Self isolation blues, Week 2:
XTC ‘Go 2’
Talking Heads ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’
Magazine ‘Real Life’
Ace Frehley ‘Ace Frehley’
Buzzcocks ‘Another Music In A Different Kitchen’
Public Image Limited ‘First Issue’ -
on Thursday I decided to revisit happier times and play a glut of 1978 albums. My, did I have a good time. Might try 1979 next week;
Foo Fighters ‘Medicine At Midnight’ - initial impressions are of a strong, hard but lyrical album, tight as always with this band. Same old Foo in other words, though Dave Grohl is clearly throwing a Ziggy on ‘Chasing Birds’ and the title track. And ‘No Son Of Mine’ is most certainly not a Genesis cover!
Jethro Tull ‘Too Old To Rock’n’Roll, Too Young To Die’ - this has dated less than either of the single song concept albums that preceded it, but is a concept album all the same, and a highly enjoyable one at that. Possibly the last wholly satisfying album Tull ever made;
Mike Heron ‘Smiling Men With Glad Reputations’ - delightful solo LP from 1971, more conventional than ISB. Mike has a similar voice to Cat Stevens and this album ploughed a similar furrow to his then labelmate. Features an uncredited Pete Townshend, Keith Moon and Ronnie Lane on one atypically rocking track, and John Cale on another;
Loop ‘Heaven’s End’ - the gods of drone at their best, straight to your heart;
Loudon Wainwright III ‘Grown Man’ - mid-90s release leaning towards the flippant, rather than emotive, side of its creator. Good stuff;
Roxy Music ‘Country Life’ - although marginally the weakest of Roxy’s mighty first five albums, there are some great tracks on this, not least the epic ‘Out Of The Blue’ which always sets my neck hairs tingling;
Primal Scream ‘Sonic Flower Groove’ - I’ve never understood the tepid reception given to this fine, Byrdsy debut compared with that of The Stone Roses, which to me ploughed a very similar jangly 60s vibe (and did so two years later). I dig ‘em both, me;
Rush ‘Presto’ and ‘Roll The Bones’ - where Rush returned to shorter, guitar-driven songs after an undistinguished seven years of sterile, keyboard dominated dullness. Of their time, but not embarrassingly so;
Rush ‘Moving Pictures’ - I can’t believe it’s 40 years since I first heard this. Still sounds fresh to me (keyboards are still peripheral and largely free of polyphonic kackness), and the musicianship is off the scale, especially the drumming (RIP Neil). Tails off a bit halfway through Side 2 but hey, three quarters’ greatness is a fair ratio, especially for a 1980s hard rock LP;
(Also viewed Rush’s 2011 Cleveland gig on Sky Arts, which included a complete live take of the last-named LP. Bloody marvellous. Bought the CDs online and played the whole thing again. Geddy’s voice has withered a little over the years but my, these guys could play;)
Kiss ‘Dressed To Kill’ - like all the early Kiss studio albums, this suffers from a lacklustre production job, but contains some prime dumb-rock gems nonetheless. Y’know, the Drude was right: capitalist considerations notwithstanding, why were the Dolls cool and Kiss not?;
Silje Nergaard ‘Tell Me Where You’re Going’ - Silje’s debut from 1990 saw less of a jazz influence than she’s now known for but still sounds good. I’d pigeonhole this as classy adult pop;
Silje Nergaard ‘For You A Thousand Times’ - this much more recent (2017) album shows a more mature, stronger voice and even better material. I must check out her intervening records;
Paul Weller ‘On Sunset (Remixes)’ EP - revamps of five ‘On Sunset’ songs, some radical (Gwenno’s excellent trance take on ‘Old Father Tyme’), some pruned back to the bare bones with new elements added (‘Rockets’). The title track really gains from a disco feel. Well worth a £3 download;
Paul Weller ‘In Another Room’ EP - refreshingly left-field EP from Weller: four short excursions into freeform music. This has been slated by many. I think it’s excellent! Try playing any of these four tracks to anyone who isn’t a fan: I guarantee they’ll have no idea who it is;
Paul Weller ‘Wake Up The Nation’ - the Modfather’s most upbeat solo album sounded great when I played it again this week. So much so that I’m now wondering why I’d already ordered the newly remixed version. Call it thrill-seeking pensioner’s boredom;
Uriah Heep ‘Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble’ - eternally underrated debut from an eternally underrated (well, critically anyway) band. A fascinatingly varied blend of psych, jazz, folk and hard, hard rock. And what a fabulous singer David Byron was;
Keith Jarrett ‘Staircase’ - my favourite Jarrett solo piano album;
Keith Jarrett: Munich, June 2, 1981 (from ‘Concerts’) - another fine example of Jarrett’s long-form improvisations from the first half of his career, this moves from a lyrical fugue to playful doodling, string plucking, thumping Eltonesque vamps and pretty much anything else you can imagine. (Two beautiful encores too.) And all on a single piano, off the cuff. The poor guy suffered two strokes in 2018 and can’t do this any more. Remember him this way;
Mozart: Allegro in G minor, K 400 & Fugue in G minor K 401 (Ton Koopman & Tini Mathot) - two Mozart obscurities as inventive and tuneful as anything the great man ever wrote;
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no.1 (English Concert/Trevor Pinnock) - original instruments without tears;
Franck: Symphony in D minor (VPO/Wilhelm Furtwaengler) - solidly Teutonic reading of a great Belgian symphony. Not how I’d always want to hear it, but pretty mesmerising anyway;
Beethoven: Symphony no.4 (WDR SO/Marek Janowski) - the best performance of this new Beethoven symphony cycle I’ve heard so far; in fact, following this with a score, the pacing and dynamics seem just right. I’m struggling to hear the second violins in the recorded balance at times though, especially near the end of the fourth movement;
Beethoven: Missa solemnis (LSO/Colin Davis) - sensitive interpretation of Ludwig’s late choral masterpiece. Sublime music;
Great European Organs no.66: Ripon Cathedral (Graham Barber) - fine programme of Edwardian symphonic music played on a mighty TC Lewis organ.
Too old to rock’n’roll and, sadly, not too young to die. But sod it, I’ll rock’n’roll anyway. May your vibes be good ones, discerning dudesses and dudes.
Dave x
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