Trollheart

Aztec Camera had some hits, in fact: this is one of them, possibly their biggest, "Somewhere in my heart"



but it can't compare to the heartbreakingly frank "How men are". What a song!



Yeah, a sadly underrated band though...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Fascinating Turnip

Indeed, but the question is that they're probably seen as an 80's one hit wonder band, and they certainly weren't. Perhaps a "one album wonder" band, but that's debatable.

Here are a few tracks from Paul Weller's project after he left The Jam, The Style Council:


Terrific pop tune, bit of an R&B touch which is pure class. Released as a single.


Now this one is immense. Tracey Thorn's voice really adds quite a lot to the track, not only because it's brilliant, but because I think the song benefitted from a female vocalist. Has a bit of a film-noir feel as well, especially due to the rain pouring in the background and the presence of the piano. Always good if you're in the mood for some contemplative melancholy. That's probably a drink in some really snotty bar, actually...


A bit of a misty, minimalistic song with quite political lyrics which thankfully don't detract from the track's general beauty in the least. Again, class.

These last two tracks are from the 1984 album Café Bleu.

Bulldog

Long time no see indeed, Mr Ballad sir! I'm good ta. Between jobs, trying to figure how I'm gonna pay for Christmas and so on!

I'll be sure to check out Divine Comedy in some depth soon. I would do tonight, but for some bizarre reason best known to itself my library's gone and deleted itself off my mediamonkey player. All the MP3 files are still there and backed up several times over, just gotta take a while to sort them out all over again.

Good lad for mentioning Aztec Camera - High Land Hard Rain is one of my all-time favs also. Couldn't agree more with how the album comes off as a bit top-heavy though - so many great songs at the start that the end doesn't really stand out so much as it might. It's a tough call, but the Boy Wonders, Walk Out To Winter, the Bugle Sounds Again and We Could Send Letters would be my picks of the litter. The Knife is another album of theirs worth having as well. Apart from that, all I've got of theirs is a copy of their best of and Love - the album with Somewhere In My Heart on it (which is only half-decent really).

As for the Style Council, all I really know of theirs is this;


The Style Council - Have You Ever Had It So Blue - YouTube

^ The song they did for the soundtrack of Absolute Beginners (which is itself an album absolutely everyone should own if I'm frank).

The Fascinating Turnip

I only have Café Bleu, and to be frank, the album goes a bit dodgy in the end, I feel.

Never heard of Absolute Beginners, is the film worth it or just the soundtrack?


Ah, Radiohead. They might get overly praised by some their fans and for that same reason seem to be truly hated by a few music lovers. No matter how annoying their fans can be, however, these chaps have written some stellar songs. For me, Radiohead have been one of those bands who have evolved in a very positive way. I don't mean I enjoy the latest albums more than I enjoyed the earlier ones, but they've certainly become something quite different from what they were in Pablo Honey (which to this day I've never really felt like listening to), moving away from that style and towards something a bit less linear, a bit less mainstream. I find this shows quite a bit of character, and I admire them for it. Another band which underwent a similar progress were Talk Talk. Were they brilliant? No, they were bleedin' immense. They started out with a few pop tunes and then contributed heavily to the creation of Post-Rock.

This post is not really about Radiohead's career, or Talk Talk's, for that matter, I just felt I had to do a bit of an intro, as opposed to just posting videos of what I enjoy now and then (which is what I usually do).

Lately, as one would guess, I've started listening to Radiohead quite compulsively again. Especially Amnesiac and In Rainbows ( albums which I oddly didn't really fancy too much some time ago).

Here are a few glorious tunes, then:


Absolutely brilliant. I'm completely addicted to this track. That chord progressive got stuck in my head like not many songs have done, it's uncanny. I've had to listen to it an inordinate amount of time these last few days. Uni's been kicking my arse and I find myself reserving small amounts of time to listen to music. This one...this one's been all consuming. I'll probably tire of it sooner than anyone should, but I can't let it go. Thom Yorke's voice, the insane rhythm of the whole track, the intense energy coupled with the beautiful melodies, the repetitiveness...The backing vocals! It's absolutely perfect. I've never thought that lyrics were one of Thom Yorke's strengths, and surely the ones on this song are nothing special, but coupled with the music they paint such an accurate picture, such a brilliant picture. And this is often the case with Radiohead lyrics. They make sense in a way that makes no sense.


What can I say, another brilliant track. Beautiful guitar work, beautiful vocals. This one seems to have a bit of an earlier Radiohead tint, in that it makes you feel small as an ant and absolutely empty inside, much like many of the tracks from OK Computer. Have you ever listened to Radiohead on the Tube? It kills you. Makes you feel like you have no free will, like your whole life is getting carried from A to B (in a bit of an existential way, because the Tube does tend to take you to places...) by ugly mechanical things which are far more important than everything you'll ever do.

This is not to say these two are my favourite Radiohead tracks. They're among my favourite ones, however. That is fairly certain.

About Talk Talk, I think Bulldog there has done a grand job already reviewing all of their albums and I've already mentioned Renée (one of their songs from the pre post-rock period that I love), so I'll just urge you all to get Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, which are brilliant albums.

The Fascinating Turnip

Performances

Keeping with the Radiohead theme, here's Thom Yorke playing a track from their newest effort - King of Limbs - called Give Up The Ghost.


Yes, he does make a few mistakes, but it is still a mind blowing performance.
It is not theatrical, granted, but it is superbly intimate and very touching. Not every great performance has to be ridiculously grand. The basis of all good performances is whether they are genuine or not. And you can tell by the look on his face that he's not only singing the song, he is the song.
Not only that, but it must be notoriously difficult, working with all of those multi layered vocals (that are fucking brilliant) whilst playing the guitar.

Bulldog

Yeah, I've heard the Style Council are a bit iffy, which is what's kept me from listening to them further to be honest. Maybe one of these days I'll get round to it.

As for Absolute Beginners, the musical numbers and set-pieces are really damn good, but like a good 90% of other musicals I've ever watched, the rest of the film's let down by dodgy acting, a weak plot and so on. It's worth checking out for yourself one day though.

Trollheart

Just so you (and everyone else interested) know, I'll soon be compiling a "Beginner's Guide to The Divine Comedy", sometime in the next few weeks, other workload and life permitting (though in fairness, I have very little of the latter!)

I've already created one for Threshold and Balance of Power, and in case you haven't seen them they basically give an intro to the artiste, pick out selected tracks from each of their albums and let you decide whether or not you'd be into them, or if you already are, what albums are considered their best (and worst).

Like the squeaky-voiced teen said in "The Simpsons" --- "Keep watching the skis!"

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Fascinating Turnip

Will do sir, will do.


I'll be on the lookout for the guide, then, I'm curious about which songs you're going to choose.


Now, you may be thinking: What's this geezer aiming at with another post about Flying Nun Records? Well, It's not really a post about Flying Nun Records per se. There, ran rings round you logically.
It is, however, a post with a few tracks from bands which I quite like that happen to be on that brilliant record company. With that in mind, here are some "bringer-uppers", if you ever find yourself in the need. God knows I do.


I Like Rain by Jean-Paul Sarte Experience (later JPS experience, bloody copyrighting) is one of those tunes you just instantly fall in love it.
It's such a fun, endearing, playful, childish song that you can't really help it. I couldn't, at least:

"It’s good to be inside and comfy
I like rain
Falling on my window (I like rain)
I like rain
Splashing on the roof (I like rain)
I like rain
Dancing on the pavement (I like rain)
I like rain
When I’m inside"

Come on now, is that not brilliant? It's so...it's so bloody simple, so pure. Not only that, it quite appeals to an idiot like myself, who would possibly rather go jump in puddles and act like a tit than actually study, which is what I should do.
Be sure to have a look at the video, it's immense.


The gist of it would be:

1. Anything can happen;
2. Said thing that can happen may very well happen in the near future;
3. The choice is effectively yours to make said thing worthwhile.

Bear that in mind.

In any case, I've always felt this song had a very summery, islandy feel, and I really bloody like it.

And well, as my time draws to an end and daunting Law books draw nearer and nearer, I'll leave you with just a few more tracks:

The Fascinating Turnip

There are moments in life which you don't forget. In my case, they tend to be more beautiful than they are important.
Earlier this year, I went to Poland. During one part of the trip I stayed in a hotel which was near a lake. The sights weren't particularly terrific, but one day I we went on a tour in the lake in a small vessel. The clouds were gathering up in the sky, and it was quite predictable that climatic hell was about going to break loose, but we still went. As we got to the middle of the lake, thunder started bellowing angrily and it began raining cats and dogs. Well, water, really.
That day, I was (surprisingly...) quite melancholy, so it seemed the weather was making a bit of an effort to match my mood. Well, oddly, I found this not only very adequate, but quite uplifting. We "anchored" near the shore, next to a few reeds, waiting for the storm to pass. The scenery was beautiful enough, but I decided I'd spice things up with a good tune, so I put my headphones on, selected Country Rain, by Slowdive, and just sat there. It was one of the most beautiful bloody moments in my life. I seriously don't know if it's a bit depressing that I might find this type of thing more "relevant" than a lot of other pleasant social situations I've been in, but such is life.
Oh, and then we went back to the port and had to run from the boat to the hotel. I got absolutely drenched, it was brilliant.

The Fascinating Turnip

This summer, I went on a 12 mile walk at night. Sounds deafeningly stupid, doesn't it? Well, it was bloody worth it. Me and a few friends gathered up, had a pint of Erdinger, and went on our way.
After we made it out of the city, we followed along the island's shore at a slow pace, walking along the fairly dark streets, with lamps placed only here and there. We stopped a few times to have a drink or grab a bite, which is probably why we only arrived at our destination at about 5 a.m.
The whole hike was in the context of a religious pilgrimage, and we saw other people passing us by or indeed coming back from the place where we were headed. Not being particularly religious, I took it in a whole other way. In fact, most of my friends, despite being religious (and at risk of being blasphemous here), usually go along for the fantastic scenery, the drinking and a laugh as well. Why, it wouldn't be as appealing otherwise.
Taking that into account, we were obviously horsing about a fair bit, but towards the latter half of the walk, as we grew a bit more tired, I comfortably entered a state of deep contemplation. I couldn't at all get over how brightly the stars shone, how utterly beautiful the moon, peeking at us from amidst the clouds, was. I was literally speechless, drawing nearer to our destination but always looking directly up at the sky or left at the moon and at the sea, which bore its reflection very flatteringly.
That was when I decided that Mr. John Martyn (who died in 2009, bless him) was to accompany me in my trip, and after soliciting his presence with a mere click of the play button, he did.
Is there anything in life which is better than walking along a path that seems ever winding with a handful of friends, gazing at the fantastic scenery and listening to such brilliant music?

"Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you away
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you home."

There's another song which is in the deluxe edition of Solid Air that I played to death, but I can't at all find it on youtube. It's called When It's Dark. Quite worth the listen if you find it.

Once we finally arrived at our destination, we entered a church which was full of people to the very brim, but completely silent. Not a word could be heard. My friends and I sat on a pew, unbelievably tired, and stared at the bright yellow light which shone from a chandelier, at the golden altar, at the lighted candles...
We had arrived.