billyjerome

Uh...god damn this journal is intense. I can't even keep up!

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Trollheart

Sunday, November 27 2011
The blue and the grey --- Magnum --- from "Brand new morning" on SPV

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Trollheart

Fallen empires --- Snow Patrol --- 2011 (Fiction)


Okay. Deep breath. Let's give this one. Last. Try.
I have been singularly unimpressed by everything I've heard from Snow Patrol so far apart from the single “Chasing cars”, which I love, so where am I going wrong? Are they a band with only one good song I will ever like, and should I give up on trying to get into the rest of their music? It would be unlikely, though not impossible and certainly not unprecedented. But then I heard the lead-in single to their latest album, “Called out in the dark”, and I have to say I loved it, even before I knew it was from those boys who go patrolling at winter. So is this album going to be the one that finally shows me what a great band they are, or is “Called out” destined to join “Chasing cars” as being two of the only tracks I like from these guys? Let's find out.

Okay, so we're opening up with an Alan Parsons-ish synth intro to “I'll never let go”, starting slowly, then some nice bass and guitar coming in and the tempo is upping slightly, becoming a mid-pacer with some interesting effects, I think on guitar. Gary Lightbody is on form vocally as ever, and I do have to say from the off this sounds more commercial, more accessible than anything I've heard from them before, “Chasing cars” obviously excepted. Nice growly guitar cutting in there, from Nathan Connolly, and the keyboards very dancy from Tom Simpson, but not sounding out of place here. Good opener. Impressive, yes.

Next up is that single, and you've more than likely heard it by now. Chock full of hooks, great chorus and just a really catchy, commercial song, “Called out in the dark” is the song that preceded the album and let people know Snow Patrol were back, and it's a good choice. Great bass, warbling keyboards never drowning out Lightbody's clear voice. Restrained guitar, the song mostly carried on synth from Simpson, and very ably so. Both a dancefloor filler and a rocker, this could be a song that is all things to all men, as it were. Kind of hard not to like it, which is a difficult feat to accomplish, but seems like the boys have struck gold here.

“The weight of love” comes in on nice low guitar (acoustic, maybe), then bass and drums cut in, but for about a minute it's Lightbody's voice that carries the song, and even when the keyboards come in they're still just a backdrop for his powerful voice, joined by backing vocalists giving the song a little of a gospel feel. Connolly comes in with his guitar a bit more forcefully, but Edge-like he's just out there on the periphery, keeping the melody but never attemping to take it over. Very well constructed song indeed. Three for three so far. The first ballad, and second single, then comes in the form of “This isn't everything you are”, with nice piano and chingling (what? It's a word I made up: perfectly cromulent down our way. Look it up...) guitars, impassioned vocal in the best style of Ricky Ross or Paul Heaton. Great powerful backing vocals again (is that a choir?), and a dramatic, soul-stirring ending. And then another ballad.

Piano again introduces “The garden rules”, with some nice acoustic guitar, a lookback to childhood lost, a real gem of a song with some nice female backing vocals. As this album was only released last week, it's hard to get concrete information on lineup and so on, so I can't tell you who the female backing singer is (but she's good!) or who the choir is, if there's a choir, but I'm beginning to believe that's the case. No bad tracks so far, and now we're into the title track. It opens with what sounds like banjo, but is probably just fast guitar, thumping drums coming in, a nice uptempo track after the last two ballads slowed everything down. Great bassline carrying the track too, and some pretty frenetic piano from Tom Simpson. The song always seems like it's about to break into a mad guitar solo, but that never happens. Powerful stuff, nevertheless.

“Berlin” is a short track, just over two minutes, and basically a march and a chant with musical backing, all sounding very happy and triumphant, sort of like one of those reprise-type songs you often get at the end of albums. The cleverly-titled “Life-ning” is a gentle guitar ballad with a very simple and honest lyric, and what sounds like violin or some kind of string section coming in and filling out the song, while “New York” is also a ballad, but on piano, with a real economy of melody, proving that you don't have to have banks of multi-tracked instruments and production to the nth degree to create a truly exceptional song, which this is. Earnest, powerful vocal is the vehicle the song travels on, accompanied by Simpson's simple piano lines. Beautifully simple, simply beautiful, a future classic. “In the end” kind of revisits “Called out in the dark”, with a similar melody and rhythm, and “Those distant bells” is an acoustic ballad, very much I feel in the mould of Suzanne Vega, with a little REM thrown in for good luck.

The longest track on the album, at just over six minutes, is “The Symphony”, a mid-paced song, but it comes across to me as the first weak track on the album, or maybe the first that doesn't have its own clear identity. That doesn't mean it's a bad track --- it's not --- but if there's a less-than-brilliant track on “Fallen empires”, for me, this is it. Possibly overlong, too, as it doesn't really seem to have the faintest idea where it's going or what it's about. Or maybe it's just me. It could end at the four minute mark, but it drags on for a further two minutes which, despite a pretty impassioned guitar solo from Connolly, seems to be superfluous.

“The president” is another piano ballad, with nice synth lines, a drawling, somewhat morose vocal a little at odds with the sudden introduction of upbeat drums in the background, though the juxtapositioning actually works quite well. The song itself would appear to refer to the late President Reagan, as Goodbody refers to seeing him ”There at Margaret's side” and the track ends with what sounds like recordings of Thatcher speaking, though very low.

The album closes with a short, ambitious instrumental which they call “Broken bottles form a star (Prelude)”, and it's interesting but kind of empty, more tacked on than anything else. Perhaps they thought closing with the previous track might have been too downbeat?

At any rate, it appears that finally, Snow Patrol have done it: they've converted me! This is one hell of an album. There are few, if any, bad tracks and so many of them are excellent that they really lift “Fallen empires” to the top of my repeat-listen list. I will have no problem playing this through again, end to end, several times. Perhaps I've just been unlucky in the music of theirs I've chosen to listen to, but this makes me want to go back and check out “Eyes open” at the very least. Perhaps there's hope for us yet.

TRACKLISTING

1. I'll never let go
2. Called out in the dark
3. The weight of love
4. This isn't everything you are
5. The garden rules
6. Fallen empires
7. Berlin
8. Life-ning
9. New York
10. In the end
11. Those distant bells
12. The Symphony
13. The President
14. Broken bottles form a star (Prelude)

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Trollheart

The worm always liked this one, from the Human League. This is “Mirrorman”.

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Trollheart

Yeah, but you like a challenge, right?

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Trollheart

Coming around again --- Carly Simon --- 1987 (Arista)


Not an artiste I would normally be that interested in, my curiosity was piqued when a friend spun the album for me, and I was quite surprised at how good it was. I'm not a Carly Simon fan, have none of her albums bar this one, and in all likelihood will probably not buy any more, but I did like this one. I think it was the surprise factor that did it for me, the fact that as an album it's really solid and has really very few if any bad tracks.

As you might expect, it's music that's best described as adult contemporary: you're not going to get any mad guitar solos, long keyboard passages or very deep lyrical themes on this, but for what it is it's very good. The opening track is also the title, and is a mid-paced ballad, which not incongruously sings of the normal, everyday trials of middle-age, with its opening lines ”Baby sneezes/ Mommy freezes/ Daddy breezes in/ So good on paper/ So romantic/ So bewildering.” It's a song of love found in ordinary places, and of perhaps accepting what you have. It's carried on nice acoustic guitar and keyboards, and Carly's voice is still strong, clear and passionate, even sixteen years later(at that point) and twelve albums prior to this, and she still has a lot to say.

With a songwriter of her calibre and pedigree, it will come as no surprise that she writes or co-writes most of the tracks on the album, with some star help here and there. “Give me all night” is another ballad (there are rather a lot of them), but with a harder edge, thumping drums and electric guitar giving the song a lot of heart, and it kind of breaks out into a type of AOR tune, boppy in a mid-paced way and very catchy. The standout is her cover of the classic song from that classic film “Casablanca”, and she does a really fine job with “As time goes by”, featuring Stevie Wonder on piano and harmonica. You can just see her in a long red dress, smoking a cigarette in those then-fashionable holders they used to use, stretched on a piano as the song plays.

“Do the walls come down” is carried on gentle guitar with some nice keyboard and piano, a gentle yet insistent ballad with great backing vocals and a great beat. “Stuff that dreams are made of” is a little faster, but still laid-back, as most of the tracks here are. Again it's a song of making the best of what you have, instead of flying off to pursue unattainable dreams, of finding your heart's desire right where you least expected to, as she sings ”What if the prince in the fairytale/ Is right here in disguise?/ And what if the stars you've been reaching for/ Are shining in his eyes?” Sobering words, indeed.

The whine of a familiar electric guitar introduces the only song written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, and “It should have been me” has their fingerprints all over it. Yet another ballad, it has a rockier edge, a very power ballad feel, with the obligatory guitar solo, while “Two hot girls (on a hot summer night)” is just great fun, jazzy and funky with some smooth sax: you can almost hear the streets steaming in the hot summer air, the moon low in the sky over the city, cats prowling the darkened alleys in search of prey, or shelter from the heat.

“You have to hurt” is another cautionary tale set to music, as Carly foresees disaster as her friend tells her she is in love, and the older, more mature woman knows how it's going to go. Nice piano line and some decent guitar, with a certain amount of bitterness in the lyric, which is one of the two on which she had no input: ”It was good to see her/ Believe me/ But I couldn't stand to hear this anymore!” After the somewhat bitchy snap of this song, “All I want is you” is a more uptempo celebration of love, with an almost Bruce Hornsby sound, a lot more positive now that Carly is again calling the tune, then the pure gospel of “Hold what you've got” would have been a fantastic closer (though it's not the last track), with Carly stretching herself and showing that age has not dulled her voice or her enthusiasm one bit, with her holding court from the pulpit on the importance of loving the one you're with. Hallelujah, sister.

The closer, when it comes, is odd, and yet strangely appropriate. “Coming around again/ Itsy bitsy spider” is a combination of a sort of reprise of the title track allied to the children's nursery rhyme, which in itself sort of takes the album full circle, as the ”Itsy bitsy spider/ Climbed up the spout again.” Never give up seems to be the theme of the album, displayed in the most offbeat and yet deepest fashion in this strange little finale.

This is an album to relax to, not to dance around the room to. I wouldn't relegate it to the status of background music, but it certainly can be listened to without too much attention having to be devoted to it. And it improves on subsequent listenings. You may not listen to it that often, but on occasion you'll find yourself digging it out, and reminding yourself why Carly Simon is the renowned and respected artiste she is, and has been for over forty years now.

TRACKLISTING

1. Coming around again
2. Give me all night
3. As time goes by
4. Do the walls come down
5. Stuff that dreams are made of
6. It should have been me
7. Two hot girls (on a hot summer night)
8. You have to hurt
9. All I want is you
10. Hold what you've got
11. Coming around again/Itsy bitsy spider

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billyjerome

I have always thought I had a gigantic taste in music but you, you sir, have a much wider, broader taste, and I can only compliment you and slow clap in your general direction. Congratulations!!! You are well-rounded!

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Trollheart

Why thank you sir! Though compared to the mighty Jackhammer I am but a mote of space dust within the nebula, or something. Wait till you see what I have coming up next --- a rock opera in three parts? Better believe it! Working on the review at the moment, should be ready in the next few days.

Ah, I'm like a shark: if I stop moving I'll die. Plus I have a row of razor sharp teeth and dark eyes. Not really.

Hey, this journal is my outlet: keeps me going when the world seems to want to close in on me from all sides. Gotta have your escape route, and if it benefits other people at the same time, so much the better. Share the joy, that's what I say!

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Trollheart

Often castigated for not having enough soul on the journal, the worm presents today's offering from the mighty Drifters, with a tale of a practice that sadly may be going out of fashion in these days of DVDs and downloadable films. This is from a simpler time, it's “Kissin' in the back row of the movies”. Oooh baby!

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Trollheart

Monday, November 28 2011
Calling card --- Rory Gallagher --- from "Calling card" on

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