Monday, December 17, 2018

The Blue Nile - High

The Blue Nile released their fourth album, High in 2004, a mere eight years after their previous album.  The slow drift of their music seemed to carry through to their productivity.  It's been well-documented that the Scottish band take their time, crafting every note.

For those who found the prominent guitars and general upbeat vibe of Peace At Last a bit jarring, this was a welcome return to the moodier sound of old.  On first listen, you could be forgiven for wondering: where are the standout songs?  The album seems to drift by, one song flow into another.  It opens with repeating keyboards of The Day of Our Lives, a sparse track that allows Paul Buchanan's voice to fill the gaps.  It's strongly reminiscent of Over the Hillside.  

Some of it misses the mark, the slow shuffle of I Would Never is a little close to U2 territory for comfort, while Broken Lives channels the eighties a little too strongly.  But the rest is very listenable.  The slow, picked guitars of Because of Toledo would have sat well on Peace At Last, the organ in the background adds atmosphere.  

The title track feels like the centrepiece.  Opening with elegiac keyboards and a gorgeous Buchanan vocal singing resonant lyrics like "I don't want to wake you when you're sleeping so quiet" and later "look at the morning people going to work and fading away".  It feels like an instant classic, it just makes you want to float away from the world. 

This is probably not the album to introduce people to the Blue Nile.  But those who enjoy A Walk Across the Rooftops and Hats will want this one and hold it close.

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Evan Dando - Baby I'm Bored

Evan Dando's debut solo album arrived in 2003, not long after the country covers EP Griffith Sunset and 7 years on from the messy Lemonheads album Car Button Cloth.  This album is far more together than either of those.  It opens with the almost raunchy guitar of Repeat, swiftly followed by My Idea featuring some earnest strumming.  Proceedings darken a little for the woozy Rancho Santa Fe and the Bowie-inflected Waking Up.

Joey Burns and John Convertino were involved in the making of this album and you can hear their influence on the Americana-tinged Hard Drive, one of the catchier songs here, and also In The Grass All Wine Colored.  There's plenty here to please Lemonheads fans, songs like Shots Is Fired, It Looks Like You are up to scratch with his band's material.  The Same Thing You Thought Hard About has a more ragged edge but is really quite effective Dando clings on to the melody for dear life, and his vocal cords just about manage to keep the song in check. 

He hasn't left his country excursions behind, but the sparse, two minute Why Do You Do This To Yourself feels underwritten and doesn't really gel with the rest of the songs here.  The finest track is the sparkling All My Life, which has a yearning,  world weary melody and a moment of truth chorus: "all my life I thought I needed all the things I didnt need at all".  It's one of those wonderfully simple, yet effective songs that Evan Dando seemingly just tosses off effortlessly. 

Not a perfect album, but a must have if you like the Lemonheads. 

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Low - Songs for a Dead Pilot

Low released this experimental EP in 1997.  Here, they started to push the boundaries of what Low sounded like.  It opens with a really strangely recorded version of Will the Night, with all the vocals and instrumentation relegated to the background, almost sounding like it came from a different room, and a kind of drone which follows the melody is given centre stage. 

The dead slow trudge through Condescend comes next, a wintry yet warm tune sung by Mimi Parker.  Speaking of trudges, the thirteen minute plus Born by the Wires is even slower and grimmer than Condescend.  A fragile, high pitched Alan Sparhawk vocal crawls across dissonant guitar rumbles, the track is kind of hard work.  The sinister, creeping Be There is quite minimal but works well, while Landlord is slow and foreboding.  Parker and Sparhawk's signature harmonies make an appearance on the sweetest, briefest, and final track, Hey Chicago. 

Definitely for committed fans rather than casual dabblers.