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Soundtracks To Our Lives w/e 2/2/03
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Fitter Stoke
Fitter Stoke
2601 posts

Soundtracks To Our Lives w/e 2/2/03
Feb 02, 2003, 12:45
A depressing week when I learned (not for the first time) that people cannot be trusted. Thank God for music. And vital to my suspect emotional well-being this week were:

Julian Cope 'Fried' - the man's muse at its most inspired and fucked-up best. Never fails to make my day;

Queens Of the Stone Age 'Songs For the Deaf' - my, this lot rock as hard as they look. A most engaging combination of Mudhoney and early XTC. 'No One Knows' may just have been the best 45 of the last twelve months;

Richard Thompson 'Rumour And Sigh' - maybe the last person I should've been listening to in my current low state, but I find his stories of character faults and betrayal ultimately uplifting, and his guitar playing is out of this world. This is probably my favourite of Thompson's later albums. I'll be lashing out on his new record this week I expect;

Peter Hammill 'Over' - particularly for the ultimate chronicle of the screwed-up soul 'Betrayed'. My, how I empathised with that song this week;

Ramones 'Ramones' - balm for the soul in a jaded world. Try not have a smile from ear to ear after listening to this baby;

The Small Faces 'Darlings Of the Wapping Wharf Launderette' - just essential British pop music, timeless and damn near perfect. No one, and I mean no one, has a more spine-tingling vocal sound than Marriott at his peak as here. And those songs...heaven's got a treat with both Steve and Ronnie up there;

Hawkwind 'Quark, Strangeness And Charm' - my favourite Hawks album without a doubt. Bob Calvert's whimsical muse was at its strongest here, and there's an authentically punky edge to the proceedings that makes this the least dated of their 70's releases for me. Thanks Joolio for sending up a CD transfer of this deleted-for-too-long gem. The improvement over my crackly vinyl copy is marked. All together now: "Hashish, hashish, hashish, hasheeeeesh...."

Caravan 'Caravan' - this classic debut has never been far away from the car stereo or home hi-fi for the last few weeks. A period piece for sure, but the spirit of '68 comes to life loud and clear in the new CD remaster. I can almost see Tara King strutting her stuff in front of me when 'Magic Man' is playing(calm down David, calm down...). And 'Where But For Caravan Would I' may just now be my bestest Caravan song ever - and that means relegating the sublime 'And I Wish I Were Stoned/Don't Worry' to second place. Buy this remarkable album;

Mal Waldron 'The Call' - I've reviewed this before for 'Unsung'. Suffice to say it's an invigorating mix of space rock and pure jazz over two long tracks of sheer headfuck. Not for nothing did Embryo cover the title track soon afterwards (with Waldron guesting, incidentally). We lost poor Mal late last year. This album is his most cherished legacy;

Beethoven: Symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 7 (Paris Conservatoire Orch/Carl Schuricht) - dug this forgotten Beethoven symphony cycle out of the mothballs. The scrawny French woodwind and horn sound takes a while to get used to, but Schuricht's interpretations are worth the effort - direct and individual without being idiosyncratic;

Sibelius: Lemminkeinen Legends (Iceland SO/Petri Sakari) - unjustly obscure Sibelius, tautly performed by an orchestra obviously used to the chill inherent in the music. A good bargain on Naxos, backing up an impressive Sibelius symphony cycle by the same forces;

Greig: Lyric Pieces (Arthur Rubinstein) - simple, faultless music, played simply and faultlessly by the greatest womanizing, havana smoking, high-living great pianist who ever lived for ninety odd years. Rock and roll.

"Music was my first love...and it will be my last" said the terminally uncool John Miles. Well that makes two of us, mate.

Good listening everyone.

Dave W (with apologies to my good friend Joolio for pipping him to his usual thread again)
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