Review for http://www.meg.ie/
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Album Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Sleeps With Angels
I’m smitten. Object of my desire? 14 minutes of Change Your Mind. But more of that later.
This album came out in 1994 in the aftermath of Kurt Cobain’s death, and many people felt the title referred to this. It represented a total change of tack from Harvest Moon, with the return of Crazy Horse as the band and David Briggs in the producer’s chair.
This album came out in 1994 in the aftermath of Kurt Cobain’s death, and many people felt the title referred to this. It represented a total change of tack from Harvest Moon, with the return of Crazy Horse as the band and David Briggs in the producer’s chair.
The album opens with the totally unrepresentative My Heart, a piece on piano and marimba, with a slight feel of Will to Love (off American Stars n Bars) about it. From here the album becomes a lot more brooding. Prime of Life is faster, with flute and gorgeous harmonies, while guitars growl menacingly in the background. Driveby takes a deliberate guitar pattern and underlays with more guitar growls.
The guitar work is quite superb on this album, the title track being particularly raucous. But Crazy Horse have also proved they can do quiet over the years, and they do so again on this album with the countrified folk of Western Hero (reprised later on the album as Train of Love) which could fit in well on Harvest Moon etc minus the distorted guitar in the middle.
So to the centrepiece, Change Your Mind. It’s another in a long line of long, plodding guitar work outs in Neil Young’s back catalogue. This one is even longer than usual at fourteen and a half minutes and seldom deviates from a two chord formula. But what a stellar pair of chords. Your opinion on this will depend on your opinion of Down by the River, Cowgirl In The Sand, Cortez the Killer etc. I find it amazing that a piece of music like this can run for so long with minimal variation and remain compelling. This one certainly does, brooding like a bad thing throughout.
The album continues with slow noisy blues (Blue Eden), the spooky Safeway Cart with quasi –religious saviour references, and the haunting Trans Am. Piece of Crap is a rockier animal but it’s hard to take seriously with the band roaring “piece of crap!” and A Dream That Can Last brings the whole thing full circle, achoing the melody and feel of the opener.
This is a fairly essential nineties Neil Young album, hanging like the grim reaper in the corner of 1994.
This is a fairly essential nineties Neil Young album, hanging like the grim reaper in the corner of 1994.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Album Review: Ry Cooder – Paris, Texas Original Soundtrack
If you’re not familiar with Ry Cooder’s slide guitar work, this is a good place to start. His haunting slide guitar compositions form the basis for the soundtrack to Wim Wenders’ classic 1984 movie Paris, Texas. Most of it is devised around a single theme, a lonely, forlorn slide guitar figure, with She’s Leaving The Bank taking this theme and twisting it into a slow-burning graceful boil.
There is room for Harry Dean Stanton to lend his vocals to Cancion Mixteca, and later one of his devastating monologues forms the basis for I Knew These People. The soundtrack is a great accompaniment for solitary drives in remote locations.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Concert Review: Ellie Goulding – Olympia, Dublin, May 31st 2011
Was offered tickets to this at short notice. “Ellie who” I said? "Oh you’ll know the songs" they said. I was dropped into pop music purgatory. What does a serious music fan (verging on muso bore) do when confronted by something like this? Who likes his references literary and guitars heavy as f**k?There was a heavy female bias in the crowd and a healthy dose of hysteria when Elle Goulding came on stage. There was also a real whiff of 80s about it, most overtly with the dancing one-fingered keyboard player.
It was never going to be my cup of tea. I don’t drink tea. My qualifications for talking about the actual music are limited in the extreme, but songs like Under The Sheets, Guns and Horses and The Writer were rendered tunefully and got a huge reaction.
Mercifully the gig was short at just over an hour. I was definitely in the minority, not just age bracket wise but also in that everybody else loved it. I didn’t know any of the songs. I would have to say I haven’t been to a gig quite like it.
Monday, May 30, 2011
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