Bert Jansch - Avocet

I have been known to do a bit of bird watching on occasion. It's mainly restricted to my garden but I've had a couple of trips out recently and had the opportunity to see, both, Avocets and Ospreys  after which there's not much else you can do but listen to an album where all the pieces are named after birds, including Avocet and Osprey!!

 I've been listening to quite a bit of instrumental music in recent times anyway, which this album is. I love when musicians or composers attempts to describe "physical" things with their music, such as Gustav Holsts' Planets or  Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons and I suppose this is what Jansch attempts to do here. I'm not enough of a bird watcher to know how well he succeeds in describing the flights or behaviours of the various birds, (according to a couple of friends the best piece of music to do that is Ralph Vaughn Williams' Lark Ascending ) i just know he, along with Danny Thompson and Martin Jenkins, created a fantastic album with flashes of Folk and Jazz, reflecting on and expanding his work with Pentangle. My Favourite track is Kittiwake

Alberta Cross - Broken Side of Time

I did the first posting for awhile last week so I thought I'd try and keep things going for a bit.I got this album from a friend I used to work with. We worked in different parts of the country but we'd meet up 3-4 times a year at training events etc and swap cd's we'd made for each other and try and out geek each other with our musical knowledge, apparently Bombay Bicycle Club aren't from Swansea after all, who knew?? Unfortunately he moved on and I haven't been able to find anyone, at work at least, with the requisite level of geekiness to replace this valuable source of new music.

Anyway, back to the album. It's fine, nothing earth shattering but nothing especially memorable either. I'm happy to listen to it if it shuffles on the ipod but I'm not sure I'd think to myself "wow, its ages since I listened to Alberta Cross , I must make the effort."

In terms of sound or genre, it's like Jane's Addiction channelling Bruce Springsteen. Which has some merits but only a few.

Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction

Sinead O'connor - How About I Be Me And You Be You

It's been a while since I've blogged and hadn't really thought of doing so again until I started listening to this today. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Sinead since her first album The Lion and The Cobra but this is the first album I've owned for a few years.Frankly, it's pretty great.
Over all, the impression is of a album full of positivity and, even, humour e.g. The Wolf Is Getting Married.  But it wouldn't be a Sinead O'Connor album without delving into darker subjects such as the failure of the Catholic church to deal with the abuse scandal Take Off Your Shoes. There's a couple of covers in John Grant's "Queen of Denmark and Tim Buckley's "Song to The Siren." My personal favourite is Old Lady because its so full of joy.

Kuedo-Severant

After my "meh" reaction to the Arcade Fire album from my last post I felt like I needed to listen to and blog about something more positive just so that I could maintain the momentum of writing. Therefore I deliberately chose this album, rather than let shuffle choose for me because I've listened to it often at least in comparison to most of the stuff included in this blog.

In addition to Heavy Metal, my other seminal influence is electronic music from the 80s like Yazoo, Human League and Kraftwerk and this album has echoes of that period.

I believe, in terms of genre, it's what  "The Kids" call "Chillwave" . It's almost entirely instrumental and, to my ear, sounds like Kraftwerk gave Vangelis a hand at writing the music for Blade Runner while, at the same time, inventing Drum & Bass in Brian Eno's studio while he made Music for Airports.

Frankly, I love it. The titles for each piece, I can't call them songs, are pretty obscure such as "Ascension Phase and, my favourite, "Visioning Shared Tomorrows". However, the lack of a narrative actually draws you into the music rather than excludes you. There's space that allows you to really listen and engage with what's going on in the piece. This is a treat and gives a jaded pair of ears a real lift.

ARCADE FIRE-THE SUBURBS

Right, first blog posting for a while. Why's that? Well, mainly, I just got out of the habit for a bit. However, the other reason has to do with this album. This isn't the only Arcade Fire album I have but it's the first one to shuffle onto my blog play list and I've listened to it quite a bit over the last few weeks to try and get to know it. It's, both, musically and lyrically quite diverse, there are some moments of dry humour, and it's sound can't be pigeon holed, which is a good thing but I haven't really managed to engage with it at all. I don't hate it in the way I hated the Mumford and Sons album, it just feels like it all passes me by.

Considering how many times I've listened to it, I'd have expected to become more familiar with the lyrics of individual tracks or at least be able to identify the name of the song by now but the reality is that I can't. Which is why it's taken me so long to sit down and write anything.

I know that, both, band and album are loved by the critics and cool kids and expect that if any of them or, indeed, anyone actually reads this blog they'll be shaking their heads with pity but there you go. I think, from memory, I enjoyed Neone Bible and Funeral more but I suppose I'll see if that's still true when they come up on the play list.

Neil Young- Harvest

Ok, so it took me until I was in my 40s to hear my first Neil Young Album. I suppose he's such a big part of popular culture that, like many susch people, it's fairly easy to think " I must listen to him more" but never quite get round to it. Anyway,  my sister bought me 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die a couple of years ago and this was listed in it. I intially checked it ou on Spotify and could see pretty much straight away why it's "up there" among the greats.
I love the harmonica on  "Out on The Weekend" and "Heart Of Gold". Some might think the lyrics on "A Man Needs A Maid" pretty sexist on first listen but to me it sounds like the story of a guy looking for love and the "Maid" reference is simply a metaphore. The best track, rather than favourite, is "The Needle And The Damage Done". To call such a song a favourite seems a bit misplaced. The lyric about " Every Junky's Like A Setting Sun" is hugely powerful.
As you can probably tell, I was pretty into this album before I started the blog but it's included here for completeness.

Polica - Give You The Ghost

This blog's stated aim was to help me appreciate my recent musical purchases more fully and, hopefully, find something that would stay with me in the long term. I think in Give You The Ghost I might have got my first real success.

I think I first heard it on The Guardian's Website.. The first thing that strikes you is the singers' use of auto-tuning. Obviously, auto tuning has developed a reputation for being used in situations where, shall we say,  the singers voice might not be quite up to the job. It's also become so ubiquitous in some musical genres (I'm looking at you R&B) that I think we forget how unique it sounded in Cher's Believe . However Polica have managed to use it in really striking and affecting ways. In fact it's so striking that I think initially it distracted me from the album's other merits, particularly some great drumming and bass playing.

Also the auto tuning tends to make discerning the lyrics a little complex which is a pity since, although not exactly narrative, they are very evocative and match the music really well. It's a shame lyrics can't be automatically download with the album (at least not on  my player) and then get them to scroll across the players' screen. Having said that I made the effort to go to the band's website where I was able to read the lyrics as I listened, thus reducing any Me Ears Are Alight mis hearing.  Overall the album, lyrically and musically, sounds like some sort of auto tuned Goth/Reggae hybrid. Which is alright by me!