Ian Matthews ‘Valley Hi’ - 1973 solo album by the ex-Fairports man, carrying on the country rock feel of its producer Michael Nesmith, ably abetted by his great slide man Red Rhodes. An unsung gem;
Lou Reed S/T - solo debut that doesn’t fall far short of ‘Transformer’ to these ears;
Neil Young ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ - setting the tone from which Young’s rarely strayed in over fifty years of Crazy Horse collaborations, this defies time and criticism. You either get him, or you don’t;
Jim Capaldi ‘Fierce Heart’ - dated 80s keyboards and production (much akin to collaborator Steve Winwood’s records of the time) don’t nullify some great songs on this forgotten album. I very much enjoyed this;
The Jam ‘Sound Affects’ - still fresh sounding 43 years on. Mind you, I can never understand how George Harrison (himself having lost a plagiarism case) didn’t challenge for a songwriting credit on ‘Start’;
The Kinks ‘Arthur’ - I think Ray Davies peaked around the late sixties when this peach was unleashed upon a largely indifferent market;
Ian Gillan Band ‘The Rockfield Mixes’ - alternative mixes on what became IGB’s ‘Clear Air Turbulence’ album, a jazz rock set that hasn’t dated particularly well but which I still enjoy, especially in this brassier form;
Bob Dylan ‘Time Out Of Mind’ (2022 remix) - I like this more than I did the 1997 original. Maybe I needed to reach a similar age to fully appreciate it;
Magazine ‘Secondhand Daylight’ - their masterpiece: a record that sounds like nothing else before or since; far more prog than punk, and produced in such a way that it still sounds modern. They should have been massive;
Caravan ‘Waterloo Lily’ - quite the jazziest of Caravan’s LPs, mainly due to the electric piano of Steve Miller (RIP) who lasted only one album with the band. I’ve tended to underrate ‘Waterloo Lily’ in comparison to its better known preceding and following records but no more: this is an excellent album with all of Caravan’s prog, pop and whimsy in place alongside the same improvisatory groove that Soft Machine were pursuing around the same time;
Edgar Winter Group ‘They Only Come Out At Night’ - Ronnie Montrose caught in rude form just before he formed his own, self-named band was just one part of Winter’s post-White Trash combo. This is known for the unrepresentative (but great) ‘Frankenstein’, but is otherwise a decent straight rock and roll album with Doobies, Eagles, Aerosmith and Santana influences;
Matthews’ Southern Comfort S/T - like a lost Fairports album. Which I guess is effectively what it is;
Uriah Heep ‘Abominog’ and ‘Head First’ - Heep’s early 80s AOR phase is less embarrassing than it could have been, not least because of Pete Goalby’s great vocals. And there are some great songs here too;
Beethoven: Overture ‘Fidelio’ (Zurich Tonhalle/Zinman) - red hot interpretation of extremes, dead slow then very fast by turns, and very exciting;
Beethoven: String Quartet no.13, Op.130 & Grosse Fuge, Op.133 (Calidore String Quartet) - supercharged performance by one of the most promising young quartets in years. Their Grosse Fuge has them chasing and competing with each other: a real battle of wits and quite the best version I’ve ever heard;
Tchaikovsky and Sibelius: Violin Concertos (Batiashvili/Staatskapelle Berlin/Barenboim) - stately, civilised performances from a talented Georgian violinist and the living legend that is Daniel Barenboim. I hope the latter’s recently announced health problems are temporary;
Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia (Pittsburgh SO/William Steinberg) - I played this last week as well and something about it just gelled with me. It’s a quarter hour of string perfection: autumnal, elegiac, and just plain lovely - especially in this 66 year old recording;
Albeniz: Iberia (Artur Pizarro) - stunningly played and recorded take on Albeniz’ piano epic.
We’re up in the air
We’re down on the ground.
Happy trails
Dave x
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