This week’s look back bores:
Killing Joke ‘what’s THIS for…’ - as I’ve said before, Adam and the Ants on steroids. And then some;
Paul Brady ‘Hard Station’ - one of those albums I’ve liked for decades and now suddenly fell in love with. The man writes in traditional forms yet always sounds truly distinctive;
Henry Cow ‘Concerts’ - never mentioned in critics’ lists of worthy rock double live albums, but safely ensconced in my personal selection. The first side is particularly excellent, featuring Dagmar Krause at her touching best;
Van Morrison ‘It’s Too Late To Stop Now’ - in comparison to the very different record above, this one is anything but unsung, yet rightly so. Like ‘Made In Japan’ is for Deep Purple, so I sometimes feel that this is the only Van the Man album I ever really need* despite the thirty-odd others I have gathering dust in my racks;
The Fall ‘The Infotainment Scam’ - Mark E’s great Spangles phase of 1994 resulted in this timeless epic;
Siouxsie and the Banshees ‘A Kiss In The Dreamhouse’ - the last Banshees album I ever bought is a real spine-tingler;
Jacobites ‘Robespierre’s Velvet Basement’ - ever fresh, feel good, joyous songs is all. RIP, Nikki and Dave;
Ryley Walker ‘Primrose Green’ - sounding just like one of those wonderful Witchseason productions from fifty years ago, Walker has imbued the spirits of John Martyn and Nick Drake (plus more than a snifter of Tim Buckley) to form his own 21st century take on folk rock. This is really very, very good indeed;
Metallica ‘72 Seasons’ - still well into this. I’ve grown old with this lot, but only I sound it. They most certainly don’t;
Sensational Alex Harvey Band ‘Tomorrow Belongs To Me’ - SAHB were one of many Brit bands of the early to mid 70s who give the lie to the oft-held view that the UK pre-punk scene was all dull and dreary. This is a fine example of their craft;
Public Image Ltd ‘Flowers Of Romance’ - hmmm. There’s a point where it’s debatable what stands up as original art and what’s really just lazy kack. A couple of tracks aside, I think most of this falls under the latter category, sadly. IMshittyO of course;
Rush ‘Vapor Trails’ (Remix) - I’ve come late to this and, as with most of Rush’s later albums, wonder at how much I’ve missed. Like the aforementioned new Metallica album, there’s an energy and freshness in these songs and their execution that belies the age of the band and its members. Not many acts reached a nineteenth studio album so defiantly;
Shakin’ Stevens ‘Re-Set’ - Shaky’s making highly credible music in his old age that anyone biased against his pop past may sadly pass by. His new record is a case in point: heartfelt, Americana-influenced songs with his ageing but still impressive tenor tones to the fore. Hear it before you diss it;
Haydn: String Quartet in B minor, Op.64 no.2 (Festetics Quartet) - Haydn’s minor keyed compositions usually include some especially poignant music, as in the sublime slow movement here. Music to meditate to;
Haydn: String Quartet in C, Op.33 no.3 ‘The Bird’ (Bingham Quartet) - the Binghams’ 1990s take on Haydn’s fab Op.33 quartets is the best I’ve ever heard: pace, dynamics and recording just right. It seems that their Kingdom recording was a one-off, which is a great shame as it would’ve been great to hear more of their Haydn;
Webern: Complete Works for String Quartet (New Leipzig Quartet) - this is a far easier listen than some might think, but only if given due concentration. The Leipzigers take a duly serious approach to Webern’s early and later music alike;
Beethoven: Symphony no.8 (Beethoven Orch Bonn/Stefan Blunier) - idiomatically Teutonic take on Beethoven’s “little one”;
Vaughan Williams: Wasps Overture & Tallis Fantasia (Halle/Sir Mark Elder) - Elder’s Tallis Fantasia is the tenderest, most yearning version of the work I know, and easily my favourite of his many recordings. Just gorgeous.
(*well, aside from ‘Astral Weeks’ anyway…)
The world we lost we found. Spoiled.
Enjoy your week, friends
Dave x
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