Richard Hawley - Manchester Academy 26/9/12

I have a confession to make: I was in two minds about going to this gig. When this tour was first announced, I was in the midst of playing Richard's most recent and excellent album, "Standing At The Sky's Edge" (which I've already gushed over a bit here and will no doubt do so again) on constant repeat, and initially I thought this would be a must-see gig.

However, I read online reviews some people were moaning about the brevity of his sets. So at £20 a ticket I thought I'd wait it out and see how I feel about going closer to the date.

This turned out to be a brilliant move on my part: queueing for tickets at the door, a member of the door staff kindly offered me a returned ticket for FREE! Result! Although I did feel like I should stump up SOME cash, so I bought this lovely poster at the merch table to compensate.

Anyway, onto the actual gig. First, a quick word about the evening's support act, Lisa Hannigan. You might not recognise her name but you may recognise her voice: she's the lass that sang on much of Damien Rice's first two records.
In short, she was excellent. The Academy's brilliant acoustics really brought the best out of her ethereal vocals, and the bloke she had on backing vocals wasn't any slouch either. Her acoustic set was well received by the audience, and capped off by a fine cover of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" in tribute to Levon Helm of The Band.

Having had our daily intake of Irish folk satisfied, the audience was ready for Richard and his band. Although apparently Richard wasn't quite ready for us. "Where the fuck did you lot come from?"

The "banter"... urgh sorry, I hate that word! Let's stick with "maverick Yorkshire charm" instead. There, I don't feel sick in my mouth typing that. Anyway, thanks to his maverick Yorkshire charm, Richard kept a firm rapport up with the audience all night. This is probably the reason some people think of his shows as being short: the night was full of so many great anecdotes and quips.

For instance, introducing tear-jerker "Don't Stare At The Sun", Richard explained "This is about taking one of my sons out to fly his kite. Pretty obtuse thing to write about, right? Thing was, I was off my fucking head on acid at the time."
Even better was the tale he had to tell about the rousing "Tonight The Streets Are Ours" being used in a film: apparently the director called him about it while Richard was on a two day bender with old friends ("It were a right laugh"). Hearing him talk about coming home after said bender was hilarious, his wife berating him to take the washing out ("You'd think a man of my standing would get more reverence.").

The audience, myself included were lapping it out of the palm of his hand, and virtually every song played received hearty cheers. In particular "Hotel Room" and "Open Up Your Door" went down a storm, and you could see the gratitude on his face for every ovation he and his band got.

I could spend nearly the entirety of this review going over the between song chatter, but this being a gig I probably should say a bit about the music!

Naturally the set was heavy on tracks from "...Sky's Edge", and it's the heavy guitar work of that album that really came to life. The guitars from singles "Leave Your Body Behind You" and "Down In The Woods" in particular stood out. Richard's band were excellent, in particular his guitarist (Richard's ringing endorsement: "Good guitar players in this country are really hard to come by. Well... who am I kidding, there's fucking loads!"). The lighting and the stage set up were also great and helped recreate the atmosphere of some of the albums more psychedelic, shoegaze-ish moments.

Songs from his previous albums were carefully chosen and dealt with in one of two ways. Either they came at gentler points in the set (the reflective "Remorse Code" lead in to the closing songs of the end of the main set, "Lady Solitude" was left until the start of the encore as a surprise of sorts), or like the two tracks from "Cole's Corner", "Hotel Room" and the sublime show-closer "The Ocean", they were re-purposed ever so slightly so that the guitars were more at the forefront of the songs.

For me personally the highlights were the songs that mixed the two: the way "Soldier On" begins as a longing, forlorn ballad before building to a dramatic wall of sound, and the majestic "Before" being the best examples.

By the end of the night the audience had resorted to pantomime to try to keep Richard from leaving;

Richard: "This'll be our last song."
Audience: NOOOOOO!
Richard (in a sing-song voice): "Yee-aa-ees."
Audience: NOOOOOO!
Richard (dead quick): "Yes"
Audience (dead quick): NO!

No way did we want him to leave when he was on such top form. But alas, as he pointed out "I only live 40 miles away, I'll be back!" I've no doubt he will be, and chances are I'll be there to watch. Who knows, maybe I'll pay to get in next time!

Anyway, cheers Richard. Next one's on me.



 Setlist:

1. Standing at the Sky's Edge
2. Don't Stare at the Sun
3. Hotel Room
4. Tonight the Streets Are Ours
5. Seek It
6. Soldier On
7. Leave Your Body Behind You
8. Before
9. Open Up Your Door
10. Remorse Code
11. Time Will Bring You Winter
12. Down in the Woods
    Encore:
13. Lady Solitude
14. The Ocean

Mercury Prize 2012: First Impressions

Well it was about time.

Today in a hotel or a conference centre or some other building in London, the list of nominees for the 2012 Barclaycard Mercury Prize were announced by none other than Lauren Laverne (who's been presenting coverage of the awards ever since someone at the BBC decided Jo Whiley was too old to gush about alternative music like an excited teenager).

Unlike some years where I've been left thinking "who are these people?", this year I actually know and in some cases like most of the artists nominated. So I thought I'd give my two cents on the field of nominees - their chances of winning and (if I've listened to them) whether their music is much cop. Odds to win are in brackets and are as quoted from The Guardian, I've no clue which bookmaker they've come from.

Roller Trio – Roller Trio (10/1): AKA "the token jazz entry" from my understanding. Long shots to say the least.

Field Music – Plumb (10/1): Fourth album by the Sunderland indie group. Ashamed to say I haven't heard it yet despite lots of critical acclaim, though I'm keen to hear it now. I hear they're very likable though. They also did this great remix of Maximo Park's "I Want You To Stay" yonks ago. Good luck to them.

Sam Lee – Ground of its Own (10/1): AKA "the folk entry no-one's heard of". There are a fair few folky/souly/acousticy singer-songwriters nominated this year though, so I'd be interested to hear this to see what makes it stand out.

Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again (8/1): Speaking of acousticy singer-songwriters, here's the BBC Sound of 2012. Love this guy's voice, and the first three tracks on this record ("Tell Me A Tale", "I'm Getting Ready" and "I'll Get Along") are damn near perfect. However I don't think the rest of the album matches the standard that opening trio sets. Don't see this winning but I won't complain if it does.

Lianne Le Havas - Is Your Love Big Enough? (8/1): Chuffed to see this album on the list too. Le Havas' experimentation on tracks like "Forget" and her eye for a cute turn of phrase with on the likes of "Age" and "No Room For Doubt" make her stand out from the acoustic-soul crowd. Again, not a likely winner but an enjoyable listen.

Ben Howard - Every Kingdom (8/1): I was a bit surprised to see this album get nominated. I've never Ben Howard's music but I got the impression that it was a bit Radio 2-ish with it's cushyness, although I'm sure you can accuse a few of the albums on this list of the same. Apparently he likes Bon Iver and John Martyn, so perhaps he's not as bad as I thought.


Jessie Ware - Devotion (7/1): This debut from South London's Ware would be a deserved winner. An eclectic mix of producers and a background that includes collaborating with Jack Penate and SBTRKT has lead to what The Fly called a "forward-thinking mish-mash of soul, pop and R&B". You might have heard her brilliant track "Wildest Moments" accompanying slow-motion images of Andy Murray actually expressing some emotion at the end of Wimbledon.

The Maccabees - Given To The Wild (7/1): Third and most adventurous album yet from London's The Maccabees. Along with nods to the post-punk styling of their early singles on the likes of "Pelican" and the excellent ending crescendo of "Feel To Follow", tracks such as "Child" and "We Grew Up At Midnight" exude a new-found blissfulness and maturity of songwriting (or as some lazy journalist hacks would put it, "they've gone all Coldplay") worthy of their nomination. 

Django Django - Django Django (5/1): These Glaswegian art-rockers make music that's very catchy and inventive, no doubt. But I'm still split on whether I really like them or find them a bit irritating. "Default", for instance, is an ace single with a cracking riff and intro, but something bothers me about the vocals - it's like they're trying to hard to sound like those effortlessly cool Brooklyn based bands. Still, this is the kind of album I can see the Mercury panel going for.

Alt-J - An Awesome Wave (5/1): Incorporating elements of trip-hop, electro and pop, this is a great album from a wonderfully creative band. As a mathematician they've forever won a place in my heart for writing "Tesselate" (mathematical double entendres for the win). Another album I can see the panel falling head over heels for.

Plan B - iLL Manors (4/1): I always find it a little sad that more often than not the only album amongst the nominees representing UK urban music is the most successful album of the genre that year, like how virtually all Dizzee Rascal's albums get nominated just because they couldn't be arsed to look a little harder for a less well-known album. I suppose since the whole Speech Debelle debacle a couple of years back it'll be a while before a true unkown on the UK urban scene gets a nomination. Yes, Plan B is great, but I hope in the near future we see someone like Sway turn up in the nominations.

Richard Hawley - Standing At The Sky's Edge (4/1): Probably my favourite album this year. Former Pulp guitarist Hawley could well have won the Mercury in 2006 with his sublime album "Cole's Corner" had fellow Sheffield-ers Arctic Monkeys not written the album of their generation with "Whatever People Say I Am...". A slight departure from his usual crooning and romanticism (although "Don't Stare At The Sun" and album closer "Before" excel in those areas), "Standing At The Sky's Edge" is much darker in tone and subject matter, with lashings of shoegaze-esque producing and heavy guitars. It's an absolute triumph and has a realistic shot at winning.

Personally, I'm torn between Alt-J and Richard Hawley to win. Plan B has to be considered a strong favourite too, and Jessie Ware could be the dark horse of this list too.

It's a pretty solid, if not very varied, field of nominees and I look forward to the winner being crowned.

Waitin' On A Sunny Day: Springsteen at the Etihad 22/6/12

So this was it. As excited as I was to be seeing Pearl Jam, this was the gig I had been obsessing over the most: my chance to see the hard rockin', heart stoppin', pants droppin', booty shakin', Viagra takin', earth quakin', history makin', legendary E Street Band.

I'd spent an inordinate amount of time before the gig listening to the bootlegs of Bruce's tour (check out maury6811 on Youtube, he uploads tonnes) and so I was excited beyond words for this gig.

My excitement was tempered a little bit on the day by two things: 1) the awful weather arriving at the venue which I was stood in waiting for the doors to open (thankfully this cleared up for the most part when the show started) and 2) the blue wristband bullshit.

Basically you couldn't get right near the front of the stage unless you had arrived at the venue at ridiculous o' clock in the morning and collected a blue wristband from the event staff, the idea being you were rewarded for waiting by getting near the stage. This was of no consolation to myself and the thousands of us who got to the venue about an hour before doors opened, completely unaware that this was going on.
So I wasn't at the very front of the crowd (so Bruce wouldn't be walking past me on the walkways they'd built), but I got as far to the front of the crowd as I could and managed to get a very good view of centre stage.

So I'll end my rant there and get to the gig.

As soon as the band came out - Bruce taking to the stage last to omnipresent cries of "Brooooooooce!" from the audience - and we got that oh-so familiar count-in ("one-two-three-fouwwah!") followed by Professor Roy Bittan tinkling the ivories for the opening to "Badlands", all my misgivings about the weather and the blue wristbands were forgotten and I felt completely at home.

There are three rules of thumb one may note about Springsteen gigs.
The first is when in Europe, he'll play more stuff from "Born In The USA" than usual (I'm aware of the irony). This was the case here, with "No Surrender" being a particularly nice surprise early on, and later on the encore included probably the best version of "Dancing In The Dark" I've heard the band do, Jake Clemons' (nephew of the late great Clarence "Big Man" Clemons) sax solo in particular being fantastic.

We were also treated to a great bit of audience interaction during the latter: one girl in the crowd had a sign asking to dance with Jake, so Bruce pulled her out of the crowd to grant her wish. Not to be outdone, however, Bruce hilariously found himself a young woman in a Union Jack onesie to dance with himself.

The second rule one tends to find is that when in Britain, Bruce will play more songs from "The River" than usual. Once again this proved true. Watching the screens behind the band on stage, you could see women in tears during the band's rendition of the title track. On the other end of the scale, Bruce and Steve's chatter during "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" drew lots of laughs.

Bruce: "It's on channels 92 to 100, I've seen it! They have numbers scrolling along the bottom!" 
Steve: "Oh you better not look."
Bruce: "Oh You can look!"
Steve: "You better not even look!"
Bruce: "You can look. You can call in!! But you caaaaaaan't touch."

On a personal note I was just delighted they played "Out In The Street".
 

The final rule is that you can tell how much faith Bruce has in his new album by how prominent the songs from the album are in the set. So it seems that Bruce is pretty chuffed with "Wrecking Ball" (which he has every right to be) on the evidence of this night.

It might be in part down to the fact that the title track and "Land Of Hope And Dreams" have been played live years before the record was released, but with the likes of the Irish jig of "Death To My Hometown", the sombre, resilient "Jack Of All Trades" (which got a big cheer for the line "if I had me a gun, I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight" in reference to the bankers) and the rousing "We Are Alive" I never felt robbed out of one of one of the older classics when he played the new stuff.

One more thing you need to understand about Bruce is this: the man is inhuman! The stamina he has is just incredible. This gig went 3 and a quarter hours, and they played it all pretty much straight with little or no breaks. The gap between the band leaving stage for the end of the main set and walking back on for the encore was barely a minute. AND THE MAN IS 63!!! Just incredible.

In my favourite bit of the gig, after "Dancing In The Dark", Bruce feigned exhaustion and lay down on the stage hugging his guitar like a pillow. This leads to Steve stalking Bruce with a wringing wet sponge to revive him. The looks on both their faces during this exchange were just hilarious! "Ah Manchester, you tired me out already!" claimed Bruce.

Still, there was time during "My City Of Ruins" to conduct the band roll call and say hello. There's nothing like an E Street Band roll call, it's both humorous (he informed us wife Patti was back home "keepin' the kids outta them drugs" and that any red-headed English women should keep back because he misses her!) and spirited, touching upon the much missed organist Dan Federci and saxophonist Clarence Clemons ("if you're here, and we're here, then they're here").
He also informed us he'd learnt a lot since last visiting Manchester: "I've learnt that there are TWO football teams in Manchester! And one of them has just... eh, I'm not going into it."

I was also unbelievably lucky to be seeing the band on a night when they played so many of my favourites. "Spirit In The Night", my favourite song from his debut, stands out in my mind in particular. Being there to hear that song was like a religious experience.
Seeing "Atlantic City" make an appearance was a very pleasant surprise, with Soozie Tyrell's violin becoming the focus of the song instead of Bruce's harmonica like on the record. So when they immediately followed that up by playing the '78 version of "Prove It All Night", with Roy and Bruce playing the extended intro, I was ecstatic.

The biggest surprise though was the appearance of "Save My Love" and "The Promise" in the set, which left me a very happy bunny indeed since I got into Bruce because of "The Promise" as I've mentioned in an earlier entry.

By the end of the show, with the band's infamous version of "Twist And Shout" (referred to as "the stadium-breaker" after a crack was discovered in a venue in Sweden after the band played the song there) ringing out through the stadium, I was wishing the night didn't have to end, I could listen to the band play all day long. They'd probably be able to play that long at a stretch too!
Alas, the show had to end at some point. At the finale's end one of the blokes I was stood with shook my hand and congratulated me on my first Springsteen gig, which felt like a bit of a right of passage. Here's hoping it won't be the last Springsteen gig I go to!


At this point, I shall bid you adieu, and leave you with the full set from the show.
See you soon!

Setlist

1. Badlands
2. No Surrender
3. We Take Care Of Our Own
4. Wrecking Ball
5. Death to My Hometown
6. My City of Ruins
7. Spirit in the Night
8. The E Street Shuffle
9. Jack of All Trades
10. Atlantic City
11. Prove It All Night (78 Intro)
12. Two Hearts
13. You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
14. Darlington County
15. Shackled and Drawn
16. Waitin' on a Sunny Day
17. Save My Love
18. The Promise
19. The River
20. The Rising
21. Out in the Street
22. Land of Hope and Dreams
    Encore:
23. We Are Alive
24. Thunder Road
25. Born to Run
26. Bobby Jean
27. Cadillac Ranch
28. Dancing in the Dark
29. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
30. Twist and Shout

Playlist (courtesy of maury6811)

Pearl Jam, Manchester Arena 20th - 21st June

Right, it's been far too long since I've done this and a LOT has happened since I last payed any attention to this blog, so I'm just going to steam-roller through things and see how far I get.

With exams, and as a result my degree, finally coming to an end, I thought I'd tick two of my favourite acts ever off my gigging bucket list: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and Pearl Jam. I'll get to Bruce later, for now let's talk Pearl Jam.

The band were only due to play one date at the MEN, making a passing visit to the area before heading to the Isle of Wight Festival the following weekend, but tickets were going fast and all standing places went in the presales (the bane of my life!), so they decided to stick around and play the next night too. I wound up at both (more on that in a bit) and was in the seats at the back both nights - the second night's seats were much better, you were practically at eye-level with the stage.

Night 1 - June 20th

This set was probably more heavy on the "hits" than the following nights with seven songs coming from their bazillion selling debut "Ten", but it still had it's quirks.

For instance, the band opened with "Release", a move which I always though was a brave one being one of their slower numbers. But after watching Cameron Crowe's documentary on the band, "PJ20" it's a choice that makes a lot more sense to me than it used to: essentially it's a statement of intent from the band that tonight they are open and at our will.

Certainly lead singer Eddie Vedder reflected that when addressing the audience. "How are you?", he asks, "It's a weird question to ask collectively, but we mean it individually, how is everyone tonight?".

While the closing strains of "Release" still ring around the arena, Ed tosses his jacket to the floor and you know business is about to pick up. This leads to an opening flurry that is just home run after home run: "Do The Evolution", "Corduroy", "The Fixer" and "Given To Fly" are all riotous singalongs. 

Things get more earnest with "...Small Town" (my favourite ballad they've ever done) and "Pilate" as Ed reflects on the band's history in Manchester: "We first played here in July 1991, we played ten songs, that was all we knew... we know a lot more now!"

At various points in the night I'm also left in complete awe of lead guitarist Mike McCready, who's riffs completely swallow up the arena, particularly on "Even Flow" and "Immortality". 

In a cool moment, Ed held the back of his guitar up to one of the overhead spotlights to shine some light on the audience, although choosing to do this during "1/2 Full", a cut from probably their least popular album "Riot Act", I couldn't help but think he was just checking to see who'd gone for a piss break.

The crowd really start to get boisterous after "Insignificance" though, and are still raucous by the time "Why Go" finishes the main set.

We're then treated to two encores, the first of which sees Eddie stroll out, bottle of wine in hand ("I've been trying to get in shape for this tour, they say a bottle of red wine a day keeps the doctor at bay... Oh shit, it's just a glass? Fuck that!") for the beautiful "Just Breathe", which is followed by "Black". 

I was really thrilled to hear the latter. Never having had a really bad break up myself I didn't know why that song struck such a chord with me until I read the "PJ20" book, and Ed had this to say about the inspiration behind the song:

"I've heard it said that you can't really have a true love unless it was a love unrequited. It's a harsh one, because then your truest one is the one you can't have forever."

Seeing that hit me like a tonne of bricks.

The second encore similarly starts off gentle with "Betterman" (the band's masterpiece in my book) before sending us home in thrilling style with their cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World". And with that I was sent home a very happy bunny indeed.   

Night 2 - June 21st

...except that on the way home I couldn't help but thinking about the songs they DIDN'T play and knowing the band's reputation for changing set lists each time they play (especially for residencies at one venue) I just knew I had to go see them the next night too. Luckily the arena box office still had one for me the afternoon of the gig.

Boy was I glad I went to this show too! The moment the band came out to "Go" (the opener of my favourite album of theirs, "Vs.") I knew I would be vindicated in my decision. By my count only four songs were kept from the previous night.

As I expected this set contained a tad more fad service than the first night. I was particularly please to hear "No Code" tracks "Hail Hail", "Lukin", "Present Tense" and "Off He Goes". Other welcome additions to the set were "Down" (my favourite of their B-sides), "Amongst The Waves" and "Save You" (my favourite songs from their respective albums).

Eddie didn't have quite so much "banter" for us this time, but early in the set remarked that the audience already had more energy "than all those bankers and accountants we got last night" which was pretty funny.

We also got a first from the band: in honour of all of Manchester's record firsts (home of the first computer, being the place where they first split the atom and several more which Ed read off a sheet of paper he had!) the band played rarity "Hitchhiker" for the first time ever.

I think looking at the two set lists now, it seems like the first night was the better night, but I remember feeling that the second night was the better of the two after I came out of the venue. So I guess I'm split over which set I preferred. Nevertheless they were both magnificent gigs and I'm really grateful I was able to go to both.

Safe to say, the bar had been set very high indeed for Bruce the next night. But, as I'll discuss in my next blog, boy did he live up to them!

See you soon.

Impulse Listener

Well once again, this is the first time in a fair while I'm touching this blog. Life has kept me busy with exams, interviews and things to organise. So there's lots that's been new with me.

As per usual, though, I've added a whole heap of music to my collection since the last time I blogged, which brings me on to the topic of this entry.

Lord knows I already own plenty of music, way too much for my iPod to hold. Yet I'm addicted to constantly finding music that's new to me and resonates with me.
Often it only takes one song. either a song that's constantly on the radio and grows on me, or a song that I'm hearing for the very first time that makes me stop in my tracks and think "wow, that was something special". Then I want to delve further into that artist's body of work. This mostly results in me having new found appreciation for that artist and wanting to continue to have their music in my life.

This is probably a result of me being a child of the Spotify generation (which I've used since the day it launched in the UK). Certainly having instant access to most artist's back catalogues has helped quench my curiosity. But more often than not, if I enjoy a record after streaming it a few times, I'll eventually buy said record when it's fairly cheap.

Here are a few examples of what gems my impulsive listening habits have brought me to recently:

James Vincent McMorrow - Early In The Morning

Who here remembers seeing this advert lots over Christmas?

(Shame I couldn't find the one with Riz Ahmed going "It's more than just a DVD blud!")

Anyone else heard that music and think "What Bon Iver track is that?" Well it's actually Irishman James Vincent McMorrow, believe it or not covering "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood.

I only discovered this fact when Amazon chose his album, "Early In The Morning" as one of their albums of the week, for a mere £3.99. After giving it a quick stream I found myself liking it. McMorrow's voice may indeed bare a resemblence to Justin Vernon's, but his songs stand up on their own merit. "If I Had A Boat" and "Sparrow And Wolf" are particular favourites of mine.

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

In this case I wasn't spurred on by one particular song. I bought "At War With The Mystics" when I was at secondary school, I'd already streamed "Yoshimi" lots and I've had "Race For The Prize" for years thanks to a friend putting it on a mixtape she made me. 

No, the straw that broke the camel's back here was when I heard the band were headlining Parklife, and I wanted to get into the band's material more in case I went (although I've subsequently realised I don't think I can go due to work commitments). So I found these two albums the next time I was in town (they were 2 for £5 in That's Entertainment) and thought "why do I not own them yet?".

I'd not actually listened to "The Soft Bulletin" before I bought it, but I'd always heard it was the better album and I'm enjoying it even more than "Yoshimi", since I already knew what my favourites were on that album (the two title tracks and "Fight Song" in particular). 

I love lots of the subtitles of the songs: "Race For The Prize" is subtitled "Sacrifice of the New Scientists", which would make a great band name in my opinion, whereas "The Gash" wins a place in my heart for having  the subtitle "Battle Hymn for the Wounded Mathematician".

I think I enjoy "The Soft Bulletin" more because every song has a mix of experimentation and pop hooks, whereas on "Yoshimi" it's more balck and white, and each track is either a pop song or a completely off the wall experiment. 

 

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call, No More Shall We Part

This is probably the most typical example of how I get into music nowadays.
As an Elbow fan, I regularly listen to "Guy Garvey's Finest Hour" on 6Music. The theme of this week's show was songs about letters, and near the end of the show, Guy played "Love Letter" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Now I quite liked Nick Cave prior to hearing this song. I bought "Dig, Lazurus, Dig!!!" in college after being enchanted by "More News From Nowhere", and I knew a few of his songs. But this song really blew me out of the water: the majesty of the piano, the subtlety of the strings, Cave's always unique delivery and the lyrics - in particular the first verse,

I hold this letter in my hand,
A plea, a petition, a kind of prayer.
I hope it does as I have planned,
Losing her again is more than I can bear.
I kiss the cold, white envelope.
I press my lips against her name,
Two hundred words. We live in hope,
The sky hangs heavy with rain.

I was mesmerised. I'd never really associated Cave with such romanticism. I knew he wrote "Into My Arms" but I thought that was a one off.
So I did my research, and found "Love Letter" was taken from the album "No More Shall We Part".
Upon streaming it I found many of the other songs had the same impact on me with lots of great narrative and lyrics. In particular "Hallelujah" ("My typewriter had turned as mute as a tomb, And my piano crouched in the corner of my room, With all its teeth bared"), "Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow", "The Sorrowful Wife" and "Darker With The Day" ("Time moved so rapidly, I had not hope of keeping track of it") were stand-outs.

I also discovered that the album's predecessor, "The Boatman's Call", was the album "Into My Arms" was taken from, so I gave that a listen and fell in love with that as well. The album is even more stripped back and disciplined than "No More Shall We Part" - while that record would occasionally lash out and reach a big old crescendo, "The Boatman's Call" remains disciplined and tender, with the piano taking the lead on most songs. Many of the tracks, such as "Lime Tree Arbour", "Far From Me" and "Where Do We Go But Nowhere?" struck a chord with me. Cave said this was his most personal record and it definitely shows.

Is this the way it is for most people? When you've come across an artist you like, is there one track that reels you in? Or is it something else? Perhaps you were happy just to keep listening to the song you've found and not investigate further? I'd love to hear people's thoughts.

Cheerio for now.

My Favourite Albums of 2011 (Part 2)

OK, back to it. Those that missed the first half can check it out here. Now onto my top 5...

#5: "The Bomb Shelter Sessions" by Vintage Trouble

What a find these guys were! I first came across them on "Later... Live" when Hugh Laurie was performing (he even introduced them). They did a blistering rendition of "Blues Hand Me Down" which had me buzzing about them right away - such bombast, such energy. I kept my eyes and ears open eager to hear more.

I didn't have to wait long. While their album wasn't officially released in the UK 'til July, I found their album on Spotify literally the week after they were on Jools' show, and I was chuffed to hear the rest of the album was just as brilliant: straight up, good old fashioned Rhythm and Blues, and a breath of fresh air. Other highlights for me were "Nancy Lee" and "Total Strangers".

In a good year for soul music (Aloe Blacc and Raphael Saadiq made some great albums, and Michael Kiwanuka emerged as a promising talent for next year) these guys were the cream of the crop.

#4:"Anna Calvi"by Anna Calvi

Another of my favourite artists to emerge this year, this woman is pretty much the complete package. Her image is mesmerising: dressing virtually exclusively in red and black with vibrant red lipstick and guitar in hand, she turned a few heads on the red carpet at the Mercury's to say the least. I listened to her talk through her album track by track on 6Music, and her songwriting philosophy really struck a chord with me.

She spoke of her admiration for Bowie and in particular "Sound and Vision" where he doesn't include a vocal for a long period of time, making the audience anticipating his voice - a trick she'd use on the album by opening with the instrumental "Rider To The Sea".

Calvi also draws inspiration from classical music, and crafted the songs on the album so that the music matched the feelings and scenarios she describes in her lyrics: the build of adrenaline in "Desire", the escapism of "Suzanne & I", the haunting atmosphere of "Blackout".
This album was definitely a slow burner, but boy did it burn brightly once I "got it". I wish more people could make albums that create a sense of atmosphere like this one.

#3:"Build A Rocket Boys!" by Elbow

To steal Guy Garvey's go-to phrase he always uses on his radio show, "I love this next record! I love it I love it I love it!" The band had the unenviable task of writing a follow up to "The Seldom Seen Kid", their breakthrough success that made them a household name. But instead of over-reacting with some "look at what we can do" 180 turn that some bands can be guilty of (*cough* R.E.M. *cough*) the band stuck to their principles and to writing what they know.

Many in the band had moved back to the areas where they grew up, which had a major influence on this album. Title track of sorts "Lippy Kids" is the perfect example ("Nobody knew me at home anymore"), an ode to wasted youth and a call to arms for ne'er-do-well'ers to better themselves ("Do they know those days are golden? Build a rocket boys!").

The theme of self-reflection and returning to your roots runs throughout the album: "Neat Little Rows" was inspired by, of all things, Guy's education in a Catholic school ("don't point fingers, fingers are for pointing at the sky"), "Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl" is about living on his own for the first time when he decided to become a musician ("Nothing to be proud of, and nothing to regret. All of that to make as yet"), and "Open Arms" is all about home coming.

Strangely this seems counter-balanced by a theme of coping with grief: opener "The Birds", about a man reminiscing over an old flame, "The Night Will Always Win" (surprisingly my Mum's favourite track) and confessional "The River" being prime examples.

The most overriding feeling you get from the album though is a sense of gratitude, which is most blatant on final track "Dear Friends". An open thank you letter from the band, Garvey's earnest lyrics really shine here. Two lines really strike a chord with me on this song: "the truth never frays a good yarn" and "you are the stars I navigate home by", the latter in particular is such a touching way of looking at those that mean the most to you, I took it to mean "the thought of you brings me home".
This album is a triumph.

#2: "Wasting Light" by Foo Fighters

This album is an absolute BEAST (sorry Ksi). I often wondered if the Foos had another pure rock 'n' roll classic left in them after all their attempts at a more expansive sound on their previous two albums. Imagine my relief to hear the opener "Bridge Burning" for the first time: meaty, progressive riffs building up to Dave Grohl's rallying cry of "THESE ARE MY FAMOUS LAST WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORDS!!!". I knew instantly this was the record the band have always had in them.

The driving force behind this album is great musicianship, top notch production and riffs, riffs, riffs, great big huge riffs. "White Limo"'s riff is so great I don't even care that Grohl's voice is unintelligible on the song.

Of course there are also trademark huge Foo Fighters chorus' littered everywhere: take the unorthodox "Rope", "Back & Forth", and "These Days". The latter I find very relatable, having been told "ah you'll be fine" on numerous occasion when things have gone wrong.

My favourite track is album closer "Walk", it has all the hallmarks of a classic Foos song. In keeping with the rest of the album the guitar riffs are great. The build is fantastic, and the chorus anthemic.

In my view, this album is the crown jewel of the Foos already incredible career, their best, most consistent album and an instant classic.

#1: "Bon Iver" by Bon Iver

So here it is, my favourite album this year. I'm sure it's topped a lot of critics end of year lists too, so I'm probably going to look like a stereotypical indie kid by saying it's my favourite album, but the fact is it was hard to find anything else in 2011 that topped this.

I'm sure many of you have heard the story behind Justin Vernon's first record "For Emma, Forever Ago": I mean the guy has a huge break-up and retreats to the woods, becoming a recluse and records probably the best break-up record ever. I wish everyone was that productive when they're heartbroken. 

This is the follow up. It's notable that most of the song titles are names of places, indicating that Vernon is escaping the reclusion that drove his previous record.

"Bon Iver" also has a very contrasting sound to it's predecessor. "For Emma..." was a largely acoustic affair, the driving force of which was Vernon's unique voice. Whereas with this record, there's vastly more instrumentation, which takes up the heart of the record. Opener "Perth" is a perfect example: from the guitars in the opening to the horns and blistering drums that come alive as the song reaches it's climax. 

"Towers" is another good illustration of how escaping the cabin has helped rather than hindered the album. The electric guitar is most prominent in this song and gives it a lovely sound: it would have been acoustic on "For Emma...". This elevates an already catchy song (thanks to the "woah-oh-oh-oah"'s of the vocal) to a memorable one.

"Perth" then seamlessly morphs into "Minnesota, WI", which reveals the other part of this albums arsenal: synth. While it can be a touch overdone ("Beth/Rest" at times sounds like that part of 1984 nobody should really speak about ever again), for the most part it really adds to the feel of the record, and results in some unique sounds, like the banjo/korg mix in the aforementioned "Minnesota". "Calgary", for instance, is one song where the synths really are a central part to the build of the song, and helps it become a high point of the album.

The biggest highlight though is "Holocene". I defy you to fine a more tender, beautifully crafted song from this year, because I certainly can't: wonderfully simple guitar play and subtle drums, Vernon's voice at it's borderline unintelligible best and a chorus that helps highlight his oft-forgotten way with words ("and at once I was not magnificent... I could see for mile, miles, miles").

Hopefully this record gets talked about for years to come just like his debut, because it is magnificent.

And with that, I bid you adieu, and wish you all the best for 2012.

My Favourite Albums of 2011 (Part 1)

So with the year nearly over I figured it'd be an opportunity to talk about the albums I've enjoyed most this year. I'm listing my 10 favourite (note: favourite, I don't think these are necessarily the best 10 albums of the year, just the ones I've enjoyed the most) albums over two posts.

First though, some honourable mentions - either albums I liked but didn't listen to enough to get a judge of how much I liked them, or albums I know are great but didn't enjoy as much as the others:
"Let England Shake" by PJ Harvey (1st half great protest record, 2nd half stereotypical chin-stroking PJ record)
"Smother" by Wild Beasts (who'd have thought such exotic music could come from Kendal?)
"Ghosts on the Canvas" by Glen Campbell (I'm a sucker for a great voice in their twilight years).
"Good Things"  by Aloe Blacc (good year for soul music, this features probably the year's best single in "I Need A Dollar")

OK, now my 10 favourites

#10: "Last Night On Earth" by Noah & the Whale

 
In stark contrast to their previous album (a very sombre break-up record), "Last Night On Earth" is packed full of optimistic, nostalgic sing-a-longs. Lead single "L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N." proved to be a big hit, and typified the style of the album. There's echoes of "Born To Run" era Springsteen here, and certainly I hear a lot of Bruce's voice in the narrative and vocal style that Charlie Fink uses on this album.That's a big reason why I enjoyed this album, but the sheer optimism of songs like "Tonight's The Kind Of Night" was also what grabbed me the most.

#9: "Suck It And See" by Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys really fell out of favour with me a few years ago when they released "Humbug". That album was just so dull, I felt they'd lost what made them unique recording in the U.S. with Josh Homme of all people, to try and become Queens of the Stone Age knock-offs. What were they thinking?

I wasn't very interested in this album initially because of it, and to be honest when I first heard lead single "Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair" (not knowing it was the monkeys at first) I thought "Christ, Metallica have gone soft these days haven't they?". But the album started to get good press, so when their label Domino uploaded the album to their Soundcloud page I gave it a listen and was very impressed. To my surprise I found an album full of great, lively, jangly guitar riffs and some nice basslines that were lively, colourful and (more importantly) incredibly catchy. "The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala" and "She's Thunderstorms" are great examples of which.

Alex Turner's lyrics are also great, if you can accept the band no-longer write songs about some wanker who lives down 't road that talks bollocks in 't pub etc. Having said that some lines are still very idiosyncratically British ("You're rarer than a can of Dandelion & Burdoch"). I mean it's hardly the highs of "Whatever People Say I Am...", but there's plenty of unique witticisms here that raised a smile, some of my favourites being "That's not a skirt girl, that's a saw-off shotgun" ("Suck It And See") and "She looks as if she's blowing a kiss at me, and suddenly the sky is a scissor" ("That's Where You're Wrong").
Not the genre, generation defining classic of their debut, but a return to form nonetheless.

#8: "Collapse Into Now" by R.E.M.

I should have seen it coming that this would be their last record: their reluctance to tour it, the sleeve with Michael Stipe waving goodbye, hell the entirety of "All The Best". The hints were there in plain sight.

Still, this was a nice goodbye. It saw the band attempt to mix the sharp, concise nature of previous effort "Accelerate" with the resonance and tenderness of "Automatic For The People".

Most of the highlights are when the band attempt the latter - "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando And I" is very sweet and minimalist, "Uberlin" has echoes of "Drive" with it's acoustic guitar hooks and Stipe's vocal, while "It Happened Today" features perhaps the highlight of the whole album with it's closing, lyricless singalong that's as joyous as anything the band have ever done. That's not to say the band fail when attempting the former though, "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter" is catchy and addictive with a great riff, while the Byrds-esque "That Someone Is You" is delightful.

I mentioned in earlier posts how I felt the band were justified to walk away on their own terms, and I still feel the same. This album was a good point to call it quits, and a very good high note to finish things on.

#7: "The English Riviera" by Metronomy

This album came from nowhere for me really. I'd never really payed much attention to Metronomy before and just saw them as the band that did sub-standard remixes of indie hits. But the combination of their Mercury nomination and a fair bit of airplay on 6Music perked my ears up and brought me to give this a listen. What a great listen it is too!

This album feels wonderfully retro, yet somehow still very progressive and fresh - you know you're onto something special when you get that feeling. There's no better example of this than "The Look" - it's opening synths sound like Daft Punk playing about on Blackpool promenade by the sea, with the closing minute and a half being a wonderful freak-out that either makes you feel like you're floating in space somewhere or listening to some 80's TV show's theme tune while on some form of hallucinogens.

The other highlight for me is "Everything Goes My Way" which on the other end of the scale is a nice, simple, catchy singalong. This was a very happy find for me.

#6: "A Creature I Don't Know" by Laura Marling

Another great album from the first lady of the folk revival. Marling seemed to really find her voice on last years effort "I Speak Because I Can", and this album finds her continuing to grow and once again show maturity and deftness of song-writing beyond her years. I wish she'd lose that American-tinge to her voice at times, but that doesn't stop me enjoying great songs like "The Muse".

What's most enjoyable about this album, though, are the songs where Marling cuts loose a bit more. The more sprawling efforts like "Sophia", "The Beast" and "All My Rage" are songs I never would have imagined her capable of writing when she first came on the scene, all quaint, disciplined and defeatist. It's really a joy to hear her try things that one wouldn't have thought here style as such.

Well, that wraps up this half of the blog. I'll be back with my five favourites before the year is out.