As I can't be bothered to spend literally a whole ten minutes talking about an album, here are a few tunes that have been keeping me company through all this crappy winter weather.
Starting with;
Artist: Norah Jones
Tuneage: Lonestar
No, not
this Lonestar, but rather a Lonestar that's had a constant stay on the CD racks of wine bars and upmarket cafes up and down the UK.
At first glance, I once thought of Norah Jones as just some boring warbler who didn't really sound all that different from someone you'd pay a tenner on the door to go and see play at a club near your own gaffe. In fact, that's what I thought for a good number of years until I watched the ok
My Blueberry Nights, thought 'hey, this chick can act!', and just got hold of an album or two out of sheer curiosity. An album or two soon became an album or six, as I disocvered that Ms Jones is actually a lot more stlistically diverse and interesting than you'd imagine, veering from vocal jazz to Emmylou Harris-like country rock, or even to a more wholesome sound that's a lot more PJ Harvey than Diana Krall.
Alright, I haven't exactly picked
the example to show off her stylistic range, as this is one of her earliest recordings, but ever since a rather bawdy kind of weekend that leaves you aghast at how much money you spent during the course of its nights, I've been feeling kinda mellow.
And speaking of Lonestar, in honor of the unfathomable brilliance that is Spaceballs;
Anyway, before I go and listen to
Not Too Late for the umpteenth time...
Artist: The Commitments
Tuneage: Mustang Sally
As I type this, I'm still in the process of twiddling my thumbs, waiting for my month's payslip to come in (due any day now) so that I can order
the Commitments/the Van on DVD as an xmas pressie for my little sister.
Both aren't exactly amazing films, but the former in particular boasts a good story that doesn't take itself too seriously, and dare I say it features musical performances that actually rival
the Blues Brothers for sheer awesomeness. This rendition of
Mustang Sally is all that in microcosm - like an on-screen projection of how you dream of being able to pull off a tune during a karaoke night at your local...and don't pretend you've never thought about it either
Quote:
Originally Posted by starrynight
Quite a few groups from Hull around that time had that soulful easygoing sound. Most of the group Sade was from there, and there were others like Everything But The Girl and The Housemartins. Maybe it reflected the fact that it wasn't geographically central and so full of the hustle and crowdedness of other cities. But sometimes more space and less rush can lead to more thoughtfulness and that can be a good thing and is undervalued.
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The Housemartins are the only group you've mentioned that I haven't actually got anything by, but I've been meaning to do something about that for a while now all the same. I think you could be right about the place from what I've heard about it. I just love a good, soft and friendly pop sound every now and again, and the Beautiful South and EBTG in particular are just fantastic at delivering that...almost unparralleled, in fact.