Album Review: Smog – Wild Love

This is one of Bill Callahan’s earlier albums. Released in 1995, it’s notable for the fact that cello features in a few of the tracks. The opening track Bathysphere, is a kind of creepy song about how when he was seven he wanted to live at the bottom of the sea, which is real “shut me away from the world” stuff. The title track follows. It’s just over a minute and a half long and it continues the same vein, the only line being ‘wild love, somebody shot down my wild love’, sung with unbearable tension over harrowing cello.

Many of the tracks are under 2 minutes long, though some are little more than dodgy experiments (Sweet Smog Children, The Emperor, The Candle) with strange plinks and plonks, scraped strings. Limited Capacity has a touch of Arab Strap about it, without the vulgar lyrics.

It’s Rough is a slightly more substantial song, albeit based around 2 chords on an electric guitar. Sleepy Joe roughs things up a little with distorted guitar over a piano led song. It’s quite repetitive, like a lot of the songs on this album.

Be Hit is a good little tune, strummed on a barely in tune acoustic guitar, a bit like Beck in his acoustic moments, though the subject matter is disturbing (girls wanting to be hit, and they left him ‘cos I wouldn’t do it’). Prince Alone in the Studio is either very weird, hilarious or a combination of these. It’s probably the most dramatic song here with a descending guitar line and careful pauses for effect after each line, and definitely the longest at seven minutes. He’s helped by backing vocals from Cynthia Dall, and the track even has a false ending! Though it’s definitely not Smog’s greatest collection of songs, there’s a strange ramshackle charm to it.

Album Review: Talk Talk – Laughing Stock

This was Talk Talk’s last album, released in 1991. It continues in the neo-classical direction signposted by 1988’s Spirit of Eden and takes it even further, possibly to the point of no return. There were rumours of Hollis recording a string section for hours upon end, before only using a few misplaced notes. Not sure if it’s true but it paints a picture of a highly unconventional album.

The cover illustration features a striking image of oversized colourful birds on a leafless tree, and there only six tracks on the album, all of which are quite lengthy in duration. The album opens with faint static, before a gingerly strummed electric guitar enters, followed by cello, viola and piano. The song is Myrrhman, and Mark Hollis’ voice has never sounded so tortured and desolate yet almost hymnal, with lyrics like ‘faith one path and the second in fear’, whilst being punctuated by bursts of static, and faint trumpets and horns. It’s far away from popular music, and the track ends with gentle strings and piano.

The pace picks up with Ascension Day, which features prominent percussion and again a somewhat hesitant guitar before the drums crash in, and it continues for six minutes before ending abruptly. After the Flood drifts in on barely audible piano and organ in a similar vein to the previous track, before a change in pace with Taphead, which is very sparse, Hollis’ vocals more delicate than ever before. It’s a very tense track, with a middle portion which builds up to a horn led climax, before tailing off with some echoey guitar, bass and organ.

New Grass, the penultimate track is almost like the first shoots of spring after four tracks of winter. An intricate, almost liquid guitar enters accompanied by drums and gentle piano, and Hollis sings ‘lifted up, reflected in returning love you sing’. The album is a semi-religious experience, never more so than on this track, with its references to ‘seven sacraments to song versed in Christ’ and later ‘someday Christendom will come’, along with beautiful unadorned piano interludes. Not a note is wasted on this one.

The album finishes on a very downbeat note with Runeii, which another very sparse track, gentle ratcheting guitar playing a melody that could almost be random notes, except it resolves itself into a recognisable pattern.

The album sold poorly, and there was silence from Hollis until his self-titled solo album in 1998, after which he has appeared to have retired from music. It’s very difficult to write about this somewhat forbidding, almost miserable, yet rewarding album, it almost stands apart in a genre of its own. Despite being in places a fairly sparse album, the music is highly textured and there are layers which have taken me years to discover. If anything, it’s close to classical music, perhaps Arvo Part, but that only tells part of the story.

Album Review: Tindersticks – Falling Down A Mountain

Today’s exam question: Tindersticks latest album, Falling Down A Mountain - discuss. I’ll skip past the beautiful artwork to say that this album, for Tindersticks, is all over the place. In a good way. Most of their other albums are quite a unified statement in terms of sound, but this one is a bit more playful, like music for a bright, sunny day. They seem to have lightened up a bit, perhaps due to the presence of David Kitt as part of the band?

Tindersticks have a habit of throwing a curveball with track 1, and then returning with a song that sets the mood for track 2, but this album is a little different. The title track which opens the album is a very jazzy sounding groove ie a curveball. It’s a little bit seedy, in a good way. The more conventional Keep You Beautiful follows, which is a kind of slight, languid sounding track, with a little bit of soul thrown in. Not sure what sort of mood this one sets, but Harmony Around My Table picks up the pace with probably the catchiest tune on the album, with a few dodgy-sounding lyrics thrown in for good measure (“found a penny, I picked it up and all that day I had some luck”), but it’s an uplifting song nonetheless.

Peanuts will divide the fans, I think. It’s a duet between Stuart Staples and Mary Margaret O’Hara about the aforementioned snack-food, and to my ears it’s the weakest on the album. I’m not a big fan of O’Hara’s hesitant singing, and I just don’t like the tune that much. She Rode Me Down is better, with vaguely Spanish sounding guitars, along the lines of Her from their first album, with a few flutes added to the mix, and ends up sounding like a collaboration with Calexico.

Hubbard Hill is the first of two instrumentals, and it reminds me very much of their soundtrack work for French director Claire Denis. It’s organ dominated and it’s pretty damn good if you like that sort of thing (I do!) in a kind of tragic way, with heartbreaking horns coming in halfway through. The soundtrack to a doomed romance maybe? Black Smoke is a basic two chord groove, with backing vocals prominent in the mix, while No Place So Alone is one of their more mainstream moments, more uptempo. It sounds like the band is enjoying this one, so much so that after the vocals finish they continue on for a minute or two till Staples ends the song with “1, 2, 3, 4”.

Factory Girls is sparser with a simple sad piano leading into the conclusion that “it’s the wine that makes me sad, not the love I never had”. It works well in the context of the album, but I’m not sure how well this song, or some of the others stand up on their own if heard in isolation. Another great instrumental, Piano Music ends the album with strings giving a dramatic sweep to the track (along with piano as per the title). Again it sounds like a soundtrack, perhaps to an epic black and white film that hasn’t been made yet, perhaps set on the shoreline with crashing waves.

Despite some concerns on my part, Tindersticks have come up trumps again with this album. It’s not the lyrics, or the music that make this album a masterpiece in mood creation but the sum of the whole. I’ll be listening to it for months and will probably want to rewrite this then.

Album Review: New Order – Movement

New Order’s first album, released in 1981 after the abrupt end of Joy Division, tends not to be mentioned much when New Order are discussed. It provides a kind of bridge between the two bands, as it was also produced by Martin Hannett. The shadow of their former band weighs heavy on this album.

The first track, Dreams Never End, is kind of a natural progression from Joy Division in that keyboards dominated more and more, and the drums sounded ever more mechanical. The tune is a dead ringer for The Cure’s In Between Days (released years later). Truth is quite austere, along the lines of some of the Closer material, slightly reminiscent of Decades, although on this and most of the other material on this album, the vocals, handled mainly by Bernard Sumner are a little muffled and subdued. It was obviously difficult for him to take over vocal duties from Ian Curtis who was such a distinctive vocalist.

Senses, sounds very much like it had been created entirely using synthesisers and is an interesting precursor to Blue Monday, while Chosen Time is a little non-descript. The second half of the album sounds haunted by the ghost of Curtis, but this is by no means a bad thing. ICB (Ian Curtis Buried maybe?) is a fine song, driven by Peter Hook’s bass, strong drumming from Stephen Morris and some fine guitar from Sumner, and is very danceable yet remaining a good song!

The Him is a doomy dirge which plods along with some ominous keyboards but is unremarkable, and Doubts Even Here is a similar exercise, though far better. It’s probably the most Joy Division-like song on the album, with wintry keyboards and downbeat bass, and very Curtis-like lyrics (‘day begins, collapsing without warning’), while final track Denial is all clattering keyboards and drums.
It’s easy to see why this album is not well regarded by New Order fans as it is a little derivative of their former band, they hadn’t really evolved into what they became. Nonetheless it’s a good collection of songs, in that doomy early ‘80s vein.

Album Review: Neil Young with Crazy Horse – Zuma

Zuma is seldom mentioned as one of Neil Young’s best, somewhat overshadowed by the likes of On The Beach and Tonight’s The Night. Released in 1975, it kicks off with Don’t Cry No Tears is a groove that Young and Crazy Horse made their own in the mid-seventies, and it lurches agreeably along in a vaguely countryish fashion. Danger Bird is a slower, more ponderous track featuring some superb guitar soloing in the mid section. It’s a bit like a dry run for Cortez the Killer. Pardon My Heart is for those lovers of acoustic Neil and is a fine example of this, Neil sings it in a restrained fashion, almost apologetic over an intricate acoustic guitar pattern.

Looking for a Love is a kind of poppy country song, and Barstool Blues is pleasingly messy, at one point Young can barely be bothered to sing properly and totally drops the melody for the line: ‘I might live a thousand years before I know what that muuuuhns (means)’. The aforementioned Cortez the Killer is the centrepiece of this album and it enters on some slow but seriously good guitar which lasts for the first 3 and a half minutes of this song before the vocals enter. This was a serious influence on Mark Kozelek, amongst others. The album ends with Through My Sails, recorded with Crosby, Stills and Nash which is a pleasant acoustic song with congas.

Album Review: Peter Gabriel – Birdy (soundtrack)

Before his mega-selling album So, Peter Gabriel released the soundtrack to the movie Birdy in 1985. I haven’t seen the movie so I came to the soundtrack without preconceptions. It’s a highly atmospheric set of tracks, largely instrumental with occasional vocals. With titles like At Night and Quiet And Alone, it’s a contemplative work, mainly keyboard led with flute and drums, not too far away from Eno. Apparently some of it is reworkings of Peter Gabriel’s older work, though I’m not familiar enough with it to detect this.

It’s difficult to isolate any one track though Dressing the Wound stands out a bit, which starts out quite sparse until some wordless vocals from Gabriel come in. The whole thing is very serene, but the next track Birdy’s Flight totally changes the mood with feverish percussion right through it. Most if it is classic mood music. The final track, Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain is very Zen, and probably the most Eno-like track.

Album Review: The Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead

Bands that really make an impression on me don’t come along that often these days, but when one hits me, it hits hard. This is another album which is badly missed from my Top 10 of 2009! This Scottish band is new to me. The name is a bit poor really, but the artwork is absolutely great. So how then to describe their sound? It’s a raging wall of guitars, in the vein of My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain or a noisy National fronted by a singer with a strong Scottish accent (I’m hesitant to say Arab Strap because it’s a little obvious), which is something of an acquired taste. They’ve been dubbed as shoegaze (or ‘nu’gaze!). But the songs are very strong, with nagging insistent refrains that bury themselves in your brain.

The opening track, Reflection of the Television is a perfect case in point. It sounds unremarkable at first, with a somewhat dull drumbeat but after a few listens it lodges itself in your head, thanks in no small measure to the wonderful noisy guitars which bleed into this track towards the end. The following track, I Became a Prostitute, is even better. It’s a little more uptempo, and the lyrics contain phrases ‘she’s bawling her eyes out’ before exploding into the chorus.

And that’s just the first 2 tracks. The rest of the album doesn’t disappoint. Sure they wouldn’t sound like this without listening to My Bloody Valentine, but who cares when the songs are this good? They do seriously noisy soaring choruses (Made to Disappear, The Neighbours Can’t Breathe), weird, scratchy instrumentals (Scissors), piano-led heavy pop (The Room) and rampaging rackets (That Birthday Present).

In other words, it’s bloody brilliant. Get it, listen to it, obsess over it.