o’ve got their roots in twee-pop and c-86 and have their own twist on it. They don’t give much away on their website (though the singer’s called Naomi, it would appear) but they are giving two excellent songs away for free. FREE. FREE!!! get ’em now or you’ll never know what might hav
The notion of the ‘Director’s Cut’ is usually associated with film. But Kate Bush is a visionary artist, and in her case, it is sound rather than vision which she has sought to re-do. Having made just eight studio albums in a career that now stretches over thirty years, her quality control has always been pretty high. By and large, 1985’s The Hounds Of Love is reckoned to be her crowning achievement so far, though I’ve long held earlier albums like Lionheart and Never For Ever in high regard, too.The two albums which provide the source material for this album, 1
989’s The Sensual World and The Red Shoes from 1993 are certainly not weak albums. But she has elected to re-work songs from both albums.
In the case of ‘The Sensual World’ (the song), it is about following her original intention. This had been to use Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy from Joyce’s Ulysses, but the Joyce estate had not granted her permission. This has now been granted, the song is re-presented here with changed lyrics and re-titled ‘Song Of the Mountain.’ It’s rather lovely.
It doesn’t always work as well as it should. The vocoder effect on ‘A Deeper Understanding’ detracts from what is otherwise an excellent and effective re-working; several listens in, I’m still not sure this was the right thing to do (the video is awesome, mind). As for the re-working of ‘This Woman’s Work’ it’s not quite as affecting as the o
Bush has always been a master of the recording studio, and the album sounds fantastic. Thus the re-working of ‘The Red Shoes’ with didgeridoo gives it the feel of a workout in the Australain outback. ‘Rubberband Girl’, meanwhile, sees our heroine imagine what it would have been like to front the Rolling Stones circa Sticky Fingers. ‘Lily’ and ‘Song Of Solomon’ come alive for me far more than they did on the original version of The Red Shoes.
Doubtless discussions will run and run about which versions are better and which are worse than the originals (hell, there’s probably people still debating the (de)merits of the new vocal of ‘Wuthering Heights’ that appeared on The Whole Story). It is clear that, given the input and approach, this is certainly not just a cash-in exercise. Rumours are circulating of another studio album, and her first tour since 1979. Given how long it can be between albums for her, in the politest way possible, I’m not holding my breath.
But it is wonderful to have Kate Bush in any way, shape or form. They truly broke the mould after her.
I’ve long championed White Heath on this blog, having loved thier early EP The Sea Wall, had them on my show on Fresh Air and put them on at Tigerfest last year. So I’m really pleased to be able to report that t
Entitled Take No Thought For Tomorrow, the album was produced by Jim Sutherland, who helmed Aberfeldy’s Young Forever, amongst others. Released on Electric Honey (who gave
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us early releases from Belle and Sebastian, Biffy Clyro and Snow Patrol) the album features nine tracks:
Maker
Election Day
GG
Leviathan
7:38 AM
Sunday In Fragments
When The Watchmen Leave Their Stations
Past the Satellites, Into The Fray
So
This Gift. Support acts that night were the Black Kids (then riding high on a wave of hype that ultimately didn’t deliver) and a then-unsigned Broken Records. How things change…
Anyway, Sons & Daughters are set to release their third album (if you only count Love The Cup as a mini-album) Mirror Mirror on June 13. The tracklisting is as follows:
Silver Spell
The Model
Breaking Fun
Orion
Don’t Look Now
Ink Free
Rose Red
Axed Actor
Bee Song
The Beach
Album opener track ‘Silver Spell’ has been available as a free download f
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or a little while now (I know -but when it started circulating I was pretty wrapped up with a n
Part of my opening my mind to pre-punk music has been the joy of discovering Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson – not to mention the work they did together in Fairport Convention in the 1960s.
So…Two bits of news to share with you.
Firstly, nearly forty years after its’ release, Sandy Denny’s first solo album The North Star Grassman and the Ravens is being re-issued as a two CD delu
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xe set. According to the press release: ” Disc One of the deluxe edition features the original 1971 album with four bonus tracks. These include a band demo of ‘Next Time Around’, an early version of the song with Andy John
s at the helm, and a duet with Richard Thompson on Ernest Tubb’s ’Walking The Floor Over You’, both of which first appeared on last year’s acclaimed limit
ed edition 19 CD boxed set. An unreleased instrumental version of the traditional ’Lord Bateman’ (left unfinished without Sandy’s vocal) appears here for the very first time. Disc Two brings together all the original songs on the album in an acoustic setting. Beginning with further rare demos from last year’s boxed set including: ‘The Sea Captain’, ‘The Optimist’, Wretched Wilbur’, ‘Crazy Lady Blues’ and an accappella demo of the t
raditional ‘Lord Bateman’, worked on during the album sessions. Also included are a further two traditional songs recorded for the BBC during this period, firstly ‘The Lowlands of Holland’ from a B
ovember’ and ‘Blackwaterside’). And ‘Bruton Town’ taken from a BBC recording of Sandy ‘In Concert’, recorded at the Paris Theatre in March 1972 where the title track from the album, ’John The Gun’ and ‘Next Time Around’ are also performed.”
Meanwhile, the very same day, Richard Thompson releases a four CD, 80-track box set entitled Live At the BBC, the tracklisting for which can be seen here. M
The album will be released on June 20, and this is the first single to be released from it, entitled ‘Calgary.’ This will get a physical release on 12″ on July 4.
You can stream it below – and if you sign up below, you can get a free download of the track.
There’s a curiously old-fashioned approach to parts of this album. Whilst many of the singer-songwriters doing the rounds seem to be heavily indebted to the singer-songwriters of the early 1970s (James Taylor etc..) there’s aspects to this album by the UK-born, US-based singer which have far older aspects.
There’s a jazzy inflexion to album opener ‘Pushover Boy Blues‘, while ‘Last Train To Redemption’ has a rockabilly feel. The standout track here i
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s ‘Goodnight From Hollywood’ which is definitely worth hea
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ring, and stands as a bit of an anthem for those trying to make it in LA.
However, while the rest of the album is pleasant, heartfelt and perfectly adequate, there isn’t much on display here after several listens) to truly set him apart from so many of his peers. the songwriting is strong, however, and I wonder if the songs might have benefited from being more stripped down.
e couple of months after the Youth’s soundtrack album Simon Werner A Disparu. Casual Youth fans may query whether this album is an improvisation-type thing or a more conventional album. People seem to get thrown by Thurston and co’s unconventionality. But it’s why I have loved them for more than twenty years.
See the impressive thing about this album – or one of them, anyway – is how Moore manages to take the singer-songwriter template and somehow transform it, puttylike, in his own hands. The result is that a) the genre does not feel tired and b) even minus the feedback, it is distinctively Thurston Moore.
Whilst there were certainly great moments on his last solo album, Trees Outside The Academy, this album is more focused and serves as a reminder to fans new and old why Moore is the master. A track like ‘Circulation’ is a key example; beautifully arranged, melodic and yet it is easy to see how as part of Sonic Youth’s catalogue the electric guitars would lick in. Meanwhile, on ”Orchard Street’ it is as if feedback has been scored for Orchestra…
Porudced by Beck, this album fits in nicely alongside recenet albums by both J macis and Kurt Vile (Us fans will get the chance to see the latter and Moore touring tog
ether this summer). Not because they are leftfield singer-songwriters (not labels you’d apply to Moore or Mascis!), but because they are albums that show there is new ground to be covered in this genre.
A welcome addition to moore’s already very impressive catalogue.
****
Demolished Thoughts is released on Matador on May 23.
