Bulldog

So then, if anyone's been particularly waiting for another album post here, sorry to disappoint! While I haven't exactly been busy, I've had my mind on other things really. In fact, I haven't really listened to a lot of music outside the comfort zone of my old favourite since last week, and these two songs I'm gonna flag up here will testify...

Artist: The Desert Rose Band
Tuneage: No-one Else


Let me just say that, broadly speaking, I love country music. It boasts what seems to me like such a laid-back, chilled kinda vibe that's completely unqiue to a great country song and seeing as laid-back is my middle name, I find myself listening to a lot of this stuff. Just so you don't confuse me with someone who can be in the same room as a Billy Ray Cyrus, Toby Keith or Eddy Raven song, I'll just say that it's all the offshoots of outlaw country like Townes Van Zandt and Krist Kristofferson, not to mention the country rock of the Flying Burrito Brothers that I find myself listening to the most.

True to me FBB-loving form (well, the Gram era anyway), I'm a huge fan of what I like to think of as country rock's own version of the Travelling Wilburys - the Desert Rose Band. Consisting of legends such as Herb Pedersen, John Jorgenson, Tom Brumley and, of course, that king among men himself Chris Hillman, the band released some five albums, of which only one's really anything spectacular. The self-titled debut is an excellent album, and is followed by a mixed bag of a followup which goes by the name of Running. From there, it's predominantly album after album of mediocre, formulaic songs, broken up by the odd killer track.

This song here is that kinda track. From the band's fourth album True Love (largely as ill-conceived and unimaginative as that its title), this is one of only three, at a push four great songs to be found. Whereas the Desert Rose Band's debut was an album I must have listened to hundreds of times when I'd first got hold of it end-to-end, I only ever get back to True Love for those three songs, including this. Sure, it's a syrupy, corny little lovesong, but it's the cheesiness of the whole thing that really strikes a chord with me. Plus, there's a really sweet melody to it which Chris Hillman's voice really does a lot of good. The guitar solos are just awesome too.

Artist: Elvis Costello
Tuneage: Still


Ah, Elvis Costello! I can claim to be as musically diverse, knowledgeable, sexy and all-round amazing as I am, but even I have one artist whose listens outweigh even the likes of Bowie and Sylvian since...well...ever. I could explain what I love about him, but I've already spent a few years, a whole thread and a lot of ProPlusses doing so here, so I won't bother getting into it

Anyway, this song...well, I'll just talk about this album first. It's worth mentioning that North (the album this song's from) is quite possibly the one album in my music library I find myself rethinking my opinion of the most. Sometimes I think it's boring as all hell, others I think I never really give it enough of a chance, and then just revert back to the whole boring as all hell line of thinking again. I think it's because it's a side of Costello I'll probably never get used to, that being the romantic, at once regretful and happy lover that these lyrics paint the picture of.

Whatever my opinion of the album around it, this song's always gonna be one of my favourite lovesongs ever. As un-sophisticated and red-raw as this lyric is, as such I don't think I've ever come across another song which describes that blissfully happy feeling of waking up next to someone you really love as perfectly as this song does. I absolutely love the minimalist orchestration that sees the song to its end as well.


Life On Mars...















































I could just leave this little note at that, but I'll go on a tad longer. Funnily enough, highly regarded as it is, Life On Mars is another piece of music I find myself reappraising quite a lot. Sometimes I think it's epic arrangement really does it all the good it deserves, others I think it's studio version is just far too overcooked, what with those guitar solos and everything. I kinda drift from one way of looking at this song to another (primarily the former to be honest) but one thing about this song's for sure with me - this piano-only live version is far and away the best version of it that I've heard. The bootleg that this performance is from is absolutely wonderful too, even if it was a gig to support one of my least favourite Bowie albums.

Anyway, I'll get another album review in here as soon as poss. Stay tuned!

Bulldog

Just so anyone who's interested knows (which, at this point, is looking like barely a handful of people), I'm getting a bit bored of doing written reviews by now, so I'm gonna be shaking up the format for this like nobody's business within the next few months. Keep an eye on this thread eh.

Bulldog

It's quite a version isn't it. I guess another possible negative about the live version of Life On Mars there is that the pianist Mike Garson is really whacking those keys like he's chopping wood, unlike the more blissful, subtle touches of Rick Wakeman on the Hunky Dory studio cut. I can't say I prefer either version myself, although Mick Ronson's guitar on the studio version does get on my pecs from time to time.

As for Costello, his first album's always gonna be the one you can just whack on any time and really get swept off your feet by the simplicity of the whole thing. I've said it a few times (if memory serves me right) around these boards that I prefer when Costello'd found his feet and started to take in more influences than, y'know, Buddy Holly to his sound. As such, in my eyes he's an example of a musician with a fantastic taste in music (even if he does like fucking Greenday and Panic At the Disco, but who doesn't like the odd dud eh) really using it well to make some truly great music.

Anyway, rant over

^ Apologies for the obligatory whine there btw. I was pretty drunk when I logged in last night The rest of the post still applies though. Basically, as soon as I've got the moolah together for the necessary equipment, I'm gonna try and put some video reviews in here and see how they go down.

Bulldog

^ Not so sure about this anymore. We'll see how things turn out I guess.

Seeing as my schedule's cleared up a wee bit recently, I think I'm gonna try and get three more album posts in here over the next week for a lack of anything better to do.

In the mean time, it's about time I threw some more videos at you...

Artist: The Corrs
Tuneage: Breathless


As much of a dull hipster with delusions of grandeur I'll always be, there'll forever be a part of me that has a soft spot for music that's totally at odds with my outlook on what predominantly makes good music into good music, the kind of person I am, the amount of sugar I take with my tea, which way I look first when I cross the road...you get the picture. I can't claim to know a lot of people here personally, let alone in that big, scary-arse world out there, but I'm sure it's the same for everyone.

All that's just a fancy pants way of saying that we all have guilty pleasures, and the Corrs are one of mine...to an extent. There are a lot of absolutely woeful songs that they've been responsible for, and it's not stretching the truth when I say that I think most of them sound like shyt. Where the Corrs shine for me though is when they play live. Beneath the glossy veneer of over-zealous studio production and execution methods, at least a few Corrs songs are just really good, catchy and upbeat pop songs with a Celtic twist to make things more interesting. It's why their Unplugged live CD is the only one of their's I actually listen and enjoy...for the most part. I mean, don't get me wrong - there is some ghastly, mushy corn on there too.

But it's songs like Breathless here which, when stripped down to their bear bones, are just really fun pop songs being performed by a very talented bunch of musicians who are clearly truly enjoying what they're doing.

Not to mention the fact that Andrea Corr is hot to the nth degree as well.

Ready for a mood shift? You know you are!

Artist: Third Eye Foundation
Tuneage: Corpses As Bedmates


Ah, Third Eye Foundation! To be honest, great as this album is and all, I didn't really sign up for something that sounded like this when I first got hold of it.

There I was, listening to the pounding basslines of Cyantific and London Elektricity one night before heading out to town to some place that'd play shit music all night where I'd proceed to tell myself that I'd be having a good time. I thought it'd be a good idea to get hold of some more drum 'n' bass. It was at that point when I started looking to the mighty RYM's top albums lists that I remembered how cool that LTJ Bukem album I once listened to was. Atmospheric d'n'b was what I'd seen called. So I had a look.

I guess in my blind, blissful naivety of being two weeks younger than I am now, I didn't really cotton on to the fact that there can in fact be more than one kind of atmosphere. What LTJ Bukem reminded me of, and therefore what I was expecting from the Third Eye Foundation, was a kinda delicate electronic music which fell somewhere in a middle-ground between downtempo trip-hop and liquid funk. What I got instead was an album that may well have provided me with a soundtrack to my nightmares for the forseeable future.

Not in a bad sense, of course. The album this is off is far, far from poor, and well deserving of its reverence among RYM's users. I can't really think of much more to say about it, but if you're up for a pretty creepy thrill-ride of an album, give this a few spins. It'll do you a world of good

Zer0

Ha! I do admit that I used to love listening to their album Talk On Corners around 1999/2000. I remember going on a family holiday in the summer of 2000 when I was 13 and I brought that album with me to listen to on my personal CD player. There were a good few songs on it that I enjoyed quite a lot at the time. I'm not sure where the album is now, I think my older sister has it somewhere or other.

Yeah Andrea Corr was seriously hot material back in the day. She still is! Her slightly gothic image and smoldering eyes always got me.

__________________

Bulldog

I've just got a thing about hot brunette's with Irish accents That woman was pretty much my first celebrity crush when I were a nipper.

I don't know if I could muster the courage to listen to an actual Corrs studio album. I think the unplugged gig's good enough for me. I mean, I love the acoustic versions of So Young and Radio for instance, but almost had a panic attack when I tried to listen to the versions of them they released as singles.

Anyway, before I get on with what I feel I should post here, here's another song that's been on my mind lately;

Artist: Iggy Pop
Tuneage: Isolation


I believe I've stated my love for Iggy Pop's divisive Blah Blah Blah album of 1986. I probably won't go on too long about this one, as you can no doubt see my opinion of it every 5th post of mine around here. This is just a fantastic pop song though, and it's everything that's good about that dated, 80s pop/Trevor Horn style. Overdone as you may think the synthy backdrop, echoey drumbeat and overall production are, everytime I get round to this song on one of my daily random music binges from the bowels of my collection, I can never listen to this less than...oh, I dunno...15 times.

Now that I think about it, it's really just that chorus that does it for me. Iggy's sorrowful croon, his buddy David Bowie's fractured 'i...so...laaaaay-shun!' backing vocal, the sax that underpins it - B-E-A-utiful!

I won't pretend that Blah Blah Blah's a truly great album or anything, but it's certainly very overlooked.

So then, I thought I might as well let anyone who's particularly interested know what they can expect in the coming 2 and a half weeks from this thread. Maybe if I actually have it in writing here, I'll actually stick to my word In this next week, I'll be going over these albums;

Bitter:Sweet - The Mating Game (2006)
Kris Kristofferson - This Old Road (2006)

And in the fortnight after that;

Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (2004)
µ-Ziq - Lunatic Harness (1997)
Prince - The Gold Experience (1995)

^ Maybe not in that order exactly, but either way I know what I'll be doing this week.

There might be the odd deviation from the format in between, but that's basically the plan.

Watch this space!

Bulldog

So, now for one of those deviations from the format I was a-talkin' about...

3 Reasons Why You Should Listen To David Bowie's 90s Material

In addition to endlessly long posts about albums you couldn't give a monkeys about, or showing off a bunch of different individual tunes I'm quite the fan of, I'll be doing this kinda thing. These are basically going to be three closely-related albums, be they in the same discography, from the same musical scene, subgenre or whatever, all having a very brief eye cast over them by yours truly. I'm gonna try and keep these coming from my own personal 'why can't everyone else have the same opinion as me' folder...stuff I think is pretty underrated in general, then. There'll be plenty more of these in future, don't worry

And here we are, starting in Obvious Territory with 90s Bowie. If you're not in the know, allow me - by the time the 90s were in full swing, Bowie was just beginning his efforts to emerge from a pretty dark time in his career, that being the constant ridicule he'd been subjected to from about the mid-80s to the early 90s. He'd well and truly imploded artistically by not only releasing an...an...an adequate album (Tonight), and not only taken his credibility behind a toolshed and beaten it half to death with a baseball bat (Never Let Me Down), but he followed all that up by forming the loud, noisy and allegedly pretty crappy Tin Machine (I actually think they have their moments myself). After flapping about at rock bottom for almost a decade then, a new Bowie was ready to emerge and show himself to the world.

And that didn't really start so well to be honest with you. 1993's Black Tie White Noise - Bowie's first solo album of the 90s - had two of my favourite songs on it (the cover of Nite Flights and Jump, They Say if you must know), but other than that was only really half-good. It was a definite improvement on all four of his preceding albums, but far from a classic. It did though signal the true second coming of Bowie, and pointed the way forward for one easily his best successive trio of albums since the Station To Station-Low-'Heroes' one of the 70s.

Now, here's why...