Deserter's Songs

Mercury Rev
1998

I remember this album being released. It was well and widely reviewed in the many music publications I read at the time (Q, Select, Vox and Muddly Mucker) but for some reason, although I got as far as purchasing and enjoying the singles "Opus 40" and "Goddess On A Hiway", I never bought the album until this year. I haven't even heard it before.

Still, apparently this hasn't prevented me from forming preconceptions about how it would sound, since my overriding feeling is that it isn't what I was expecting. The track that comes the closest is "The Funny Bird", an epic-sounding roller-coaster with some nicely squalling lead guitar.

Much of the rest is a little fey and wan by comparison. Not that, after several listens, it doesn't have its appeal. "Pick Up If You're There" is a lovely, ethereal instrumental. "Tonite It Shows" steals sweetly and shamelessly (and without credit) from "Hushabye Mountain" (from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). "Hudson Line" is cute, mainly remarkable for featuring Garth Hudson himself!

Overall, though, I had expected something with a little more substance. Perhaps, given the well-known connection between Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips, I thought we would get something as well-rounded, powerful and imaginative as Lips albums Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots or At War With The Mystics - although that said, it does seem fair to point out that, if it's hard to slip a cigarette paper between the two bands, Mercury Rev got there first.

White Blood Cells

The White Stripes
2001

The White Stripes passed me by at the time of this album and continued to do so until a couple of years ago, when I watched the guitar geek fest that is It Might Get Loud. While thoroughly enjoyable (albeit a touch indulgent in parts), this does come across as predominantly a Jack White film, starting with a cool scene where he constructs an extremely rudimentary electric guitar with a block of wood, a couple of nails, a bottle, one guitar string and a pickup. Later there's some great footage of him playing with The Raconteurs.

White is widely acknowledged as a guitar aficionado and often fêted as a next generation guitar god. However, despite my interest in all things guitar related, in general I find guitar-centric music from the likes of Steve Vai, Eric Johnson or even Rory Gallagher to be a little wearing after while. Music for listening needs to have hooks, melodies and structure. Personally, I rarely find that in music made by instrumentalists, regardless of the ability on display.

White Blood Cells is much more about the songs though, I am happy to say, even given the famously stripped down line up. However, I think the quality control threshold was set a little low. There are sixteen songs here, yet the album length is barely forty minutes. Some of the tracks are just sketches, although to be fair most tracks have a germ of an idea which would be good, but is insufficiently explored; for example, "Expecting".

The best developed tracks are good though. The singles - "Fell In Love With A Girl", "Hotel Yorba" - are excellent of course. "We're Going To Be Friends" is a cute nursery rhyme. "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground" reminds me of Bowie's "Width Of A Circle".

Unfortunately there are definitely some tracks that wouldn't be missed. "I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman" kind of peters out after wandering vaguely around for a while. "Little Room" is a sketch. "Aluminum" is a load of noise, probably excellent fun to play but wears thin to listen to in about twenty seconds.

Overall though nothing has captured me and I wouldn't be racing back to the album. I'm not quite sure what made this album one of Rolling Stone's top 500 albums ever.

Eliminator

ZZ Top
1983

Machine metal music

To the average rock fan, Billy Gibbons probably isn't a name that rings any bells. To the pop anorak, he's the guitar player and lead singer in ZZ Top, a Texas bar band who achieved a remarkably sudden commercial breakthrough with this album, Eliminator, its singles and the three made-for-MTV videos that went with them. But in rock guitarist circles, Billy Gibbons is, simply, a legend, known for his creamy tones and the fact that he (and his Les Paul) inspired one of the first artist-endorsed after market pickups (Seymour Duncan's "Pearly Gates").

I guess I need to hand my rock guitarist badge back then, because this is the first ZZ Top album I have ever listened to, and that only in the last few months. It's not quite what I expected. From a guitar perspective, there is some excellent playing and some fantastic tones, but what's really taken me by surprise is that this is, fundamentally, a pop album. Shorn of the rock colouring, most of these songs would have served perfectly well on any contemporary pop album.

In fact, in some respects they are fairly ground-breaking - for pop. There's clearly some early computer-based tools involved here; the music is too clean and too precise, the repeated riffs too identical, to be anything else. You could replace the guitar with keyboards and not lose the essence of the song. Yet the best of them have clearly grown out of the bar-boogie ZZ Top were known for.

The singles - "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs" - are classics and the best tracks here, of course, but I also rather like "I Need You Tonight", which has a wonderfully liquid guitar tone, heavy on the echo, effortlessly sustaining and fading into upper harmonics. It's the tone I aspire to when I play. The song is OK. The other album tracks kind of blend into one - good music, but not standing out much. Interestingly, possibly of most influence was the kind of guitar tone we hear on "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Dirty Dog", a heavily distorted, heavily phased sound much imitated through the 80s.

You And Me Both

Yazoo
1983

Vince Clarke does what Vince Clarke does.

Formative, influential synth-pop ... yadda yadda yadda. Listening to this now, what strikes me most is the minimalism. Perhaps this was imposed by the technology of the day - and many of the synth sounds are classic, tinkly, early digital settings - but it makes for some very clean arrangements. Nothing superfluous, just a drum machine, a couple of Vince Clarke tracks, and Alison Moyet singing over the top.

When you get a song of the quality of "Nobody's Diary", which towers over everything else here, the stripped down arrangement sounds fantastic; the combination of Moyet's soul vocals and Clarke's electonics really gels. On my first few listens I thought that perhaps it didn't work for the other tracks on the album, but now I've got to know it there are some other good tracks. I particularly like "Walk Away From Love", a cousin (unsurprisingly) of early Depeche Mode singles "I Just Can't Get Enough" and "New Life", all jolly, chirpy keyboard riffs. I also enjoy "Happy People", featuring Clarke's rather sweetly adequate vocals.

Ultimately, although there is one really good song and some perfectly acceptable ones, it's the quality and simplicity of the arrangements that shines through and makes work. Why I didn't listen to it at the time, I don't know - it's right in my era. At the time I bought albums by Depeche Mode, Howard Jones and Tears For Fears, all similar in many ways. Oh well, at least I've caught up now.

Echoes

Will Young
2011

"Can't be arsed" cover art belies a mature pop album

Of all the twenty albums I bought on our recent excursion, this is the one that made it first to my hi-fi. I could have chosen some real classics, but the song "Come On" has been stuck in my head for a couple of months now and I wanted to clear it. Usually repeated listens achieves this. If it doesn't then you know you've got a good song.

Echoes isn't a classic album and I don't think it will de considered one in the future. However, it is as good a slice of contemporary, adult pop as you will find anywhere. It's got plenty of good tunes, impeccable production, finger-tapping beats and Will Young is in fine voice throughout. I could have sworn that there are some other people singing backing in places, but according to the credits it's all him. In some places he sounds eerily like Jon Anderson, in others a little like Jimmy Somerville.

What makes it stand out from other pop is an undeniable undercurrent of melancholy running through and pulling together the whole record. Given this, and given that all but one of the tracks (Kish Mauve's "Come On", ironically enough) are Will Young co-writes, it's hard not to draw conclusions about the state of The Artist's mind. Track titles like "Jealousy", "I Just Want A Lover", "Outsider", "Runaway", and "Losing Myself" don't make it sound like young Will is particularly happy.

Still, it makes for some good music. His voice is a delicate instrument rather than a powerhouse and suits the downbeat mood, which is nicely in contrast with the often upbeat music. In other hands a song like "Come On" - which I do still like after having listened to it (checking last.fm) 29 times in the last week - could end up sounding too celebratory. It's a desperate appeal to stop someone leaving, and Young's voice rides on top of the big drums and anthemic arrangement and makes it work somehow.

There are other good tracks - I like "Jealousy", "Runaway" (excellent bass line) and "Personal Thunder" - but the album as a whole also hangs together well and is a very pleasant listening experience. Apparently (I don't know Young's other records) this is a more "electronic" album than previously, and having Richard X on board as producer for all tracks probably makes this so, but to me this is just slick, modern pop. I'm not going to listen to this all the time but it hits the spot for certain moods.

Shopping 22 February 2014

In which a middle aged man indulges himself.

Wish we were here!

Yesterday Brian and I made our annual pilgrimage to Berwick Street and took in the usual haunts of Sister Ray, Reckless Records and the Music And Video Exchange. We also found a couple of new shops too: Sounds Of The Universe on Broadwick Street (very pricey and not so good for rock and pop, which is my main interest) and Phonica on Poland Street (again, no mainstream stuff, although there were some rather nicely packaged albums that I might have taken a punt on if they weren't fifteen whole pounds).

So, the albums came from the usual three shops and encompass some of the usual suspects - nothing outré here, just cheap albums I hadn't got round to buying before or hadn't heard of until recently. They were:

Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam And The Ants (1980)

Prince Charming by Adam And The Ants (1981)

I've been meaning to buy these albums almost since they came out. Hey, I'm only 33 years late to the party.

Fields Of Fire (The Ultimate Collection) by Big Country (2011)

I've broken my own rule here and bought a compilation rather than the original albums. I just wanted "Wonderland" really. I probably should have been more patient.

Carried To Dust by Calexico (2008)

Parent album of "Red Blooms", one of my favourite songs from the 00s.

Tago Mago by Can (1971)

I don't know anything by Can, and there it is in the 1001 Albums list, so here it is.

Pearl by Janis Joplin (1971)

"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz".

Angel With A Lariat by k.d. lang And The Reclines (1987)

Shadowland by k.d. lang (1988)

k.d. lang's first two albums were not present in my collection, for some reason. Odd given how much I like her third, fourth, fifth etc.

Houses Of The Holy by Led Zeppelin (1973)

I know this album well, thanks to my student days, but still didn't own it until now. Plugging another gap in my collection.

The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers (1994)

I'm a sucker. This is a limited, 10th Anniversay edition of an album I didn't think I owned, but already did. Probably the first time I've ever bought something twice by mistake.

Deserter's Songs by Mercury Rev (1998)

I own the two significant singles from this, bought at the time ("Opus 40" and "Goddess On A Hiway"), so not sure what the album will add. Let's see.

Days Of Future Passed by The Moody Blues (1967)

"Precursor to prog-rock", it says here. Also 25% of the trivia question: name the odd one out, from Days Of Future Passed, Ulysses, 2001: A Space Odyssey and 24.

Words And Music by Saint Etienne (2012)

Bought entirely for overwhelmingly geeky awesomeness of the cover (see above).

Phaedra by Tangerine Dream (1974)

"Like The Orb without beats," say Brian, and who am I to doubt him?

Scott 4 by Scott Walker (1969)

Another classic.

White Blood Cells by The White Stripes (2001)

Actually what I wanted was The Raconteurs.

You And Me Both by Yazoo (1983)

Can't go wrong with a bit of Vince Clarke.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere by Neil Young with Crazy Horse (1969)

CSN&Y notwithstanding, I'm still not sure about Neil Young. Giving it a go.

Echoes by Will Young

Bought for £2, purely for the single "Come On", which I really like.

Eliminator by ZZ Top (1983)

Billy Gibbons is a Guitar God.

Accompanied by good beer, good chat, some surprisingly nice fish and chips (The Duke Of Argyll comes up trumps again) and more beer and chat, it was another good day. Shame South West Trains spoiled it slightly.