Beware - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Track list:

1. Beware Your Only Friend
2. You Can't Hurt Me Now
3. My Life's Work
4. Death Final
5. Heart's Arms
6. You Don't Love Me
7. You Are Lost
8. I Won't Ask Again
9. I Don't Belong To Anyone
10. There Is Something I Have To Say
11. I Am Goodbye
12. Without Work, You Have Nothing
13. Afraid Ain't Me

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2009

I have a couple of albums from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. I am not sure what drove me to pick them up or what I made of them when I did, but it is probably connected to a brief yearning for Americana. This is more discovery than anything else, then, for I cannot have listened to many of these tracks very often.

It opens with a really appealing guitar, a fairly simple loop but it immediately taps into my buoyant morning mood. I get older today and am not working, a lazy day of listening to the cricket and writing up my last RPG session ahead of me and I am squeezing this in first thing. The song uses a harmony nicely, the combination of sounds, voices and words is slightly messy but in a compelling way that invites listening, rather than the cacophonous sense that was evident on The Beta Band. It is a much stronger, brasher start than I was expecting, as my preconception was that Bonnie 'Prince' Billy was all fairly stripped back.

More like You Can't Hurt Me Now, in fact. A somewhat trembling voice, and a sparse construction echoing the wide open spaces and big sky landscapes that typify Americana. I could imagine this refrain drifting over ranch-land in the days of the frontier. It could be soundtrack to set the scene for a game of Dogs in the Vineyard. Hard to say where my appreciation for this drifting, stylised sound came from. I am pretty sure that my first conscious exposure to "modern" Americana was Willard Grant Conspiracy but I have no clue how I stumbled across them. Anyhow, from there LastFM came into play and threw me up some other suggestions. Actually, thinking about it, I might have that the wrong way around; it may have been LastFM throwing up suggestions based on Grand Drive.

That's not important anyway. What is more important is that like an idiot I forgot to switch WMP off shuffle so actually the listen has not been in running order, aside Beware Your Only Friend. Bugger. I don't have time to reset and restart, so I am going to have to continue. I am relatively sure that a) I will still only get each track once (repeat is not on) and b) that I am unlikely to dislike anything here enough to want it out, and even if I do I can respond to that immediate dislike.

What gives me that feeling? Well for a start I am in a good mood and approaching the listen in relaxed fashion which helps, but more pertinently everything I have heard thus far - about a third through by time - has been interesting. There is a discordance in some of it, but it is very controlled and deliberate, adding an edge but held in check to make it an interesting one - this applies most consistently to the vocal harmonies between Will Oldham (the man behind the moniker) and his backing singers, but I think I hear some in the jangling guitar vs. the structural strings too.

OK, so shuffle is no good. I have a repeat. It has occurred to me that I can use LastFM to work out what I have and haven't heard though. That second paragraph refers to Without Work, You Have Nothing, by the by - though it is fair to say You Can't Hurt Me Now also conforms to the preconceptions I had of the artist now that I am directing this playthrough. The only piece that does not, perhaps, is the xylophone, which feels out of place amongst the gently swaying countrified plod. Plod - its not a positive word really is it? I think it fits here - the pace is slow to warrant it - but without the dragging, uninteresting connotations. Somehow it plods positively.

My Life's Work seems to hybrid the brasher sounds, largely delivered by the lead guitar with the general pleasantry and reservations of the album as a whole. It forms a compelling track of ups and downs, and then throws a curveball by introducing a mouth organ or other blown instrument in the more orchestrated sections - an element that has been missing to this point, or at least had passed me by. I am finding that I prefer the songs that have a bit more depth of sound to them - contrasting the typical trappings of Americana with a richer, louder centre - but still enjoying the more standard fare.

Its funny, I have a feeling that on a general library-wide shuffle then if I was at the keys I probably wouldn't let any of these tracks get started before hitting the skip. I am beginning to suspect that is a massive mistake. There is something here for any mood. As you might expect, the sparser tracks would suit quieter moods better, but there is some proper joy here too. You Don't Love Me brings a trumpet in for another new sound and this really works for me - I have been a sucker for a well used trumpet since forever.

Two tracks left to go. I am still enjoying the music, but with an eye on the clock I am willing it to end before it reasonably can as I want to get the radio on and bring up TMS. I am forgoing the first 5 minutes of build up to the 4th Ashes test for this - no play, you understand. I wouldn't have countenanced that. I Won't Ask Again is very different from the rest of the songs here. Many of the structures are similar but the overall effect has a completely different tone, in a way that I wish I could articulate, but find myself failing to.

I skip to the end now, the last track being the only one unplayed following the shuffle mix-up. It again has a different tone, a bit darker without being oppressive in the verse, bright in the chorus. A flute or similar soaring over the general tumult. It is a different sort of big sky music - this is not drifting out over open plains but appealing to the heavens in a concentrated burst and would not be out of place on a film soundtrack somehow. I think Afraid Ain't Me is probably my second favourite track here after the opener which really set the tone for this listen by breaking my expectations first up.

I'm happy about this one, finally validating a purchase of several years back. I doubt I will run out and buy more of Oldham's work - unless I am similarly impressed by Lie Down in the Light - but it is a nice little nugget to have on the shelf.

The Beta Band - The Beta Band

Track list:

1. The Beta Band Rap
2. It's Not Too Beautiful
3. Simple Boy
4. Round The Bend
5. Dance O'er The Border
6. Broken Up a Ding Dong
7. Number 15
8. Smiling
9. The Hard One
10. The Cow's Wrong

Running time: 62 minutes
Released: 1999

The Betas are interesting in that of the four albums I own two are absolute favourites, and two I never listen to. At all. This disc is in the latter category and I struggle to recognise more than the name of any track here. I wonder what I will make of it when forced to pay some attention, instead of being able to skip to something from The Three EPs or Heroes to Zeroes instead.

It opens with a pretty awful cacophony, dull hook, no harmony in the attempted harmonisation. The Beta Band Rap gets better when that all dies down and a more pleasant loop and beat replace the background. The overall impression still isn't great, and the track is more an almalgamation of different mini-tunes than a coherent whole. It is fair to say I do not like this opening and I can only hope that it gets better.

It's Not Too Beautiful is an immediate improvement. A more considered rhythm sets the pattern. Whilst I suspect it will get old over the 8 minute duration, it starts as fairly catchy. The biggest initial improvement is in the vocal, Steve Mason's delivery really working. Alas, the track goes to pot as it apes a Bond theme in structure and leaves me with the feeling that smashing tracks together might be an unwelcome thread through this disc. The more enjoyable structure returns after the experiment filters out, but alas it might be back as a chorus, since it contained the title as a lyric. The track just does not have enough to it to justify its duration and frankly I am bored of it long before it finishes. Technically it doesn't even finish, as I somehow manage to go back to a previous playlist, interrupting this listen momentarily before I skip to Simple Boy.

This track is stripped back some. Vocal and beats with minimal support; it should not work but it manages to by cleaving to something else: brevity. Mason's voice is another one that really works for me, whether on the Beta Band work or his own. His delivery appeals to a degree that allows me to forgive a lot. Alas, so far it is asking too much to forgive most of these tracks. I am stunned at how bad this is when held up against Dry the Rain, Needles in My Eye, Assessment etc. - tracks that pre- and post-date this rubbish. 

Its not that there aren't nice bits and pieces in here. Some of the hooks are very classic Betas and the vocals are generally a beacon of hope in the darkness, but the lack of vision and the impression that someone basically stuck a recording mic on a session of them pissing about during downtime then released it as a produced album is impossible to escape. In that regard it reminds me of the Ben Folds Five track For Those of Y'all Who Wear Fanny Packs from Naked Baby Photos. None of that would be so bad if it wasn't a whole hour in length. I am finding this uncomfortable, I don't like writing so persistently negatively about a group that I am very fond of.

Alas I am struggling to find anything positive in what I am hearing to address that tonal problem. I am seriously considering pausing the playback and breaking this up because it is so uninspired. Fingers crossed that there is something a bit brighter unearthed soon.

As I type that, Broken Up a Ding Dong starts (some confusion as to whether this should be a one-word title, but LastFM says no so it isn't here; source disc was no help at all due to crappy fonts). This tune is a little better. Handclap percussion and funky hooks remind my oddly of Rodrigo y Gabriela which is a pleasant change. Alas I find that it repeats a little too long, and when I say a little, I find myself wishing it stopped at half distance because the hook wore thin and there isn't enough interest brought in to keep the good vibe going. It does change up a little bit in the second half, but ends up sounding like the recording of a carnival crowd, steel drums and whistles to the fore. Ultimately it is another weak track. I have only liked one so far, and that is the 2 minutes of the 62 total runtime. Oh dear.

Another reasonable pattern establishes itself early in Number 15. Alas the album conforms to its own larger pattern of letting it run too long. Thankfully though there is a bit more mitigation here in the form of the chimes and other background sounds - screaming monkeys?! - that are thrown into the mix. Whilst not all of these sounds are nice they do manage to break up the repetition to an extent. Not enough for me to want to keep the track, mind, but it is an improvement of some of what came before in this aspect.

Three tracks to go, I must be nearly home... no, lengthwise I'm about 60% through. Smiling is 8 minutes and uses a vocal sample I am sure I have heard elsewhere... one of the tracks on The Three EPs perhaps? Or maybe its just the style that is very similar and it is a newly recorded chant. This track is less of an offender than many of its predecessors in terms of being annoying. Whilst the munchkin-like aspect to the vocal might grate a little, and the structure is very similar to earlier tracks, this one seems to offend less with its repetition of patterns that are frankly not as interesting as they might be. I don't know if this is because there is a touch more musicality in the crafting of the loops, a bit more depth or what. I am not saying I like the song, but I dislike it less than what has come before, even with its length - I have reached the 6 minute mark and whilst it could do with finishing, it is not overstaying its welcome in the way Broken Up a Ding Dong did so egregiously.

The Hard One is the longest single track on the album at 10 minutes and change. It is, or at least starts, softer than what has been before. Less reliant on percussion. I very much doubt it will last its distance without doing something to annoy me at this point, but it is much more promising than I was expecting before it started. Spacey piano was just getting going when it is replaced with the clip-clop of a return to the reliance on percussive instruments (not surprising given how many of the group were drummers I guess!) in an unwelcome intrusion. The interest lasted about 2 minutes. The whole thing virtually fades out on 4 minutes 30 and rebuilds from nothing. The key loop it starts with could have led to something interesting but it simply repeats for too long and loses interest while some bassy rumbles join, these too fading out in favour of something else. This is just incoherent again, which is more or less exactly what I expected the track to be. Awful. Just as I type that word, the soft piano comes back and the track returns to something like the opening that I rather liked. Alas, but for the 5 minutes in the middle this tune would be redeemable. Oh well.

We end with The Cow's Wrong, which I really hope is a surrealist reference to an animal opinion (quite possibly so given the off-the-wall nature of this disc) rather than a misogynistic declaration. Lyrics refer to cows in fields first, so I hope that answers that one, but it's not conclusive. I am actually finding it hard to follow the lyrics as I try to discern the conclusive answer - the effects applied to Mason's voice combined with the supporting structure make certain words hard to pull out. The song is just dull mind, so I don't feel like I am missing out on much,

As it winds down, I am left to reflect on the waste of an hour. I am stunned by how bad this disc is, especially coming on the heels of the Three EPs. Yeah, there are a couple of really bad tracks on that collection, but there are also several great ones. Here there is one pretty decent 2 minute experiment and an hour of utter tripe. At least they came back from this. Heroes to Zeroes is awesome, so I am hoping that Hot Shots II is not this bad.

The Best of Van Morrison - Van Morrison

Track list:

1. Bright Side Of The Road
2. Gloria
3. Moondance
4. Baby Please Don't Go
5. Have I Told You Lately
6. Brown Eyed Girl
7. Sweet Thing
8. Warm Love
9. Wonderful Remark
10. Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile)
11. Full Force Gale
12. And It Stoned Me
13. Here Comes The Night
14. Domino
15. Did Ye Get Healed
16. Wild Night
17. Cleaning Windows
18. Whenever God Shines His Light
19. Queen Of The Slipstream
20. Dweller On The Threshold

Running time: 76 minutes
Released: 1990

So when I mentioned Van Morrison on my Best of Friends listen, it probably sounded like I wasn't keen. In fact the two tracks he appears on are two that I kept from that disc, amidst cutting half of the tunes from my collection. There are plenty of ways to damn this guy with faint praise but whilst his style is perhaps a little samey from piece to piece he pulls off that laid back atmosphere so darn well. I like and respect that, even whilst I am not overly familiar with too many tacks in specific. A few of these - Gloria, Baby Please Don't Go and Here Comes the Night are credited as Them, so predate Morrison's split from that band.

My largest complaint going into this listen is becoming as repetitive as some of the formulas used by those I have listened to recently: the length. 76 minutes plus change for the write up is a lot of "switched on" mental time to find these days.

Bright Side of the Road lives up to its name, a bright and breezy track with a head-noddy impulsion it is exactly what would would expect and opens a nice easy listen, before we're dumped into Gloria. This song is obviously well known and classic - but I would never have known that it had anything to do with Van Morrison and I will probably forget the link within 10 minutes of finishing this entry. The style is so completely different from his solo material, much rockier, edgier, livelier. Bright Side... was just that, but it didn't have the energy and zest that Gloria brings. Its a shame it is quite so short.

Moondance is... odd. Morrison's voice here is obviously younger than I am used to - there is less of a growl to it and it loses a lot of desirable character for that. The song itself is jazzy/bluesy easy listening and I am not that enamoured, especially not of the flute or whatever light woodwind provides the whistling treble. It's all so cheesy and unnecessary for me. We are landed in blues-land again with a cover of Baby Please Don't Go which has a really good roll to it and a dirty grungy element to the sound quality which adds to rather than detracts from the qualities of the song; this one I like a lot.

The tempo and mood change completely as that song closes and we enter the realm that I most associate with Van Morrison, easy listening ballads delivered with a distinctive and mature voice. I could take or leave the musical accompaniment, but the vocal characteristics that define Have I Told You Lately are the reason that I have this best of. I have never been inclined to go out and acquire the individual records Morrison has made over his career, but I really fell for his delivery when I heard Philospher's Stone on the Wonder Boys soundtrack. I had been aware of him before that, but never exposed to a song in a way as to really pick up on his ability.

It is safe to say I like distinctive voices. I prefer when people sing in their own voice rather than a put on generic "Americanised" accent which seemed to happen a lot when I was younger (and perhaps still does to a degree in music that gets a lot of mainstream radio play; I wouldn't know). I also have a fondness for gravelly voiced individuals. Van Morrison ticks both of these boxes so I am prepared to overlook some of the compositions which are functional rather than interesting in their own right most of the time. Case in point - Sweet Thing has a constant thrum going and very little variance throughout, it functions purely as a base over which the vocal can sit. Actually in this instance I think the volume is a little too loud on the main hooks and it manages to dull the song.

Oh now that does not work for me at all. Warm Love sounds like Morrison is singing with a throat infection - not the fact its scratchier, but the opening verses sound like a strangle. Its a strained edge that again takes away from the natural characteristics of his voice that appeal to me. Thankfully the strain disappears in the chorus but the damage is done and even the fact the backing picks up a little more interest as the song goes on cannot save my impression of the track.

Wonderful Remark starts, well, unremarkably, but there is an injection of interest after about 70 seconds or so along with the chorus, the horn section just lifting a track which was flat to that point. There is a lot to like about the chorus, which is just as well really because there is not much else of interest about the song. At least the most interesting thing about the song is part of the song, unlike with Jackie Wilson Said, where the most interesting thing about it is the classic Top of the Pops blunder that involved putting up a picture of darts player Jocky Wilson when a cover of this tune was performed by Dexy's Midnight Runners. The song passes me by whilst I confirm that it was the cover and not Morrison himself performing beneath the wrong image.

Gale is not a word you often expect to find in song titles, it doesn't much conjure an image conducive to musical accompaniment. This song works based again on the interest supplied by the horns. I am starting to see a pattern here with the repetitive nature of the compositions though. Each song is different - I have no problem with overall lack of differentiation here - but within each track there is precious little variation, and over-reliance on patterns played over and over.  Thankfully when our artist is on form you don't notice it so much because the essential nature of his vocal grasps your full attention, but on the weaker tracks or where there is a few seconds with no lyric it niggles at my appreciation.

The final Them track is less interesting that the prior two. It has the same jangly guitar and brighter, quicker nature in places, but it lacks something intangible needed to elevate it. Frankly I don't think I will listen to Here Comes the Night again, and I am OK with that. By immediate contrast Domino is more brass-based and when the horns blare up it is close to the best thing on this playlist.

Pure cheese! Did Ye Get Healed is so muzak it hurts. Not just the floaty easy listening style tune, but with the backing vocals of shrillness invoked it smacks of elevator or bad telephone hold music. That gets even worse with the sax solo on 2 minutes or so. I just cannot take this song at all seriously, and it has to go. The last quarter of the disc begins better - a more vital hook, a slightly muted sound and vocal forced out with slightly clipped pace, the sound builds and expands. This is genuinely enjoyable for more than just Van Morrison's central performance. A very odd decision on the 3 minute mark though - introducing some new horrible sound to what had to that point been great. It means the lead out of the track is almost a write-off, even though the imposition doesn't last long.

I can't see the title Cleaning Windows without thinking of George Formby, this in turn means that I cannot take the song seriously. Which is a shame because for all that the subject matter is dreary, the hook and character of the chorus is really catchy - not something I would chose to listen to often, but a nice change up in a shuffle or good background music. Now that is a hook I wouldn't have placed here. The opening refrain of Whenever God Shines His Light is immediately familiar but never in a million years could I have paired it with its artist or the song that it opens. It is a comfy little loop though and essential enough that it is easy to forgive the cheesier elements added as the tune continues. That said, the song should stop more than a minute before it does because the meat of it is over, and the lead out is several repetitions too long.

There is a much more melodic hook in Queen of the Slipstream and it is nice to hear the primary structural element in the upper register for a change, and for it to drop out and then reappear later. This strikes me as a more crafted composition than many of the tracks preceding it... right up until the halfway mark where there is just too much going on at once for this sort of gently plodding song (and I mean that in an endearing kind of way). The latter half then again just lasts too long again, making the end a blessing.

The final track, Dweller on the Threshold is a familiar one, bits and pieces of which are really nice (I love the soft trumpets), some of which is really dull (the beat) but which overall sums up the overall thrust of Van Morrison's music quite nicely. Over-reliant on a stunning vocal to create most of the interest, prone to lapsing into repetitive blandness in the rhythm section and liable to include little bits of joy amongst the brass. A light cull is all this receives then, 5 tracks binned, thrice that retained. I may trim back further in future as I am already losing the definition for some of those songs I did not call out by name above; I wonder how damning that is?

The Best of Sam & Dave - Sam & Dave

Track list:

1. A Place Nobody Can Find
2. Good Night Baby
3. I Take What I Want
4. Sweet Home
5. You Don't Know Like I Know
6. Hold On, I'm Comin'
7. Said I Wasn't Gonna Tell Nobody
8. You Got Me Hummin'
9. When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
10. Small Portion Of Your Love
11. Soothe Me
12. Soul Man
13. May I Baby
14. I Thank You
15. Wrap It Up
16. Still Is The Night
17. You Don't Know What You Mean To Me
18. This Is Your World
19. Can't You Find Another Way (Of Doing It)
20. Soul Sister, Brown Sugar
21. Come On In

Running time: 56 minutes
Released: 1969

Old school now, going back to a decade before I was born when Rhythm and Blues was still a meaningful term. I grew up watching the Blues Brothers regularly, and my favourite piece of music from that film - Peter Gunn theme aside - was not on the soundtrack (here). It is, of course, Hold On, I'm Comin', leading up to the drive-through destruction of a shopping mall. I think its fair to credit my appreciation for this era and genre of music to my youthful exposure to that film.

Whilst close to an hour, this album is made up of a lot of shorter songs and I expect it to fly by. In that it is a product of its time - its funny how the attitude of broadcasters to song length changed, gradual creep in tolerance to now. Pity decisions can't just be taken on the basis of taste/quality rather than a secondary characteristic like duration, but still. That paragraph has taken pretty much all of the first song, one I don't know well. To be honest it was nothing special, and I expect that to be a trend here through the lesser known tracks. That said unless something really bad stands out I am not even going to consider cuts here. As a change up from my normal fare these tunes are welcome even if I am not loving each and every one. Aesthetically they are a world apart from much of my library and they are appreciated on that level for the change of tone and mood. There is a relaxed air associated with listening to these tunes in the modern world, at least for me.

That seems odd in that they are packing quite a bit into a short runtime, but they speak of a much different life. The pressures for people back in the 60s, particularly African Americans, are a world apart from the pressures of anyone in the first world in the 2010s and this was how they wound down and enjoyed themselves. In some ways I long for that sort of detachment from this world... this electronic milieu we find ourselves in, and the sheer pace of day-to-day life in the internet age.

It really doesn't hurt that the harmonies are so good, voices complementing each other so well that you are drawn to that and almost ignore the often very simple and repetitive arrangements. I love the fact that they can get away with calling themselves simply Sam & Dave - that would never fly in 2015. I can't think of a duo so concisely named since the awful Mel and Kim in the 80s (but I am sure there are plenty in scenes that I am not aware of). When the backing picks up, with a bit more energy, volume or other additions to the arrangement, the quality soars. You Don't Know Like I Know is the first tune on the album that I really fall into digging, and it is followed immediately by my favourite. The hook that opens the track and forms the chorus just kills me, and the staccato behind the vocal in the verse is almost as good. Hold On is just sheer cool and it can't help but make me smile. The end of the weekend is almost upon me, but with a long drink to hand and music like this to enjoy it feels like it will last a long while yet.

The simplicity of the formula is remarkable. Now and again it gets more involved, but as a base it really is limited. The short length of the tracks is a real boon in that sense, each on ending before the patterns are fully internalised and dissected as too repetitive. The downside is that most of the songs, if not all, end on an annoying fade out, denying proper closure. Ah, Humming. There is a certainty to this track, a purpose, driven by that bass. It's easy to say with a detached air, separated by 50 (!) years, but this one of the the essences of cool.

I am less enamoured by the more ballad-like When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, also the longest number on this listen at 3.18. It just seems to lack something in comparison. Perhaps with my slightly alcohol-addled brain I need a bit more pace, a bit more bass, and a little more groove. I think it is just a bit too sparse, as the following track immediately appeals more despite some similarities in the vocal approach. It is that touch faster and the arrangement a bit more interesting. Still a fairly significant drop in perceived quality from the high points of Hold On and Humming. Soul Man still to come should reach those heights again though, as does Soothe Me. The opening is underwhelming but once it gets into the swing, there is just something essential about it. I find putting words to what appeals here difficult - there is just something magic in the combinations that make the song significantly greater than the sum of its parts. Pretty repetitive, uninspired lyrics and simple arrangement shouldn't necessarily make for a classic but they do here.

The opening refrain from Soul Man is a classic, and this song is up there with my all time favourites, the chorus sax just magic, the lyrics relate-able the groove innate. I have The Blues Brothers version of the song, which probably resonates more for me for familiarity's sake but the song itself is so amazing and the difference between the versions small. The preference is simply exposure. I am always associating the song with Otis Redding for some reason, but I have no version from Redding, and no idea if his performing it is figment of my imagination or not.

I Thank You is another classic that I only recognise by music, not by name. The insistence of the bass really working here. Oh, man - a bit more modernism injected later on through some sort of organ and a guitar line that sounds fresher and the song is lifted to another level. I love finding little things that I don't recall when going through these listens. I also just love finding myself compelled to listen to things that I would normally overlook. The horn section on Wrap It Up is like Hold On... all over again and the song is just so darn cool, but it is not one I was at all familiar with at all. Finding a real gem only to lose it in the depth of my library again is a little disappointing but at the same time the sheer joy of the pleasant surprise of finding it in the first place is hard to exaggerate.

Generally the faster tracks resonate more than the slower ones. Ballads prey on my loneliness a bit, speak to companionship I don't have, relationships I don't understand on a visceral level but simply end up envying. I think there's more to the difference than that - the harmony maybe doesn't work so well with a slower, sparser support too - but it is hard to look too far past the colour my situation brings to the interpretation. I'm not complaining though, to go by the ballads, being able to relate may not always be a good thing!

The life and love in these pieces is a cut above the John Lee Hooker numbers I listened to yesterday. Even though there are similarities with regards to how formulaic the output can be, Sam & Dave's material has something more vital, a little more pep that makes it that much more accessible, more desirable and more immediately lovable. For all that this disc is just a best of, it is a little gold nugget that I really should polish and show off more often. It is so hard to feel sorry for yourself or negative in any way when you hear music as vital as this. It may be almost half a decade old (and some of these songs no doubt more than that) but it still feels young and relevant to me - I reckon a lot of modern musicians could do a lot worse than hark back to this sound, and harking back has been a big thing recently.

Coming to the end now, and I suspect it might be quite a crash back to reality. Listening to this has transported me away from my sofa for an hour, wrapped me in a blanket that felt like social company. A little injection of joy, pumped out by horn section. More of this, please!

I can't help but hear "light sabre" instead of "life saver" on Come On In though, which ends the listen on a farcical note. Oh well.

The Best of Polish Jazz 2005 - Various Artists

Track list:

2. Jazz is Cool - Pink Freud
10. Conversations With a Life Jacket - Pink Freud

Running time: 10 minutes
Released: 2005

This is random. Two tracks that must have been freebies, both from Pink Freud - which truly is inspired as a band name. I guess I have this as a result of getting into Skalpel and then finding download links somewhere. The full album itself was 18 tracks and included other artists, but I never picked it up, so I am left with a short stub to examine.

The 10 minutes here is actually closer to 11 and breaks down into 7 and more than 3 1/2 in the order listed. Why WMP doesn't round up is beyond me. Jazz is Cool is definitely of modern sensibility, all programming around a solid drumming and Scandinavian trumpet - think Molvær. As the track gets going the influence of the DJ increases, samples and/or scratching added to the mix. The feel is a little kitchen sink in some ways, busy for busy's sake. Some of the less organic sounds are not exactly ear-friendly and yet, the structure of the track creates a laid back overall mood with a little bit of progression.

I think it does a bit too much though, really - it might have been better shorter, or with more clearly defined boundaries. Still, a reasonable track. Conversations With a Life Jacket is very different, a glassy, fragile sound opening it up into a softer, late night track; at mid-morning, this is probably not the ideal listening hour. This is much more melodic, less concerned with being on it, more considered listening. There are hints of programming here and there, an influence that grows over the course of the number, but it is in essence a neat bassy loop with the trumpet leading the melody. I am quite taken with it.

Both tracks offer something, and whilst I think the first strives too hard to deliver it, that does not stop me liking it. All in all a good little interlude, and what I heard streaming when searching for the origins of this disc suggests that the wider album is possibly worth picking up.

The Best of Friends - John Lee Hooker

Track list:

1. Boogie Chillen
2. This Is Hip
3. The Healer
4. I Cover The Waterfront
5. Boom Boom
6. I'm In The Mood
7. Burnin' Hell
8. Tupelo
9. Baby Lee
10. Dimples
11. Chill Out (Things Gonna Change)
12. Big Legs Tight Skirt
13. Don't Look Back

Released: 1998
Running time: 63 minutes

It's another long one, darn it.

Basil Brush must have liked this guy, Shahid Afridi too. Other famous names associated with Boom Boom out of the way in crappy uninspired fashion (see I know I am bad at this writing lark), John Lee Hooker's classic track figures here, but not on the 6 discs of the eponymous Big Box I have coming up far too soon for my liking. Not sure why I have so much of Hooker. Whilst iconic, my impression is one of conservatism and staid music, if backed up by good vocal. Still we'll see how misguided I am, or not, here.

This album has Hooker playing with others; I don't remember who, and though Carlos Santana is listed as composer in some of the track data I couldn't vouch for the accuracy of that (and I suspect I wouldn't recognise his style to confirm it later). Whilst I have the disc somewhere, I don't find myself motivated to check.

A whole month's rain fell in a summer's day yesterday, today is brighter, but it comes at the end of a week that felt long, with two cancelled social events and work that picked up towards Friday afternoon rather than winding down into the weekend. That last weekend I did not get enough sleep to catch up on the prior week leaves me feeling washed out. Boogie Chillen is actually fairly upbeat, pacier than I would have expected, so helps to shake off the reticence with which I approached starting this hour-long blues fest. This is Hip feels formulaic, slower by a touch, but falling into repetition fairly early with a hook that does little to inspire me. To be fair, whilst the rhythm of the piece stays rutted fairly well there is more variation around it over the course of the track and it is never an unpleasant experience, just never a particularly engaging one either.

OK, I was wrong, Santana is easy to pick out. Just think M&S food ad. I actually find this sort of overwrought virtuousity tedious, high pitch, minimal accompaniment because the guitar has to be the star. It lends itself to boring situations, and therefore ends up boring me right back even as the stage light is shining on the lead. It feels to me almost as if this particularly masturbatory playing comes with a derision for musicians playing other parts. I know that can't truly reflect any of the masters of this craft, and that actually it says more about my preferences and prejudices than anything else but... yeah. Not a fan.

So why, you might ask, if I have had two nights of social engagements fall through, did I not get to this during the week rather than wait for the weekend? The answer in two words: Rocket League. The most fun game I thought I wouldn't like I can imagine, and one of the free PSN freebies for July. Both cancelled evenings turned into RL nights. Confused, is that Van Morrison? Sounds like him, and now I am motivated to get the disc to check... yes it is. Saw a couple of other recognisable names whilst I was at it but I am not clear what it might mean for my enjoyment of the album. I Cover the Waterfront is very VM in tone musically as well. This does not feel like Hooker's blues. I find it soothing, soothing enough that it has reminded me just how tired I was immediately before starting this post.

Ah, there is Afridi. It is impossible not to like this track. Hard to love it, but impossible not to like it. Classics are generally considered classic for a reason. This recording has a busy arrangement, much more going on than my memory typically associates with the song, and a sort of swampy air to the main guitar line, is it deliberately slightly off key? Not sure, but it works well enough, organ blaring as we get into the denouement, the song closing off before it can get old.

Old is how In the Mood starts and I would guess how it stays too. It's an age-old song subject but more usually younger and more vitally approached. Works a bit better for being a duet, the female voice (Bonnie Raitt) offsetting Hooker's well. That said, this is precisely the staid and conservative approach to blues that I mentioned in the introduction. Pedestrian-slow, strictly formulaic, and simply arranged. It has its time and place, but for me that time is past. I don't mean that blues like this belongs in the past, just that appreciation of it is behind me now. The track that follows addresses one of the issues I had - the pace is much higher - but despite a more animated guitar style the rigid structure reinforces the impression that even when tracks are being reworked with different players the dominant direction of the effort is keeping things in check. A conservative nature showing through. You would expect that, for all that others are involved his name above the door. The others are just guests in Hooker's house.

Tupelo is stripped right back, and actually here is where the more formulaic approach works better, the gentle riffs and foot-tapping presenting just enough of a stage for the basically spoken vocal. My first impression as the track began was a weary one, but as it progressed I got more into it and it is unquestionably the most enjoyable number heard today. For all the negativity that readers might pick up on here, I don't really dislike anything on this album, and perhaps tellingly I find myself more willing by this point to nod my head along with the patterns of Baby Lee. I wonder, then, how different the first half of this post would be if I were to start the listen afresh. My mood has changed a little, and maybe it is adjusting itself around my environment - the most significant part of which is the music that is now my main focus.

Dimples - I would never have recognised the track by name, but musically and lyrically it is distinctive as another straight up classic. Isn't it funny how through popular culture we can develop intimate familiarity with things without ever knowing them by name? Marketing bods have worked that out, of course - hence jingles like that soddingly annoying hook they play at lots of cricket matches and everyone cheers. Happily I couldn't tell you what it's for. I was happy when, earlier in the summer, I heard Graeme Swann railing against it on Test Match Special and pleading for people not to engage with it.

Back to more Santana-isms. For the record, the change of mood hasn't made this style any more appealing. It just makes me think of delicious looking ice cream and over-priced pre-prepared meals. And hairy old men pleasing themselves in ways I would really rather not think about (and I say that as a hairy soon-to-be-middle-aged,-but-by-outlook-already-old man). Thankfully that is the last of that. For lead out we have two longer numbers. 6 minutes is an awful long time for blues songs that rely on the exact same rhythmic approach for their duration. There are limits to what can be done to alleviate the tapping away that such strongly structured rhythms do to the skull - variation in the treble is massively important, variation in lyrics too. Alas, Big Legs, Tight Skirt has none of the latter and this really kills the track for me as it lets the constants of the composition wear me down. I think my energy for this task is almost used up, but like the cyclists over in France the key is having the tank run empty at the point the stage is broken.

The last number has more of Van Morrison's looser, organ-driven background fodder and laid back vocal. Very different from the tracks more immediately Hooker's but constructed under similarly predictable formulas. In the right mood... anything can be good. It feels like a closer so it is appropriately located and it sways by slowly, waving goodbye as the album slides out of time and into memory.

Time and a place; some of these tracks transcend that, others feel like that is somewhere I might visit on another day. A third set, the casualties of this listen, are either rooted somewhere I cannot see myself going or set off down a path to somewhere I never wanted to go in the first instance. What a convoluted pile-of-tosh sentence that was! Oh well, we've reached the end, the pruning hour and about 50% of tracks are cut loose. Up next... a weird one.

The Best of British Folk [Castle] - Various Artists

Track list:

1. Streets of London - Ralph McTell
2. Colours - Donovan
3. Light Flight (Take Three Girls Theme) - Pentangle
4. Needle of Death - Bert Jansch
5. Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway - The Humblebums
6. Mirrors - Sally Oldfield
7. Candy Man - John Renbourn
8. The Times They Are A-Changin' - The Ian Campbell Folk Group
9. I'm So Confused - Mick Softly
10. Boadicea - Dave Swarbrick
11. Both Sides Now - The Johnstons
12. The Alchemist and the Pedler - Dransfield
13. Bright Phoebus - Mike and Lal Waterson
14. Timeless and Strange - Keith Christmas
15. Stargazer - Shelagh McDonald
16. Breakdown of the Song - Decameron
17. When I Was on Horseback - Steeleye Span
18. Fiddler's Green - Tim Hart & Maddy Prior
19. Mary Skeffington - Gerry Rafferty
20. Matty Groves - Fairport Convention

Released: 1995
Running time: 79 minutes

What to say about this? It was probably a mistake, a quick unthinking purchase when I first realised I was getting into folk. It certainly feels that 1995 should be more like 1975 in terms of release and that this represents as much of what was wrong with folk music than what is right about it but we'll see. I recognise a few of the performers and a couple of the songs. Will this turn into the rag on cluelessness hour?

We open with Streets of London, a classic of sorts. Actually not a bad song, but I cannot hear it without thinking of a Big Train sketch where McTell is forced to just repeat it over and over as none of his audience know anything else. Video embedded below. That rather makes it a throwaway, pleasant roll that brings a wry amusement. it is not a song that grabs me and demands full attention, promising great reward.

Donovan. The name is synonymous with the less than enlightened folk that the filled wilderness years before the revival of the 00s that persists to date. I have never heard him before other than perhaps on Top of the Pops 2 with some shoddy faux-comedic captioning. I am not impressed. I will state now that I am sure my prejudicial attitude to this material will colour this listen, but I am not going to apologise for that.

The Pentangle track starts as a mess but improves when the vocal joins in, despite its rather airy tone it seems to bind the disparate threads of the music together. There are bits and pieces of interest in the composition but as a whole it falls flat for me. Ah, that is a bit better. Bert Jansch has a (very) little of Nick Drake about him, as much in the intonation as anything else. Not the voice or the delivery as a whole, but the cadence on certain words matches my metal recollection of Drake here and there. Alas it is nowhere near as enduring, and as the song wears on the performance starts to grate a little. The picked guitar is repetitive to a significant degree and the singing voice is harsher than I would like and I find myself happier once it ends.

That is not to say what starts next impresses immediately. It has that same comfortable impression: aiming to, and hitting, a very specific but very bland note. It tries to dispel this thought by the inclusion of brass and/or woodwind - which works to a point - but I find this uninspired TV theme tune music, as if it is aiming for the lowest common denominator of "not disagreeable" rather than shooting to impress.

If it weren't for the sleigh-bells and a horridly warbling vocal, Mirrors might have been interesting. That vocal is worse for the effect of the recording, self-echo or something. The rhythm here is more interesting, a little Latin in places, even, but there is no redeeming the bells. Ugh.

 

 Big Train does Streets of London

Candyman returns to a picked guitar and vocal - it is precisely the kind of blind Dylan-copy I expected to find on this disc. All the same idea, but with none of the craft or genre-defining pioneering, which makes it apt that the next track is a cover of The Times They Are A-Changin' that, by introducing a pretty bad harmony, hand-bells and a depth of accompaniment that overpowers the melody makes for a horrid experience. It is not even that I hold Dylan on a pedestal; I have a little, not much. This though? This is travesty. Of music. How it got on to any "best" anything is beyond me.

Almost half way through in terms of tracks, but alas not close for time. Yes, I am wishing it were over already. My evening plans broke down last minute, which is where I found the time to do this listen, started on impulse when I knew I wouldn't be going out. I have, again, been neglecting my self-imposed workload in favour of simple recovery or being busy. I'm So Confused drifts by almost unnoticed, and then we hit a fiddle tune, Boadicea.  This I like more and could see myself not skipping if it came up in a shuffle. It has enough of a tune that I can excuse the somewhat out-of-place electric bass, the little loopy "pause" being particularly effective for my taste. Glad this hasn't been a total waste of time, then!

It's funny that the "Best of British Folk" involves covers of notable people from across the Atlantic, eh? First Dylan, now Joni Mitchell. I figured this for a cover when I heard it start, but wouldn't have known of whom without Google - though I do apparently have another version of this song on Herbie Hancock's tribute, River. It isn't amongst the couple of Mitchell albums I have though. It breezes by, nothing noteworthy beyond its obvious non-traditional provenance.

We are back to quintessentially English folk-rock blahdom with Dransfield though. Straight out of the inoffensive middle of the road blandness that characterised a decade or two of "folk" on these shores. Twee guitar riff, boring rhythm, darkness-infused vocal that is occasionally used to add dramatic stress (or rather fail to). This is symptomatic of why folk fell out of fashion, obliterated by more energetic and inspiring performances in other fields. Seven and a half minutes of dreary droning, its enough to drive me to drink. Thankfully I picked up some Hoegaarden in my monthly shop on the way home, so that isn't all bad!

With the Watersons I am on more familiar ground, but ground I tread warily. I both recognise their role in preserving British folk traditions and indirectly helping forge the revival and find myself not really liking their work a lot of the time. I have more than a couple of albums by, or inspired by them though so Waterson is a name that will appear again on these pages.

Honestly, what kind of name is Keith Christmas? One associated with blandness and very stereotypical delivery that completely conjures the beardy weirdy freak image of 70s folk, detached from the real world rather than rooted in it, even when spinning tales of the fantastic. If you can't tell, I don't much like Timeless and Strange - the title is the least boring thing about it, and even that is awful. Timeless this isn't; Forgettable and Bland would be a more apt name. Musically, Stargazer is similarly uninspiring. Vocally it is the most interesting thing thus far on the disc and pleasant enough to override my initial detachment with the arrangement. There are echoes of Mitchell, or perhaps some other luminary I cannot place here too in the first half of the track. Alas the second half is completely devoid of interest as the vocal dies out and is replaced by some chanting that is background to the still uninspired tune. I got my hopes up for a second there; lesson learned.

Oh dear, how totally... I have no words. Decameron's effort is a commentary on the music industry, a meta-song. It is also awful; it may be lyrically amusing in its effect but again it just smacks of blandness, lack of craft and turn up bash out musicianship.

Oh now, that's interesting. I am pretty sure I have heard these lyrics before in a different context, because I don't recognise When I Was On Horseback as performed here, or as a title. Steeleye Span, though... the name is very familiar. Memories of my dad's record collection - he's a big Fairport fan too; took my brother and I to Cropredy, along with some Greek guests, almost 20 years back now; a better experience than you might think based on my notes here! Anyhow, I don't think much of this piece, but I found the familiarity of some of the lyrics interesting. Not too surprised though, folk songs are like that - the same song recorded with very different tunes and variable lyrics that overlap but don't mimic.

Nearing the end now, not much more to endure. I fist typed "enjoy" then, but that certainly wouldn't be accurate. I am more relaxed now than when I begun, so the exercise has not been in vain. It is one more album chalked off, and a bad, long one at that. The next disc has to be more promising, right? This ends up, predictably I guess, with Fairport Convention. I should be scathing as they are the epitome of the bland folk rock I despise... but, well. I think there is a mitigation: this whole genre was to some degree others copying them after their success. That said, I don't much like the song, the long lead out in particular. I end with this disc all but wiped out, only Boadicea and Streets of London kept. Onwards to better things I hope.

The Best Kept Secrets: The Best of Lamb 1996-2004 - Lamb

Track list:

1. Cotton Wool
2. God Bless
3. Gold
4. Gorecki
5. Little Things
6. B Line
7. Lullaby
8. Bonfire
9. Heaven
10. One
11. Gabriel
12. Angelica
13. Til The Clouds Clear
14. Wonder
15. Please
16. Stronger

Running time: 71 minutes
Released: 2004

Lamb. Not sure why I have this... probably led to it via other "trip-hoppy" groups. Lamb were never a group I was abreast of when they were current and I have never really listened to this after acquiring it so whilst I have a reasonable idea of what sort of thing this disc contains, I am far from familiar with any of its contents. Depressingly it runs to over an hour, which means it is probably too long since my last post. If not, consider this more evidence of how I prepare the content for this backwater.

...

I wrote the paragraph above as I was setting up this post, immediately on finishing the last one.I predicted a long gap but even I didn't expect a whole month. June was a disaster of small things mounting up, and the early part of July has been dominated by recovering from finally sorting those things out. Hopefully I can establish some kind of rhythm again, though with the Ashes on radio to dominate my listening and a frankly poor run of things to get through before the interesting albums start again I have a degree of self-doubt there. Anyway, enough babbling and whinging, get on with it Graham!

We start with a dingy hook and a light vocal piercing the darkly reverberating space it leaves. I know none of these tracks, so this is a voyage of discovery as well as an attempt to kickstart the stalled project. Structure of electronically produced percussion is added, but the vocal is left to carry the tune on its own for the most part. It's a very odd introduction but not unwelcome. There is something trance-inducing about the percussive edge and darkly swirling sounds melded with it. Not brilliant or inspired, just a bit different and interesting in a way that, say Tricky's Angels With Dirty Faces was not for me. It loses my interest at the end of Cotton Wool by adding fairground-like pipes; ugh. I think the thing this most reminds me of, as God Bless begins, is the tracks that Sinead O'Connor recorded with Massive Attack on 100th Window. Whilst I would not say anything here is as accomplished as Massive Attack at their best, they probably do provide the best touchstone. Lamb are a little more pared back and stripped down though.

My feeling is that these two opening tracks have both been a little too long for their own good, and a glance at the player confirms they are both 5+ minutes, giving plenty of time to get a bit stale despite having reasonably solid core themes and ideas. I particularly like the vocal, much lighter than I was expecting, soft edges rather than a harder tone, and this contrasts the often very stark backing. These tracks are crafted to showcase the vocal component in places and do so effectively. I am not completely sold on the composition and arrangements yet.

Gold continues the trend of being just too long and - frankly - a bit too samey. Now we hit Gorecki, which a quick search indicates is their "signature". Backing of softly applied strings creates a crucible for the singing early on, overworked percussion joining to smear the contrast later. The piece does not work for me... too similar, nothing standing out, same faults at the prior tracks. I feel like I am still on the start line with this listen. The main problem is that whilst the sparse arrangements were interesting up front, there really isn't any long term engagement there, I can find more interesting programming elsewhere. I will say I love the singing but other than that? Patience wearing thin. At least the tracks get a bit shorter from here... hopefully punchier and more memorable too.

Ah, Little Things is familiar - more urgent, a more understandable percussive form to it. Fast, immediate and grungy. As a mood piece, very nice threat and edge to it. Not a comfortable listen but all the better for that. The central section, which drops the voice, is a little bland but without it the skittishness would not be quite the same. The jump into B Line is ugly - the start of the new piece really leaving a lot to be desired and just when I thought it might be getting better it devolves into a sonic mess, a pattern that unfortunately repeats again within the same track.

So far this is not creating a positive impression; I am left with the thought that if this is their best of then what was the main corpus of their work like?!

Lullaby is braver, better. Stepping away from mediocre beats that override as much or more than they support. Instead we have the voice sitting in a well of orchestral strings, the singing bringing the darkness along with a hint of bass line. Maybe this marks a swing in the pieces, as Bonfire seems to be a step in a similar direction, a slight dissonance with the echoing vocal, twice recorded, and atmosphere and tension building. Strings and piano taking over the accompaniment from clicks, whirrs and beats. My complaint, because I have to have one, is that lyrically it is rubbish, losing a lot of the impression that the voice makes to inanity. Shame really, I can see so much that is right in here, but the results seem to be dominated by the bits that are wrong.

I am only half way through. My stamina for this is waning - I have not sat at these keys trying to concertedly type for this long in a while... other than writing up my ongoing Albion game when sessions happen, but that has been as affected by recent events as this blog - not having the mental energy to approach writing up the material amidst a need to keel over after getting in the door. I digress because it feels like Lamb have, too. Heaven sounds like it should have been done by someone else - too light, too floaty - it does not fit with what has been, and does not address my problems with what I have been hearing.

The dark tone comes back with One, and is welcome. I have a fondness for slightly grubby sounds that evoke shady back alley deals, conflicts barely held back and danger in every shadow. I think it appeals to the gamer in me as the dirty darkness is pregnant with potential drama. Alas I am not convinced that there is enough to this to make good use of those themes. Just a little too... repetitive? Maybe. Too derivative? Well what isn't? Hard to put my finger on it. Gabriel, like Heaven ditches that tone and as a result sounds like a thousand and one other songs that I cannot name and have no desire to listen to again. Bland, not bad, everything it does done better somewhere else by someone else.

Is this best of really that bad? Probably not. I think in other circumstances, perhaps in the context of the original albums, I might have had a more positive response to Lamb. Angelica sounds awfully familiar... must be the Debussy sample that has been used elsewhere. Actually I think this track really works, uses the sample well.

The tone definitely seems to have shifted. In place of the darkness and electronica now we have light acoustic ballads? OK then. Musically it is plodding, unpromising to start, but interesting when the thrusting percussion appears unexpectedly... the only constant seems to be the pleasant singing voice. Veering from bland and boring to over-stimulation would work better for me if the two poles were placed slightly closer together. Contrast is good, but this feels more like a bait and switch than a coherent whole.

Wonder reminds me of How Do from Becoming X, so similar is the structure, the lightness and indeed the contrast with most of the rest of the album the song is being consumed with. Its not as good as the Sneaker Pimps track to my mind, and I really don't need both of them. Wonder just feels a little bland somehow.

I am glad to be winding down this listen, less glad to have had my fears for it be proved true. A couple of tracks will be held on to but the majority are for the bin. I really must sort out a better writing position if I am going to keep going with this (and that is still the plan, despite the long hiatus) as my back is aching an hour into this listen. I don't know what to do about that because it's just so convenient having a laptop on my coffee table for general use.

As for the remaining tracks... Please is just dull, bland. Stronger, which will end this post starts promisingly but ultimately does not grow as it could. The electro-funk bass which kicks in for the final third feels like it has warped in from a completely different genre but does at least bring a little more depth and so, maybe, just rescues the song from the precipice of disappointment.

Overall? Yeah, this does not do it for me. Couple of highlights, but mostly chaff. I found the transition in style over the course of the album interesting, suggesting that tracks were arranged chronologically to some degree, and there were good points - be they specific ideas, good use of vocal or whatever - scattered around the various tracks. Overall, though, it just lacks something intangible, never quite up to enough to make it stand out or to raise Lamb to the bar set by their contemporaries or genre neighbours.

The Best Imitation of Myself (Disc 3) - Ben Folds

Track list:

1. Unrelated
2. Best Imitation of Myself
3. Rocky
4. Boxing
5. Julianne - Ben Folds Five
6. Evaporated - Ben Folds Five
7. Alice Childress - Ben Folds Five
8. Barrytown - Ben Folds Five
9. Amelia Bright - Ben Folds Five
10. Tell Me What I Did - Ben Folds Five
11. Rock Star
12. Losing Lisa
13. Break Up at Food Camp

16. Hiro's Song
15. Wandering
16. The Secret Life of Morgan Davis
17. Such Great Heights
18. Bitches Ain't Shit
19. Time
20. Sleazy
21. Because the Origami - 8in8
22. Stumblin' Home Winter Blues - Ben Folds Five

Running time: 77 minutes
Released: 2011

We reach the end of Ben Folds pretending to be himself with a rarities disc. Some of this is likely to be quite bad, other bits are probably gold dust. I don't recall a lot of the specific versions of better known songs here, or indeed many of the others so whilst this disc is one of the reasons I bought The Best Imitation of Myself, it is relatively unexplored compared to the other two.

Again it has been an age since I managed to post anything. I thought that after buying the car I would be freer mentally. Alas between work, ants and being the victim of petty vandalism I have had more on my plate than I would have liked - especially as resolving it has taken much longer than expected. Oh well, Ben to the rescue now.

We open with a really short unfinished piece, then launch into the title track for this collection. I guess this is a late recording - if I had the discs to hand I could check - but its brighter, lighter than the version I am familiar with, adding strings. Its all very... over the top in a sort of manicured way. Precision and propriety is not what Ben Folds does but here things sound too exact, too sculpted. Its interesting but incongruous. Rocky is new on me - in that I have it nowhere else, and I don't know it well enough to have preconceptions. It sounds like Ben Folds Five (eponymous album) era. College rock. Bright, breezy but kinda wistful. I like it. The cadence of the chorus is pleasing, even if the piano is perhaps a little too dominant. The track does feel like it goes on for ever though. It is only 4 and a half minutes, but the two before are short enough that this feels like a lifetime.

Boxing; great song. Said it all before. I am not immediately clear on what makes this version different but I do not have it tagged as Ben Folds Five, so I suspect there are some subtleties in the bass/drums on the band versions that I don't pick up on. There is some harmonisation in the choruses here that is different in a nice way, but the line that stabs me through the heart every time I hear it does not have the same impact in this rendition. Most of these versions are, I will guess now, not quite up to the ones that got published and released. There may be some charm here and there, but generally... something lacking. Julianne seems to back up this view as, whilst being more musical than the final album version, it lacks pace and energy. I might not like the song much, but at least it has some life in other performances. Here it is just flat.

The next song sinks in with its opening chords. Evaporated is a rare thing: a Ben Folds Five track I love to bits that I haven't yet written about on this blog. This feels a little under-produced compared with the version that concludes Whatever and Ever Amen but the song is fundamentally the same, a beautifully constructed tale of sadness and regret. I find myself silently mouthing along with the lyrics out of habit, mind unable to do much else. I haven't listened to this song for a fair while and whilst it is much as I remember, and I remembered that I loved it, I seem to love it more than I remembered. Or maybe it just feels appropriate after a crappy week or two, though I don't think I have much to regret per se. That it then drops into Alice Childress is pretty good sequencing I think, keeping some semblance of continuity in tone and theme. I am so wrapped up in this now, just unable to find words to communicate that. Maybe they will start to flow as we move through, or perhaps not.

Barrytown is another one I do not recognise; it feels raw, unpolished. WMP suggests it is a cover, but I don't know of whom. It does have very "Foldsian" feel to it, the structure of the lines, the exuberance, the rhythms... if it is someone else's song, this certainly has Folds' stamp on it. Weird, the bass sounds muted towards the end. The track has breezed by and it is replaced by another one I don't recognise - one written by drummer Darren Jesse (preceding one penned by bassist Robert Sledge). Amelia Bright is a bit too thin, body-less. There's nothing to not like, but by the same token there really isn't anything to find to applaud either. I worry that the rest of this disc might be like that, but I am hoping that there is a bit more good stuff in here too.

Tell Me What I Did sounds like... well it feels like I have heard this a hundred times before in other Ben Folds Five songs, yet at the same time I cannot name one that would validate that comment. It is a sense not of déjà vu, but déjà entendu. I spent the whole bloody track trying to remember the French for "to hear" and had to look it up in the end. Good job I'm using that education, eh? In my defense it was almost 2 decades ago now.

Rock Star is a song I have always had time for, self-awareness is rare enough in the general population that I don't expect to see it in anyone in the public eye, but Folds has always had that side to him - the same one that produces the self-deprecation of Rocking the Suburbs that is so inherently endearing to me as a Brit. This version of the song fades out weirdly in the middle though, or so it feels, and Folds launches into Losing Lisa. This is a tune I have always liked but this particular version changes the lyrics in a place or two from the released album version and I think the song suffers for it. The arrangement is also slightly softer, leveled differently or something. There is a vim missing, and with it an impact. Still a very nice piece of music though even if it sounds like it was recorded on the tinniest microphone he could find.

We blast through a crappy mall-based dumping song - not really much to recommend in this. It feels 2 decades or more out of date, like it should be on the soundtrack of Kevin Smith's Mallrats. I am astonished to find on a quick Google that this was an outake from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner rather than earlier. Then I have to adjust the pasted track list below the image as Hiro's Song (boring, sorry) comes before Wandering not the other way around.

Wandering I love. I have this on an EP somewhere that may surface later and I think that is probably the better version but I find this song touching in the extreme. The chorus really gels for me, a plaintive, regretful voice over a wonderfully judged piano, softly melodic, conveying the tone perfectly. Ben Folds has never been the worlds best vocalist, but it is easy to forgive him that when he composes and writes (co-with Darren Jesse here) as well as this. Ah, yeah - thought so. The other version is definitely better. Here the midsection is a little out of kilter with the verses and chorus, the tone shifted by the arrangement. Still, it is very much the same song, and the last lines of the final verse are still a hammer blow.

We get a music-hall (or should that be stupid sitcom credits sequence?) inspired number next, inserted here in what feels like a really inappropriate change of tone. This song could only be American in its composition, even before it gets to the crackpot lyrics. I don't like it at all - its a childish attempt to be funny that just misses the mark for me. Morgan Davis can take his secret life elsewhere.

I own a best-of from The Postal Service (great band name, I think) thanks to this next track, where Folds covers Such Great Heights. The arrangement is not as immediately pleasant as I remembered, and the verses are terse and tenser than I recalled, but the chorus I love. Folds manages to create the same sense of constriction, claustrophobia and edginess through incredible staccato key mashing that the original managed with programmed sequences (though his version gets some of that later), and the song itself carries with it enough that any half-faithful rendition is going to be worth your time.

We stay in covers-land for Bitches Ain't Shit. The song itself is really not up my street at all, though I do remember seeing Folds perform this live, just him and his keys and being amazed by the performance; somehow he manages to sell it as a soft piano ballad. Its remarkable genre-busting work, but yeah... there's nothing admirable about the source material, laden with all the misongyny you would expect from the title. I don't think any less of Folds for covering it - I am pretty sure it is deliberately ironic - but once you have heard it once, the impressiveness of his work with the song is completely overruled by the offensiveness of the lyrics. I won't miss it.

Time comes and goes - not sure what is different about this from the version on Songs for Silverman. I haven't listened to that album for an age, something I should perhaps remedy once my car is drivable again. I like the song, like most of the album, but it doesn't stick in my mind quite as much as others. It is a brief respite before another genre-twist. Sleazy is pretty ....ing bad. I am not familiar at all with the source (unlike Bitches Ain't Shit) and so anything Folds brings in transposing this song is lost on me and I am just left to interpret what I hear in a more literal way. This has none of the class of the other rework, none of the musicality in the result. Its just a sonic mess with nothing to recommend it at all.

Because the Origami is by 8in8; 8in8 is Ben Folds with a couple of others, most notably for me it includes author Neil Gaiman (who inspired another album I have - Where's Neil When You Need Him, which I bought because Thea Gilmore contributed a track). This song is alright but nothing special. I am sensing the end - just this and what I expect to be a nothing-like junk track to go. Stumblin' Home Winter Blues is... yeah. Nothing much to it, or nothing I can see after an hour of other Folds songs anyway. It's another Darren Jesse-penned track, and like Amelia Bright it is pretty-ish but lightweight, nothing to hook on to, nothing to engage with. Its light fare, perfectly listenable but easily forgettable; I wonder if his band Hotel Lights were pretty much that too?

Who knows... not me. I'm done here, slightly trimmer and resolving again to try and make more posts here without such a large gap. We'll see if I manage it.

The Best Imitation of Myself (Disc 2) - Ben Folds

Track list:

1. Julianne - Ben Folds Five
2. Video - Ben Folds Five
3. Song for the Dumped
4. Missing the War - Ben Folds Five
5. Mess - Ben Folds Five
6. Magic - Ben Folds Five
7. Selfless, Cold and Composed
8. Zak and Sara
9. Girl
10. Just Pretend - The Bens
11. Fred Jones, Part 2
12. Careless Whisper (Feat. Rufus Wainwright)
13. All U Can Eat
14. Long Tall Texan
15. Army - Ben Folds Five
16. Battle of Who Could Care Less - Ben Folds Five
17. Kylie from Connecticut
18. Effington
19. Picture Window
20. Sentimental Guy
21. Not the Same

Running time: 79 minutes
Released: 2011

Disc 2 of the Ben Folds retrospective, again featuring solo performances, Ben Folds Five, and a couple of others - The Bens (his collaboration with two other musicians named Ben; I never got into) and a duet with Rufus Wainwright, a definite high point on this disc.

However we start with a rendition of Julianne - one of my least favourite Ben Folds Five numbers when I first heard it, and still so now. This is a disc of live performances, and the song initially benefits from this, but as it gets going it is ultimately still not a very good song. Ben's voice is odd in places on the track too - it feels like a very raw recording, not just live but basic. Thankfully it is also short, and over before I can get too annoyed by it, and Video is a much more pleasant track.

The song does sound different to the album version(s) of it that I have, again a slightly raw and basic edge to the quality, different balance between the parts. The bass is particularly clear which gives the song a strangely rumbling timbre. The album recordings are dominated by the piano (as you might expect) but here those keys are subsumed into the whole rather than tinkling over everything in a domineering fashion. Man, that is an odd sentence, when can a tinkle domineer? In any case, this difference in balance and tone makes it an interesting alternative, and so worth keeping despite duplication of the song.

Not sure I will keep this version of Song for the Dumped though. There is a very tinny edge to the recording, over-driven bass and it also feels like a good performance is ditched in favour of gusto. There are definite differences from other recordings of the song, but it is not a favourite track (I'm sure the younger me loved it for the naughty words and angry sentiment but no more). I am doing this listen now because rain has washed out the cricket for the day - and with it any chance of an England win. Thankfully there was play earlier as I made my way over to Hook Norton to pick up a case of beer, but mostly as an excuse to get out and drive the new car. I would rather be spending this early evening listening to Alistair Cook continue his return to a run of good form, but alas, Folds' songs will have to suffice.

Missing the War is one of my favourite Ben Folds Five tracks (from Whatever and Ever Amen) and this recording does not mess with the formula much. There is some nice harmony, though it also strains at points, and the faithful performance of the album track carries the emotional punch just fine. I do not have much else to add, except that the swell of crowd applause at the end of the track was deserved. Then we dive into Mess and Magic from Reinhold Messner...

They form a sort of heartbreaking couplet, melancholy and loneliness imparted strongly, but beautifully and melodically. Mess loses something of the softness of the piano that I want to say exists on the album version, but the performance is as laden with strings and pain and regret as any. I think the tempo is up in places though, it feels quicker than memory recalls but [retread of old ground]. Magic starts with that perfect piano melody, so good it really shows up the fact that Folds' voice is not the best. This might just be his finest tune, not my favourite, and not his best song, but his best tune. I am incredibly fond of its light yet sombre tone and appreciate the more precise and considered playing that comes with it compared to his more bombastic tunes. The love and friendship that come through, the genuine heartfelt emotion carried in the piece, they completely excuse the use of made up words because it simply doesn't matter what is being said at the end of the day - you get the message from the whole thing anyway.

And just like that we're done with Ben Folds Five for a while, even as the next track is a Five song. Selfless Cold and Composed was always a piano-dominated piece so Folds playing it alone loses very little and, like Magic, it has a wonderful theme to fall back on. Listening to these two songs back to back again now rekindles the wish that I could play like this. I have written before of my lasting affinity for piano music after learning as a teen, and emotionally active melodies trigger the regret of not keeping up with things more than anything else.

Zak and Sara works better than it should, and is a powerful performance, Folds' fingers working overtime drumming out a rhythm as well as the tune, but frankly I don't like the song enough to have two live versions of it on my hard drive. I have barely scratched the surface of this listen yet - not half way in. Despite the paucity of my offerings recently I am half-regretting starting this one because of the length. Stupid, that, since it has nothing to do with what I am listening to, though to be frank Girl is jut shit; to be fair Folds describes it as his "0.6" and suitable for a boy-band. My take is its too crap even for that!

The Bens featured Ben Folds, Ben Kweller (the one I remember) and Ben Lee (the one I always forget). I never knew anything about the other two, and never investigated the output of Ben-to-the-power-3. On the basis of the track here, that was a good decision; its just a dull, repetitive loop of a song with nothing to hold or draw the interest. When it ends, I reckon it is unlikely I will ever listen to them again. Coming on the back of that dullness, a return to a sad and emotional piece is effective. Its funny - I never really appreciated Fred Jones as an album track, but here, and thinking back to my prior experience of this disc, it is a song I really like. I don't know if that is because I can relate, working in an office and would hate to be there or what...

Now we hit the heights. Careless Whisper may be a George Michael number but the song is not to be written off just for that, and here the interplay between Folds and his flamboyant guest is awesome. I have a few Rufus Wainwright albums (though to be honest I kinda wish I'd stopped at two) and like him as a showman. He and Folds have very different voices that play off each other well and whilst the whole performance has more than a touch of camp about it, the song is nailed. 

Ugh, my back is starting to ache; I do not have the ideal posture or position for long stints actively addressing the keyboard like this. I think my coffee table has got away from my couch again. I really need to sort out my spare room so I can get a proper desk set up... not that I would use it, it is too convenient having the laptop in the front room with everything else. A couple of comedic numbers drift by before we head back to the Five for a couple more. Long Tall Texan is half a song really - Folds admitting to the crowd mid number he knows no more of the words. Still.

Army; we've been here before. It's a great song and fantastic live. This version is again different from the live version Folds does solo on Ben Folds Live. I don't just mean the fact that they actually have the horns to do the horn parts rather than relying on the audience; the drums and bass really adding to the ensemble sound, taking up slack. I think I prefer the piano-only, audience participation version (as I have been there, done that audience wise) but I like both. This version of Battle of Who Could Care Less is good too - its uptempo washout cheer is oddly welcome right about now and I somehow daze my way through it, remembering to type this line only as it ends.

Five to go, and it is a bit of a denouement from here. Two songs from Way to Normal first, one I rather like followed by one I could take or leave. There is something very sad about Kylie From Connecticut, the narrative of this song is one of a return to an infidelity in later years - speaking to a loneliness. However what really strikes me about this piece is the fact that this rendition goes bananas in the middle of it, an instrumental insert that seems at odds with the sombre general tone. I think it's not as good as the album version (and I didn't like much from that album as we might see when we eventually get there), but I would need to check before hitting delete. Effington is just... blah - it has some nice bits, it has some awful bits and overall it comes to a pretty dull whole.

Picture Window, on the other hand... this song is a true favourite. Penned by Nick Hornby for Lonely Avenue, it knocks me flat with its chorus. It's a song about the mother of a very sick child, sad and trying not to get hopes up. Hope is a bastard. There is something compelling about that, but oddly (and I would imagine deliberately) genuinely hopeful too. Hope may be a bastard, but its a necessary one and part of being human. Folds nails the tone with his tune, though the playing here sounds a little out compared with the album version in one or two places. Still a great song though.

Sentimental Guy introduces a trumpet which I don't recall being part of the album recording, some harmonies which definitely were (with Weird Al Yankovic if memory serves), and then we hit the last number. An audience-participation version of Not the Same, in place of the choir used on Ben Folds Live. There is, with bass and drums definitely present, more to this recording again than the original version on Rocking the Suburbs, and this is subtly different than the Folds, Piano and choir rendition. I rather like it, at least until the end, where it cuts off very abruptly.

Phew. Just one more post until I can move on to other stuff, though at least disc 3 is more unusual material - and so a little less familiar. I say move on to other stuff... we'll see if I can keep any kind of rhythm up through the other "best of"s, not that many thankfully, and then a Big Box of 6 discs by one artist (who also features in the best ofs). So sameness persists for a while, no doubt contributing to my reticence to find the time. I would like to establish some momentum again, this year has been noticeably slower than last, more gaps and longer gaps between posts. There's not even a shred of hope that I will finish B by the time I have been going a year. I would need to do more than 1 a day as there are 90+ still to go... B is clearly a common first letter for album titles.