the two elements were more in concert then one or two of the songs here might just be elevated. It just feels a little too cobbled together to be really impressive, too shy to make the most of its positive attributes. In general I prefer the piano tunes to the guitar numbers, just reflecting my bias for the keyboard. I find it easier to forgive the repetition that sometimes creeps into the hooks because it is slightly more disguised. Mostly I found this listen too slow. I started it tired and ended it tireder. I can't say I really enjoyed it, whilst at the same time not really disliking it either. I think that ends up rather damning it with my disengagement, which is a pity because - as I said before - there are some great little elements here. Not ones I will be coming back to revisit though.

Bashed Out - This is the Kit

Track list:

1. Misunderstanding
2. Silver John
3. Spores All Settling
4. Magic Spell
5. Bashed Out
6. All In Cahoots
7. Nits
8. Vitamins
9. We Are In
10. Cold and Got Colder

Running time: 37 minutes
Released: 2015

Another new release sneaking in, this one I only found out about this week, though it has been out just over a month. I cannot recall where I first heard This is the Kit, but I gather they are championed on BBC 6 Music these days (I don't listen to the radio; I've got too much here that I fail to listen to as it is!).

It has, again, been a week since I got down to one of these posts, and I should have been doing Bentley Rhythm Ace, but that is over an hour long and I am not sure I have enough time to squeeze that in. This, at sub 40-minutes, is more palatable. It is also a completely virgin listen - I didn't hear any of it as I ripped the CD.

Soft guitar and light percussion open us up, I cannot quite place who this sounds like, but it might have echoes of Sigur Rós in some of the sliding structural change. When the vocal joins in it is a bit odd initially - something about the timbre and the timing of it joining jolted me a bit - but settles quickly. A soft voice, to join the soft and fluffy soundscape. There is not that much going on here, but what there is builds a nice warm safe space. It is very nice without having much heft. Misunderstanding is also the longest track on the disc - I expect things to change as we move to shorter snappier pieces.

Change it does, as Silver John has more purpose, more thrust. Less nurdling, more driving. Not exactly strident, and still trading on the same warm enclosed sound, this song nevertheless has a pace and direction that was lacking in the gentle build and maintain of the first track. I think it is thoroughly unobjectionable, without commanding any real attention. Ah, but as that track ends and the banjo comes in to carry the main melody of Spores All Settling, this... this is infectiously good. A gentle canter picked through the strings, twanging pleasantly against another warm background and a vocal that comes across with intimacy. Yeah, this reminds me of the sound that had me pick this record up once I did find out about it. The voice recording feels like it is deliberately "surrounding" the listener, I find this very effective even as I listen through a single portable speaker attached to a laptop.

Yeah, OK. I am already happy with the purchase, and can imagine this album really growing on me if I give it some more time (it heads to the car tomorrow). Magic Spell may be nonsense lyrically but there is a similar welcoming tone, soft backing with some fine strumming, thrumming playing to create a murmur of constant presence and that busy sound is great; it affects me in the same way that louder, rockier tracks do - grabbing me and pulling me into the groove - hearing the song after it has finished, but in this case without actually damaging eardrums in the process!

The title track is less appealing, stripped back from the lush warmth of earlier songs, this has a cold starkness to it and the echo-like harmony on some of the vocal is a mile away from the intimate engagement of earlier. There is less pace, too - not that any of the tunes have had much. Far from being bad, it is just a change that I think makes it weaker that what came before. Thankfully All In Cahoots brings back a warmer and more engaging vocal, a warmer (again! Word of the day - wishful thinking about the weather?) rub from the arrangement. Yes, I think it could perhaps be argued that there is a lot of similarity in the pieces making up this album so far and those similarities could be thrown at it as a criticism, but - and I don't know if this is evidence of my mood just now - I find that consistency, that coherence is actually a boon. It feels more like an album and less like a collection of songs that happened to be released together and there is something pleasingly old fashioned about that these days.

Nits has just ended, Vitamins commences. This is stripped back again but not colder in the way Bashed Out was. No, this starts light, more distant than most of the other tracks, but the same reassurance comes through from the main melody, and when the arrangement kicks up a notch or two in places there is definitely a pulse like a little squeeze of joy and colour being injected into a monochrome image. The best points of the track though, I think, are contained within Kate Sables' vocal, slight tremors, delivery suited marvellously to the arrangement. The moments in this track which are just musical are lacking compared to those where the song is in flight.

We Are In starts rather lacklustre, the voice not quite functioning as well in the context of what it has to work with here - just a very floaty, ambient backing. It picks up a bit when the arrangement improves but the song is as close to a non-event as the album has been. Thankfully it is a one off as the final track is more driven again, a compellingly simple guitar, and the same channelled, cultivated aural glow - sound behaving like a gas, coming out of the speaker and expanding to fill the vessel of my living room, cloaking it in a pleasant atmosphere.

This has been a wonderful find, an early shout for album of the year for 2015 - though I will couch that in caution as a) I have hardly listened to some of the 2015 purchases I have made yet (and many will not show up here this year, for sure) and b) there is still more than half the year to go. I do, however, think it might be quite hard to beat the feeling of contentment that came with this disc though. Bashed Out is anything but; very classy.