Trollheart

Yes, another one! I know: new Trollheart journals are about as rare these days as a racial/gender slur by Trump during a presidential campaign! But I have my reasons. Really, I do. This was originally envisioned as just being another section in my main journal, but as always the problem is that I want to keep it updated fairly frequently, and in the Playlist, that usually can mean once every six months! Honestly, stuff goes in there with the best of intentions, meant to be a recurring feature, and is not heard from again. If I absorbed this into my journal then the best I could hope for would be one entry every two or three months, and that would never do.

Why? Because this is an idea I had a long time ago but only remembered today, and it's nothing terribly original, like many of my ideas, but like many of them, I thought of it first (shut up Batty!) and so here it is. What's the idea behind it? Simple really. I choose a theme (hence the journal title) and then listen to as much music as I can within that theme. It will often be just a word, or a concept, though occasionally it may be something else entirely. As per usual with my ideas, I haven't really thought it through fully yet. But the basic premise is that I'll be trying to listen to albums, bands or even single tracks that fulfill the criteria I set down here.

How often it will be updated is also debatable, but I'm hoping to at least manage an entry a week. Suggestions are welcome, both as to music that fits this theme and also for further themes, though I will reserve the right to take or ignore suggestions as I see fit. In essence, yes, I tried this already in my journal with “Variations on a theme”, but there I only posted videos with a very short description. Here, I'll be going into a little more detail, and as I say, I'll be listening to whole albums. Not only albums, but there will be a lot of them. Not quite sure how deep the reviews will be yet but we'll see.

The interesting thing about this, for me anyway, is that it opens up all kinds of possibilities. Choosing one overarching theme means I can and hopefully will end up listening to a wide variety and selection of music genres. Today I could have an atmospheric black metal album, tomorrow a hip-hop one, the next day something by Bing Crosby. Who knows? I'm going to try to ensure, in fact, that I don't just listen to the same genre or subgenre, and sort of like with my “Love or Hate?” thread, I will discipline myself to listen to maybe only one album or song in a particular subgenre before trying another one, although this won't necessarily be a hard and fast rule.

How many albums/songs/bands before I move on to a new theme? Don't know. Probably play it by ear; when I get bored with, or feel I have exhausted all possibilities in one theme, then I'll probably start a new one. But as I say, nothing's carved in stone. As ever with me, I'm flying by the seat here so it could very well be a bumpy ride! But fun, hopefully, and also with a bit of luck somewhat educational, for me and for any of you who choose to come on this journey with me.

Only one question left to answer then at this point: what's the first theme? Well, it's quite simple. I've been preparing for this one for a long time, seeking out and downloading albums that all have this one trait in common. They all either have this in their name, sing about it or are linked to it in some way.


Yeah. Autumn. I do know some bands who have autumn in their name already of course, but hope to find out about a lot of new ones. So, if you know of an album, artiste or even a song that has autumn in it, or is based around autumn in the lyric, or in which the band or artiste is called or uses the word, let me know. I'm going to pre-disqualify any girls named Autumn, as that's not what I'm going for here. Also don't bother with The Fall or Fall of Troy or whatever; I know you Americans call it Fall but here it's Autumn and I am going to be concentrating on that word alone.

With all that in mind, my first album review will be this, though I have something else lined up for the very first review, see below.


Level Eleven --- Last Autumn's Dream (2014)

Before I get to my first album though I want to talk about this song, which is one of my favourite ballads, from one of my favourite albums from my youth, and was also a big hit at the time.

Title: “Forever Autumn”
Format: Single
Written by: Jeff Wayne, Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass
Performed by: Justin Hayward
Genre: AOR/Progressive Rock
Taken from: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
Year: 1978
Acclaim: Rose to number five in UK charts

To a large extent, “Forever Autumn” is something of an anachronism on the album from which it's taken, as it's the only love song on the thing and the rest is basically concerned with describing how the Martians arrive on Earth and start wiping out humanity, and the author's attempts to evade destruction, culminating in the defeat of the aliens. There's little time for romance and reflection, and yet in a very real way this works, as the author (the journalist, played by the late Richard Burton) arrives at the house of his lover to find she has already fled, and then begins to reminisce about how things were with her in happier times.

As a singer, Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues has the perfect voice for this song, and indeed Jeff Wayne, when considering using it on the album (it had previously been written without lyrics as an advertising jingle) specifically wanted him, or as he put it, perhaps unkindly, “that Nights in White Satin voice”. Previously a minor hit for the two other co-writers, the song was turned into a massive success and appears on love compilation albums even now, nearly forty years later. It's a simple song at its heart, driven mostly on strings and flutes, as the singer thinks about the times he spent with his girlfriend, and wonders if he will ever see her again. It has some very telling, perhaps even twee lines, but they work within the context of the song: ”Like the sun through the trees you came to love me, like a leaf on a breeze you blew away” and ”Through autumn's golden gown we used to kick our way.”

It evokes memories of innocence and a time when anything seemed possible, and the idea that the two would be parted seemed very remote if it was at all considered. Hayward notes the change in the opening lines: ”The summer sun is fading as the year grows old, and darker days are drawing near” and at the end he cries that ”My life will be forever autumn cos you're not here.”. There's a pretty cool flute solo in the middle of the song, with lush strings accompaniment; it's probably synth-created, as I can't see any flautists credited on the album, but it works very well with the song.

Quite a lot of people think that either a) the song is Hayward's own composition or that at least b) it is a song by The Moody Blues, for whom he is the lead singer. Both views are of course false. From what I can see --- and I haven't researched this too thoroughly I must admit --- this song became Justin Hayward's biggest hit, certainly solo, and even with The Moody Blues it seems to have been his biggest success at least on this side of the pond, where the classic “Nights in White Satin” only reached number fourteen (third time of asking) though it did much better across the water, getting to number two in the USA. Nevertheless, if there's one song he'll be remembered for, I feel it is definitely one of the two, and many people will know him more for this, as it was released under his own name.



Things I like about this song:

1. The gentle flute melody, which suits it perfectly
2. Hayward's voice, which again fits the song like a glove: Wayne was right to seek him out
3. The lyric itself, very evocative of a love affair in danger but hoping to triumph against the backdrop of global alien invasion
4. The flute and string solo in the middle
5. The sort of false ending and restart for the final verse and chorus

Things I do not like about this song:

1. People tend to think it's a Justin Hayward and/or Moody Blues song, and Jeff Wayne tends to get little if any credit for it from those who are unaware of his work
2. Having heard it on the album, I am always waiting for the narration to break in, as it does on the album. It doesn't (there's no narration on the single) but I always expect it to.

That's all I can get, two things I don't particularly like about it.

And of course, I'll be rating everything I listen to. After what I've said above it will come as no surprise to anyone I'm sure that this gets the highest rating right off the bat...


Next up, a true legend and a song I have never heard.

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Trollheart

When you speak of the jazz greats, even a peon like me (as Batty would say) who has no interest in jazz knows of the likes of Davis, Coltrane and Ellington, and it's Coltrane we're focussing on in this segment. Not known for teaming up with any singers during his long and illustrious career, John Coltrane deigned not only to collaborate, but to make a full album with ex-Dizzy Gillespie vocalist Johnny Hartman, reportedly the only vocalist he would agree to sing with. Their album of covers, imaginatively titled John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, spawned some classic songs but this one is not as well known, and I have never heard it.

Title: Autumn Serenade
Format: Album track
Written by: Pete DeRose and Sammy Gallop
Performed by: John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
Genre: Jazz
Taken from: The album of the same name
Year: 1963
Acclaim: Unsure

Hartman has that deep, mellifluous voice endemic to the greats such as Tony Bennett or Bing Crosby, and the upright bass is really nice. Like the line ”Love was ours till October wandered by” but of course the song only really comes to life when Coltrane's sax slides in and basically takes over. Not, to be fair, the kind of sax I prefer, sort of warbly where I prefer smooth, but it certainly makes the song. It does however seem to be the case that Hartman and Coltrane don't tend to play together, ie at the same time. You have the first vocal from Hartman, then Coltrane takes over with the tenor sax solo, and then he fades out for the last minute as Hartman comes back in. Seems like they could almost have recorded their parts separately. Maybe that's how these things work in jazz, I don't know. Hasn't changed my mnd about the genre though.

Things I like about this song:

1. The vocal is rich and deep, does evoke autumn days
2. There's a nice smooth feel to it
3. The bass is great

Things I don't like about this song:

1. I'm not particularly enamoured of Coltrane's sax playing here
2. The idea that the two of them don't play in tandem sort of ruins the song



Rating:

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Trollheart

Alrighty then, the single tracks have been fun but it's time to knuckle down and tackle the first of our themed albums. So here it is.


Title: Level Eleven
Format: Album
Written by: Mikael Erlandsson, Jamie Borger, Jeff Scott Soto
Performed by: Last Autumn's Dream
Genre: AOR/Melodic Rock
Year: 2011
Acclaim: Unsure

Man are these guys hard to track down! Can hardly find any information till I get to a page called Metal Temple and there I find that the band are a crossbreed of members of Europe and Fair Warning, and are Swedish. This is their (anyone?) eleventh album in a career so far spanning twelve years. Billed as “Melodic rock”, I'm kind of expecting a hybrid of AOR and the odd bit of hard rock, maybe even a little metal mixed in, who knows? But big choruses, keyboard solos and catchy melodies, as I think our friend Anteater once said, should be the order of the day.

And off we go, with a big grindy guitar that quickly gives way to peppy keyboard as “Kiss me” opens the album and sounds totally familiar; where have I heard that before? That melody is very definitely ripped off from somewhere. Even the way the vocal goes up is copied from another song. God, talk about unoriginal. A great song, but it's pretty much not theirs, so I can't award them any kudos. Jesus! It's “Paranoid”! They're fucking using the melody from Sabbath's classic! How disrespectful. The bridge is from another song, but I can't place it. Man, this has not set me off on a good footing with these guys. Dear oh dear, I hope the rest is a bit more original. Next up is “Follow your heart”, which at least sounds a little more like one of their own songs, though there are some very obvious AOR cliches and tropes in it, including the “Woah-oh-oh” so favoured by Bon Jovi among others. Kind of a little hard to take seriously so far.

“Fight the world” begins, rather oddly, with a soft piano and then orchestral Beatlesesque violin with a rather nice vocal. Not what I expected from a song so titled to be honest. A power ballad? I guess so. Pretty good to be fair. Some expressive guitar adds to the sense of drama, and Mikael Erlandsson can certainly sing. This is a bit more like what I'vc come to expect of my Swedish AOR bands. The country that gave us Work of Art, Houston and yes, Europe, it's become one of the meccas for melodic rock and AOR, and any band coming out of there has to satisfy a certain pedigree as far as I'm concerned. Care of Night were the last ones I experienced, and they were certainly quite brilliant. This is showing definite purpose, as long as they can keep it up. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea in the world to title one of their songs after one of the bigger hits of Bon Jovi, but far from being a slushy ballad, “I'll B there 4 U” (yeah, that's how they spell it) has a sort of mixture of seventies rock and Beach Boys charm, and works very well. It's certainly catchy and you could see it being released as a single. Was it? I don't know: I told you, information is very very sketchy on these guys. But it should be. Title might cause some problems though of course, as might the length, five and a half minutes.

A lot of power, energy and drama in “Losing you”, which keeps the tempo high and features some really nice piano. Another powerhouse performance for Erlandsson, with Peter Söderström proving himself a really capable guitarist, but I'd like more information because either someone is playing a violin, there's an orchestra or at least string section, or the keyboards of, it looks like, Erlandsson himself, are pretty damn good. I must say though, “Losing you” gets a little tired around the last minute or so when it basically just repeats the same phrase, I suppose it's the chorus but it just seems like they ran out of ideas. “Go go go get ready for the show” (can you think of a worse title for a song?) is another powerful rocker, showcasing again the talents of Söderström. “Delirious” is a good rock tune but kind of not much more than that, pretty generic. It had been going so well.

Well, maybe we're getting back on track with “Made of stone”. Sounds like another ballad, though I feel it could take off at any moment. No actually, it stays a ballad all the way through though there is some real power and passion in it. “Stick around” has some good moments but it's a little too cheesy even for AOR and it kind of seems like it's being done on autopilot. “Star” sounds a little like a rip-off of some famous song too. It's a pity these guys can't be more original, as they seem to have a lot of talent but keep falling back on established melodies to form the basis of some of their songs. It doesn't do them any credit. We end on the rather annoyingly-titled “Plz” (what is it with the text speak here? Damn you, Prince, for starting this trend in music!) which belies the laziness of its title and allows the boys to come up with a showstopping ballad to close on. Snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, just. Great recovery.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Kiss me
2. Follow your heart
3. Fight the world
4. I'll B there 4 U
5. Losing you
6. Go go go get ready for the show
7. Delirious
8. Stick around
9. Star
10. Plz

Overall I'd have to say this is a very competent AOR album, but it could stand to make some serious improvements, like getting more original melodies and perhaps looking at the process of titling songs. Who knows? Maybe that's their thing. But they're certainly a very decent band and you can see how the merging of elements of Europe and Fair Warning works really well. It's the first album I've heard from them so maybe I'm judging them too harshly, but then again it's their eleventh so by now they should really have this down to a fine art.

Final Rating:

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Josef K

This is a really cool idea for a journal! Maybe try "Maple Leaves" by Jens Lekman? I was going to suggest "Autumn Sweater" by Yo La Tengo but I see you've already listened to - and enjoyed - the album it's on, although you didn't review it. If you're in the mood for something very angsty you could also listen to Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters by the Twilight Sad.

Trollheart

I'm trying to stick to tracks and albums with autumn actually in the title, as otherwise it would open it up too much, and I do actually have the YLT track lined up. I'll look into that Twilight Sad thing though, thanks. Glad you're enjoying it.

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Trollheart

Title: Autumn Symphony
Format: Album
Written by: Fabio Zuffanti
Performed by: Hostsonaten
Genre: Progressive Rock
Year: 2009
Acclaim: Unsure, but probably zero. Hostsonaten are not quite what you'd call a commercially successful band.

I've only quite recently got into Italian prog rock band Hostonsaten, but everything I've heard so far I've really liked. This album forms part of their Season Cycle Suite, which includes Summereve, Winterthrough and Springsong. Like most of the band's output it's the baby of Fabio Zuffanti, and includes a full lineup of musicians with cello, oboe, flute, trumpet, classical guitar, violin and even bagpipes! It is of course a musical rendition of or ode to the third season. Soft drumming is joined by a thick bass as we enter “Open windows to Autumn”, some very nice basswork indeed and then sax slides in very smoothly. Quite jazzy in its way I guess, touch of soft funk there too. Clarinets and oboes with what sounds like cello coming in too. Suddenly stops and clarinet and bass take the tune, violin joining now as we head into the last minute. A nice solid ending and we're into “Leaves in the well (including Riverbank prelude)" which opens on a soft piano and violin before acoustic guitar gets into its stride, creating a very pastoral progressive rock feel, very early seventies Genesis or Rush. Electric guitar slips in, counterpointing the acoustic in a kind of way that makes me think of Sky. Really nice solo now on the electric guitar, bringing it back to a more Genesisesque model, quite haunting and sad.

Yeah, the electric guitar really drives this song, with some keyboard choral vocals and some nice flute as the piano returns there at the end, taking us into “Out of water” and bringing in soft violin and cello in a really nice, relaxed melody, then in the midsection there's some backwards masking and jazzy piano as that bass from the opener returns, and the clarinets and oboes set up something of a flurry, though they disappear as quickly as they arrived and we're left with the violin and piano to take us out. Darkly lush synth then rolls in as the electric guitar with I think some sort of effects pedal rises too and “Nightswan 1” begins. Dropping back then to a more relaxed, gentle melody and bringing in some flutes and piano and then that bass shows what it can do. There's no point in me naming names here, as there are about fifteen players taking part, but suffice to say they're all great at what they do, as we move into “Nightswan 2” which rides along on a sprightly flute line with some really nice acoustic guitar backing it. Heavy keyboard then joins in with choral vocals and electric guitar gets involved too.

Cello and violin then take centre stage for “As the night gives birth to the morning", and we hear for the first time trumpet, running off a slow solo against high-octave synth which certainly gives the impression of the sun rising. And now we get those bagpipes, which to be fair are not too intrusive. Not an instrument I like personally, they always seem to be too harsh and loud for my tastes, but these are gentle enough while still having that punch about them. Another sedate trumpet solo, after which we hear a kind of distant chant, like something Arabian perhaps. A lonely clarinet finishes the track and leads in “Trees in November” as again a more jazzy overtone descends, breezy and uptempo without being in any way fast. Finishes on some nice classical guitar.

“Elegy” then is the only track with any kind of vocals, supplied by Simona Angioloni, whom we met on The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Chapter One. This short track seems to be just piano and her voice (though there may be some sparse violin in the background), and she doesn't so much sing as just use vocalise, but it's very effective. We end on “Autumn's last breath/The gates of winter”, beginning with a single piano line then some cello before Simona reprises her vocal performance, though it seems to be a very small contribution indeed, and the piano and cello take over the piece, creating a dark, ambient, sad piece, with I think trombone coming in, the same basic melody all through but it really works, especially when percussion and clarinet come in and add their voices. Beautiful ending.

Things I like about this album :

Pretty much everything really. I love the way the music paints, without words, a scene of bleakness and cold, with yet the remembrance of the departing summer still fresh in the mind, and the cold blast of winter not yet upon us. It conjures up visions of blowing leaves skittering along with a dry, crunching sound on the ground, branches of trees being slowly stripped of their finery as if winter were a thief or needed to survive the cold and was robbing nature. I love the breath of cold wind, not yet freezing, that whistle through those branches as the lights in house windows go on earlier, the days shortening and the nights getting longer and darker. I love the instruments used, the textures created and the overall ambiance Zuffati weaves over the slowly changing landscape. In short, I love it all.

Things I don't like about this album: Nothing.

Rating:

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Trollheart

May as well go for some rap/hip-hop while I'm here. Not too often I feel that a rapper's lyrical material will turn to the likes of the seasons (maybe “Bitch you're cold as winter” or something) but neverthless Chris Brown did include a track on one of his albums that really screams to be included just for the title. What the song is actually like I don't know, but I guess we're about to find out.

Title: Autumn Leaves
Format: Album track
Written by: Chris Brown, Leon Youngblood, Kendrick Duckworth (Lamar), Melin Watts, Mark Pitts
Genre: Hip-hop/R&B
Performed by: Chris Brown and Kendrick Lamar
Taken from: The album X by Chris Brown
Year: 2014

Well, there's a pleasant guitar and piano intro with what sounds like a female vocal before the beat comes in, but to my surprise and delight it's a slow ballad, not without its autotune but you can't have everything. Slightly harder kind of beat coming in now, but still slow, and there's a nice lyric: ”It seems that the autumn leaves are falling/ I feel like you're the only reason for it.” Then we get Lamar coming in with his rap, which quite honestly for me ruins the song. Don't see the need for it at all but that's hip-hop for you. It's not to be fair a hard rap, and it works relatively well with the music, but as usual we have to have the expletives. I mean, I'm not trying to be a prude, but why do we need the f-bomb in a song that doesn't require it?

Good enough song, but the addition of just that one f-word gains the video the warning “Explicit” and it really does not deserve that. Not quite sure why many rappers seem to think they're obligated or even duty-bound to drop f-bombs everywhere. It doesn't make you harder, you know, the more times you swear on a record.

Things I like about this song:

1. Good vocal, even if he does use autotune
2. Nice instrumental parts
3. Good imagery in the lyric

Things I don't like about this song:

1. Lamar's contribution: I feel it ruins it and is unnecessary
2. The f-bomb, again totally pointless and just dropped either for shock value or because he doesn't know any better.

Rating:

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Trollheart

Now I have heard of, but not heard, The Bombay Bicycle Club, so this will be my first foray into their music. They're shown as being indie, so at least it's not punk or dubstep!

Title: Autumn
Format: Album track
Written by: Jack Steadman
Performed by: The Bombay Bicycle Club
Taken from: The Bombay Bicycle Club album I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose
Year: 2009
Genre: Indie Rock
Acclaim: Unsure, but it must be popular because as soon as I typed the band name into YouTube it was the first result that came up...

Nice kind of a marching beat to start off, jaunty little tune, nice guitar. The vocal is kind of menacing a little somehow, and I don't really see the link with autumn in the lyric. Listening but not hearing any mention of it. Meh, it's okay but nothing special.

Things I like about this song:


1. It's cheerful and upbeat

Things I don't like about this song:


1. Not mad about the singer

2. Can't see the connection with the season in the lyric

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Trollheart

The only two things I know about Bobby Goldsboro are likely the only two things most people know. He hit number one with the dreadfully insipid tearjerker “Honey” in 1967 and he also had a hit with the somewhat more mature, possibly autobiographical account of one man's transition from boy to man one hot summer evening with “Summer (The First Time”) later in 1973, a song which did much more poorly but is in my opinion the better written of the two. I don't know if he wrote it, but I know he can't be blamed for “Honey”. Anyway, this is of course neither of those songs, but it has autumn in the title --- he has in fact two songs I could have chosen, I just happened to come across this one first --- so we're gonna give it a spin.

Title: Autumn of my life
Format: Single
Written by: Bobby Goldsboro
Performed by: Bobby Goldsboro
Taken from: The Bobby Goldsboro album Word Pictures
Year: 1968
Acclaim: Surprisingly (or perhaps not, considering it was the single released after his first big smash, “Honey”) this did quite well when released, breaking the top twenty in both the US Country and the regular US charts of the time.

The first thing I notice, other than the I think accordion opening it, is a blatant attempt to cash in on the big hit, as this opens with another high female choral vocal, just as “Honey” did, and maybe unwary listeners may have been fooled into thinking this was “Honey part 2”, as it were. Sneaky, man! Sneaky! In the event, it seems to be a fairly bog-standard Country/Pop song with some nice strings accompaniment. The melody does sail close to “Honey” too, and it's also about a woman of course and the love she gives him, but unlike “Honey” he at least stays away from having her die, instead preferring to have the flame of love die within him as the “Autumn of his life” approaches. Rather selfishly, he decides to leave his woman, and his child --- ”What do you say to a child of ten/ How do you tell him his daddy's going away?/ Do I tell him that I reached the autumn of my life/ And he'll understand some winter's day?” Yeah, great idea, Bobby! Make the kid so bitter that not only will he hate you for the rest of his life, but implant in him the idea that when he's grown up he can do the same thing to a woman he loves. Fucking excellent parenting!

This song, though it's the first time I've heard it, pisses me off. Not a word about the woman he leaves behind, scant regard for the child, and all we get at the end is ”I'm content in the autumn of my life.” Well good for you, you selfish fuck! This is the kind of crap that would pass for a “heartfelt song” in the sixties. Try that today son and you'd get a whole different reaction!

What do I like about this song?

Very little.

1. The tune's ok but much of it is ripped from his hit of the previous year, “Honey”.

What do I not like about this song?

2. The message it sends, that it's okay when you grow tired of your woman to just desert her, leave your son behind and not care about what happens to him, or indeed her. Yes, I know it's just a song and probably not indicative of the man's own views, but then again, this is the man who wrote (or at least sang) about basically underage sex/statutory rape on his biggest hit. The inherent selfishness and indulgence of it, the sweet sickly voice disguising a message of pure misogyny. As Blackadder once said, “No doubt he's shacked up with a new pair of tights by now!” Cunt.

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DeadChannel

The maple leaves in this thread have made me, as a canadian, very proud.