Adele - 21

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, I'm going to assume that the entire population of the world  has at least a passing familiarity with this album so there's not much that I can add in terms of any new insights. I think you either love what Adele does or you hate it. Personally, I love it. As a performer she's not about breaking new creative ground or redefining musical paradigms, she's just an incredibly good singer and, more often than not, that's enough, especially when you've spent most of your time recently listening to instrumental music! My favourite track is  Don't You Remember

Darren Hayman - Lido

 

 

I wasn't aware of  Darren Hayman, prior to hearing this album I now follow him on Twitter and am working my way through his back catalogue. I think I heard about him/it from one of the other blogs I follow, although I can't remember which now. I downloaded it originally, without listening to it first, because of the concept, as a Prog Rock fan concept albums hold no fear for me! which is inspired by the  outdoor swimming pools dotted around the country.

Again, it's instrumental album but, unlike the other albums I've written about recently, it uses mainly "conventional," largely acoustic, instruments, except for some sound effects and field recordings taken at the actual locations of the Lidos themselves. Some of the Lidos are still in use while others are now closed and all the pieces on the album are named after the individual Lidos.

I suppose the purpose is to try evoke something of the atmosphere of being at the Lido on a sunny day and I think it works. The music is largely mid to slow tempo and I'm tempted to describe it with terms like "charming", "quirky" and "whimsical". My favourite track is Parliament Hill.

Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory - Elements Of Light

An album, literally, with bells on! As with the last couple of entries, it's instrumental, electronica, with the exception of the bells! I'm starting to feel that this blog needs some noodley, 10 minute guitar wig out or some earnest singer songwriter emoting all over the place but the shuffle refuses to give us that at the moment. This album comes from a very different place to that of the Boards of Canada, which invites (compels?) you to pay it some attention. Elements of Light comes from a more dance (house?) orientated tradition. The use of the bells give the album and overall feeling of warmth but its so warm and smooth I find it a bit soporific, the inclusion of two tracks clocking in at 12 and 17 minutes, respectively, doesn't help either. It's a nice album (damning with faint praise maybe?) but  I think the best thing to do with this is either to dance, gentlely, to it or to have it on in the back ground while you do something else. At least that way you can stay awake.

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Another album from the last year. If you're ever looking for a definition of the description "Bleak Beauty" listen to this. Like a lot of the stuff I've been listening to recently it's electronic and, largely, instrumental, with the exception of a few sampled, hard to discern, voices. It's great and reminds me of 80s film sound track for something like Escape from New York Friday 13th or Halloween . It's one of those albums that keeps on giving. Every time you listen you hear something new.

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