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Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
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flashbackcaruso
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Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 22:30
The Kinks - Lola Vs Powerman & The Moneygoround (while enjoying this often overlooked gem (although not overlooked by Wes Anderson, who included three songs on the OST of 'The Darjeeling Ltd,) I found myself wondering what else could be dredged up from the dwindling archives to justify doing a deluxe edition of the sort the other Kinks classics recently received. Perhaps a DVD of the Ray Davies-starring BBC drama 'The Long Distance Piano Player', which featured this album's 'Got To Be Free' as a theme song?)

Hawkwind - Hall Of The Mountain Grill (one of several albums I reached for after giving 'Picnic At Hanging Rock' another viewing. Some people claim that composer Bruce Smeaton ripped off the title track of this for his 'Ascent Theme'. It's certainly very similar, but nowhere near as plagiaristic as his score for 'The Cars That Ate Paris', which seems to make heavy use of the intro to Elton John's 'Sixty Years On' at regular intervals, or at least something that sounds uncannily like it).

Juana Molina - Segunda (bought this album without a moment's hesitation after catching her live at Homefires several years ago. Wonderfully hypnotic and eerie at times, but nowhere near as captivating as witnessing her building up massive layers of sound entirely solo through a looping pedal, the best practioner of this clever technique that I've seen).

Elvis Presley - Elvis Is Back
Elvis Presley - Something For Everybody (a nicely-packaged reissue of these two albums, with original tracklistings restored after the previous editions annoyingly mixed the bonus tracks into the running order rather than adding them at the end. The effect of 'Elvis Is Back' as a dynamic comeback album is slightly muted by having a handful of mediocre songs early on, but the last 5 tracks are all corkers, with the early morning extended blues jam 'Reconsider Baby' being a sensational closer and a career highlight. 'Something For Everybody' interestingly divides itself into a 'Ballad Side' and a 'Beat Side' with both styles being represented by a handful of minor classics and a couple of stinkers. 'There's Always Me' makes for a rather interesting opening track, Elvis going from sublimely understated to full-on operatic Mario Lanza mode in just 2 minutes).

Elgar - The Dream Of Gerontius (bought this for £2 at a carboot sale, the same vinyl box set which Spencer Banks is seen playing at the start of David Rudkin's enigmatic Play For Today 'Penda's Fen'. The role of Gerontius inevitably involves too much of the (to me) generic warbling from the lead tenor, a style of singing I've never really got on with, but much of the chorale work is sublimely beautiful. Shame it doesn't feature the eerie Radiophonic Workshop 'remix' as heard on the original TV play).

The Monkees - Instant Replay
The Monkees - Present (The 'Prefab Three' on their way down, but still pulling together some very interesting material from recent sessions and old out-takes. Wonderful country rock from Nesmith, oddball experiments from Dolenz, and the surprisingly stinging (via Neil Young's lead guitar) acid rock of Jones's 'You And I' alongside his usual, and occasionally sublime, MOR).

JS Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier (I know this sounds terribly uncultured, but I bought this single Naxos CD of selections from both 'Books' purely for 'Prelude No.1 in C Minor', so beautifully used on the OST of 'Picnic At Hanging Rock'. None of the other pieces really did much for me, sounding too much like the purely academic excercises they originally were, but I'm sure many of the more classically inclined Heads out there would disagree with me).
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Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥ (1001realapes)
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