Porcupine Tree ‘Closure/Continuation’ - I’m late to the Steven Wilson party but his recent work, solo and bandwise, I’ve loved. This is a modern ideal of rock to my ears, where the technical gloss that had dominated Wilson’s muse has finally been matched by genuine soul and musicality. Good on yer, Steven: you’ve brought me round. Now if you’d only concentrate on making your own great music rather than sterilising others’ I could be a true fan;
Buzzcocks ‘A Different Kind Of Tension’ - whilst (ace opening and closing tracks excepted) the first side of Buzzcocks’ third album is best ignored, the all-Shelley second side is pure dynamite. God knows what Pete was on in the summer of 1979 but it brought forth a suite of angst ridden songs he never equalled before or after. “There is no love left in this world any more” indeed;
Joan Armatrading S/T - one of those ever-fresh sounding records that never age. Joan has incomparable style and delivery that is always a treat for the soul;
Alice Cooper ‘Love It To Death’ and ‘Killer’ - that both of these great albums were released in the same year is testimony to this lost band’s - and the young Bob Ezrin’s - originality and talent. And Vince, for all his alcoholic excesses of the time, never sung better;
Marillion ‘Radiation’ - Marillion’s most out-and-out rock album is a real speaker buster, especially in its 2013 remixed edition. Some Marillion fans don’t care for it. I do;
Brian Eno ‘My Squelchy Life’ - much more to my taste than his latest song based album which remains in my meh category. This deserves a proper, unlimited release;
Belle and Sebastian ‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’ - I like B&S, but don’t love them, being slightly put off by their limitless cleverness which robs them of charm at times. Still very much enjoyed this though;
National Health S/T - even a Hatfields obsessive like me can acknowledge that its successor produced some sublime music. In fact, I’m starting to consider National Health’s two proper albums as equal to their predecessors’. That the erudite bassist on their first album quit them to pluck root notes for Whitesnake (who, in their pre-soft rock phase, I also dig for different reasons) has always fascinated me in a Pete Frame kind of way;
Fish ‘A Parley With Angels’ - a sampler for Fish’s last album which appeals to me in its mid-period Genesis sort of way. He’s a miss in retirement;
Madonna S/T a.k.a ‘The First Album’ - there aren’t many mainstream records of the 80s that I feel inclined to play these days, but this is an exception. Despite dated production values, all eight of the songs on Madge’s debut still exhibit primary pop at its best to my ears. And did she ever make a better 45 than ‘Borderline’? I don’t think so;
David Crosby ‘For Free’ - artists near the end of a long and hedonistic life are expected to sound old and exhausted. David Crosby most certainly didn’t - as this excellent, sadly final, album proves;
Little Feat ‘Time Loves a Hero’ - my fave Feats LP always sounds fresh to my jaded ears. Slimy funk glory;
Blitz ‘All Out Attack’ EP - there’s still a part of me that needs a little mindless punk every so often. And it don’t get much better than this, one of the rawest and hardest seven inches of bile ever unleashed;
Dave Brubeck Quartet ‘Newport 1958’ - superb live performance by the greatest quartet of any genre ever. There, I’ve said it. Paul Desmond is cooler than cool;
David Holland & Derek Bailey ‘Improvisations for Cello and Guitar’ - totally atonal and rhythmically random, yet highly listenable and engaging;
Gary Burton Quartet ‘Easy As Pie’ - like all of his albums (or at least those that I know) Burton creates here a comforting soundworld with hand-picked sidemen of rare quality. That the best track - ‘Blame It On My Youth’ - is the man on his own is no indictment on his colleagues, especially Jim Odgren who sounds more like Jan Garbarek than Jan Garbarek (I’m joking, but you hopefully get the point);
Mozart: Fantasia in C minor, K 475 (Elisabeth Leonskaja) - intense and considered take on a deceptively simple sounding one movement work;
Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony (Halle/Barbirolli) - one of Sir Snifter’s finest records, and IMO still this symphony’s best recorded version. London was in Barbirolli’s blood and he proves it here with aplomb;
Brahms: Symphony no.3 & choral works (ORR/Monteverdi Choir/Gardiner) - atypically subtle and delicate approach to Brahms’ Third from a conductor I find oft prone to driving too hard. The accompanying choral pieces are beautifully done;
Sibelius: Symphony no.4 (Halle/Elder) - an interpretation that emphasises this bleak symphony’s lyricism over its darkness. Not the way I’d always want to hear it but it did entice me on my morning walk;
Nicholas Gombert: Four & Five part Motets (Brabant Ensemble/Stephen Rice) - the more I listen to this sublime vocal music, the more I’m lost in its originality and beauty;
Beethoven: Symphony no.6 ‘Pastoral’ (Orch de la Francophonie/Tremblay) - an ideally paced Pastoral from an impressive Canadian chamber orchestra using modern instruments;
Music is love.
Have a great week, everyone
Dave x
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