Monthly Archives: July 2001

Slowly getting around to entering CDs I bought while I was away. It will take a while though. Tonight should be a good night at Bar d’O – the keyboardist from Combustible Edison, Brother Cleve, is spinning, along with a guy from the exotica list who has very cool taste. I hope I can stay awake; that jet lag is really getting to me, and I keep falling asleep in the evenings before I get around to actually doing anything.

Smiths: 'Louder than Bombs' (CD; wea; 1984-1987)
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I actually never owned this album originally, never needing to, since I owned all the songs it compiles on either 'hatful of hollow', 'the world won't listen' or the 'sheila take a bow' 12". Still, it's interesting to hear them in this context. We are also offered alternate, slightly unfamiliar single versions of some songs, such as 'stretch out and wait' and the fully instrumented version of 'back to the old house'. Some songs have dated better than others. It's all still great. 'rubber ring', 'william....', 'sheila...', 'girl afraid'...so many songs really stand out, but there's nothing bad on here at all. I still resent them for stealing my childhood though...

Compilation - Tindersticks: 'Donkeys' (CD; Island; 1992-1997)
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This is an unusual compilation. It's not one I rushed to buy; in fact I only really bought it because I found it so cheaply. It's pretty nice though, compiling unusual early Tindersticks recordings, many of which I quite liked at the time. Some of their best tracks are here - 'marbles', 'her' and 'travelling light', for example. 'Her' in particular is great, and the version here is gritty and superbly twangy, just like the peel session version which was what first got me into the group. I got a big nostalgia trip hearing 'here', just because I was a big fan of the Pavement original back in 1992. This pretty little version is quite fun too. I guess the bottom line for me and Tindersticks is that I can't help but agree with the acquaintance of mine who commented that 'Stuart Staples always sings as if he has his mouth half full of sandwich'. I can't love the man's voice, but they remain a superb group, capable of creating incredible atmosphere. To be fair, this does end up being a very strong release, with more greate tracks like the duet with Isabella Rosselini - 'a marriage made in heaven', which borrows its introduction from Lee Hazlewood's 'sand', and the harsh piano bass of the single 'bathtime'.

Ok, today I’m super mellow because I now know I’m going away. Still, I had a tricky problem to sort out at work today, so I calmed myself by listening to some wonderful Scott Walker (reviewed below).

I’m currently listening to an interesting album lent to me by a colleague – ‘AM Gold’ by Zero Zero. It’s a nice pop album featuring an unusal hybrid of styles and influences. The most clear influence is Stereolab, particularly on the track ‘back to hell’, but there are also traces of My Bloody Valentine in the noises and occasional ethereal backing vocals. Anyway, it’s quite good. I’m not sure I’m going to go ahead and buy it, but if you want to read more, check out Jade Tree records (silly flash site won’t let you link to particular things. I like Flash, but only when it’s embedded in a certain section of a page; when it takes up the whole page it’s just irritating).

Scott Walker: 'Scott' (CD; Fontana; 1967)
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This is a pretty incredible album, full of strong emotions and dense orchestrations. I am utterly enamoured with Scott, yet there are definitely sides to his work which I greatly prefer over others. For example, this opens with 'Mathilde', one of his Brel covers, sung in a flamboyant, caberet style (he also does Brel's 'my death' and 'amsterdam' on this album). It's brilliant, and extremely fun when you're in the mood for it, but for me at least, that's not every day. However, I could listen to 'Montague Terrace in Blue', and especially 'Angelica', every day. Scott's croony, Sinatra-esque side comes out on great tracks like 'When Joanna Loved me' and 'You're gonna hear from me', while 'lady came from Baltimore' has a more folky, country-ish feel. Aside from 'Angelica', my favorites on this album are all written by Scott himself - the superb 'Such a small love' and the truly incredible 'always coming back to you', in which Scott mourns an old love with incredible lucidity and elegance.

note: the orchestrations on this album are by Wally Stott and Peter Knight. Peter Knight went on to orchestrate Elis Regina's 'Elis Regina in London' album, while Wally Stott went on to become a woman.