7777777 - Allo Darlin'

Track List:

1. Only Dust Behind
2. Dear John
3. Kings & Queens

Running time: 8 minutes
Released: 2012

So it turns out there were a load of Allo Darlin' B-sides and E.P.s available on Bandcamp. I had never checked before, but now have a handful of new tunes, including this set.

I have never heard two of the three tracks before this but it starts very breezily, if quietly. Only Dust Behind is charming enough but there it is lacking something I cannot quite put my finger on. Dear John is a little poppier, more sparkle to the guitar. The vocal is uncharacteristically subdued in places though and it is not amongst their better songs.

Kings & Queens (written with the ampersand here) is a version of a tune which appears on We Come From the Same Place. It is significantly different to the album version, much more raw and possibly a little more catchy.

Overall these 3 tracks are pretty standard examples of Allo Darlin' tracks in terms of construction and, as I like what that tends to mean, I like these tunes. I would not hold any of them up amongst my favourites but all three made me smile, which is a good thing on a cold, wet day.

Amazon Domino Sampler - Various Artists

Track List:

1. Animal Collective - My Girls
2. Sons And Daughters - Silver Spell
3. The Kills - DNA
4. Anna Calvi - Blackout
5. Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move
6. Four Tet - Love Cry
7. Villagers - Becoming A Jackal
8. Arctic Monkeys - My Propeller
9. Cass McCombs - County Line
10. Wild Beasts - Albatross
11. Steve Mason - All Come Down
12. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bubble

Running time: 56 minutes
Released: 2011   

So hot on the heels of one Amazon freebie comes another. Domino are a label that have produced some of my favourite artists at one time or another, so when I stumbled across this free sample I snapped it up and... promptly forgot about it and did not follow up with the things I did not already know about. Such is life.

I know of most of these artists but could not put a sound to all. I have albums by 5 of them - 4 of them containing the song featured here. Those will definitely be disappearing after the listen, as I do not need duplicates. I do not expect this to suddenly make me want to run out and buy material from the other artists, but who knows, maybe my prejudices are not fairly based and I have been denying myself genius the past 3 years.

The sampler starts with a song from an album that I will almost certainly be cutting in its entirety when I get to it. I bought Merriweather Post Pavilion based on some extremely strong reviews but found it lacking in structure, harmony and music. Animal Collective seem to be adept at generating noise, but then so are toddlers. I hope that coming in ready to listen might show me another side to them, but I still fail to see any merit in My Girls - there is just nothing pleasant, nothing agreeable, about the cacophony my ears behold, it is just a din that extends way past comfort distance. Totally not to my taste.

I also own a Sons and Daughters album (This Gift), and I did not really get on with that either, if my gut feeling and memory are to be believed (and for the umpteenth time, they probably are not!). This tune sounds very different to what I was expecting though. Sparse and simple sounds with a vocal that is much chanted as sung - this is an interesting track and conjures images of urban fantasy/modern occult film, TV, literature and games (a genre I like to roleplay in a lot, but do not tend to follow too much otherwise; I'm burned out on The Dresden Files). I shall keep this.

The Kills do not ring any bells for me, and looking them up on LastFM reveals a band I would not expect to like by their "Similar Artists" listings. However this song reminds me a bit of a slightly darker She Keeps Bees - more rock, less blues (and less good as a result) but it is pretty catchy. Certainly catchy enough to keep, if not to make me look up the album. It is followed by Anna Calvi who I think I always got mixed up with someone else, because I was expecting vapid pop styles rather than a female Richard Hawley with bigger sound. I like her delivery, even if the pattern of expression sounds unusual with a female voice, lots of timbre change being something I correlate more with male vocalists. However the song (much like what I have of Hawley's) is missing something for me. Cut.

This sampler is pretty varied, showing off Domino's diversity a bit, everything has been different - a trend which is reflected later on, too. Dirty Projectors are on the Animal Collective side of things for me, too much electronic experimentation to call this a tune that I would ever want to listen to, and the Four Tet number is getting cut because I have the album (There Is Love in You) to listen to when I get there in a couple of years time. I should just clarify at this point - this project is far from the only listening I am doing; commuting gives me plenty of opportunity to listen to physical discs, but my listening to just stuff on random plays has died away a lot in the face of a structured approach to my library. I do not think that I had previously given Four Tet anything like the attention I should have done, instead being mostly familiar with his work as producer/remixer for others. I quite like the patterns presented here, though I do struggle to look forward and see myself listening to a whole album of it... one 9 minute track is trying my patience by half way simply through repetition. There is more going on over the top, and that is varied and more interesting, but the basic rhythm persistence has me tuning out.

Villagers are completely new to me, in that I do not seem to have ever scrobbled this song before, let alone anything else; I rather like it as a one-off but it does not have enough for me to retain. I will certainly be ditching My Propeller too. I do not hear anything other than a very bland riff there. Huh. I was expecting Cass McCombs to be, well... female, on account of the name. There is a nice lazy lilt to this track and it brings up melodic associations with an array of other artists and songs that I have still to come, but like the Villagers track, it makes for a pleasant one-off listen, but is lacking anything to make me want to come back to it. Wild Beasts ring a bell name wise though I could never have put a style to the name. I do not like this song though, and it is the vocal that is the barrier to enjoyment. The light key line and the stronger percussion mesh nicely, but the singing is a poor fit with them, and there is definitely something lacking as a result. Cut.

The last two songs here are both getting cut as duplicates but I do like both a lot. Steve Mason's Boys Outside is an album I really like. I find his voice pretty soothing when he goes for a softer style, and I liked him in The Beta Band and as King Biscuit Time - less so as Black Affair. All Come Down is not one of his better songs and I think it is better in the context of its parent album, but it is a relaxing number. Oh, that is interesting. This version of Bubble may get kept - this is the "single edit" apparently and it is actually pretty different from the version that my mind plays back from the masterpiece that is Diamond Mine, at least in its opening as there is a very clear second voice singing along with King Creosote. I have not consciously noted the duet when listening to the album version. A stay of cutting until I play back that version of Bubble then.

I think this sampler is pretty decent, even if I am not keeping that much, and unlike the last Amazon sample, I think this was well worth the time to investigate. A quick change of heart gave stays to Villagers and Cass McCombs' efforts and a quick check of Diamond Mine confirms I was hearing the opening duet for the first time with this version, so I will keep Bubble too. Along with The Kills and Sons and Daughters that is 5 of 12 kept, 7 ditched. Even then, the ditchied tracks were not all without merit.

Amazon Artist Lounge E.P. - Sharon van Etten

Track list:

1. Tarifa
2. Afraid of Nothing
3. Taking Chances

Running time: 13 minutes
Released: 2014

So I think this must have been a free sampler from Amazon at some point earlier this year, in advance of the album Are We There. They are 3 live recordings of tracks from that album. I do not own any other music by Sharon Van Etten and I cannot think I would have bought these tracks cold for actual cash, but they are no longer listed as free on Amazon (UK at least). This is a completely blind listen.

My immediate response is that I am not taken with her voice. Not that it is bad necessarily, just that it does nothing for me - particularly in the harmonies which simply fall flat; actually they are less pleasant than that. Musically the structure is clearly just her, a guitar and backing singer, and the playing is pretty flat and dull. All in all, I really do not like Tarifa much.

There is more depth to the other tracks as keyboards/synths appear. This immediately gives the tunes a better balance, gives a more complete sound as the instruments play off against each other, rather than simply having a harsh guitar against very harsh vocal. Unfortunately the vocal does no more for me than it did on that first track. Some of it might be echo, the recordings were done in a church, but... no. Not interested. The final track is the most appealing of the three but it does not do nearly enough to force its way into being kept. Good job I got these for free because that is more than what they are worth to me; those 13 minutes are all gone and no coming back. I imagine that the album versions of these tracks are more tuneful, better produced etc. but I will not be finding out.

28,000 Days - Gojogo

Track List:

1. Tale of Tales
2. Ebb
3. Escapist
4. Yekermo
5. Turbines
6. Bali Hai
7. 28,000 Days
8. Firebird
9. War Waltz
10. God Doesn't Make Junk
11. Hide
12. Reselection

Running time: 59 minutes
Released: 2011

So I only just acquired this, picked up because of revisiting All Is Fair for this project. An American album I had to get shipped in to the UK from Sweden to get hold of (well, the locally sourced option was more expensive, even given shipping). I have not listened to it before besides a snippet or two whilst ripping the disc so I am going in cold - in every sense, as autumn has finally bitten here.

First impressions are not overly positive. Tale of Tales is 8 minutes plus and that is a little too long for a scene-setter. The sound strikes me as more harsh than the prior album - sharper edges to the strings, noisier and less harmonious, an impression that is only reinforced when the electric guitar line appears. This is a sonic mess, not an enjoyable tune and I am simply crossing fingers that 8 minutes really is too long to be representative.

Ebb (recorded as EBB elsewhere, but I am making a judgement call that suggests this was misinterpretation of the font on the sleeve and a short title) thankfully starts much softer and smoother. This does hark back to All Is Fair in tone, and whilst the strings do carry that knife edge struggle with staying just on the side of tuneful the space in which they are toeing that line is created in a much richer and co-ordinated manner. It appears, then, that this album will be mixing styles up a bit.

In all honesty the next couple of tracks have gone past in a bit of a blur. I am finding concentrating on the screen to type any thoughts up difficult and to be frank I am going to have to listen again at another point in order to make any decisions on which tracks are worth keeping. What I can say is that there has definitely been a continuation of mixing things up. Track length, dominant sound, tempo, depth of arrangement. These have all been switching around over the first 5 tunes. However the biggest surprise/change up is when a vocal appears on Bali Hai; I guess it should not be a surprise given that it is a song from South Pacific but I did not recognise that (despite having appeared in an am-dram production of that in the long-distant past).

The title track strikes a chord with me. I enjoy the structure and the refrains but before I can pin down precisely why I am enjoying it it ends. Again my mind has been wandering. I am off work today and do not go back for more than a week. Nice to have a break, but the situation has left my brain somewhat disengaged, especially as yesterday was busy - all day training course, enough time at home to wolf down a quick meal then out roleplaying in the evening and home after 23.30. My time off is filling up with either things I need to do or with busy evenings and suddenly it does not look as though it is going to be quite as sedate a break as perhaps I had been planning. This is a good thing, as it will get me out, keep me occupied and mean that I have to focus to get done what I plan to - including more posts here.

I have all but given up describing this listen though. The music that I am hearing is washing over my ears and sluicing off down some unseen drain before I can take it all in. Contrary to first impressions, I am feeling positive about the purchase now but articulating why would make no specific reference to anything I have heard. More it is a gut feeling based on sound that comes and goes, but which defies description by not lodging firmly enough in my consciousness as it passes.

The album ends on a bit of an odd note. The tune builds to crescendo and hits what could very easily be a final note, then comes back with a denouement that does not need to be there and a staccato punch to drop the curtain. It is as punchy as things have been since track 1 and stirred me out of my fuzzy awareness just in time for the silence of the end of the disc. A strange post, this one, the first listen where I do not feel like I have actually listened well. During others I have been multi-tasking but managing to take in the music that was playing. Here I have not really been concentrating. On Anything. Hopefully a blip more than a trend. I may return to this album again later to do it some justice.

Amalgamated Sons of Rest - Amalgamated Sons of Rest

Track List:

1. Maa Bonny Lad
2. My Donal
3. The Gypsy He-Witch
4. The Last House
5. Major March
6. Jennie Blackbird’s Blues

Running time: 35 minutes
Released: 2002

I bought this because I had admired a track or two from Scottish songwriter Alasdair Roberts, and this was a collaboration between him and two prominent American artists - Will Oldham (otherwise known as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, of whom more in this library) and Jason Molina - whose name I recognise but whose music I have never investigated for some reason.

There is a hidden track to pour scorn on (Wikipedia has a name for it, too - I Will Be Good) meaning the runtime of track 6 is 18 minutes - fully half the disc. Bleh. Still, I have not paid any attention to this E.P. for a long time so what is not dead air should make for interesting listening.

In truth I started this one once and stopped because the tempo of the record was too slow and low for my mood at the time. In starting again now, I worry the same may be true. I am trying to fit this in, having avoided it yesterday, before hastily arranged plans for later this evening. And I have not eaten yet. It is fairly minimalist stuff, to go by the opening. A pleasant enough tune (I get the feeling "pleasant" is the new "nice" of damning with faint praise), but nothing much to recommend it. Nice and short though, and when Maa Bonny Lad ends, My Donal begins. This has more of an atmosphere to it. It keeps the minimalism but there is an intent in the backing, a slight sense of the malign, which gives the tune some character and a stronger sense of self. Recording levels for the vocal are deliberately low, the backing distant. The whole volume is very low, but that creeping doom sense maintains the attention. I like this track. The first track was voiced by Roberts, the second I think by Oldham so by process of elimination the third different voice must be Molina, not that I can hear him much but the voice is not what I expected. Not sure what I expected.

That quietness is a definite feature, and not just because my speakers were turned way down.

It makes for an interesting listen... it feels more like listening to your mate strumming a guitar in the corner of the room rather than a record produced by professional musicians, but there is something in the construction of the melodies that gives them away. This is contemplative material, quiet-time appreciation; it sounds very simple but I think that there are elements here that are subtle enough to overlook, but which would change the tunes immeasurably if they were removed. I do not really like The Last House much, but it does illustrate that point.

The songs are better when they gain more sense of purpose. At times, with the quiet vocal they feel like they are drifting a bit and that allows interest to wander and wane. Here and there though the accompaniment ratchets up a notch and throws in something more demanding. Unfortunately from my perspective that is too infrequent to make me want to keep the album (more an E.P. really). My Donal is definitely worth keeping, it sat me up in a way that frankly I was not expecting but all of the other tunes have too many slow moments, weak points or both to hold my attention for long.

I am now into the interminable dead air before the hidden track (seriously why was this still around past the turn of the millennium?) and it occurs to me that I may not even hear the last tune start, so soft have been the recordings. It comes in at 15.20. This is 11 minutes and 40 seconds after the previous chord died, and leaves it less than 3 minutes to run. So bleeding pointless; a third of the disc is silence, the other two thirds is quiet on principle. Baffling.

Anyhow, a nice easy cut back - one good song to keep, 5 to ditch.

Alternative Music Is Vital - Best of 2007 - Various Artists

Track List:

1. The Twilight Sad - And She Would Darken the Memory
2. Monkey Swallows the Universe - Little Polveir
3. The Broken Family Band - Love Your Man, Love Your Woman
4. Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Our Hell
5. Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat
6. Pop Levi - Sugar Assault Me Now
7. Frightened Rabbit - Be Less Rude
8. Grand Drive - Talking in Your Sleep
9. Mother & the Addicts - Watch the Lines
10. Sister Vanilla - Can't Stop the Rock
11. Poppy & the Jezebels - Electro Bitch
12. Dinosaur Jr. - Been There All the Time

Running time: 47 minutes
Released: 2007

So this is an odd little collection of stuff I know well and have on albums, stuff by bands I recognise but never got into, and stuff that means absolutely nothing to me at all.

It has a degree of diversity about it, as Monkey Swallows the Universe, Grand Drive and Malcolm Middleton are not necessarily the easiest of bedfellows, but there is enough there that I can guess at the general tone. This may well be a case where I end up deleting the stuff I like because I have it elsewhere. I would not be surprised if this whole album goes as a result.

I have seen The Twilight Sad live, supporting Mogwai; I was not impressed. Their effort here is lacklustre; bland and one-note musically. I cannot get enthused, and as it drones on towards the 6 minute mark I would rather poke myself in the eye than listen again. The tone changes completely with the switch to Monkey Swallows the Universe who peddled twee indiepop. I have The Casket Letters from which Little Polveir is taken so I do not need a second version, but I do like this breezy number. There is something lazily accessible about it.

The same cannot be said for Love Your Man, Love Your Woman; dull is the word, plodding works too. One tempo chord striking does not make for a great tune and generally it does not hurt groups if their vocalist can sing. This was one of the songs I had no idea about before tonight; it is so gone! Another such follows. Our Hell is much more interesting though, I like the singing voice and the music is light, not guitar driven and... OK, its pretty bland, but its bland in a pretty way. I guess the whole album is not for the chop, then.

I feel confident in saying that A Brighter Beat is the best song in this collection even before I hear it all. It is one of my favourite Malcolm Middleton tracks - catchy, tight, more intricate than you think at first, laced with his trademark self-deprecation and with more than a slight echo of depression. The delivery is at odds with that illness, but the message rings true. Seeing this played live by one man with an acoustic is pretty ace, picking hook and melody together. I do not need the recorded version twice over though.

The Pop Levi track washes past, unremarkable in its nothingness, before Frightened Rabbit pop up. They are a name I have been aware of without ever really listening to. I bought an album in the last couple of years, but it got lost in the library and familiarity is low. I find that although this tune is pretty generic Scottish guitar pop I am nodding my head along with it. I like the vocal, and the tempo is high enough that I can stomach the overdone guitar twanging. Nothing special, but it is nice enough. Actually, that is probably a fair description of Talking in Your Sleep too; I like Grand Drive a lot, but in all honesty this is not one of their more interesting tunes and again, the second copy is superfluous.

Bland and generic are interesting words when it comes to music. They carry obvious negative connotations but there is definitely a market for bland application of styles - very few people want to be switched on all the time - and generic/formulaic means that you can settle in and enjoy repeating patterns and familiar forms, so I am not using either as wholly pejorative.

Watch the Lines is interesting, a little bit of a sonic mess. It is never particularly tuneful or well sung and does not have anything particularly stand out, with repetitive baselines and higher notes, but it works. I would not want to listen to it too often, but it hangs together greater than the sum of its parts. I cannot say the same for Sister Vanilla's track, which just rubs me up the wrong way, its harmonies and melodies both found lacking. There is something quirky about Electro Bitch - which it turns out is probably down to the age of the artists (16 at the time of recording); school girl electro-pop. Not interesting enough to keep, but not something I am sorry to have heard.

I do not have a physical copy of this album; I buy a few download albums here and there, even if I still get the vast majority of my music in hardcopy. The preference for CD is partly collector instinct and partly the fact I listen to more in the car than at home, and if I like an album I will want it on my commute. The digital-only ownership is relevant because once I delete, this material is gone; I probably won't get it back from anywhere because I do not remember where I bought it from. Still, that will not stop me cutting: I wont even notice that which is gone.

Dinosaur Jr. close the album. Too much indulgence in the guitar for my tastes, another one for the scrap heap. So only three tracks to keep; slimming!

The Alphabet of Hurricanes - Tom McRae

Track List:

1. Still Love You
2. A is For
3. Won't Lie
4. Summer of John Wayne
5. Told My Troubles To The River
6. American Spirit
7. Please
8. Out of the Walls
9. Me & Stetson
10. Can't Find You
11. Best Winter
12. Fifteen Miles Downriver

Running time: 41 minutes
Released: 2010

Another McRae album that I probably should not have bought, so soon on the heels of All Maps Welcome. I am hoping, rather than expecting, this to contain at least the odd gem to vindicate the (long ago) purchase.

Staccato mandolin kicks the album off with a reasonable roll to the playing, but the rest of Still Love You is pretty boringly put together. Individual elements are nice but the construction is lacking. It is followed by a horrid interlude that really just does not work for anything but putting the listener on edge.

I will say this for Tom McRae: he has evolved between albums, at least in some respects. This is not simply an inferior version of an earlier release, there has been a shift in the arrangements even as the vocal echoes back to his debut in its strained pleading (and although that sounds bad, I actually like that vocal affectation). My problem with this is that the bit I like about Won't Lie (for example) is drowned out by the changes that do not work for me. Addition of piercing woodwind gives a fuller sound, but not one I welcome.

The addition of deeper arrangements does not always make for better music, just as it does not always make things work badly. My personal feeling is that McRae's voice has more room to do what he does well with a flatter backing. Not a featureless one, but one without folds in which to hide the pained delivery that gives his vocal an identifiable character. Summer of John Wayne starts as though it might be up my street, and I find some of the passages in this song really quite pleasant, but when the arrangement inflates and envelops I find it dropping from my interest like a stone.

Ah, now that is a more promising sound... interesting percussion and loose keys. A significant departure in direction, and to my ear the backing is too high, the vocal too low, but a genuinely different track, and short enough for the cacophony to start the ears ringing but not leave them so. This is a good form of evolution, experimentation. I think it works, but it is on a fine line that will probably not have made Told My Troubles to the River a favourite to many.

I like the way this album shifts in tone, it is far from homogeneous. Most of the tunes are not really tripping my "ooh I like this" sense and I will be cutting many, but I do want to shout out to the roundedness of this release and the progression it marks in the performer. There are themes and elements that crop up again from song to song giving a sense of consistency, but each song also genuinely sounds different from the last rather than just trotting out the same structures time after time. Bigger sounds are followed by stripped back ones, melodic songs by percussive ones. Pensive or reflective stuff by more strident material. It is good diversity, a trait I did not expect going in to the listen. I am almost sorry for cutting the first third of the disc even as I continue to listen because the approach is to be applauded. That said, my patience and my ears can only stand some of the variations presented. The middle third of the album is much more to my taste - I have dumped Please, but the rest are staying and showcase the variety well enough.

As I enter the last few tracks I wonder how it will close. Can't Find You harks back to the opening track, but I find myself better disposed to it this time around - perhaps the lyric is more engaging; I find it hard to put my finger on why. It may just be that I have worked myself into a positive mindset, something I did not have at the outset of this post, and that positivity rubs off as charitable interpretation. Who knows. I find myself indecisive about Best Winter - I think it suffers from repetition, but it is short enough to excuse it. I think it treads a line of dullness, but that is quite a pleasant dullness - comfortable. I half want to cut it, half to keep. I think I am going to be charitable - the latter half of this record has impressed me enough that I think that charity is earned and despite Fifteen Miles Downriver feeling like it went on for ages it was a very nice, low key ending to the disc.

I have come out of this surprised and impressed. I did not expect to be keeping more than half the songs from this album going in, but McRae has added diversity to his armoury and employed it well to craft a second half that is very listenable indeed. It will never rank amongst my favourites but I am happy to keep it around.

Alone E.P. - Moist

Track List:

6. I Am (Red Snapper Remix)

Running time: 5 minutes
Released: 2009

I do not know where I picked this up. The "why" is easy enough - Red Snapper. Moist is an... unfortunate name. I know several people who recoil reflexively from the word. In this instance it would seem to refer to a Swedish guy who seems to do a bit of everything.

I only have the one track, which must have been made free somewhere, or distributed through Red Snapper somehow for me to have it.

I can hear the RS influence in the bass (I believe it is a stand-up). The track has a reasonable progression, but nothing outstanding and there is no real melody to speak of which is disappointing. It keeps threatening to get good, but never quite fulfilling on its promise. Decent track, I see no reason to cut it, but neither do I feel like getting all Moist over it.

Alone Aboard the Ark - The Leisure Society

Track List:

1. Another Sunday Psalm
2. A Softer Voice Takes Longer Hearing
3. Fight for Everyone
4. Tearing the Arches Down
5. The Sober Scent of Paper
6. All I Have Seen
7. Everyone Understands
8. Life is a Cabriolet
9. One Man and His Fug
10. Forever Shall We Wait
11. We Go Together
12. The Last in a Long Line

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2013

OK, I suspect this will be a touch disappointing, although I might find that I simply have not previously given this album the attention it deserves. In context, The Leisure Society's debut album The Sleeper is one of my go-back-to-over-and-over favourites, but each release since has lost a little of the magic that made that album so special for me.

This album has a strong opening, with the sunny style that Nick Hemming has made his own very much present in the opening refrains. The man has chops, as Ivor Novello song-writing nominations testify. He also has a pretty decent voice and an identifiable style of delivery with his voice following the lilt of his words nicely, swelling and falling with the roll of the lyric. The song is quaint but loses me a bit when a mouth organ (or similar) is introduced. The album seems to jump back 60 years with its second track - it feels like a homage to older song forms, an impression strengthened by the string arrangements. I do not find it particularly endearing. Thankfully it is a single track effect. Fight for Everyone returns to more modern jauntiness and brings back an infectious happiness that reminds me of when I saw these guys live at End of the Road. It is a very pop-y song though at the same time I cannot imagine it actually being very popular with a wider audience. I like the hook, it brings a smile to my face, and I like that it is called and repeated in several different instruments. However the song then lets itself down by ending meekly and unexpectedly. It just does not feel complete.

It is followed by a number which strips back most accompaniment to the vocal to a staccato guitar, a musical departure that falls flat for me. I am surely guilty these days, of setting a style preference for an artist and then almost too-quickly disregarding their work when they stray from that preferred style, listening instead to the favoured tracks. This is odd, because I have always said I prefer it when artists evolve over time rather than stick to the same tired routine. Intellectually I think that is still true, but in practice pigeonholing artists in this way is useful shorthand for comparison. It is natural to want more of what you like and less of what you do not, and if evolution takes things away from the former and towards the latter it can feel like a negative. That does not make it one though; if no-one adapted and evolved we would all be bored of uniformity.

The middle section of this album is such an evolution. I do not find these songs work too well for me. There are interesting points, but I find myself pining for the musical joy of the arrangements that accompanied Hemming's earlier writing, rather than the very different sounds shared here. If I approached these in the right mood, I am certain I would enjoy the songs more... but I cannot shake the thought that I want to put The Sleeper on right now and listen to that instead. The more I think about it, the more that album is The Leisure Society. That kind of static viewpoint is not helpful; I want to see the good here.

There are some fuller arrangements going on too, and some more songs immediately recognisable as in the style of... There is a particular method applied to the guitar lines and rhythms that is very much a signature of The Leisure Society even before you hear the voice to confirm it. The majority of the tunes are decent, but there are not the stand out wonders I hope for. I suspect many of them would grow on me given repeated listens as one or two are producing a toe-tapping response as it is. However...

This blog is not a recommendation hotspot, but just listen to A Short Weekend Begins With Longing.

That is the standard to which I hold this band, and there is nothing on All Aboard the Ark that comes close to matching that in terms of its simple, genuine, magic. It was the song that captured me, it is representative of their debut album which is quality throughout. We Go Together captures a little of the feel, and there are hints of it sprinkled elsewhere throughout this collection of tunes; the overall impression is similar enough to be recognisably the same source, but also disappointingly removed enough that some of the magic is missing.

Let me clear up: the songs are all nice enough that I am keeping them. I like the approach to music taken by The Leisure Society, like their lyrics and arrangements. I look forward to what they may produce in future. I just not so secretly wish that they will make The Sleeper again.

Allz Saintz Dayz - Martin John Henry

Track List:

1. Allz Saintz Dayz

Running time: 4 minutes
Released: 2010

This is a free single from former De Rosa songwriter Martin John Henry. It is a re-imagining of All Saints Day from Mend from his former band. 

I like the De Rosa recording more. This is remixed with electronics that are interesting but not particularly compelling. It is a little too sedate and does not contain the same fire in the delivery. Not sure it is worth keeping.