Writing this blog for the last couple of years has been an enormous pleasure. Looking back on all the posts, I have a great record of all the music I have heard, how my tastes have changed a bit and evidence of the joy I get from discovering great new music. Sometimes though, I have to document my disappointment with an album and that is especially difficult when it is an album by an artist who I have been a fan of for many years.
...and I have been a fan of Juliana Hatfield's since the early 90s, a couple of her records are two of my all-time favourites. 'Only Everything', released in 1995 and lost in the middle of grunge and britpop was a brutal but celebratory record of anthems, hard-hitting and euphoric. 'Beautiful Creature' just a few years later was a tender album of ballads, though lyrically just as brutal as 'Only Everything'. Hatfield has fought the good fight for nearly 20 years now and in the last ten she has still produced great moments, particularly on 2002's 'Gold Stars' collection and 2004's patchy but occasionally inspired 'In Exile Deo'.
Whereas for most of her career Juliana seemed to fluctuate between producing loud, abrasive records and tender heartfelt ones, the last couple have been firmly placed in the middle of the road, musically and lyrically and her last full-length 'How To Walk Away' was disturbingly bland. So, a solo acoustic album of off-the-cuff, raw and heartfelt numbers seemed a great idea. Hatfield plays every instrument here and most of the songs on 'Peace and Love' are just acoustic guitar and vocals. Unfortunately and surprisingly, this does not make for a pleasurable listening experience.
Back on 'Beautiful Creature, a song recorded in this manner 'Slow Motion' sounded simply stunning. Gentle, spare but full of tension and drama, it was one of the most beautiful and poignant moments of her career. Nothing here comes close. The opener and title track is a simple plea for the 'peace and love' in the title, with generic lyrics over even more generic acoustic guitar. It is twee and ever so crushingly dull.
So much here follows that template. 'Why Can't We Love Each Other?' follows exactly the same formula, non-descript guitar and the title repeated over and over again. It sticks in your head, but you don't want it to.
There are some good moments, so to make myself feel better, perhaps I should talk about those. 'Butterflies' is lyrically childlike and musically quite lovely with some nice piano and a pleasant melody, 'Evan' (yes, that Evan) is full of heart on sleeve reminiscing with a nice coda and 'Unsung' is a pretty instrumental.
Elsewhere though, most songs drift past without capturing the imagination or holding the attention and that is after repeated listening. 'Peace and Love' unfortunately sounds like a bonus demos cd that might be given away free with an album to show how the songs sounded before they were worked out properly. It is intimate, yes. But it is also weak.
It gives me no pleasure to write this review. I paid for this record, I'm a fan...I wanted to love it.
4.0
['Peace and Love' is out now on Ye Olde Records]
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Wednesday 10 February 2010
Beach House 'Teen Dream'
This has hardly been off the TracksandGigs stereo for the last couple of weeks, but my own record-reviewing rules now permit that I have to live with an album for at least that amount of time before writing about it. I've made some mistakes in the past, you see.
Not this time though, because I've consistently loved 'Teen Dream' from the first time I played it and subsequent listens have served only to confirm and enhance its status. This is the third Beach House album, but somehow I've missed the previous efforts from French-born Victoria Legrand and Baltimore native Alex Scally. Legrand sings and plays organ, while Scally contributes guitar and keyboards. Their sound is best described as dream pop, sometimes sounding like a glorious mix of Mazzy Star and Cocteau Twins.
The first thing that struck me about 'Teen Dream' is what a visual and cinematic record it is. Each of the ten tracks seems to occupy its own world, creating strong pictures and feelings. Opener 'Zebra' is a sweeping, majestic symphony with Legrand singing beautiful over swirls of keyboards, guitar and cymbals. This sets the scene perfectly for a memorable collection of elegant pop songs, sweeping you up in emotions before you even get round to thinking about the lyrics, the music is rich and very spacious.
In truth, most of the songs (or 'pieces' might even be a better description) are highlights. 'A Walk In the Park' has a lonely, yearning vocal over a simple keyboard and drum machine background and sound impossibly soulful and timeless, 'Norway' is the-one-you-may-have-heard-on-the-radio, opening with the foreboding "we were sleeping until you came along.." and building into a chorus with the longest possible stretching out of the word 'Norway'. While the most immediate and catchy tracks are frontloaded, one of the best is right at the end...'10 Mile Stereo' sounds like a soundtrack to footage of the Winter Olympics if ever I heard one, moving from quiet, inspirational vocals into a surging drum-machine led mid section which is almost hypnotic.
'Teen Dream' provides a wonderful listening experience. Legrand's vocals are rich and textured and the soundscapes are deceptively minimal, providing diverse and evocative backgrounds. Thoroughly enjoyable and a rewarding listen which reveals more of itself each time you play it.
9.3
['Teen Dream' is out now on Bella Union]
Not this time though, because I've consistently loved 'Teen Dream' from the first time I played it and subsequent listens have served only to confirm and enhance its status. This is the third Beach House album, but somehow I've missed the previous efforts from French-born Victoria Legrand and Baltimore native Alex Scally. Legrand sings and plays organ, while Scally contributes guitar and keyboards. Their sound is best described as dream pop, sometimes sounding like a glorious mix of Mazzy Star and Cocteau Twins.
The first thing that struck me about 'Teen Dream' is what a visual and cinematic record it is. Each of the ten tracks seems to occupy its own world, creating strong pictures and feelings. Opener 'Zebra' is a sweeping, majestic symphony with Legrand singing beautiful over swirls of keyboards, guitar and cymbals. This sets the scene perfectly for a memorable collection of elegant pop songs, sweeping you up in emotions before you even get round to thinking about the lyrics, the music is rich and very spacious.
In truth, most of the songs (or 'pieces' might even be a better description) are highlights. 'A Walk In the Park' has a lonely, yearning vocal over a simple keyboard and drum machine background and sound impossibly soulful and timeless, 'Norway' is the-one-you-may-have-heard-on-the-radio, opening with the foreboding "we were sleeping until you came along.." and building into a chorus with the longest possible stretching out of the word 'Norway'. While the most immediate and catchy tracks are frontloaded, one of the best is right at the end...'10 Mile Stereo' sounds like a soundtrack to footage of the Winter Olympics if ever I heard one, moving from quiet, inspirational vocals into a surging drum-machine led mid section which is almost hypnotic.
'Teen Dream' provides a wonderful listening experience. Legrand's vocals are rich and textured and the soundscapes are deceptively minimal, providing diverse and evocative backgrounds. Thoroughly enjoyable and a rewarding listen which reveals more of itself each time you play it.
9.3
['Teen Dream' is out now on Bella Union]
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