A Year in Music – 2018 – Jamie Cameron (The Last Dinosaur)

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/31/a-year-in-music-2018-jamie-cameron-the-last-dinosaur/

A Year in Music – 2018 – Cathal Cully (Girls Names)

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse,com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/30/a-year-in-music-2018-cathal-cully-girls-names/

A Year in Music – 2018 – Patrick M Barrett (Hedge Schools)

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/30/a-year-in-music-2018-patrick-m-barrett-hedge-schools/

A Year In Music - 2018 - Paul Page (ex-Whipping Boy)

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/29/a-year-in-music-2018-paul-page-ex-whipping-boy/

A Year In Music - Niall McCann (Film Director)

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/29/a-year-in-music-niall-mccann-film-director-2/

A Year In Music - 2018 - RM Hubbert

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/21/a-year-in-music-2018-rm-hubbert/

A Year in Music – 2018 – Mark Eitzel

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/20/a-year-in-music-2018-mark-eitzel/

A Year in Music - 2018 - Nadine O'Regan (Journalist)

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/19/a-year-in-music-2018-nadine-oregan-journalist/

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.

Hammock – Universalis – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/13/hammock-universalis-album-review/

Albums of the Year – 2018 – Killian Laher

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/12/albums-of-the-year-2018-killian-laher/

Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert – Ghost Stories for Christmas – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/11/aidan-moffat-rm-hubbert-ghost-stories-for-christmas-album-review/

How I found Neil Young

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/07/how-i-found-neil-young/

Jeff Tweedy – Warm – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/04/jeff-tweedy-warm-album-review/?fbclid=IwAR0usytxVrb7XIj5A73_aijCxCdRYeWbZtMGVpx30uu0C5RfYDfesSEcUOc

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. 

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.

Heatmiser - Mic City Sons

The third and last album from Heatmiser came out in 1996.  It's a strange mixture of Neil Gust's songs and Elliott Smith's, though the latter had already released two solo albums.  Smith's grungy riffing Get Lucky opens the album with considerable swagger, not something you'd associate with Elliott Smith.  Plainclothes Man is more familiar territory for Smith, featuring his acoustic guitar backed up by the rest of the band, and could easily fit on of his later solo albums.  The lyrics of The Fix Is In will be poured over for 'clues' surrounding Smith's demise but the music here is again, first-class. 

Gust's songs are less memorable, his vocals are a little more muted and are inclined to blend in with the music on the likes of Low-Flying Jets and Cruel Reminders.  An odd-sounding guitar figure introduces Rest My Head Against the Wall, and Gust's guitar work together with his somewhat gruff vocal make this the standout of the Gust material.  Less successful is the frantic-sounding Eagle Eye which is a little too fast and brief.  Later, Blue Highway is a decent rock song in search of a  strong vocal. 

A pair of Elliott Smith songs round of the album really strongly.  The rocky See You Later is pretty anthemic, with a soaring vocal over growling guitars.  Finally, Half Right is arguably the strongest song on the album.  Slow, deliberate guitars pick out an absolutely gorgeous melody which feels both fragile and triumphant all at the same time.  Definitely worth checking out for fans of Elliott Smith.

Flasher – Constant Image – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/29/flasher-constant-image-album-review/

Yo La Tengo - Ride the Tiger

Yo la Tengo released their debut album in 1986, about 10 years or so before their heyday.  For those used to their latter day material, this will come as a surprise.  Many of their albums feel sprawling and diverse, this one decidedly isn't, eleven relatively short guitar tracks, many of which sound in thrall to the major key melodies on the Velvet Underground's Loaded album.

Cone of Silence is fairly representative, a brisk, strumalong tune with Ira Kaplan's Reed-y vocals to the fore.  A jangly Kinks cover pops up early on the album, Big Sky, while the final track sees them record an instrumental version of Pete Seeger's Living in the Country.

The Evil That Men Do is the album's most amped-up moment, while The Forest Green would give The Smithereens a run for their money.  They slow down for the country-flecked The Pain of Pain, the least derivative song here, and it really suits them.  Two thirds in, Kaplan throws in a really fine guitar solo.

Dave Schramm takes lead vocals on the cowpunk The Way Some People Die and vaguely REM-ish Five Years.  Decent tracks, but they sound like a different band.  Later they attempt to get thrashy on Screaming Dead Balloons, but the track doesn't quite hit the mark it was aiming for. 

An amiable collection of guitar tunes which, although far from throwaway, aren't particularly memorable either.

How I learned to Love Lloyd

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/27/how-i-learned-to-love-lloyd/

Looking back to Lou Reed

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/23/looking-back-to-lou-reed/

Smashing Pumpkins – Shiny And Oh So Bright Vol. 1 / LP – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/20/smashing-pumpkins-shiny-and-oh-so-bright-vol-1-lp-album-review/

Interpol – Olympia Theatre – Live Review – 18/11/18

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/19/interpol-olympia-theatre-live-review-18-11-18/

Ed Harcourt – Beyond the End – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/19/ed-harcourt-beyond-the-end-album-review/

Ryley Walker – The Lillywhite Sessions – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/12/ryley-walker-the-lillywhite-sessions-album-review/

Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect

Protomartyr released their third album Agent Intellect in 2015.  Previous album Under Color of Official Right had mixed punk workouts with more melodic tracks and this album is similar.

Opening with The Devil In His Youth, this track is like a punkier Strokes, with its highly melodic guitar lines.  An almost spaghetti western style guitar introduces Cowards Starve, a track a little reminiscent of Come & See on their previous album.  Many of the first few songs barrel by without leaving a huge impression.  It's not until track 5, Pontiac 87 that we begin full immersion.  The track sounds like a harder version of the National, with Greg Ahee's guitar work oscillating between clean, crisp lines and fuzzed-out heavy riffs, perfect for Joe Casey to growl over.  Dope Cloud excels through Ahee's strong guitar work.  

Later, Why Does It Shake? makes a strong argument to be the strongest track here, with a danceable rhythm punctuated by incisive guitar riffs and a powerful vocal from Casey.  Ellen drops the intensity a little, with a brilliantly ghoulish melody before becoming drowned in noise towards the end of the song, and the album finishes with the angry Joy Division stylings on Feast of Stephen.

Overall, a bit of a hit and miss album from Protomartyr.  The highs are very strong, but there are too many second grade tracks. 

Neil Halstead - Sleeping On Roads

By 2002 Neil Halstead had become progressively mellower post-Slowdive and Mojave 3.  His debut solo album saw him go full Nick Drake, all whispery vocals and rolling folk signatures.  Opener Seasons takes a simple two chord motif through the song, and its wistful melody and guitar playing create a highly effective atmosphere.  It's the standout on the album.   After this we get the low key folk of Two Stones In My Pocket, followed by Driving With Bert.  The combination of brass and guitar picking on the latter gives it a timeless feel.

Hi-Lo and In Between and final track High Hopes have a simple warmth to them that evokes very early Dylan, while Martha's Mantra nods to coffeehouse folk like Simon and Garfunkel.  One of the more uptempo tracks is See You On Rooftops, which arrives in time to prevent this album from falling into something of a hazy stupor.  A combination of soaring keyboards and fuzzy electric join the acoustic reverie, filling out the sound nicely.

Certainly a pleasant, comforting listen for those who like folky guitars.

My Gateway to The Smiths

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/05/my-gateway-to-the-smiths/

Soundgarden - Down On The Upside

Soundgarden released Down On The Upside in 1996, just before the band went on hiatus for a number of years.  This album doesn't get the credit that Badmotorfinger and Superunknown get, possibly because there are 16 songs on it, a lot for anyone to digest. 

Opening with the driving rock one-two of Pretty Noose and Rhinosaur, Chris Cornell is on fine voice, backed up by Kim Thayil's bruising riffs.  And it's not just bluster here: Cornell exhibits his fine lower register croon on Zero Chance.  The nihilistic Blow Up the Outside World isn't a million miles away from Black Hole Sun, while Burden In My Hand is arguably the strongest track here.  Aided by a driving set of guitar riffs, it's a gloriously downbeat anthem to failure. 

The band embrace many different styles here.  The punk-as-fuck Ty Cobb barrels along at speed with a chorus of "hard headed fuck you all".  On the other hand, Applebite has some almost post-rock, bleak guitar licks, with Cornell's vocal heavily distorted.  

There is a lot of material here to digest, and towards the end of the album there are fewer standouts.  Overfloater has a real late-period Led Zeppelin vibe to it, reminiscent of No Quarter.  Final track Boot Camp is almost like an elegy for the band, with slow, heavy, mournful riffs and Cornell singing lyrics ripe for analysis: "must obey the rules... no staring at the clouds... I must contain my views... there must be something good far away from here".  It's a stark ending to an essential Soundgarden release. 

Sun Kil Moon - This Is My Dinner

Sun Kil Moon albums arrive with depressing regularity these days.  As a former purveyor of amazing songs, Mark Kozelek has turned his back on the music he built his reputation on in favour of a spontaneous, record it as it happens approach.  But I am reviewing this for old time's sake.  Six months after his previous album, a double album full of banal musings about his life in place of song lyrics.  Some of the music is jazz-tinged (This Is Not Possible) or borderline hiphop (Linda Blair).  We get songs written from an airplane seat (Copenhagen, Candles and David Cassidy).

There are positives.  The music on the title track, Candles and David Cassidy is sunlit and uplifting, with soft focus electric guitars, twinkling piano but, like almost all his recent work, overlong.  He covers David Cassidy's perky C'mon Get Happy, which is mercifully short.  This is followed by his third recorded cover of ACDC's Rock n Roll Singer.  Musically it's not bad, but Kozelek bawls most of the lyrics before holding a note for an uncomfortable 40 seconds.  Perhaps this is Sun Kil Moon covering Mark Kozelek's cover of the ACDC song?

But any hope the album has of succeeding is ruined by, not what Kozelek sings but how he sings it.  It's all delivered in the bored-sounding speak/sing style he has patented of late.  That's not to mention his blood-curdling, demonic growling on Linda Blair.

Who on earth is going to discover Mark Kozelek/Sun Kil Moon through an album like this??  There's no end to this, with another new album due out next March.

A Conversation with Alan Sparhawk (Low) – Part Two

Interview for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/02/a-conversation-with-alan-sparhawk-low-part-two/

J Mascis - Elastic Days - Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/10/30/j-mascis-elastic-days-album-review/

Two Medicine – Astropsychosis – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/10/26/two-medicine-astropsychosis-album-review/

A Conversation with Alan Sparhawk (Low) – Part One

Interview for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/10/24/a-conversation-with-alan-sparhawk-low-part-one/

Low – Vicar Street – Live Review – 17/10/18

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/10/18/low-vicar-street-live-review-17-10-18/

A Gateway to The Cure – Standing On A Beach

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/10/17/a-gateway-to-the-cure-standing-on-a-beach/

Kurt Vile – Bottle It In – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/10/08/kurt-vile-bottle-it-in-album-review/

Dakota Suite, Dag Rosenqvist and Emanuele Errante – What Matters Most – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/09/12/dakota-suite-dag-rosenqvist-and-emanuele-errante-what-matters-most-album-review/

The Goon Sax – We’re Not Talking – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/09/10/the-goon-sax-were-not-talking-album-review/

Snail Mail – Lush – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/09/07/snail-mail-lush-album-review/

Low – Double Negative – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/09/04/low-double-negative-album-review/

Alice in Chains – Rainier Fog – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/08/28/alice-in-chains-rainier-fog-album-review/

Mogwai – Kin OST – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/08/27/mogwai-kin-ost-album-review/

Interpol – Marauder – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/08/23/interpol-marauder-album-review/

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Whelans – Live Review – 21/08/18

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/08/22/rolling-blackouts-coastal-fever-whelans-live-review-21-08-18/

Neurophone – The Stag’s Head – Live Review – 19/08/18

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/08/21/neurophone-the-stags-head-live-review-19-08-18/

Joan As Policewoman - Black Box, Belfast - Live Review - 14/08/18

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/08/16/joan-as-policewoman-black-box-belfast-live-review-14-08-18/

Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood - With Animals - Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/08/13/mark-lanegan-and-duke-garwood-with-animals-album-review/

Papa M - A Broke Moon Rises - Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/08/10/papa-m-a-broke-moon-rises-album-review/

Lou Reed - New Sensations

Like a lot of established serious musicians from the 60s and 70s, the eighties was an awkward decade for Lou Reed.  New Sensations, released in 1984 opens with one of the cheesiest, poppiest songs Lou Reed has ever written, I Love You Suzanne.  The 'boppiest' song he ever wrote, it has the unforgettable refrain: "Do what you wanna do, do what you can, do what you wanna do say I love you Suzanne".  Indeed.  It's fair to say on this album, Lou Reed fully embraced 80s pop.  And so they follow, Endlessly Jealous, My Red Joystick, throwaway tunes with throwaway lyrics.  The Stones-y riffs of Turn to Me are an improvement, the track sounds like a dry run for 1989's acclaimed New York album. 

It's left to the title track to provide the strongest moment.   A slinky, sparse groove with the merest of guitar touches, it describes a motorcycle trip accompanied by music that appears to evoke the feeling of being on such an adventure. 

Elsewhere, Doin' the Things We Want To is fairly decent 80s punch the air rock, even incorporating a saxophone without it jarring.  Fly Into the Sun and My Friend George are fairly mellow guitar rock, all clipped guitar chords and rolling basslines.  High in the City is pretty close to self-parody with cheesy brass and Down at the Arcade at least has a bit growl to its guitars. 

So overall an interesting but not essential Lou Reed album.  That cover art (above) is kind of hilarious though.