Hi all. From the brink of insanity to your screen, here are this week’s results from the Whitburn jury:
Peter Hammill ‘In Translation’ - early impression is of an earnest but slightly underwhelming collection of covers, most of which are songs I don’t know anyway. I’ll stick with it and see if it grows on me;
T.Rex ‘Futuristic Dragon’ - Bolan’s penultimate LP is over-produced but contains some strong songs. I’d love to hear this in a sparser, more dynamic mix;
Alice Cooper ‘Killer’ - which I seem to be playing more than ever in recent months. Young Vince had an amazing vocal technique never bettered than on this timeless fourth LP. My desert island Alice platter;
Sandy Denny ‘Sandy’ - perhaps the most rounded and enjoyable of her four solo LPs;
Jethro Tull ‘Stand Up’ (orig 1969 mix) - the epitome of progressive rock in its original context, best heard as it was when new. This is such a fine record;
Kiss ‘Kiss’ - a lacklustre production job can’t hide the quality of the prime dumb-rock gems that helped create the legend that was Kiss;
Kiss ‘Alive!’ - and this is where most of those gems really began to shine. In reality a mostly studio rerun with dubbed crowd noise, ‘Alive!’ truly blisters. A rock’n’roll party indeed;
Peter Criss ‘Peter Criss’ - which, in my Kiss phases, I pull out of my LP collection every few years in case it ever changes my initial opinion that it’s a crock. My 2021 take is that it’s superbly produced, well performed (and sung: Criss has a fine pair of lungs), but totally devoid of memorable songs. That’s as positive as I’ve ever felt about this record, but more than Gene Simmons’ dire contemporaneous effort which I really can’t bear to play at all;
Nick Lowe ‘At My Age’ - precisely written and played, sophisticated adult pop music at its finest;
Van Morrison ‘Latest Record Project Vol.1’ - it’s overlong, a little dull in places, but has enough decent material amongst its two and a half hours and 28 (!) tracks to justify a tenner punt. And needless to say, superbly performed throughout. The old man’s energy is astounding;
Led Zeppelin ‘Presence’ - my fave Zep LP, and I don’t care who argues. Rock, funk, a bit of blues and...fuck, more rock. No acoustic wankery, just sheer hard rock, with a blues WALTZ at the end! What’s not to love;
The Who ‘Live At Leeds’ - well, whatdya need to know? Except that with...
Deep Purple ‘Made In Japan’ - ...these are easily the top two greatest genuinely live rock albums of all time. Don’t argue, you know I’m right;
Mozart: Piano Concerto no.26 (Robert Levin/AAM/Christopher Hogwood) - The ‘Coronation’ is generally held to be the weakest of Mozart’s late concertos. It doesn’t sound that way here;
Mozart: Symphony no.41 ‘Jupiter’ (BPO/Herbert von Karajan) - Karajan’s “big band” Mozart is considered old-fashioned these days, but I love it. This is his 1978 rendition;
Schoenberg: Variations for Orchestra (BPO/Herbert von Karajan) - serialism is accessible when it’s performed as well as this;
Sibelius: Symphonies 6 & 7 (BPO/Herbert von Karajan) - Herbie never made a finer record in my opinion than this perfectly judged 1960s coupling;
Bruckner: Symphony no.9 (Hamburg State PO/Joseph Keilberth) - suitably grandiose, dramatic reading of Bruckner’s epic final symphonic utterance. And fine sound for 1956;
Stravinsky: Scherzo Fantastique (CBC SO/Igor Stravinsky) - delightful orchestral miniature dripping in Wagner. Would’ve thought it?;
Vaughan Williams: Symphony no.6 (LSO/Antonio Pappano) - as thrustful as the Fourth with which it’s coupled, tempered by a sombre, quiet finale. VW’s admiration for Holst is apparent from a work which so reflects the extremes of The Planets Suite;
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (NYPO/Zubin Mehta) - this (along with Deep Purple’s ‘Perfect Strangers’) was my first ever CD purchase back in 1984 and, though never critically rated as a performance, still sounds great to my ears: what it lacks in poetry it more than makes up for in impact. And what a work. Charlie Parker and Lou Reed weren’t the first smack heads to make genius music;
Dvorak: Symphony no.9 (BRSO/Rafael Kubelik) - my favourite of the five New Worlds I know of Kubelik’s, this is almost unbearably intense at times. The audience go bananas at the end, and I don’t blame them.
Hot hot, hotter than hell!!!
Have a great week, all.
Dave x
|
