Fleetwood Mac – Rumours [35th Anniversary 3CD Deluxe Edition]

2 02 2013

Fleetwood Mac - RumoursAn album I’ve previously bought on vinyl, cassette and CD, and now a 3 CD deluxe edition. So it’s clearly an album I like, along with over 40 million purchasers of this album!

Disc one of the 3CD Deluxe Edition is the remastered version of the original album, including extra B-side track Silver Springs. This remaster is the 2004 one, which did not need improving.

Dreams is one of my favourite songs, I never tire of hearing this track. Unless it’s the version by The Corrs, who just lobbed a shed-load of flutes and an Everything But The Girl Missing beat over the top. Avoid.

Sorry about that – back to Fleetwood Mac. If you don’t own Rumours, and are a casual fan, the single disc version will be enough for you. If you are a die-hard fan, for a few pounds more, the 3-disc edition is the definitive version.

Rumours, originally released in February 1977, was a staple of FM radio in the late 70s, and you will be surprised at how many of these songs you know if you grew up in that golden era.

You Make Loving Fun is sprinkled with lovely harmonies, and driven by chunky rhythm guitar and crystal clear solos by Lindsey Buckingham.

Fans of Formula One racing on the BBC in the late 70s / 80s will recognise the iconic bass line towards the end of The Chain, one of the album’s strongest songs.

The remaster brings elements to the fore that I had missed on earlier incarnations, such as the highly percussive multi-layered guitar, and intricate harmonies (? underpinned by accordion) on Never Going Back Again.

This edition of the album ends with Silver Springs, which was originally the b-side to Go Your Own Way.

Disc 2 is a live collection, recorded during the 1977 Rumours tour in Oklahoma, Tulsa, Nashville and Columbia. Several non-Rumours tracks feature, the highlight being Rhiannon clocking in at nearly 8 minutes.

Another longer-than-the-album take is Gold Dust Woman, with its wonderful Rhodes v chorused guitar intro. The live Go Your Own Way has a great new-wave guitar intro, and the live disc ends with Christine Mcvie’s Songbird.

Fleetwood Mac "Rumours" 3-CD Deluxe Edition

Disc three is made of up alternative versions, demos and out-takes from the sessions. These tracks often contain tape hiss, sparse instrumentation, in-song chatter and are no way near the fidelity of the studio album. However, what they lack in audio quality they certainly make up for by offering a peek into the creative process.

My favourite is Dreams (take 2) – built around electric piano and rough guitar, the backing music sounds nothing like the album version, but the vocal melody is intact, and it’s a moving performance by Stevie Nicks.

Never Going Back Again [Acoustic Duet] is more fully formed than some of the tracks on disc three. Keep Me There [With Vocal] is interesting, as it includes the famous outro (a shortened version) that was later added to The Chain.

Fleetwood Mac

Silver Springs [Early Take] contains another fine Nicks vocal, and an echo laden backing track that differs enough from the finished version to make it an intriguing listen.

Planets Of The Universe [Demo] is a piano and vocals version of the track that later appeared on the Stevie Nicks Trouble in Shangri-La album. The lyrics are very raw and direct, and I prefer this version to the Trouble in Shangri-La studio version that was released in 2001.

I’m glad I bought this new version of Rumours – and I’m now embarking on a Big Mac of the Fleetwood variety binge. I’ve ordered the expanded Tusk re-issue and 25 Years – The Chain 4-CD compilation.

Buy Rumours [35th Anniversary Edition] – 3CD Deluxe Edition from Amazon

Buy Rumours [35th Anniversary Edition] – single disc edition from Amazon

Watch a live version of Dreams from 1977:


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Hugh Cornwell – Totem & Taboo

18 08 2012

The follow-up to 2008’s Hooverdam is a continuation of Cornwell’s recent back-to-basics approach.  Where the production on Hooverdam (by Liam Watson) harked back to the 60s, I felt that the production on the vocals let the songs down.  Hugh recorded his latest album in Chicago late last year, with Steve Albini (Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey) behind the desk.  The result is Hugh’s best sounding album to date, and surely up there with Nosferatu and Guilty as one of his finest albums.

A lot of credit must go to Albini for capturing the rich vocals and dirty, raw guitar from one of the class of 77’s finest performers. The Totem & Taboo title track is driven by powerful  drums and a guitar line reminiscent of early Bowie ala Rebel Rebel.

The albums second track, The Face, is about attending a party in honour of the material girl.  The pace picks up with I Want One Of Those, a real new wave thrasher, with lyrics bemoaning the consumerism of society, and the constant upgrade, give me it now culture. Albini captures Hugh’s guitar sound perfectly, with a wonderful solo closing the song.

Stuck in Daily Mail Land has shades of The Jam / Kinks & The Who (check out the nods to Start / Taxman in the bassline and the Keith Moon freakout drums in the break). It’s so refreshing to hear an album where all the musicians are clearly playing live in a room, at the same time, without countless overdubs.

Hugh Cornwell April 2012. Photo Copyright Kevin Nixon.Bad Vibrations is a highlight of Hugh’s live set, and has a wonderful, dirty overdriven bass sound, and Nosferatu‘esque  / Wired discordant guitar / drums interplay after the chorus.  The guitar at the end of the song has a real early Skids feel to it. One of my favourite tracks on the album, I never tire of this song.

God is a Woman features some great interplay between the three musicians, and is the result of bringing well-rehearsed, road-tested songs into the studio environment.

“You know she made the birds and the bees,
You know she made the plants and the trees
I want to see you down on your knees
God is a woman.”

Love Me Slender could be a comment on our image-driven society, as well as obviously being a misappropriation of Presley’s Love Me Tender.

The album ends strongly, with a trio of the albums most powerful songs, all connected by the United States.  Gods Guns and Gays is driven by a wonderful guitar line reminiscent at times of his former band’s Always The Sun, and lyrically discusses the contradictions and obsessions of the Country. Timpanis underpin some sections of the song (possibly a wry nod to another acerbic USA lyric, Dead Loss Angeles and it’s symphony of lonely tympanis line?).

Street Called Carroll is a new wave firecracker and a love song to LA. There is something about this song that reminds me of The Lovin’ Spoonful‘s Summer In The City, and I love the “staying cool, staying cool…” refrain.

“He’ll be drawing in the chalk again,
They are telling me the dead can walk again.”

From the polluted, smog-filled inner-city jungle of LA, the album slips to a more mystical side of the USA with Totem & Taboo‘s closing track, the epic In The Dead of Night.  The sound of assorted wildlife and a real feel of the wide open spaces of the Mojave Desert usher in the track, with it’s walking bass and loping drums.  Cornwell delivers a Riders on the Storm for the 21st Century, with the most effortlessly cool song you will hear this year.

The 60s feel continues as a riff that references Peter Gunn underpins the solo in the middle of the song. I love how Cornwell & Albini resisted the temptation to over-complicate the arrangement.  It remains true to the live version premiered last year, and is a great finish to the album.

Buy the CD on Amazon

Visit the Hugh Cornwell website


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Producers – Made in Basing Street

30 06 2012

Producers are Lol Creme (Godley & Creme, 10cc), Trevor Horn (producer known for his work with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Seal, ABC‘s Lexicon of Love, Grace Jones Slave to the Rhythm and singer / bassist in The Buggles and for one album, Yes), Stephen Lipson (guitarist / engineer / producer who worked with Horn on a lot of ZTT recordings) and Ash Soan (former Del Amitri / Squeeze drummer, now an in-demand session drummer).

The band started out as a live covers band, albeit made up of multi-million selling producers / musicians! The Producers initially existed as a way for the musicians to escape from the confines of the studio environment, and they rehearsed a set of songs by other artists that they had produced over the years.

The project soon grew into something greater and the band released a couple of singles (Freeway & Barking Up The Right Tree) in 2007, but this is their first full-length release, almost six years in the making.

Album opener Freeway is ushered in with Frankie-esque synths, and is a love-song to driving around Los Angeles.  Freeway introduces the two main vocalists on the album – singer / songwriter Chris Braide and Ryan Malloy (former vocalist in the short-lived post Holly Johnson Frankie Goes to Hollywood).

Geoff Downes (The Buggles / Asia) is another key player, appearing on every track, contributing keyboards, piano and rhodes.

Your Life is the first of three songs featuring Trevor Horn on lead vocals. As a big fan of The Buggles and the Yes Drama album, I had hoped for more Horn lead vocals. Maybe the next album? Ryan Malloy takes over lead vocals on the chorus of Your Life.

An extended version of the track can be found on the 2 disc version of the album, and it works well in an extended format, with some lovely trademark Trevor Horn heavy reverb on the vocals. There is a lovely pace to the song in this extended mix.

ZTT regular Luís Jardim also appears on Your Life, and the extended version on the second disc features Ryan Malloy on vocals throughout the song.

copyright Producers

Man on the Moon is a mid-70s FM radio style ballad with a fine vocal performance from Malloy and an outstanding guitar solo from Steve Lipson.

The haunting Every Single Night In Jamaica features Trevor Horn as the sole vocalist, and builds towards a killer chorus. Maybe this is how The Buggles would sound in 2012 if they were still recording?

“I know it’s you I should call
But my hearts not in it at all.”

Stay Elaine would not sound out of place on a mid-70s Rod Stewart album (that’s not a criticism by the way), and at times has hints of Del Amitri. Lovely guitar harmonics see out the song.

Barking Up The Right Tree is the only song to feature Lol Creme on lead vocals. A different version from the 2007 release, it’s one of the strongest songs on the album and is sequenced well to follow the previous track, which has a similar 70s feel. Gorgeous layered harmonies on top of Steve Lipson’s slide guitar make this song a personal album highlight.

Garden Of Flowers is the final song to feature Trevor Horn on lead vocals, and has touching lyrics, which possibly reference a personal tragedy that has been well documented. Despite it’s subject matter, it’s a very uplifting song, and highlights that although he is known primarily for his production skills, Horn is a unique vocalist and a damn fine bass player.

The album ends with a couple of uptempo songs – Watching You Out There and the album closer, You & I, another track with Chris Braide on lead vocals. Although Chris features throughout the album, he is no longer part of the band, but continues to record his own music, as well as writing for artists such as Lana del Rey and Sia.

I would recommend the 2-CD version of the album, which contains a hidden track at the end.  I won’t give too much away, but it goes back to the beginning of the band, with a live cover version of a key song by a band I’ve already mentioned.  That’s all I’m saying…. Ha!

Made in Basing Street is an excellent rock / pop album.  Hopefully it won’t take six years for Horn / Creme / Lipson & Soan to put together a follow-up release.

Made In Basing Street (2 CD version) at Amazon
Made in Basing Street (single CD) on Amazon


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Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man in the Universe

23 06 2012

Bobby Womack’s albums The Poet (1981) and The Poet II (1984) were two of my favourite 80s releases, but I’ve not heard much else from Womack apart from the wonderful Across 110th Street, the mid 80s When the Weekend Comes and the co-write of The Rolling Stone’s It’s All Over Now.

The Bravest Man in the Universe is the first album of new material since the mid 1990s, and follows on from his 2010 Gorillaz appearance.

Damon Albarn and Richard Russell have to take a lot of credit for the direction this album has taken. Free of old-time soul cliches, the arrangements and instrumentation underpin some of Womack’s finest vocal performances.

The 68 year old soul singer has a new gritty tone to his vocals, that sit perfectly with the glitchy electronic backing to most of the songs.

Please forgive my heart could easily have sat on one of the classic Poet albums from the 80s, but where those tracks were quite conservative in their arrangement, the 2012 Womack tracks rely heavily on drum machines, decaying piano and dub bass.

Womack’s guitar playing on the end of Please forgive my heart and it’s following track, Deep River is sparse, honest and under-played. My only criticism is that his guitar playing should have featured more on the album.

Lana Del Rey duets with Womack on one of the albums key tracks, Dayglo Reflection. A sample of Sam Cooke speaking also features on the song, which has echoes of trip-hop’s finest band, Portishead.

Whatever happened to the times is build around a cheap, haunting organ refrain, and distorted, echo-laden vocals and has a spirit of experimentation rarely heard in the soul genre.  This is the second time Womack has recorded this song – the first version was on 1985’s So Many Rivers album.  The 2012 take simply blows the original out of the water.  Stripped of Van Halenesque lead guitar and a gutteral vocal on the 80s original, the 2012 version pushes the emotion to the fore, and is no doubt the definitive recording of this song.

The late Gil Scott-Heron features on the intro to Stupid, a breakbeat driven song featuring bittersweet lyrics that appear to take aim at corrupt preachers.

The album fades a little toward the end, with Love is gonna lift you up feeling a little too light in comparison with the preceding tracks.  Luckily the album picks up again with Nothin’ Can Save Ya, featuring Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara and the albums closing track, the soul standard Jubilee (Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around).

So whilst both Poet albums will always hold a special place in my heart, The Bravest Man in the Universe has already become my favourite Bobby Womack album, and is one of my favourite albums of 2012.  A career highlight, you bet!

Buy Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man In The Universe from Amazon


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Storm Corrosion

5 05 2012

Storm Corrosion is the collaboration between no-man / Porcupine Tree‘s Steven Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth.

Their self-titled album is released on Roadrunner, and has been described as being part of a trilogy (Opeth’s Heritage and Wilson’s Grace for Drowning being the other two albums).

Stripped of the metal flavouring of some of the duo’s work in their main bands over recent years, Storm Corrosion is a natural progression from both Heritage and Grace for Drowning.

The heavy guitars may not be in evidence, but the music remains dark, atmospheric and at times almost sounds like the soundtrack to a twisted, avant-garde European film that’s yet to be made.

Opener Drag Ropes has hints of the minimalism of no-man’s together we’re stranger album in the end section (especially with the light-touch percussion), and features some delicious string arrangements by Dave Stewart. The vocals are shared between Åkerfeldt and Wilson, with Åkerfeldt taking the lead for most of the song.

“I was immortal but I am your friend
To stay and be beside you”

The album’s title track takes it’s rhythm from the backing of gentle rain and distant thunder, and features Wilson on lead vocals. It’s a song of two halves – the gentle, mostly acoustic opening section soon mutates into a twisted, clattering diversion, before the strings and guitar return for the end of the song.

“Someone is calling her shorewards”

Elements of the real world seep into some of the songs – the weather in the title track, laughter in Hag, and on several occasions, you can hear the musician’s react to their performance, which displays a real sense of spontaneity in these recordings.

Hag is a mellotron and piano heavy piece, and features some off-kilter drums from Gavin Harrison, and a nagging bass-line.

Happy is the albums shortest track, and lyrically, doesn’t live up to it’s name! Like most of the tracks on the album, Happy starts off fairly serene, lulling you into a false sense of security, before disturbing strings usher in a darker section.

Storm Corrosion January 2012. Picture Naki Kouyioumtzis © 2012

As you would expect from a Wilson / Åkerfeldt collaboration, the production and mix is immaculate. Mastered at a sympathetic level, highs and lows appear organic and are given space to breathe and hit you on an emotional level, which does not really happen with the current trend for brickwall, in your face mastering.

Lock Howl is an instrumental track, with one of the guitar riffs reminding me of a late 60s Pretty Things track, that I can’t quite put my finger on.  Give me time, I’ll identify it!

Lock Howl shifts and changes several times during it’s 6 minute stay, sometimes exuding a middle-Eastern flavour and again making use of a poweful, emotive string arrangement.

The final (and longest) track on the album is Ljudet Innan, featuring a fine falsetto lead vocal from Åkerfeld in the first section. After a few listens (the CD only arrived from Burning Shed today), this is shaping up to be my personal favourite track on the album. Its a classic album closer, and the middle section (with some fine guitar-work from Åkerfeldt) lifts your mood after the much darker tracks that came before.

The title in English is “ancient music” which fits the song perfectly. The mid-section’s spacey, choral synths give way to a bluesey end section, with truenorth (no-man) influenced scattering percussion, before passing the lead vocal baton back to Wilson. Both Åkerfeld and Wilson’s reverb-heavy vocals on this track tread new ground, displaying an almost soulful feel.

Whilst I think Storm Corrosion will appeal to fans of later Opeth and Porcupine Tree, the album thankfully has its own unique identity. An Opeth / Porcupine Tree hybrid would have been a safe option, and probably a disappointment. This multi-layered, pastoral flavoured debut release from Storm Corrosion offers hope for further albums from the duo, and reveals new depths on repeated listens.

Buy Storm Corrosion (Special Edition) on Amazon

Buy Storm Corrosion (CD) on Amazon

Visit the Storm Corrosion website


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Gabriel Kahane – Where Are the Arms

12 04 2012

I had never heard of Gabriel Kahane, until I saw mention of his song Charming Disease by one of my favourite singer-songwriters, the mighty Gavin Castleton. And what a track this it turned out to be!

Lyrically, it’s a sad tale of fighting alcoholism, set to music containing delicious aching strings, guitar and piano, and reminding me a little of Leeds artist Lone Wolf.

Listen to a stream of Charming Disease from the Gabriel Kahane bandcamp page below.

“You were sneaking out with little lies, in the morning by the market, for a good time
You tried to hide it by the lemon trees, I took you home and took away your keys.”

Merritt Pkwy is the tale of a chance meeting and a relationship that ends as quickly as it starts. The song could well be a continuation of the story from the previous track.  The tracks are even linked by a string section that could be acting as a bridge between the two lyrics.

“And I say now what I said then 
please let me forget you 
In some hot one gas station town 
please let me forget you”

There are shades of Sufjan Stevens and Rufus Wainwright in Kahane’s music, and although he comes from a classical background, this album is a mixture of pop and indie. It’s true there are shifting time signatures, string sections and theatrical touches, but the album will appeal to those who like intelligent pop music. Nothing is throwaway, every note is carefully considered and exists for a reason.

The track LA opens with a picked guitar refrain, typical of many signer-songwriters, but is uniquely under-pinned by a baroque piano-part.

“LA
The selfish city wins again.”

Watch the video for LA below

Last Dance is a heart-wrenching song of loss and regret. Regret for the words that were not spoken, the final experiences that could not be shared, and the aching desire to share a lover’s touch one last time.

“all I want is a face to hold
and love and light and sex
and cigarettes”

Icebox name-checks New York land-marks that don’t quite resonate with a South-east London boy like me, but the imagery paints a picture of travelling through cities and people watching that is universal.

Winter Song has some wonderful double-bass and electric piano in the middle section of the song, recalling early 70’s John Martyn, and is topped off by a lovely flute arrangement.

“scratching out a past
we don’t remember much
words come apart like
tendon shattered bone”

Where Are The Arms is an ambitious album, covering several genres, often within individual songs, and stands up to repeated listening. Each song is a portrait, with common themes such as regret, isolation and missed connections (Merritt Pkwy is a prime example).

Watch the Charming Disease video

Buy Where Are The Arms from Amazon


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Gazpacho – March of Ghosts

9 04 2012

March of Ghosts is Norwegian progressive band Gazpacho‘s 7th studio album, and the second for the excellent Kscope (home of Anathema, no-man, Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree & The Pineapple Thief) record label.

The album opens with the instrumental Monument, which seques into Hell Freezes Over I – with its naggingly addictive guitar line and jittery percussion intro setting the scene for the album.

March of Ghosts is a mixture of progressive elements with an over-riding pop sensibility. Whereas a lot of modern progressive music uses keyboards, particularly the mellotron, to decorate recordings, Gazpacho use violin and real strings which add a sense of warmth to their compositions.

Black Lily is one of the most immediate tracks, with a killer chorus, whilst still underpinned with the recurring guitar motif from earlier in the album.

Gold Star adds a celtic feel to the music, that continues through several songs, with some lovely percussive bells, and brass instruments (and possibly accordians somewhere in the mix), so it’s clear the band are keen to steer clear of obvious and cliched instrumentation.

Mary Celeste is one of my favourite tracks on the album, reminding me a little of Peter Gabriels OVO soundtrack at times.

“When they found us on the water
They didn’t see our faces
I hear the voices in the warmth
But we can’t get outside”

The inclusion of uilleann pipes works surprisingly well towards the end of Mary Celeste. After suffering uilleann pipes in THAT Celine Dion Titanic song, that’s a sentence I never thought I would write.

Listen to Gazpacho – March of Ghosts (Album Montage)

What Did I Do? is built around a simple, uncluttered arrangement, coated with rich warm vocal harmonies from Jan Henrik Ohme on the chorus. Oh dear, I’m starting to sound like I’m reviewing the other Gazpacho, the spanish soup!

The Dumb has a wonderful middle section, with dreamy descending piano over a gorgeous fretless bass-line.

“Stories left untold…”

The albums longest track closes the album, as Hell Freezes Over IV brings back the main guitar riff that under-pins the album, and March of Ghosts ends on it’s heaviest arrangement.

The bands Thomas Andersen describes the theme of the album – ‘The idea was to have the lead character spend a night where all these ghosts (dead and alive) would march past him to tell their stories.’ 

The lyrical themes are not too obvious, and leave plenty of room for personal interpretation, which is always a good sign for music that can be re-visited and re-discovered.

Watch the video for Black Lilly

Buy March of Ghosts from Amazon

Buy the previous Gazpacho album Missa Atropos from Amazon


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no-man – Love and Endings

9 04 2012

Love and Endings is a recording of  no-man‘s concert at the Leamington Spa Assembly in October 2011, as part of the record label Burning Shed’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

For the those not yet familiar with no-man, they are a British band comprising Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree). Formed in 1987, no-man have produced a fine back-catalogue of work, and boast guest appearances from the likes of King Crimson‘s Robert Fripp and Pat Mastelotto, Porcupine Tree’s Colin Edwin, Richard Barbieri and Gavin Harrison, jazz musicians Theo Travis and Ian Carr, electronic artists Scanner and Faultline, Bruce Kaphan (American Music Club) and Dave Stewart (Egg/Hatfield & The North). Former members of 80s band Japan – Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri & Mick Karn, toured and recorded with the band in the early 1990s.

Since the early 1990s, the band have existed mainly as a studio outfit, rarely venturing into the live arena, so no-man live shows are hugely anticipated events. As well as capturing one of the finest no-man live performances, Love and Endings is also a perfect introduction to the band’s music for the uninitiated. For people already familiar with the band’s music, Love and Endings may come as a surprise, as the live incarnation of the band is a powerful beast.

Recent studio releases from no-man have included twisted, dark electronica (the Wild Opera album), fragile, semi-acoustic / minimalist songs with stark lyrics (Together We’re Stranger) through to their most organic release in 2008’s Schoolyard Ghosts. Recent no-man live appearances, though few and far between, hint at a new direction, and one that will appeal to fans of Steven Wilson’s work in Porcupine Tree.

Opening track my revenge on seattle is very electronic, awash with percussive synths in it’s studio incarnation, but the Love and Endings live version is stripped back, with deep chorused bass, textured guitar and mournful violin. The joyous middle section showcases some wonderful interplay between the musicians and powerful tom / cymbal work from drummer Andrew Booker.

“maybe there’s more to life
than just righting wrongs
maybe not”

time travel in texas is another song from the mid-90’s Wild Opera album, with the 2011 live version losing it’s scratchy Portishead trip-hop atmosphere, mutating into a brooding, twin-guitar heavy assault.

all the blue changes is a more percussive take on the track that originally appeared on 2003’s Together We’re Stranger album. One of the highlights of the live set, with my favourite Bowness vocal on the album and some fine layered keyboards from Stephen Bennett.

“giving up on beautiful
and making peace with strange,
all the blue changes rearranged”

The song shifts up a couple of gears with some brutal Wilson guitar and pounding Booker drums around 3/4 of the way through, sounding like Sigur Rós on steroids or the wall of noise of Mono, I swear you can hear the audience gasp before applauding at the end!

The formerly sample-driven pretty genius is reinvented as a much looser song on love and endings, but remains true to the spirit of the original version, with some beautiful violin work by Steve Bingham, and a great sloping back-beat from Messrs Morgan and Booker.

lighthouse is my favourite no-man song, and the love and endings live version does not disappoint. It’s no-man’s most progressive sounding track, and although originally written in the early 1990s, has not aged at all. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the section of the song from 4:08 onwards is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time. It never fails to move me.

Have a listen to the Love and Endings version of lighthouse, taken from the official no-man SoundCloud, below.

“the love and endings,
the almost starts”

beaten by love is a previously unreleased no-man track, written in 1987 and performed for the first time at this show. The track displays hints of some of the darker This Mortal Coil tracks mixed with a healthy dose of Siouxsie & the Banshees, and is unlike any recent no-man material.

Following the darkest track on the album with one of the most uplifting no-man songs, wherever there is light,  works well, and shows the range in singer Tim Bowness’s vocals (from beaten by love‘s growl to the soft, breathy croon on this emotive and deeply personal song).

“Jane passes through the crowds
outside the mercury lounge.
she loves the city sounds.
she feels that she’s been found.”

The live version of mixtaped is a lot looser than the Schoolyard Ghosts studio take, with some inventive percussive touches, and a wonderful mixture of textures and distorted, heavy guitar from Wilson and Bearpark, and works well as a set closer.

“you’d kill for that feeling once again”

The final track on the album was the encore on the evening, things change. The highlight of the live version of this track has always been the electric violin solo that is an integral part of the powerful outro. The version on Love and Endings is very different from previous live outings, watch the filmed version on the accompanying DVD to appreciate the performance fully.

“you walk upon the dirt and chocolate wrappers, 
leaving me behind you.”

Love and Endings DVD

Love and Endings also comes with a DVD of the whole performance. The Love and Endings DVD is a very different concert film to the previous live no-man DVD, 2009’s mixtaped, which was a multi-camera shoot.

The HD footage shot by Dion Johnson (of Signify films) captures the performance and the mood of the show perfectly on just two cameras. It was filmed from the front-row of the audience, so you get a real feeling of being in the crowd, and this gives a different perspective to most live films.

The mixtaped DVD does offer a better variety of shots, and more close-ups of individual band members, features a full-length concert and an excellent no-man documentary, so perhaps should not be compared to the DVD that comes with Love and Endings. The Love and Endings film, although it has a few awkward zooms and camera angles that might not normally be kept in an official release, does capture a band performance that was better than the one on the previous DVD, and so is definitely a worthwhile addition to the no-man discography.

The concert was not filmed with a DVD release in mind but the footage came out better than was expected, and the ‘guerilla style’  does give the recording its own, unique identity and captures the performance perfectly, and so offers good value for money as an added extra.

The extra content on the DVD is a photo gallery – with an instrumental version of the live version of mixtaped as background music.

Watch the promotional video for the album / DVD below.

Love and Endings sees no-man’s core duo of Tim Bowness (vocals) and Steven Wilson (guitar) joined by classical violinist Steve Bingham and regular collaborators Michael Bearpark (guitar), Andrew Booker (drums & backing vocals), Stephen Bennett (keyboards) and Pete Morgan (bass).

Tracklist

my revenge on seattle (6.02)
time travel in texas (4.51)
all the blue changes (6.10)
pretty genius (3.58)
lighthouse (8.16)
beaten by love (3.58)
wherever there is light (5.09)
mixtaped (9.32)
things change (8.24)

The Love and Endings CD / DVD is available from The Burning Shed.

For more information on no-man, visit the no-man website, like no-man on Facebook and follow no-man on Twitter.

The pictures of Tim Bowness & Steven Wilson courtesy of Charlotte Kinson.


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Shearwater – Animal Joy

28 02 2012

The follow-up to 2010’s The Golden Archipelago is the Austin, Texas bands first on new label Sub Pop.

A more accessible album (mainly due to stronger, much more direct songs in my opinion), album opener Animal Life rolls along, topped with a Robert Fripp-esque guitar wail.

Breaking the Yearlings follows the Shearwater trait of being a homage to nature, animals (yearlings are young horses) and birds and this song with it’s full-on drums and 60’s organ riff, is another to add to the list.

Unusually for Shearwater, there are bluesey elements to some of the guitar parts on this album, particularly on the track Dread Sovereign.

The albums key track is You As You Were, which is already shaping up to be my favourite Shearwater track. Hammered piano over a metronomic kick drum gives way to a sweetly sequenced synth line, and a rapidly building frenzied vocal that leaves you breathless by the end of this powerful song.

Don’t take my word for it, have a listen to a stream of the track, from the Shearwater SoundCloud account, below.

“When you fell in the rocks
At a bend in the river
With the blood from your nose
Running hard on your fingers
And through the rest of your life.”

You As You Were

Stream on iPhone / iPad

Insolence sounds like Raintree Crow meets late period Talk Talk (come on, how could I write a Shearwater review without mentioning singer Jonathan Meiburg’s resemblance to Mark Hollis?) and Immaculate starts off sounding like Dr Feelgood until the vocals kick in, which was a bit of a surprise.

The drums and percussion are very prominent and high in the mix on this album, so on occasions the atmosphere / space usually found in Shearwater songs is toned down a little, but it’s forgivable when you hear songs as strong as You As You Were and Open Your Houses.

Run the Banner Down displays a lighter touch, compared to the majority of the album, with a delicate picked guitar and gentle tom and percussion work that gives the song its unique pace.

The album closes with Star of the Age, which is perhaps a little too “lighters in the air” for my liking and a track I won’t return to as often as others on this album. The penultimate track Believing Makes it Easy would have been a more fitting ending to Animal Joy, but if a track like Star of the Age brings the music of Shearwater to a wider audience, it’s a small price to pay for getting music of this quality out to a more mainstream audience.

Buy Animal Joy on Amazon

Visit Amazon’s Shearwater Store

All lyrics © Shearwater

Shearwater website


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End of Year Favourites

28 12 2011

It’s that time of year again, and here are some of my favourites from 2011 as it draws to its close.

I’ve tried to include audio or video clips where they are available, but I will not upload unofficial media.  If you like what you hear or see, don’t steal the music, support the artists and buy their albums or films.

Gavin Castleton

It’s been a quiet year from Gavin – sadly no new album in 2011 but a couple of free downloads appeared on Gavin’s SoundCloud account, including one of my favourite tracks of the year, Swim Good.  

Swim Good is a track from Frank Ocean‘s Nostalgia, Ultra mixtape release.  Gavin takes the song to another level, underpinning Ocean’s song with my favourite Portishead track, Roads from 1994’s Dummy album.

Listen to Gavin Castleton‘s version of Swim Good below

Listen to Swim Good on iPhone or iPad.

More Gavin Castleton music on cdbaby or iTunes

The National – High Violet

The album that soundtracked my summer.  And yes, I’m a bit late with this album, as it was released in 2010.  If you don’t already have the album, I’d suggest picking up the expanded version which has 7 extra tracks. Lemonworld is my favourite track on the album:

“I was a comfortable kid
But I don’t think about it much anymore
Lay me on the table, put flowers in my mouth”

Runaway is another highlight, sounding like a song that could have come from any era from the 1950’s onwards. Lovely strings (and a rarity in alternative rock, trumpet) on this track.

Watch a live version of Anyone’s Ghost below.

Buy The National – High Violet (expanded edition) or regular CD on Amazon

Wild Beasts – Smother

Deeper (with its Blue Nile Tinseltown In The Rain sounding drums) and Loop the Loop were the tracks I played most from this 2011 album from Cumbrian band Wild Beasts.

There are echoes of the late, great Billy MacKenzie in the vocals at times, and a lovely warm production on this album that makes Smother a more rounded album than 2009’s Mercury Prize nominated Two Dancers.

Watch the band perform Lion’s Share from Smother on Later With Jools Holland

Buy Smother on Amazon

Niki & the Dove

Swedish electronic duo Niki & the Dove releasedthe 7 track  The Drummer EP in 2011. Sounding at times like Stevie Nicks backed by Prince, I wonder if the duo’s name is some sort of Prince homage (Darling Nikki / When Doves Cry?).

Mother Protect starts off like a Siouxsie & the Banshees track from Ju Ju before turning into a wonderful electronic anthem, with a monumental key-change rounding off the song. Pop music is alive and well in Sweden, it seems.

Listen to Mother Protect from the Niki & the Dove Soundcloud site

Watch the video for The Drummer

Buy The Drummer EP on Amazon

Yes – Fly From Here

My favourite Yes album is Drama from 1980, when Trevor Horn & Geoff Downes of The Buggles were in the band (the Yeggles lineup), so its no surprise that I enjoyed Fly From Here, which has Geoff Downes back in the band, and Trevor Horn back behind the mixing desk.

New vocalist Benoît David sits comfortably in the mix, and the album is built round a track that was written by Downes / Horn prior to joining the band in 1980. The Buggles connection continues with Life on a Film Set, which is based on Riding a Tide from The Buggles second, and final album, Adventures in Modern Recording.

Watch the Fly From Here video below

Buy Yes – Fly From Here on Amazon

Pink Floyd remasters

Some of my favourite Floyd albums were re-released this year, in remastered form, with Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall sounding better than ever.

Granted they sounded pretty good in the beginning, but the 2011 re-masters avoid the common trick of brickwall mastering, when there is no space for the music to breathe or hit peaks and lows, and the end result is a terribly clipped mix.

Watch the Pink Floyd remasters TV advert below (full 2 minute ad)

Buy Dark Side of the Moon double CD
Buy Wish You Were Here double CD
Buy Animals CD
Buy The Wall double CD or pre-order the 3 CD box-set

And some albums I reviewed earlier this year…

White Willow – Terminal Twlight

Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow

Thomas Dolby – A Map Of The Floating City

Steven Wilson – Grace For Drowning

Memories of Machines – Warm Winter

Slow Electric – Slow Electric

Releases I’m looking forward to in 2011

    • A new album from Lone Wolf (the follow-up to 2010’s The Devil & I)
    • a duets album from David Sylvian and Joan as Policewoman
    • InGladAloneness the final release from Dalis Car (the late Mick Karn & vocalist Peter Murphy from Bauhaus)
    • Hugh Cornwell‘s Totem & Taboo – which is being produced by Steve Albini in Chicago.  Live version (audience recording) of In the Dead of Night from the album below

Film

The majority of films I’ve wanted to see this year – such as Melancholia, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, I didn’t get round to seeing at the cinema, so I’m looking forward to their release on DVD / Blu-ray in early 2012. Hopefully I’ll review them soon.

Watch The Tree of Life trailer below.

TV

Boardwalk Empire

The quality of the writing, directing and the sets did not let-up for the second season. But in the final episode of the series, they killed off my favourite character.  I won’t give away the identity, but it was a shocker. Oh Nucky, how could you?

Buy Boardwalk Empire Season 1 on DVD or Blu-ray

Watch the Season 2 trailer

The Fades

The Fades is a British supernatural drama, about a teenager who can see spirits of the dead (the Fades). Some of the dead have not managed to make their way to heaven and so remain on earth, and become vengeful towards humans.

The battle between those who can see the dead (Angelics) and the Fades plays out over six episodes, and although the the special effects were not Hollywood quality, it really does not matter as the story was so well written. I’m hoping it pulled in enough viewers to warrant a second series, and a larger audience.

Watch The Fades trailer below

Buy The Fades DVD or Blu-ray on Amazon

Outcasts

Another BBC series was a personal highlight of 2011. Outcasts, a sci-fi drama set in the year 2060, has all the hallmarks of a future television cult classic.

The series is set around survivors from a dying Earth colonizing the planet Carpathia, and the developing conflict between the humans and the Advanced Cultivars (ACs) a group of artificially created humans. Good scripts, strong acting and powerful cinematography (Outcasts was filmed in an alien looking South African landscape), was not enough, and the series finished on a cliff-hanger ending, with no second series.

Watch the Outcasts trailer

Buy Outcasts on DVD or Blu-ray on Amazon


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