Sacred Cowpats

Monday, May 9, 2016

Miracle Legion - The Backyard

American band Miracle Legion released The Backyard EP in 1984. The opening title track sets the tone: very much along the lines of early REM, Mark Mulcahy singing a simple chorus line "The world was so big and I was so small". The following track Butterflies has the prettiest guitar line on the EP, while on the other hand Closer to the Wall is much faster and rockier, but all still very much fitting the mould of REM on Murmur or Reckoning.

Guitarist Ray Neal's brooding, jangly guitar dominates Just Say Hello, and final track Steven Are You There? ends the EP on a suitably moody note. Despite the obvious similarity to Stipe and co, this EP is still worth checking out in its own right.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

John Martyn - Inside Out

John Martyn followed up his acclaimed Solid Air with the far more experimental Inside Out album. Released in 1973, it opens with the relatively conventional Fine Lines, featuring guitar, piano and Martyn's by now patented slurred vocals. But from the album lurches left with the swirling instrumental Eibhli Ghali Chiun Chearbhail, then left again with the busy strum of Ain't No Saint which features some incongruous tabla. Outside In is what can only be described as an "exploration" via echoplex, and the wah-wah workout Look In is a bit tedious.

The instrumental piece Beverley is an improvement, with an acoustic guitar centre stage, picking out pleasantries over sawing strings and noodling electric guitar. Folkier moments are not exactly plentiful here, but when Make No Mistake arrives it's most welcome, at least until it morphs into jazzier territory two and a half minutes in. Ways to Cry seems a little half-formed and underwritten before the closing lounge-sax jazz of So Much In Love With You.

Although there are strong moments on the album, it's a bit of a mess overall, maybe a little over ambitious. Most of the better songs sound like not as quite as good versions of the better songs on Bless the Weather or Solid Air.