Wednesday, 24 February 2021
Snowpoet - Wait for Me, album review
Hybrid Excellence
This is an extraordinarily good album, a hybrid cross between Stereolab and Bjork (if you want the beginnings of a touchstone), and it is brightly illuminated by the lush harmonies, synth orchestrations, spoken word narratives that intone a serious observing, and individual instrumental inserts like the violin on Burn Bright by Alice Zawadski. The opening track Roots is a tour de force of all I have just described, beginning with some broken/hesitant talk, then breezing on with Lauren Kinsella’s bright vocal and those synth sweeps and violin additions – gorgeous saxophone by Josh Arcoleo. The song progresses to a mystical merge of voices and a concoction of modal instrumentation that sets the album up for its wonderful roll-out of more.
Get it here.
Saturday, 13 February 2021
Steve Earle & The Dukes - J.T. - album review
This is a seamless Steve Earle album in that the tribute to his son Justin Townes Earle sounds as great as any previous from SE and his band The Dukes. This isn't to detract from the songwriting at all, which is Justin's, but to acknowledge how the honouring is from father to son. Justin Townes Earle passed in August 2020, aged 38, and I have always enjoyed his albums too, though I don't know them as well as his dad's.
This 'knowing' is as much a reflection of my age and therefore affinity as anything else. The one song on the album that is distinctive is, naturally, the personal one that closes that album, Last Words, where Steve, who has penned this one, recalls a last phone call with Justin and writes how he had said to his son I love you and his son replied I love you too. There are other straightforward simplicities in this painfully honest recollection, but the repetition of these exchanges is about as uplifting as it can be in such a terrible loss.
Barry Gibb - Greenfields; The Gibb Brothers' Songbook vol. 1, album review
Great Songs
I've always liked the Bee Gees - even the heavy-falsetto disco years - but especially the early pop songs, always respecting the songwriting, for themselves and for others, and always respecting the quality of their harmony singing live [but alas, only through recordings I have seen on the TV]. Barry Gibb is therefore entitled to do whatever he wants to celebrate his part in that history, and to celebrate the songcraft of the brothers Gibb. This collection engages through the guest vocalists, with personal favourites being Jason Isbell, Alison Krauss, and Dave Rawlings with Gillian Welch. They only 'danger' in this is the juxtaposition with Barry - though an obvious, necessary one - in that by the often stark contrasts he could appear to be a parody of himself, with that falsetto sound and the breathy vibrato. Perhaps it is best in harmony, for example, with Krauss on Too Much Heaven where she of course has a more natural vocal claim to that highest pitch. When in opposition with Keith Urban, the difference is more defined - though as a genuine fan that doesn't bother me, but I'd guess it would others - those maybe fans of the guests rather than Barry. Lonely Days with Little Big Town presents that overall merging of voices, apart from one Gibb's vibrating exhalation, and with a Beatles-esque presentation that pilfers delightfully.
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Living Strings - Living Strings Visit Alice's Restaurant, album review
Bright Sweep
Listening for the fun and the sublime nostalgia, orchestral with sweeping strings re-presenting popular music of the time, honed to the most neutral of their innate musical neutralities - that is, apart from the beauty of melody unencumbered by the burdons of real life. Therefore, opener Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, Bacharach and Hall's upbeat song that reminds of a bike ride rather than shoot-out, is a warming reminder of what used to be even though it wasn't, always, and obviously. The stand-out comic inclusion is Alice's Restaraunt, a song selected for its imagined appeal to a hip audience who really won't have been fooled, even when the kazoo is used to plot out the melody line because this had been an occasional 'hip' instrument itself. Don't get me wrong: I'm loving it on this cold morning warmed by jolly hopefulness.