Poor little greenie:
Sandy Denny ‘Like An Old Fashioned Waltz’ - which has now shaded its companions to become my favourite Sandy solo album. Yes, some of the string arrangements are OTT but they don’t smother a wonderful set of songs. And that angelic voice just resonates throughout;
Sandy Denny ‘I’ve Always Kept A Unicorn’ - useful 2CD comp of Sandy’s acoustic recordings, featuring a stellar solo, er, ‘Solo’;
Paul Weller ‘In Another Room’ EP - where the Modfather went all free-form. I’m a bit dubious about the sincerity of this left-field turn but I can’t help rather liking it - in much the same way that I like ‘Revolution 9’;
Saxon ‘Hell, Fire and Damnation’ - just how you’d expect a new Saxon album to sound. Biff’s lyrics are as cheesy as ever but my, how this band of septuagenarians rock;
Pitch Shifter ‘Industrial’ - pretty much inventing the sub-genre that took its name, and one of the most wretched and ugly records - in a good way - in my collection. Was there ever a more hate filled track than ‘Landfill’?
The Beatles ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ - obviously not really an album, but the US version that made it so is quite a gas, not least because it contains the greatest double A-sided 45 ever. Shit man, those songs still amaze me more than ever. Did the writer of ‘Penny Lane’ really write pap like ‘Ebony and Ivory’ too? How could the writer of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ think that ‘Woman’ cut the mustard? And did George Martin have more than a little than is usually acknowledged to do with the difference? Greater minds than mine may know;
King’s X ‘Three Sides Of One’ - you gotta hand it to these guys who’ve delivered their uncompromising hard rocking, funky shit over forty years. Time and health problems haven’t tamed them. They rock;
The Teardrop Explodes ‘Wilder’ - unlike many albums of its time, this still sounds fresh, its tinny drums notwithstanding. Julian sang more “conventionally” then. I can’t decide which of his vocal styles I like most. But then, one of the reasons I dig Peter Hammill is his veritable palette of vocal tones. Why should the Drude be different?
John Foxx ‘Avenham’ - Brian Eno defines ambient music as being “as ignorable as it is interesting”. This is way beyond that. In fact, it’s beautiful;
Genesis ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’ - after nearly fifty years, I’m starting to warm to this, though it’s probably my least fave Gabriel-era Genesis album. Wacky concept aside, it has a few great moments and (to paraphrase Rossini on Wagner) some tedious quarters of an hour;
David Bowie ‘Diamond Dogs’ - another half century gem, this time more consistently excellent. In fact, with ‘Ziggy’ and ‘Hunky Dory’, this makes my Top 3 Bowie albums. Its surreal (I avoided saying “dystopian” given this month’s Record Collector writer saying it four times in one article) vibe just floors me every time. Bruh! Bruh! Bruh!
David Bowie ‘Aladdin Sane’ - which has worn less well than the aforesaid, but will always command a place in my affections as the first truly inventive full priced album I ever bought with my own (pocket) money. My fave track remains ‘The Jean Genie’ which is the only 45 I’ve literally worn out. I drove my mam and dad mad playing it on repeat;
Julie Tippetts ‘Sunset Glow’ - I’m indebted to garerama for drawing this lovely record to my attention. Yes, I can see what Robert Wyatt meant by describing this as a sister album to ‘Rock Bottom’. It has much the same elegiac and warmly atonal feel;
Urs Leimgruber, Jacques Demierre, Barre Phillips & Thomas Lehn ‘Willisau’ - the addition of Lehn’s analogue synth to Leimgruber’s established trio adds more than just texture. There are moments during these two improvised pieces that are almost too intense to endure;
Bach: The Art Of Fugue (Christoph Rousset) - new benchmark recording of Bach’s late masterpiece confined in this instance to a single harpsichord. Sublime music is all;
Haydn: Symphony no.92 ‘Oxford’/Beethoven: Symphony no.4/Brahms: Symphony no.2 (all cond. Gunter Wand) - live recordings demonstrating Wand’s interpretative individuality, veering from slow and romantic in Brahms to sprightly in Haydn and muscular in Beethoven…
Beethoven: Coriolan Overture (BPO/Wilhelm Furtwaengler 1943) - … but this Beethoven is way beyond mere muscles. The tension in this wartime performance is almost unbearable, as if these players were fiddling for their very lives. And as the Allied bombers circled over Berlin, they probably were;
Beethoven: Symphony no.5 (BPO/Wilhelm Furtwaengler 25/5/47) - Furtwaengler’s first post-war concert included a uniquely grandiose take on Beethoven’s Fifth, alternatively dead slow and furiously fast. It’s fascinating to compare his different approaches to this work from the (at least) ten performances that survive. What unites them all is true greatness;
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra (NYPO/Leonard Bernstein) - a more romantic approach than most to this masterpiece, capped by a riotous finale. Not definitive perhaps, but I enjoyed it immensely;
Bruckner: Symphony no.7 (Hague PO/Carl Schuricht) - Schuricht takes the odd liberty with Bruckner’s tempo and dynamic markings but always to the service of the music. This tense 1964 recording is an unsung classic, I reckon.
I wish my father was here.
Toodle pip.
Dave x
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