I’ve been using Spotify for a few months now and I sort of love it. It’s a world of music at my fingertips; it’s the ability to find that song haunting your every thought in seconds. And it’s all above board and legal and lovely.

In an attempt to get more involved with Spotify I’ve decided to offer y’all a taste of what I’m listening to this weather in the form of an occasional playlist. (If Charlie Brooker can do it, so can I) Yes, some of you will have to pay to listen and for this, I do apologise. All the more reason to lobby for the free service though!

I’ll link every song listed below to somewhere else you can listen to it, if that helps.

Crazy Catching Playlist: Volume 1 (link to playlist contained therein)

1. ‘Us’, Regina Spektor from Soviet Kitsch
2. ‘Pearl’s Dream‘, Bat for Lashes from Two Suns
3. ‘A Truce’, Max Tundra from Worried Noodles
4. ‘Luddites and Lambs’, Everything Everything from Suffragette Suffragette
5. ‘Crying‘, Roy Orbison from The Essential Roy Orbison (Conor O’Brien/Villagers did a great acoustic version of this in the Stables last week)
6. ‘Come on Over (Turn Me On)‘, Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell from Sunday at Devil Dirt
7. ‘The Ice is Getting Thinner‘, Death Cab for Cutie from Narrow Stairs
8. ‘Walking After You‘, Foo Fighters from The Colour and the Shape
9. ‘Are You Ready For The Country?‘, Neil Young from Harvest
10. ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, Elvis Presley from Elvis Presley (1956)
11. ‘The Man With The Child In His Eyes’, Kate Bush from The Kick Inside
12. ‘Madame George‘, Van Morrison from Playlist: The Best of Van Morrison
13. ‘Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)’, Bob Dylan from Wonderland OST
14. ‘Mommy Complex’, Peaches from I Feel Cream
15. ‘The Chain‘, Fleetwood Mac from The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (2009)
16. ‘Handle With Care’, Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins from Rabbit Fur Coat
17. ‘Rise Up With Fists’, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, from Rabbit Fur Coat
18. ‘Ben’, Michael Jackson from the Best of Michael Jackson 1995
19. ‘That’s Entertainment’, The Jam from The Sound of the Jam
20. ‘Lilac Breeze’, Eels, from Hombre Lobo

And that is that. As you can see my attempts to listen to new music are hampered by my voyage of ye olde music discovery. Next time the playlist will read like the Inbox at Pitchfork HQ. Promise.

1. Which album contains samples from the movie House Of Games, I Can’t Wait To See My Baby’s Face by Dusty Springfield, and BBC Records REMO46M?

Foxbase Alpha by Saint Etienne (the sampled-up tracks are, respectively, Etienne Gonna Die, Nothing Can Stop Us and Wilson)

2. 13th Floor Elevators, ? And The Mysterians, The Blues Magoos, Mouse & The Traps – spot the Odd Garage Psych Band Out.

? And The Mysterians – they were the only band not to feature on the legendary Nuggets compliation.

3. “You are sleeping, you do not want to believe” – what comes next?

Asleep, as segued into from Rubber Ring by The Smiths (though half a point if you said Back To The Old House, which is what it goes into on the compilation Louder Than Bombs)

4. Colour Rinse, Wind In The Wires and Magenta Court are all tracks from which notorious early ‘electronic’ album?

Through A Glass Darkly by Peter Howell

5. Close and Never Clever would have been singles from an unreleased album by which band?

Blur (1992’s shelved Popscene album)

6. Which late sixties pop star can be clearly heard singing backing vocals on Would You Believe? by Billy Nicholls?

Steve Marriott, off of The Small Faces

7. What, apart from very large afros, links Maceo Parker, Sweet Charles and Lyn Collins? (you could potentially score two points here)

They were all members of Jame’s Brown’s ‘Funky People’, and all released obscure singles that were later re-released as ‘Rare Groove’ classics on Polydor’s short-lived ‘Urban’ imprint

8. “Ooh la la la, she sang, spinning till midnight swang” – where?

The Moulin Rouge, as sung about by Tim Buckley

9. “Every time I see a pig I turn it upside down” is a lyric from the b-side of which hit single from late 1986?

Think For A Minute! by The Housemartins (the b-side in question is Rap Around The Clock)

10. Who did Sheila Chandra from Monsoon play in Grange Hill?

Sudhamani Patel

11. Isobel Campbell has appeared naked on a record sleeve – true or false?

True, twice in fact, but both times as a pencil sketch

12. What was the title of the English language version of Francoise Hardy’s Les Temps De Souvenirs?

Just Call And I’ll Be There

13. What was ‘The Castle’ that Love sang about?

The run-down gothic mansion in LA where the band lived and rehearsed.

14. Which avant-garde singer-songwriter was memorably deeply concerned about “the cows that agriculture won’t allow”?

John Cale (in Hank Panky Nohow)

15. What happens to ‘Skylon!’ at the end of the song?

He starts a family with the tabloid-friendly actress who helped him defuse the bomb. It’s the last track from Gruff Rhys’ Candylion, which if you don’t already own you really should get hold of at once.

16. Man I’m Only Human, Come In Come Out and Clean Prophet were originally slated to appear on which long-delayed early nineties album?

The La’s by The La’s. Or Sound, as it was still going to be called at that point.

17. Which Altered Images song features John Peel as a guest whistler?

Song Sung Blue

18. Which My Bloody Valentine song did ‘The Holocaust’ originally form part of?

You Made Me Realise

19. Whose recent comeback album was described by Steve Wright as “just someone hitting some meat with a hammer going “WAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!”?

Scott Walker. He was right too.

20. What is the best name for a band ever?

Waltham Green East Wapping Carpet Cleaning Rodent & Boggit Extermination Association

The winner, with a whopping nine and a half points, was a Ben Baker of Keighley.

…if it goes down well enough, then there’ll be a Film Quiz, a Book Quiz, a Woofits Quiz, a Wit And Wisdom Of Richard Herring Quiz, and maybe even the return of Telly Addicts!

Answers, as ever, in the ‘comments’ box below:

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I didn’t end up going to the Tate event as previously advertised. (I’m beginning to think that mentioning that I’m doing something on the blog means it won’t happen)

You see, I was invited to go to the Great British Beer Festival, taking place at Earl’s Court. Earl’s Court being exactly half-way between work and home, I decided to go. Well, it would have been rude not to, considering I was invited.

Last time I went to a beer festival, it was in Bristol and was a much more low key affair. The one thing (apart from the beer of course) than I remember is having to queue for ages to have a pee, causing me to remark “Now I know how women feel.” not a sentiment I would have expected to develop at a beer festival.

This one is on a much larger scale, it is like a pub in an aircraft hanger. The beers are broadly split into regions: South-West, Wales, North-West etc. with separate stalls for cider and perry. I did see someone drinking a glass of wine, but I’m not sure where they got that from. Maybe they bought it in. I didn’t see anywhere offering Malibu and coke either, more’s the pity.

In addition to this there were stalls selling all kinds of beer-related tat. There were food stalls, selling a whole gamut of food, ranging from bratwurst to pork scratchings to pork pies.

(I’m joking, there was other stuff, I managed to get myself a polystyrene tray loaded with rather tasty chana masala for example)

There was also live music from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. (Who, unless my eyes and ears were deceiving me seem have a bassist, though I’m sure they call it something wacky like a bass-ulele.

I headed home feeling somewhat refreshed. I think the cider may have been an bad idea.

As penace for not doing the musical thing I vowed the following:

1. To go to a similar event in the future.
2. To compose an indeterminate score for voices at the next available opportunity.

And therefore on Saturday, I pinched what I hoped was a traditional melody for a Catholic hymn “Ubi Caritas” and promptly set about putting some odd harmonies on it.

Not indeterminate by any stretch of the imagination, but hopefully eccentric and interesting.

As I don’t have the ability to create singing voices on my computer (unless I do it myself, and trust me, that won’t be pretty) I have instead arranged it for organ.*

Apparently to upload audio files directly to the blog I need to purchase an upgrade.

Therefore I have uploaded it elsewhere.

Click here to download.

(note the file is called latin.mp3 because I couldn’t remember the title when uploading)

If you can’t bear to listen to that, here’s my two favourite Latin-themed classics via the YouTube:

Steeleye Span: Gaudete (check out the people moaning about the poor Latin pronoucation in the comments, or thinking the singing is “flat”.)

Or something more modern from Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanagan: Deus Ibi Est (oddball video, but the sound is better than on the live version):

That’s enough Latin for a while.

* If you are interested in nerdy music talk continue, otherwise ignore this. I devised a system of harmonies derived from a pan-tonal “tone row” although ignoring those notes which did not appear in the original melody. I used a potential three different harmonisations to vary it a bit and as a result the music changes key almost every other note. I chose to arrange it for organ, although I didn’t use a distinctive bass sound and I added a slight amount of reverb and overdrive to the organ sound, to try and make it sound a little bit less churchy. As to whether that has worked, you be the judge. Just be thankful I resisted the temptation to add an insane drum loop to the proceedings.

Another thematic mix CD…

I mailed this one to Darlington, who moved to London this past February.  I thought my choices seemed fitting — the songs’ connecting thread was commonplace locations like a car or a certain room in an undisclosed house, and my friend was in the middle of new places that would soon become familiar and everyday.  I also sent along a mix relating to specific places; I’ll write about that one in a little bit.

As always, let me know if you want a copy.

Places, General

1. “The Village Green Preservation Society” by The Kinks
2. “Eau d’ Bedroom Dancing” by Le Tigre
3. “Monkey Gone to Heaven” by The Pixies
4. “East of the Sun (West of the Moon)” by Billie Holiday
5. “Top of the World” by The Carpenters
6. “Car” by Built to Spill
7. “Sukie in the Graveyard” by Belle + Sebastian
8. “Strolling Down the Highway” by Nick Drake
9. “Black Mountain” by Isobel Campbell + Mark Lanegan
10. “Get Out of the City” by Ivy
11. “Island in the Sun” by Weezer
12. “My Side of the City” by Beulah
13. “Neighborhood #2 (Laika)” by Arcade Fire
14. “Heaven” by Bettie Serveert
15. “Brick House” by The Commodores
16. “Daddy’s Car” by The Cardigans
17. “Once Around the Block” by Badly Drawn Boy
18. “Lost in the Supermarket” by The Clash
19. “This House is Not For Sale” by Ryan Adams
20. “In the Garage” by Weezer
21. “3rd Planet” by Modest Mouse
22. “Rock the House” by Gorillaz
23. “The Village” by New Order

1. El tránsito, Perrosky
El ritmo y la calle (Algo, 2007)
2. When in Rome, Nickel Creek
Why should the fire die? (Sugar Hill, 2005)
3. Chinese translation, M. Ward
Post-war (Merge, 2006)
4. Into the woods, My Morning Jacket
Z (ATO, 2005)
5. I should have known better, She and Him
Volume one (Merge, 2008)
6. We are nowhere and it’s now, Bright Eyes
I’m wide awake, it’s morning (Saddle Creek, 2005)
7. Puercoespín, Doris
Achacandá (Ultrapop, 2006)
8. Shotgun blues, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
Sunday at Devil Dirt (V2, 2008)
9. Silver stallion, Cat Power
Jukebox (Matador, 2008)
10. True love will find you in the end, Beck
The late great Daniel Johnston (Gammon, 2004)
11. A man needs a woman or a man to be a man, Bill Callahan
Woke on a whaleheart (Drag City, 2007)
12. Bye and bye, Bob Dylan
Love and theft (Columbia, 2001)

Well, the future, for me, is already a thing of the past:
you were my first love and you will be my last
-Bob Dylan

MEGAUPLOAD: Love’s praises with sugar-coated rhyme (ES005)

A significant shuffle of priorities has long delayed me from finishing my project to document every single album I bought in 2008 (for example, real life and things on cats). But always the completist, I will bring this to a close…a quarter of the way through 2009.

• Andrew Daly – Nine Sweaters There was a funny comedian on Mad TV. Too bad he wasn’t allowed to be funny. Freed from that show’s painful banality, Andrew gets his laughs solo with longform occasionally subtle (and mostly obscene) character routines inspired by wearing 1 of 9 distinctive sweaters. Although you can’t see the sweaters (it being a recording and all) the characterizations are rich enough to imagine the sweaters. DO NOT listen to it with grandma. Or do, pervert.
• Blue Giant – Target Heart EP A kinda pacific northwest supergroup: the Viva Voce couple with help from members of the Decemberists, Circus Lupus, Swords Project, Sleater-Kinney and Bradford Cox. But mostly, its Viva Voce on an alt-country kick. Which is awesome. The distinctive vocals and swaying guitar, filled out with the pedal steel, organ and fiddle. Also, stars in the Blue Giant phase are middle-aged massive stars in a transitionary period prior to becoming either a planet nebula or a supergiant.
• David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today I haven’t yet learned to fully appreciate Byrne or Eno*, supergiants in a music universe I mostly like. And I don’t think I’m helping myself by starting with this album. It’s fine and there are some nice weird parts. But overall it’s a little too adult contemporary for me to be comfortable about it. That could be just because I’m uncomfortable being adult now.
• Fucked Up – The Chemistry Of Common Life I freaking love it. Takes me back to the smart hardcore or Fugazi or Negative Approach. And still, they manage melodies and some neat uses of not-hardcore instruments. (Is that a flute in the beginning?). Father Damien’s vocals come in like the earth is opening up. Takes me back to high school, driving nowhere in small messy cars and watching other people smoke.
• Dr. Dog – Fate It’s alright. They’re the Band, at an impressionable age, teleported to our time and embracing modern weirdness. Nonetheless, a step up from the last album.
• Grouper – Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill For those who can’t keep up with Beach House, Grouper might be the perfect porridge for you. Reverbed drenched vocals moving at a somnolent snail’s pace…like actually dragging a dead deer up a hill. I have yet been able to listen all the way through without a dose. So also perfect for insomniacs.
• Hercules And Love Affair – Hercules And Love Affair I’ve made a significant investment in my attempt to appreciate Antony Hegarty. I’m not there yet. It’s always overkill with that ridiculous vibrato. And yet I have 7 albums of this. The disco beats here breaks it up a bit. 
• Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue I don’t think I like this. Loved the Rabbit Fur Coat, and I can even defend that last Rilo Kiley album. But this one’s annoying. Is it a joke? That “Where’s Fernando?” song puts me through the roof. Along with “Bad Man’s World,” “The Next Messiah” (8 and half minutes and it has Elvis Costello) and “Jack Killed Mom”…yech. A lot of stinkers here. I’m still onboard with Jenny, but slowly shuffling exitward.
• Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak I’m sorry, it’s awesome. A part from the irony of his critique of consumerism turned into a product (unlike Tim Fite and his excellent Over the Counterculture, Kanye’s not giving it away).
• Love Is All – A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night Oh, it’s fun. But it’s not for the ages. And I do not need to have fun.
• Marching Band – Sparks Large It’s just so nice. I bet these guys wear sweater V-necks and drop people off at airports. I like it because I think they’re nice. But not enough to give them a ride to the airport.
• Richard Swift – Ground Trouble Jaw EP Indie do-wop? Who knew?
• Rodriguez – Cold Fact Supposedly buried treasure from the 70’s and I’m not one to appreciate buried treasures from the seventies. But this one’s alight.
• School Of Seven Bells – Alpinisms It sounds like the brother from the Secret Machines hooks up with Au Revoir Simone. And half of that’s true. Also, this album compels and bores the same ways of the Secret Machines and Au Revoir Simone.
• The Faint – Fascination Not as great as Danse Macabre or even Wet from Birth. Nonetheless all the elements are same and it still does what a Faint album is supposed to do. Which are good things.
• The Gaslight Anthem – The ‘59 Sound If Plato was ever to try to identify the ideal Jersey Band, I think the Gaslight Anthem are pretty much it. Other Jersey bands are only Jersey bands insofar as they share characteristics with this Jersey Band. Epic blue collar anthems from shore trash. Love it.
• The Mae Shi – Hlllyh More ecstatic high-energy youth ranting. Does not suit my rocking chair at all. I won’t be seeking any of these tracks in the ever-accumulating clutter of my digital music library. But if one happens to come up in the shuffle, I won’t skip it. Unless I’m in my rocking chair.
• The Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns Sounds a little too much like Neutral Milk Hotel. So much so it feels more like theft than homage.
• Why? – Alopecia This is awesome. Cool beats. Smart rhymes. Self-deprecating white boys being inventive.
• Women – Women I like the weird catchiness of the album. I even like the experimental parts. And I really like how the entire album hangs together. It’s one of those strange small albums I cherish, like the Ruby Suns’ Sea Lion I got earlier this year.
• Camera Obscura – Underachievers Please Try Harder From a few years ago. I realized I hadn’t bought a Comera Obscura in a while. So buying an old one will do. No surprise. It’s great.
• Isobel Campbell – Sunday At Devil Dirt The 3rd Mark Lanegan album I managed to buy in this year alone. But once you get past his cheesy growl, you appreciate that its more about Isobell Campbell. And it’s to its tremendous benefit.
• The Delgados – The Great Eastern An old album from a band I don’t know I was compelled to buy for no other reason than I thought it might be good. Actually, it happens to be the second back catalogue album from a Scottish band I bought this month (see Camera Obscura). Seems to be a good strategy.
• Starling Electric – Clouded Staircase Sound like Guided by Voices, but with longer songs. I like it.

There it is. All the albums I bought in 2008. All 176, give or take (but mostly give). Did I learn anything? Do I appreciate more? Maybe, but I’m not consuming less. So far I’ve already long surpassed my 2008 number and it’s only early April (but I’m doing much less buying…I’ve discovered the library, much to the librarians’ chagrin).

The more I have the more I want. Alas, it seems I’m like everyone else.

*This was written 3 months ago. I have since come to appreciate Eno and Byrne in their individual distinctive greatness. Buy Here Come the Warm Jets and Another Green World and Remain in Light.

Skønheden og Udyret

V V V V (V) -

Jeg er åbenbart kommet i Mark Lanegan-alderen!

Siden nytår har jeg, så ofte som muligheden har budt sig,  lyttet til Isobel Campbell og Mark Lanegans 2. album “Sunday at Devil Dirt”. Og det har været en udsøgt fornøjelse gang på gang at synke ned i denne behagelige ur-suppe af folk- og bluesinspireret singers + songwriter musik, som her trækker den ærkeamerikanske genre hele vejen hjem til hovedpersonernes forfædrene britiske øer.

Isobel Campbell havde jeg på forhånd ikke noget forhold til, da jeg kun kendte hende sporadisk som “hende fra Belle & Sebastian”. Det samme galdt sådan set Mark Lanegan, som hos mig blot havde prædikatet “ham fra Screaming Trees”.

Sådan forholder det sig ikke længere. Mark Lanegan er simpelthen i besiddelse af den ypperste bar-røst jeg nogen sinde har hørt. Glem Nick Cave, der til sammenligning lyder som en kostskoledreng. Og glem også Tom Waits, der til sammenligning lyder som ham den fordrukne små-klovnede nordmand fra dette års udgave af X-Faktor. Mark Lanegan er simpelthen en vokal-mæssig humlebi. Hans stemme er så slidt (altså på den seje måde – ikke Axl Rose-anno 2008-måden), at han ikke burde kunne synge så godt som han gør. Det lader bare til, at der ikke er nogen der har fortalt ham det endnu. Jeg tror at ordet autentisk for en gangs skyld er det mest rammende begreb.

Gravrøsten bliver flere steder båret frem af Campbells engleblide kvidrende vokal, der snor sig perfekt om Lanegans stemme, f.eks. på nummeret “The Flame That Burns” og det super stemningsfulde intronummer  “Seafaring Song”. Visse steder, som på old school blues-nummeret “Shotgun Blues” (kan man andet end elske den titel?) synger Campbell alene, hvilket får sukker til at flyde ud gennem højtalerne.

I det hele taget kommer man til at overveje, hvor sjældent man hører albums hvor to (eller flere) sangere skiftes til at synge sangene. Det gør et album afvekslende og dynamisk, selvom man også kan risikere en lidt tilfældig opdeling af albummet. På denne plade fungerer det efter hensigten, og afvekslingen mellem de to stemmer fungerer rigtigt godt, også når de synger sammen.

Men det er uomtvisteligt, at det er i Mark Lanegans numre, at den store kunst udfolder sig. Nummeret “The Raven”, som naturligvis bygger på Poes efterhånden i populærkulturen lidt fortærskede digt, fanger, det slidte tema til trods, en dyster stemning, der primært kan tilskrives Lanegan, der lyder som om, at han umiddelbart inden indspilningen har hallucineret sit eget helvede, imens han har trukket sit stemmebånd hen over et topfyldt askebæger med lige dele knust glas, grus, sprut-slatter og cigaretskodder. 

Bedste nummer på albummet mener jeg dog er den stemningsfulde, tungt rullende og meget stenede “Back Burner”, som giver mindelser om Dr. Johns “Season of the Witch”, dog uden den gode doktors spas og karneval. Dette stykke med sump-blues bliver stort set kun drevet frem af bas og bongotrommer hvilket yderligere højner den “gode” stemning.

Som traditionen efterhånden påbyder det, opdagede jeg først denne plade en måneds tid efter, at Campbell og Lanegan gav en, efter sigende, super intim koncert i Vega i november sidste år. Jeg kan derfor kun håbe på, at de enten beslutter sig for at komme tilbage til Europa inden for den nærmeste tid, eller laver et tredie album sammen, som så forhåbentlig skal opfølges med en turné.

Under alle omstændigheder har jeg fået mod på meget mere Mark Lanegan

I was instantly attracted to this record for several reasons.  First and foremost, Isobel looks absolutely amazing on the cover.  After I got past the cover of the record I focused in on what I imaged it to sound like.  At first hand the combination of members of Belle and Sebastian and Screaming Trees threw me off.  Both of the bands have very distinct sounds and very different sounds from one another.  Nonetheless, I imaged a Beauty and the Beast type of pairing.

Right from the beginning they play on the glaring dynamics with Dues Ibi Est.  It’s a war themed song with a marching drum backdrop while Lanegan displays his gritty vocals on the verses and Campbell gently washes it all away on the chorus.  It’s a very powerful and moving song that often reminds me of Johnny Cash circa the American years.  “(Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me?” is my favorite song on the record and it’s the song that initially heard off the record.  It features an olden singsong manner rhythm that sounds like a perfect couples songs.

Ballad of the Broken Seas doesn’t revolutionize the guy-girl pairing.  They do however make the case for one of the better duos.  The obvious contrast between the feminine soft and light sounds with the dark and gritty sounds make for quite the record.  The record is well throughout and doesn’t feel rushed at all.  It’s probably a highly overlooked record and something you could impress your friends with.

8/10

Desde Feist, en la música de corte independiente anglosajona no aparecía alguien con tanto estilo. Alexandra Lawn, violonchelista y segunda voz del sexteto de pop de cámara bailable Ra Ra Riot, es la nueva sensación del mundillo indie sensible. Según mi primer relevamiento, Lawn genera en sus seguidores una simpatía similar a la que causaba Isobel Campbell en la etapa inicial de Belle and Sebastian, sólo que con una diferencia notable: si el aire de chica de al lado de Isobel daba a los melómanos una oportunidad ilusoria de cortejarla, la elegancia de Allie hace que se le ponga en un pedestal.

En cierta manera, por su porte, recuerda a Natalie Portman… y a Sasha Grey.

Como nota curiosa, recomiendo el vídeo de la presentación de Ra Ra Riot en The Late Show y prestar atención al final, cuando David Letterman da una indiferente palmada en la espalda de la violinista Rebecca Zeller y un frío apretón de mano al vocalista Wes Miles para apresurarse rumbo a la música en cuestión a echarle los perros, diciéndole “beautiful” antes de hacerse el pendejo preguntándole por su peculiar violonchelo —una tira de madera central de un violonchelo tradicional enmarcada por un contorno metálico creado por Yamaha, que permite tocar y bailar— y disfrutar de su dulce figura de bebota indie sensible.

VÍNCULOS: Ra Ra Riot en MySpace

Some years back, Q Magazine ran an hilarous feature entitled Can I Have My Money Back, Please?, celebrating some of the great lacklustre under-achieving listener-alienating flop albums of rock history. All of the usual suspects were covered – ABC’s Beauty Stab, Dexys Midnight Runners’ Don’t Stand Me Down, Terence Trout D’Arby’s Neither Tuneful Nor Commercial, and Terry Blair & Anouchka’s lone effort Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme.

…but hang on, didn’t Terry Hall’s worst ever career decision still feature one sublime moment, in the form of magnificent Hit Single That Never Was title track? Indeed it did, and inspired by its misrepresentation, here are a handful of other notable albums that are almost entirely made up of unlistenable wishy-washy bilge, but are somehow redeemed by featuring one or two (at the very most) flashes of indespensible genius. They are the albums that you’ve regretted buying, and never listened to in full more than once, but still can’t bring yourself to get rid of because you just love that one individual track so much. And they are, in no particular order…

The Stone Roses – Second Coming
Well, we could be here all day talking about this. If it hadn’t been for all the injunctions and other associated legal hoo-hah (and, as Chris Morris noted, an apparent surfeit of “sitting around eating chips like this jerk Brown”), and The Stone Roses had been able to start recording their second album in 1990 after all, chances are it would have turned out a lot better than this. They’d doubtless have fearlessly dived further into the murky uncharted funk essayed on Fool’s Gold and One Love, and songs mooted for the abandoned second album included Where Angels Play, Ten Storey Love Song and Can’t See Me, which would have made for a spectacular set by anyone’s standards. Instead, four years behind schedule, we ended up with this Led Zeppelin-instigated mess that was in no way a worthy successor to their spectacular debut. Yet in amongst all the tedious soloing and lack of obvious tunes, there lurked Begging You, a rip-roaring blast into the world of electronica with explosive drums, thundering bass and more backward tape loops than the laws of science should allow into a single piece of music. Elsewhere Ten Storey Love Song and How Do You Sleep? are pretty good songs underneath all that horrid squealy rawk posturing, Breaking Into Heaven and Your Star Will Shine have their moments but are both far too long for the moments to make up for the rest, Daybreak has great lyrics but no discernible musical point, and Love Spreads is a decent enough effort. But Begging You aside, there’s nothing on here even an eighth as good as first album weak links (Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister or This Is The One, and it was left to Ian Brown to effectively return to the template of the second album that never was for his excellent King Monkey-era solo albums. Second Coming is still better than anything by The Seahorses, though.
 
Love – Four Sail
There’s been a silly drive to ‘reclaim’ this as some sort of Great Lost Album in recent times, so let’s put a stop to all that nonsense right now. Four Sail, which doesn’t even feature most of the original band, is such a dreary and uninspiring work – not to mention such a comedown after the magnificence of the first three albums – that the very first Love retrospective compilation from 197Something didn’t feature anything from it at all, with the compiler noting in their sleevenotes that they didn’t feel able to include any of it on a ‘Best Of’. In effect, this was Arthur Lee’s own personal Brass Eye Special. Come on, seriously, is there anything on it worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Softly To Me, Mushroom Clouds, Orange Skies, She Comes In Colours, Seven And Seven Is, The Castle, or Forever Changes in its entirety? Of course not, though the flawed but dramatic August could certainly hold its own in some sort of musical showdown, and may still not be worthy of a place on any self-respecting Best Of but is worth repeated listens all the same.

The Charlatans – Tellin’ Stories
This is a bit of a tricky one, as in fairness the band had just gone through the trauma of losing their co-songwriter, keyboard player and occasional vocalist Rob Collins in tragic circumstances, and most bands wouldn’t be able to pull through after that sort of a crisis at all. It’s not really the songwriting that’s the problem, though, and nor does their performance display anything other than a renewed verve and determination. Instead, the problem’s simply with the overall sound – there’s no sign of that usual Charlatans ‘edge’, a distinct lack of loose funkiness and the trademark hint of menace, and it sounds as though it had been made with the fact that Chris Evans had just discovered this fantastic new music called ‘indie’ in mind. With No Shoes, How Can You Leave Us Now?, One To Another, Area 51, How High and Tellin’ Stories itself are all great songs rendered dreary, and the only moment they soar is on the tellingly atypical North Country Boy, a song that was always going to be great on account of namechecking Itchy & Scratchy as part of a lyric bemoaning feeling lonely at a wedding reception. Bizarrely, it was this one that got the critical thumbs-up, whereas the superlative follow-up Us And Us Only went largely uncelebrated.

Oasis – Definitely Maybe
Let’s get one thing straight – this particular writer is no lover of the Brothers Gallagher, and this album was a misgiving-laden first and last purchase of their work. Alexei Sayle is wont to point out how the likes of himself and Rik Mayall had opened doors into the mainstream for other ‘alternative’ comedians, and Ben Elton walked through and promptly kicked them shut behind him, and a convincing case could be made that Oasis did much the same for ‘alternative’ music… and aside from that, they were just never very good anyway. Much of this album is irredeemably horrid, especially the risible Digsy’s Dinner and the bafflingly over-lauded (and indeed overlong) Slide Away, but at the same time who could deny the quasi-psychedelic high-speed thrill of Up In The Sky, the Happy Mondays-plagiarising swagger of Columbia, or the tuneful acoustic hilarity of Married With Children? In his excellent book The Last Party, John Harris noted that these tracks were “founded on a wit that their author seemed quickly to mislay”, and that’s pretty much Oasis’ entire career summed up in a single throwaway quote.

Denim – Back In Denim
Apparently Radio 1’s slightly-less-than-hip indie DJ Mark Goodier is considered a bit of a buffoon for not having liked this all-Britpop-predicting all-seventies-referencing album. Given that he actually stated he much preferred Screamadelica to it, and that only three tracks are any good, perhaps he’s not such of a buffoon after all. The thumping title track opener is a fun Glam Rock pastiche, Middle Of The Road is one of the funniest pop songs ever written, and the sublime The Osmonds – basically I Love The Seventies for people preparing to slash their wrists – is worth buying this album for alone. Unfortunately, the rest of it is largely tuneless and flat-sounding. Curiously, it’s a pattern that Denim would go on to repeat on their other two albums. Denim On Ice is only worth delving into for the amusingly Britpop-decrying The Great Pub Rock Revival, the witty We Are The Supermodels, and the synth-driven Darren-Grimley-Gets-His-Collar-Felt majesty of It Fell Of The Back Of A Lorry. Meanwhile Novelty Rock, the daftest idea for an album to release just after you’ve signed to a major label and been on a high-profile tour with a band who’ve recently had records in the top ten ever, can boast only Snake Bite, On A Chicory Tip and the celebrated cover of the theme from Robin’s Nest as highpoints in amongst all the silly chipmunk-voiced throwaway unlistenableness. With the excellent non-album Summer Smash never really properly made available in any form, there’s no act of the world in direr need of a proper Best Of Compilation than Denim.

[Since first writing the above, I've been persuaded to give the remastered and reissued Back In Denim another listen, and while the grumblings about the rest of the album not being anywhere near as strong as the three standout tracks still stand, it has to be admitted that they're actually pretty listenable and reasonably pleasant to sit through, so Partial Credit for Bawrence. However, attempts to repeat the experiment with Denim On Ice and Novelty Rock (currently being touted on Left And To The Back) produced the same depressing results.]

The Bluetones – Expecting To Fly
Back in the summer of 1995, when The Bluetones had thus far only released a handful of truly outstanding singles on a small label, yours truly could be heard (and indeed read) extolling their virtues very loudly indeed, predicting great things for their future and suggesting that, having also spotted the potential of The Stone Roses and Blur long before they broke big, these were to prove his third big ‘discovery’. Well, I don’t mind admitting that I was very, very wrong, and certain individuals take no end of delight in reminding me of just how monumentally wrong I was. What went wrong in between singles and album is anyone’s guess, but aside from the singles (and Are You Blue Or Are You Blind?, the best of the lot, isn’t even on here) and the equally splendid The Fountainhead, the rest of it sounds like it was written in an afternoon and then recorded at ridiculously opulent length. Worst offenders by far are Cut Some Rug, one of the flimsiest excuses for a song ever recorded, and that tedious ballad one that goes “when you’re near my heart beats quicker faster, it’s your skin as pale as alabaster”. Still, at least it didn’t have bloody Screwtop Thompson or whatever it was called on it.

Blur – Think Tank
OK, this one is a real mystery. With Graham Coxon virtually absent from the album sessions, Think Tank is to all intents and purposes a Damon Albarn solo project. But so were Gorillaz and The Good The Bad And The Queen, and how come both of those had truly spectacular results when apart from mental hidden track Me, White Noise, lone Coxon contribution Battery In Your Leg and the rather quite lovely Out Of Time (which also makes great musical sense as the missing link between Tender and Feel Good Inc., and also recently described by Ben Baker as “Blur’s great lost single, because it was cunningly hidden amongst a load of shit”), Think Tank is largely open-ended backgroundy nothingness where the not actually that impressive beats take precedence over any hint of musical excitingness or invention (and let’s not even get started on the artless shoutiness of We’ve Got A File On You)? The absence of Mr Coxon’s angular contributions surely played its part, but it’s more likely that blame should be laid at the door of producer Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook, for whom this is just one more entry in an ever-growing list of post-Housemartins musical crimes.

Ride – Tarantula
As suggested by the sleeve photo of Carnival Of Light, where they’re all looking in different directions and appear to be in four entirely different bands, Ride didn’t really want to be Ride any more by the time that they were called on to record one last album to fulfil their contractual obligations. Not surprisingly, nobody wanted to use up any new songs that they could stockpile for a future solo project, so all the fans got for their money on Tarantula was a single meandering funk workout from Mark Gardener, and the rest of the album taken up by Andy Bell – who, bless him, was never quite the singer or songwriter he believed himself to be – doing a series of increasingly poor impersonations of Oasis. Oh, and opening track (and indeed lead-off single) Black Nite Crash, a snarling, spitting roar of indie-metal that ranks not only as one of Ride’s finest recordings but as one of the best singles of the 1990s full stop. That’s not to say that there aren’t a couple of brighter moments to be found elsewhere, though, and to their credit Ride have had the good grace to basically disown the album and say they wish it had never come out. Which is all very well and good, but as the fans had to buy it since it was originally only released for a single day, are they going to be giving anyone their fifteen quid back?

Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour Of Bewilderbeest
Hands up – how many people out there were dazzled by the arresting Once Around The Block and rushed out to buy its parent album, only to find that the rest of it was filled up with some bloke mumbling half-written songs through a beard, accompanied by little more than a guitar that sounded like it wasn’t even plugged in properly? The same trick was pretty much repeated a couple of years later with the fab Something To Talk About from the About A Boy soundtrack, but it’s likely that by that time most potential purchasers were sufficiently wary to just get the single.

Suede – Head Music
Some parties would have you believe that Suede lost it majorly the second that Bernard Butler walked out, and that third album Coming Up is just as dodgy as what came later. That’s a load of nonsense, as Coming Up may lack some of the earlier depth but it’s full of sparkly adventurous pop music, which is more than can be said for Head Music. Aside from a brace of stupendous closing tracks (the excellent He’s Gone, already the cause of much lyrical debate on here, and the haunting and desolate Crack In The Union Jack), and the arguably quite pleasantly tuneful title track, it’s not clear what’s going on with this album other than that the lyrics are more like a parody of Suede, the tunes are more like no tunes, and the instrumentation seems determined to pay repeated homage to the old ‘Punjab Airways’ Phileas Fogg Tortilla Chips ad.

Belle & Sebastian – Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
Oh dear. The Wrong Girl is one of the finest moments in the Belle & Sebastian canon. Unfortunately it’s also a rarely heard one, due to the paucity of what surrounds it on this album that even most of the band were apparently unsure about even while making it. What’s worse is that it isn’t simply a case of rubbish songs that can be easily dismissed – virtually all of them have a spark of greatness about them but seem sorely underwritten, especially I Fought In A War, The Model, Women’s Realm and There’s Too Much Love, while Waiting For The Moon To Rise would have made a strong b-side but should never have been on an album, it’s impossible to tell whether Beyond The Sunrise is vaguely pleasant or hilariously ridiculous, and The Chalet Lines is practically unlistenable. Actually, Family Tree’s pretty good, though Isobel should really have saved it for one of her solo albums. What’s worse is that Paperboat, Landslide, Wake Her Up and Lord Anthony were all slated for this album at various points.

Northside – Chicken Rhythms
This album contains two magnificent singles, the rightly famed censor-baiting Madchester anthem Shall We Take A Trip?, and surprise American hit Take 5. It also contains Weight Of Air, Funky Monkey and, erm, Yeah Man, and its deserved plunge towards the bargain bins was reportedly one of the major instigators of Factory’s financial collapse. ‘Indescribable’ is hardly the word.

CHECK THE ORIGINAL SOCIAL STEREOTYPE FOR NEW INTERVIEWS WITH:

LIAM HOWLETT (THE PRODIGY)

MARINA & THE DIAMONDS

EMPIRE OF THE SUN

RYE RYE

FLORENCE & THE MACHINE

THE COCKNBULLKID

LA ROUX

LITTLE BOOTS

ERICK SERMON

MARK RONSON VS THE RUMBLE STRIPS

ISOBEL CAMPBELL

Um pequeno guia de introdução à vasta e impecável obra de Mark Lanegan

Se trabalhasse em um escritório, Mark Lanegan seria daquela raça dos workaholics. Ele não para um instante sequer. Desde 1986, se envolve em algum trabalho novo quase todo ano. Por sorte, o trabalho do cara é fazer música. E música boa como a de Lanegan nunca é demais.

Lanegan (no canto esquerdo), ainda cabeludo, nos tempos do Screaming Trees

Um dos artistas mais interessantes do rock alternativo, Mark Lanegan, para quem não conhece – ou não reconhece de nome – é um dos grandes músicos revelados pela divina safra do grunge de Seattle. Foi um dos fundadores e frontman do Screaming Trees, importante banda da cena local, mas que não chegou a atingir o sucesso comercial de outras, como o Nirvana e o Pearl Jam. Lançaram sete discos ao longo dos anos 80 e 90.

Seguindo umas das marcas do grunge, Lanegan sempre se destacou como um excelente vocalista. Mas foi em sua carreira solo, construída paralelamente à banda, que ele pôde explorar melhor esse seu potencial. Uma voz grave e densa, cuja rouquidão agravada ao longo dos anos só ajudou a tornar mais envolvente e sombria. Ele passou também a explorar outras sonoridades, diferentes do rock sujo de Seattle, como o folk e o blues. Já possui seis álbuns solos no currículo, sendo que o último, Bubblegum, de 2004, foi o que mais chamou atenção do público e da crítica.

Após o fim do Screaming Trees, em 2000, Lanegan começou a dedicar-se também a outros projetos. Gravou backing vocals em quase todos os discos do Queens Of The Stones Age, banda de seu amigo Josh Homme, e juntou-se às turnês do grupo. Ainda ao lado de Homme, Lanegan teve uma participação no The Desert Sessions, projeto ocasional do líder do QOTSA, pelo qual já passaram nomes como PJ Harvey e Dave Grohl.

Greg Dulli e Mark Lanegan

Em 2003 e 2004, Lanegan emprestou sua voz para a gravação de algumas faixas de dois discos do Twilight Singers, banda de Greg Dulli (ex-Afghan Whigs). A parceria com Dulli funcionou tão bem, que os dois resolveram formar uma outra banda, o Gutter Twins, que lançou seu ótimo álbum de estréia, Saturnalia, em 2008.

Outra boa parceria que Lanegan conduz atualmente é com a bela Isobel Campbell, que durante muito tempo integrou o grupo escocês Belle & Sebastian. Em 2006, a dupla estreou com Ballad Of The Broken Seas, um dos melhores discos daquele ano. Músicas primorosas, com toques de folk e chamber pop. No início do ano passado, eles lançaram seu segundo trabalho, Sunday At The Devil Dirt.

Isobel Campbell e Mark Lanegan

Como se não bastasse, em meio a tudo isso, Lanegan ainda arranja tempo para outras participações especiais, como na trilha do filme I’m Not There – para a qual ele fez uma bela versão de Man In The Long Black Coat – e no segundo álbum do Soulsavers, duo inglês de rock-trip-hop-eletrônico-ambiente.

Enfim, opções não faltam para quem quiser entrar em contato com a música e a voz de Mark Lanegan. E seja lá por onde você começar a conhecer este extenso e brilhante currículo, tenha certeza de que você não vai conseguir para tão cedo.

Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell – Ramblin’ Man (cover de Hank Williams)

Discografia recomendada:

• 1992 – Sweet Oblivion (Screaming Trees)
• 1994 – Whiskey For The Holy Ghost (solo)
• 2002 – Songs For The Deaf (Queen Of The Stone Age)
• 2004 – Bubblegum (solo)
• 2004 – She Loves You (Twilight Singers)
• 2006 – Ballad Of The Broken Seas (Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell)
• 2008 – Saturnalia (The Gutter Twins)