It’s been a week of Wilson’s for me – a wonderful Steven Wilson gig at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday, and a new album from Jonathan Wilson this week.

The two Wilson’s were previously musically poles apart, with Jonathan’s 2011 album Gentle Spirit being a gentle updating of the LA / Laurel Canyon sound, there is now some common ground as the new album from the Wilson of the Jonathan variety has a more progressive feel, with echoes of ELO and Pink Floyd, particularly on the title track.

Fanfare has a much richer palette than Jonathan’s debut album, and this makes for a more rewarding listening experience.  The big drums, aching 70s strings, Fender Rhodes, sax and Floydian vocal line of the title track set the mood for the whole album, which if released in 1977 would have surely been a staple of FM radio for many years.

It’s that wonderful classic rock sound that I love, but with the clarity of 2013 recording techniques (albeit still analog recording). If you don’t immediately buy the album after hearing the stream of Fanfare above, then I will be deeply disappointed in you.

Her hair is Growing Long is a beautiful song, with Danny Thompson’esque bass, intricate guitar lines and harmonics, underpinned by deep pulsing strings, building to a heavily percussive ending.

Dear Friend has some of the best guitar work on the album, and a real live feel to the track, especially the bass / drum interplay in the song’s mid-section, and bears comparison at times to the other Wilson’s recent work in its experimentation with jazz rock structures.

The variety of styles explored on Fanfare is one of the album’s great strengths, and a case in point is Future Vision, featuring former Fleet Foxes member Josh Tillman, who delivers exquisite harmonies.

Starting off almost like a country song, Future Vision is one of my favourite tracks on the album, in no way influenced (coughs) by the fact that it mutates mid-way through into an almost mid-period Steely Dan sounding piece.

Another standout track is Cecil Taylor, which features David Crosby and Graham Nash, so you know the harmonies are going to be pitch-perfect.

“Completely alone, I remember the story
We all see the thunderbolt – we all feel the glory”

Phased vocals, simple percussion and layered picked acoustic guitar give the vocals a real space to breathe.

Illumination has shades of Neil Young, with a deep grungy groove, and a hint of Around The World In A Day era Prince psychedelia thrown in for good measure.

The crystal-clear mix and excellent instrument separation on Desert Trip highlights Jonathan’s production skills. Some fine backing vocals from Jackson Browne and Josh Tillman beef up the latter stages of this trip.

New Mexico conjures up a dusty, barren desert landscape, and features LA musician Omar Velasco on backing vocals.

“I couldn’t let you into my mind, I couldn’t get you out of my mind”

Lovestrong features some fine piano work from Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Ryan Adams, Stevie Nicks) and a guitar solo from Jonathan that David Gilmour would surely be proud to serve up.

Album closer All The Way Down reminds me a little of my favourite Ryan Adams album, Love is Hell, specifically the powerful tracks Political Scientist and The Shadowlands.

Snatches of abstract radio chatter and background noise seep through the strings, piano and guitar that follows the loping beat.

Fanfare is one of those classic albums that just begs to be played late at night, with the lights dimmed, and no distractions – put down your iPhone for an hour, and turn the music up loud.

All The Way Down is the perfect ending to what is already shaping up to be one of my favourite albums of 2013.

Buy the album on Amazon UK

Opener The Eater of Dreams is a slow building, electronic heart beat monitor intro to the most electronic album in NIN’s eight album discography.

“I am just an echo, of an echo, of an echo…”

Copy of A gives a good taste of what lies in store – it’s an incessantly catchy track, with nagging, buzzing synths laid over a tightly tuned Blue Monday’esque drum machine.

Came Back Haunted features dark synth-lines, and a great classic NIN guitar riff halfway through the song. But you already know this, as the song has been available for over a month now.

The presence of Alan Moulder on the production side is telling with the sound of this album. Moulder  worked with Curve in the 90s, and there are some hints of the way Curve used dark electronics cut with brutal guitars on Hesitation Marks.

“Everywhere now reminding me… I am not who I used to be”

Whilst Hesitation Marks musically is a very different beast to the Nine Inch Nails of The Downward Spiral or The Fragile, lyrically its still visceral and although there are more synths than guitars, the music is still hard-hitting and atmospheric. The delivery may have changed, but there is no dumbing down or compromise on display here.

Find My Way is an early album favourite, with simple piano lines, Twin Peak’s guitar and a great Reznor vocal. Sometime’s less is more, and Find My Way is a very powerful song, different to anything I have heard from NIN before.

“Ghost’s of who we used to be. I can feel them come for me.”

All Time Low is driven by a very Talking Head’s like riff. I wonder if this is one of the tracks featuring Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham? I won’t know till I receive the cd on release day (this review is from the NIN website stream, so no album credits are available yet). A fairytale like synth motif bubbles away in the background as Reznor sings “We’re never gonna die, how did we get so high?”. A clever touch.

Disappointed will not leave you feeling so. Some lovely, subtle guitar playing in the background of the verses. One of the strengths of Hesitation Marks that is immediately apparent is that the tracks have layers that reveal themselves on repeated listening sessions. The last couple of minutes of Disappointed are a case in point – soaring guitars and keyboards, underpinned by nagging sequencers, drop quickly to reveal the lightly percussive melody and crisp drums. It’s like getting halfway through a really enjoyable meal and then bang, a new flavour hits your palate. And I do like a good meal!

Everything is almost NIN goes late 70s powerpop – NIN do The Knack! The heaviest and most uptempo track on the album, it’s short, sharp and to the point. It’s also the perfect length for a classic single, at 3.19.

Satellite and Various Methods of Escape have a mid-80s Peter Gabriel feel to the music (yes, I really did just write that), with the latter track having a very strong, addictive chorus that counteracts the world weary lyrics.

Another reference to the 1980s is the appearance of bassist Pino Palladino on the album. I can’t hear any Wherever I lay My Hat type basslines here, but his touring with The Who (or his Tears For Fears work) was probably more of a reference point for his inclusion by Reznor.

The outro to Running, if included on a previous NIN album, would be awash with heavy wall-of-sound guitars, whereas the 2013 Reznor has a singular guitar line, backed by scraping keys and insistent beats.

The scent of Bowie can also be found on Hesitation Marks. I Would for You would not have sounded out of place on Bowie’s Earthling (and we know Reznor loves I’m Afraid of Americans from that album).

In Two is another album highlight – with shades of the breakdown in March of the Pigs, though the rest of the song bears no resemblance to The Downward Spiral track. I think In Two may contain one of the Lindsey Buckingham appearances, it certainly sounds like his playing in the background as the song builds to it’s (very) abrupt climax.

While I’m Still Here brings the album full circle, back to the electronica of the opening salvo, although at a slower pace. I love the keyboard work in this track, and the sax riff at the end. Sax on a NIN album? Heresy. It seems as if the experience of the soundtrack work with Atticus Ross is being utilised to give the band more colours to choose from, which can only be a positive thing.

“Yesterday I found out the world was ending.”

Album closer Black Noise is an instrumental continuation of the previous track, and presumably is a play-on-words on white noise, with the album ending in an explosion of sound.

Hesitation Marks has the potential to become my favourite NIN album. It lacks the rage of early albums, but what is the point of repeating what’s gone before? There is so much depth revealed on repeated listening, and I think over time this will surpass Year Zero for me. One of the best releases of 2013, I certainly think so.

Order Hesitation Marks (Deluxe Edition) from Amazon UK

Joseph Arthur’s 10th studio album was originally available via Pledgemusic, and will be released more widely via Lonely Astronaut Records on June 11 2013.

Album opener Currency of Love is a 50’s sounding track, that would not sound out of place in a David Lynch movie or as a song on a long-lost Roy Orbison album.

Saint of Impossible Causes has an incredibly addictive and uplifting chorus, and a move forward to the 1960’s with the sitars on the verses.

The title track is very New York sounding, complete with Lou Reed Transformer referencing backing vocals and is an essay on a modern-day messiah.

“Christ would love hip-hop, metal and soul”

What is noticeable on this album is the more expansive backing than recent Arthur releases – lush strings, horn sections and a real widescreen production are very much the order of the day.  The album’s first ballad I Used to Know How To Walk on Water is an album highlight, with a vibrant, deep bassline and jazzy piano and drums.

Wait for Your Lights is simply classic Joseph Arthur. A tight, simple beat and descending piano lines, Wait for your Lights is an instant favourite and one of the best tracks on the album.

I Miss the Zoo is a more fully-realised take of the track that appeared on 2012’s Redemption City. An brutally honest tale of missing the high’s of a former lifestyle, to quote the lyrics “Even tho life is much better now”. A simple backing of heavily pounded acoustic guitar, bass, piano and organ let the powerful lyrics and increasingly impassioned vocal tell the story.

“I miss salvation in syringes and angels of mercy, in blooms of smoke numbing rain”

It’s OK to Be Young / Gone would not have sounded out-of-place on my favourite Joseph Arthur album, Our Shadows Will Remain. Some lovely Frippesque guitar textures layer this song.

Still Life Honey Rose has a scent of the desert, and a real late 70’s Fleetwood Mac vibe. It’s one of my favourite songs on the album.

Black Flowers is the shortest song in the collection, and zips along at a furious pace, with some crazy percussion under-pinning the one-line chorus, and what sounds like Herb Alpert smuggling his Tijuana Brass into the studio towards the end of the song

King of Cleveland reminds me a little of the mood of Arcade Fire‘s The Suburbs album – an America long-gone, and the song seems to point to a personal history in Ohio that is also consigned to memory.

“And she cut you”

Album closer All the Old Heroes is the longest track on the album, clocking in at just over 7 minutes, and appears to be another of the albums songs about escaping addiction.

“All the old heroes are like children to me now.
As I come to burn your shame away, without knowing exactly how.”

The Ballad of Boogie Christ was apparently put together over a period of 10 years, in between other album releases and with a mixture of old and new songs recorded with a wide cast of musicians in a variety of studios across America. Yet surprisingly for such a potentially haphazard collection of songs and styles, the album comes across as Arthur’s most focused and coherent release to date, and it may well be the album that finally leads to greater recognition beyond his existing audience.

The Ballad of Boogie Christ

Currency of Love
Saint of Impossible Causes
The Ballad of Boogie Christ
I Used to Know How To Walk on Water
Wait for Your Lights
I Miss the Zoo
It’s OK to Be Young / Gone
Still Life Honey Rose
Black Flowers
King of Cleveland
Famous Friends along the Coast
All the Old Heroes

Buy Joseph Arthur albums from Amazon UK

The Ballad of Boogie Christ

Our Shadows Will Remain

Visit the Joseph Arthur website.

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

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

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Trent Reznor’s third recent collaboration with Atticus Ross (the other two being the Academy Award winning The Social Network soundtrack and the post NIN band How to Destroy Angels) is the soundtrack to the David Fincher directed The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

The album is framed by a bookend of cover versions – the opener is a cover of Led Zeppelin‘s Immigrant Song, which is probably already one of the most played songs this year, featuring in the trailer for the film that has received millions of YouTube viewings. Featuring  Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs on vocals, its the most guitar heavy piece on the soundtrack.  Bar the final track, the rest of the album is made up of dark, ambient, atmospheric instrumental music.

Reznor & Ross worked together during the latter Nine Inch Nails years, most notably on the Ghosts I-IV album, so this dark electronica is a continuation of their previous work. An early highlight on this 39 track release is What If We Could?, a gentle piano piece that stands out from the darkness of the preceding music. With The Flies follows, and is one of the most disturbing tracks on the album, with an incessant buzzing hinting at what are probably gory visuals in the forthcoming film.

A Thousand Details is an uptempo NIN-like romp, but the parts of the album I enjoy the most are the atypical, softer pieces, of which One Particular Moment is a particular highlight.  The bar-room piano motif is underpinned by soft synth pads that give way to razor sharp buzz synths. Please Take Your Hand Away continues with the bar-room piano and adds some eerie, discordant flute to the orchestration.

The Same As The Others is another highlight – with a simple guitar refrain, and whistling wind effects.  While Waiting stands out due to the rare use of voice – but still no words. The Seconds Drag ticks along at a metronomic pace, underpinned by bells and a nagging guitar line.  Bells feature on many tracks on this soundtrack, and are one of the key sounds that repeat and re-arrange themes throughout the album.

Parallel Timeline With Alternate Outcome is a slow-burning piano led track that starts to change when the buzzing flies previously used appear and lead to a disturbing end to the track.

The album closes with the second vocal track, and the second cover version, in the shape of Bryan Ferry‘s Legend track from 1986, Is Your Love Strong Enough?, performed on this soundtrack by How to Destroy Angels. This haunting version, stripped of the clunky 80’s snare of the original, is a fine end to the album.  It’s the only track featuring vocals from Reznor (towards the end of the song) and does make you hanker for a new Nine Inch Nails album (which may be on the cards for 2012).

Obviously, the main aim of a soundtrack is to accompany visuals, heightening tension, and strengthening the viewers emotional response to scenes, but sometimes soundtracks work as stand-alone listening experiences. For me, this album joins Ryuichi Sakamoto‘s Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and Clint Mansell‘s Black Swan as non-song based soundtracks that can be enjoyed in isolation of their accompanying films.

The soundtrack is available from the Nine Inch Nails website or iTunes, with a CD release on the 26th December, to tie-in with the film’s release.

Buy The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on Amazon

The Courage of Others is Midlakes third, and finest album, and is the follow-up to 2006’s The Trials of Van Occupanther. Released on former Cocteau Twins bassist Simon Raymonde‘s Bella Union label (which is also the home of Fleet Foxes & The Dears), the album has received mixed write-ups on Amazon, with some listeners complaining about the lack of variety and pace, and how there are no tracks as instantly compelling as Roscoe or Head Home.

On first listen, that might be the case, but listening to the album in it’s entirety, in order, you know, the old fashioned, pre-Ipod shuffle way, the songs creep up on you. And that’s the key, don’t expect instant returns here. I received the CD in the post on Monday morning, and 48 hours later, the music is working its magic on me.

If all that grows
Starts to fade, starts to falter
Oh let me inside, let me inside not to wake

The Courage of Others is a much more pastoral sounding Midlake album. Whereas the sound of The Trials of Van Occupanther was influenced by Classic Rock, and mid 70s Fleetwood Mac in particular, The Courage of Others is a more slower paced album, and is apparently inspired by British Folk, and artists such as Nick Drake and Fairport Convention in particular.

Rulers, Ruling All Things was the first song to hit home, and is the closest to previous Midlake songs.

Thinking the world was mine to be lost in
I ran with the freedom and sang in between

The song is the first in a trilogy of the albums strongest songs. Children Of The Grounds is one of the few mostly electric songs on the album.

We’re not all the same in this town

Before anyone shouts “Judas”, the following track Bring Down, brings back the acoustic guitars, flutes and the mood of summers long past.

Tim Smith shares the vocals with Stephanie Dosen on Bring Down, to my ears the standout track on the album.

I may never have the courage of others
I would not approach you at all
I was always taught to worry about things, all the many things you can’t control

There a real mood of melancholy in The Courage Of Others, which is no bad thing. If you stick with the album (it is an album after all, not a collection of songs) and don’t dip into individual tracks, but treat this as a complete work, you are likely to be rewarded with an album that will stay with you for a long, long time.

Tracklisting:
Acts Of Man / Winter Dies / Small Mountain / Core Of Nature /
Fortune / Rulers, Ruling All Things / Children Of The Grounds /
Bring Down / The Horn / The Courage Of Others / In The Ground

Lyrics quoted © Midlake
Bella Union – Bellacd 224
Released February 2010
Midlake website
Buy The Courage of Others on Amazon UK