Forthcoming from Tricky

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Ed

He named his debut album after his mother – Maxinquaye – and for his eleventh album, Tricky is calling his eleventh album Adrian Thaws, his name at birth.

The first track to be released from the album ‘Nicotine Love’ features Irish singer Francesca Belmonte. This sees Tricky experimenting with more of an electronic feel, and yet is unmistakeably him.

The album tracklisting is as follows, and the album is due out in September:

1. Sun Down feat. Tirzah
2. Lonnie Listen feat. Mykki Blanco & Francesca Belmonte
3. Something In The Way feat. Francesca Belmonte
4. Keep Me In Your Shake feat. Nneka
5. The Unloved (Skit)
6. Nicotine Love feat. Francesca Belmonte
7. Gangster Chronicles feat. Bella Gotti
8. I Had A Dream feat. Francesca Belmonte
9. My Palestine Girl feat. Blue Daisy
10. Why Don’t You feat. Bella Gotti
11. Silly Games feat. Tirzah
12. Right Here feat. Oh Land
13. Silver Tongue – When You Go

Presenting…(the return of) Andrew Montgomery

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Ed

History is full of acts that deserved far greater coverage and sales than they got. While Aberdeen’s Geneva scored four top 40 hits and a top 20 album in the 1990s, and were labelmates of Suede at Nude in London, they should have been far bigger than they were. The main reason they got noticed in the first place was the spellbinding voice of Andrew Montgomery.

It was a Suede connection that has brought the return of Andrew Montgomery to my attention. In 2012 I interviewed Artmagic, the duo which was Sean McGhee and Suede’s guitarist Richard Oakes. Sean has produced the debut solo album from Andrew Montgomery, Ruled By Dreams.

The album will be released on 5th October. It is described as being a mixture of torch songs, yearning modern pop and space-age gospel. It features Richard Oakes, Röyksopp collaborator Kate Havnevik and Jody & Simon from Autoheart.

The album’s opening track “After The Storm”, is the first to do the rounds along with ‘I Sing The Body Electric.’ Listen and be amazed. And believe me, comparisons with the great Antony Hegarty are deserved here. The album can be pre-ordered via his bandcamp.

‘After The Storm’ and ‘I Sing The Body Electric’ can be streamed over at his soundcloud page

The return of Grimes

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Ed

In 2012, Grimes topped both my Festive Fifty with ‘Genesis’ and was also my album of the year for Visions. At this point in time, the only time an artist has done that on this blog.

She’s shortly to release a new album, in the meantime, she’s made the rather lovely ‘Go’ featuring Blood Diamonds available to stream and download for free. No, it doesn’t sound like Genesis part 2, but it’s gorgeous leftfield pop. Bring on the new album! In the meantime, enjoy this…

The return of Sinead O’Connor

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Ed

It’s now over twenty-five years since Sinead O’Connor released her debut album, The Lion And The Cobra. And she’s now about to release her tenth album, entitled I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss, wiith a new single ‘Take Me To Church’ out now.

Her last album, 2012’s How About I Be Me (And You Be You?) was a great record with great tracks like ‘Reason With me,’ ‘4th & Vine’ and her cover of John Grant’s ‘Queen of Denmark.’ Last year she sang backing vocals on three songs on Grant’s latest album Pale Green Ghosts -‘GMF’ ‘Why Don’t You Love Me Any More?’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter To Him.’

I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss is out on August 11. The tracklisting is as follows:

1. How About I Be Me
2. Dense Water Deeper Down
3. Kisses Like Mine
4. Your Green Jacket
5. The Vishnu Room
6. The Voice of My Doctor
7. Harbour
8. James Brown (with Seun Kuti)
9. 8 Good Reasons
10. Take Me to Church
11. Where Have You Been?
12. Streetcars

Stream ‘Take Me To Church’ here

Album Review – Lana Del Rey

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Ed

Lana Del Rey -‘Ultraviolence.’ (Polydor)

Somehow, sitting down to review the new Lana Del Rey album fills with me with trepidation. It seems that somehow there’s so much baggage amongst reviewers due to the coverage that trying to approach this album at face value is something that many don’t want to do. So to hell with all the other coverage and what has been written about her, is the album actually any good?

Well, assuming this isn’t failing at the first hurdle, it compares fairly favourably to her breakthrough record, Born To Die. Favourably in the sense that if you liked that album – and I did – then the chances are you will like this one. It isn’t much of an advance, but then if you’ve heard ‘Shades of Cool’ and ‘West Coast’ which were doing the rounds ahead of the album, you were quite reasonable to assume that she wasn’t going to start sounding like Peaches or Lydia Lunch.

Having listened to this album, it is a bit of a grower. Her voice is as haunting as it was, but if you check out both album opener ‘Cruel World’ and ‘Black Beauty’ then the album starts to make sense on its own terms. If you can get away from whatever is being written about her this week, then there’s some great bits on this album. No, it won’t change your life, but she’s proved she’s no one hit wonder, either…

***1/2

Ultraviolence is out now on Polydor

Presenting…Lizzo

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Ed

Lizzo has been getting quite a bit of buzz ahead of her debut album, Lizzobangers, which comes out in the UK on June 30, having been released in the US last year. Moving from rapping to singing and back almost seamlessly, she’s in the tradition of stars like Missy Elliott, Kelis, Neneh Cherry and MIA.

Following on from this will be the track ‘Bus Passes and Happy Meals’ which if there is any justice, will prove to be one of Summer 2014’s anthems. Reportedly, the video was shot in Las Vegas at a moment’s notice, and it’s absolutely stunning.

The video for ‘Faded’ meanwhile shows that this is not a one-off…

Enjoy. and as ever, I’d love to know what you think.

Surprise new track from Metallica ahead of Glastonbury!

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Ed

The world cup has been full of surprises, and who knows what Wimbledon will bring next week? Inevitably facebook friends grumbling that ‘Andy Murray is British when he’s winning and Scottish when he’s losing.’

On top of it all, there’s Glastonbury coverage to look forward to, and this year’s surprise headliners are Metallica. I am aware that this has gone down badly with some people, who seem to think that the festival should only ever book white boy guitar bands (they must have been at a different festival from the one I was at in 1995, 1997 and 2000, clearly), but I’m willing to bet that like Jay-Z and Beyonce in years gone by, this will show the Eavis family to have a more diverse booking policy and taste than some of the people who attend.

Metallica are working on their new album, they released this new track today, which sounds like classic Metallica to these ears. If it doesn’t quite yet compare with the likes of ‘One’ ‘Enter Sandman’ or ‘Fade To Black’ then, that’s probably because you’ve lived with those tracks for so long.

Time will tell. In the meantime, this is Metallica’s latest song ‘Lords Of Summer’ – crank it up.

Guess who’s back?

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Ed

Well, back in Edinburgh after a lovely week’s holiday in England -and let me tell you there are still some places where mobile reception is comically bad in England to this day.

There will be more reviews, Introducing etc.. very soon, but I thought as I don’t do many of my covers posts these days (what with the Internet police, and that) but here is one I recently unearthed: It’s XTC’s take on Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower,’ as popularised by Jimi Hendrix, and taken from their 1978 debut White Music. If you like it, buy it!

Off for a bit of a holiday

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Ed

I will be back soon.

In the meantime, a tribute to the wonderful Rik Mayall, who passed away this week and who is taking on the charts with this. There’s a campaign to get this to no.1 -and why not?

The Continuing Story of Woman’s Hour

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Ed

Without wishing to sound smug about it, it’s great when a band you have tipped at an early stage start to make serious inroads. About eighteen months ago, I did one of my Presenting… features on new bands, and in this case, it was Woman’s Hour.

Fast forward eighteen months and the band are to release their debut album Conversations on Secretly Canadian on July 21.

The tracklisting for the album is as follows:

1. Unbroken Sequence
2. Conversations
3. To the End
4. Darkest Place
5. In Stillness We Remain
6. Our Love Has No Rhythm
7. Her Ghost
8. Two Sides of You
9. Devotion
10. Reflections
11. Day That Needs Defending

Considering how little was known about them when they first appeared, they now come across as a band who make striking videos and eye-catching artwork. Check out the videos available so far…

A number of the songs from the forthcoming album can be streamed over at their website

Their cover version of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ is gorgeous, too:

17 SECONDS

…A MEASURE OF LIFE

Monthly Archives: June 2014