Chelsea Wolfe – Live Review – Button Factory – 25-11-15

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

http://nomoreworkhorse.com/2015/11/27/chelsea-wolfe-live-review-button-factory-25-11-15/

Songs: Ohia - Axxess & Ace

Album number three from Jason Molina was released in 1999.  It opens with the playful, prancing Hot Black Silk, one of a pair of upbeat tracks on this album, the other being Captain Badass.  Trouble is, they don't really suit Molina.  The slower build of Love & Work and Love Leaves Its Abuser are more comfortable for him.  The miserable, molasses-paced Redhead and final track Goodnight Lover have their charm, especially if you like early Smog, as do the countrified fiddle and strum of Come Back To Your Man and Champion.  It's an odd enough album, not a bad one, but kind of... odd.

Elliott Smith - Either/Or

Although Elliott Smith's third album, released in 1997, is a little more fleshed out than his first two, yet it doesn't lose anything quality-wise.  That's due largely to the fact that the songs are generally very strong, and don't outstay their welcome, the whole album lasting just under 37 minutes.  Certainly the opening track Speed Trials, while guitars are accompanied by bass and drum, there's nothing slick about this downbeat little beauty with a lovely, keening vocal from Smith.  Alameda is close as he ever got to strutting, with a loping beat and an almost sprightly guitar solo in the middle.

The next two tracks might well represent the 'heart' of the album.  Two 'soft' tracks, Ballad of Big Nothing has a Beatles gone fatalistic feel about it while the whispered Between the Bars a slow, muted tune that wraps itself around you late at night.  The guitar playing on these songs is recorded fantastically, it's one for the headphones.  After this Pictures of Me is more propulsive and darker, Smith spitting out lyrics about being "so sick and tired of all these pictures of me", and later "who'd like to see me down on my fucking knees".  There's a sort of decaying weariness at the heart of many of these songs.  No Name No. 5 sees him crooning about how "everybody's gone at last".  Later, Cupid's Trick has a similar feel, Smith sounds blasted and shattered singing "it's my life, should've lit me up"

Rose Parade is totally different, sounding more upbeat, you could imagine this one on daytime radio.  Angeles and the appropriately named 2.45 AM are pure late night listening.  Consisting mostly of Elliott Smith's guitar picking, they're the closest thing here to anything on his first two albums.  Overall this album works really well, it won't upset anyone who likes the early stuff but it acts as a bridge between that and his more fleshed out, later material.  Essential.

Soulsavers – Kubrick – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

http://nomoreworkhorse.com/2015/11/19/soulsavers-kubrick-album-review/

Songs: Ohia - Impala

Impala is Jason Molina's second album as Songs: Ohia.  Released in 1998, it starts out with its bleakest, slowest moment.  An Ace Unable To Change is an account of a long dark night, Molina singing an account of "gambling with my sentiment" where "tonight I am down to my soul" over seven fairly downbeat minutes where a guitar strums glacially over a chilling organ part, and er, that's about it really.  So obviously it's really good.  After this, however, the pace picks up.  Easts Heart Divided is relatively pacy thanks to the addition of Geof Comings' drums, while This Time Anything Finite At All is almost funky.  Elsewhere it's very much Molina at his most rudimentary.  So we get the manic, one and a quarter minute strum of One of Those Uncertain Hands and the Will Oldham-sounding The Rules of Absence and Just What Can Last.  Songs like A Humble Cause Again only briefly spark into life before being abruptly ended.  Later, there's a dark, sparse beauty to Program: The Mask and Separations: Reminder.

Hard work?  Perhaps.  But a dense and mysterious album.

Fragile Balance – Candlelight Sessions – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

http://nomoreworkhorse.com/2015/11/17/fragile-balance-candlelight-sessions-album-review/

Elliott Smith - Elliott Smith

Elliott Smith's second album, released in 1995, is very much in the mould of his first (Roman Candle), consisting mainly of stripped down, acoustic based songs.  It opens with the scratchy, whispering Needle In The Hay, a tense, uncompromising acoustic song.  The empathetic, downcast guitars of the almost vengeful Christian Brothers follows.  Tracks like these are, if anything, stronger than anything on Roman Candle.  This album, however is less consistent, not maintaining such high quality right through.  That's not to say there aren't strong songs - the rolling, enchanting guitars of Single File complement the slow drift of Satellite.

The songs are kind of equal parts wide-eyed innocence and deeply troubled, and if that sounds like a contradiction it probably is.  Lyrics about how "the moon is a sickle cell, it'll kill you in time" (Coming Up Roses) are a prime example of this.  St Ides Heaven feels a little like Nirvana at their most basic and stripped down, while Good To Go has a more seventies singer/songwriter feel.  Towards the end, The White Lady Loves You More is a bit of a departure, feeling almost symphonic, despite the troubling subject matter.  But a really strong album for the most part.