Its pretty much halfway through the year, so I though, in time honoured tradition, that I would list my 5 favourite records of the year so far. 2009 has been a 'steady' year so far, not quite the same excitement of the new (bon iver..fleet foxes..) as last year but some really good albums all the same. Lots still to come too with Wilco, Twilight Sad, Innocence Mission, MeCo and Mark Eitzel records on the horizon and the T&G diary positively full with gigs I'm attending in July/August. Anyway, the five best so far..
1. Bill Callahan 'Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle'
A clear winner thus far. A graceful set of songs from Mr Callahan, his finest for many a year. From the simple beauty of 'Jim Cain' to the quirky brilliance of 'My Friend' and 'All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast'. Best of the lot though, is the stunning 'Too Many Birds' with the stare-at-the-sky-beautiful unravelling of the line "if you could only stop your heartbeat for one heartbeat" being the musical highlight of the year so far.
2. M. Ward 'Hold Time'
Still not as magical as 'Transistor Radio' but 'Hold Time' is a retro feast for the years. Beautifully recorded and with some great tunes, Ward is the finest troubadour we have.
3. Broken Records 'Until The Earth Begins To Part'
Not for everyone. Your love for this record will depend on how you feel about windswept Waterboys-esque epics...sung with a Scottish accent. For me though, this is a fiery, passionate delight and I can't wait to see them play live.
4. Camera Obscura 'My Maudlin Career'
More Scots! Sad, lovelorn songs but strangely uplifting due to a sprinkling of fine tunes and Tracey-Anne Campbell's warm vocals. Perfect pop as it should be.
5. Fanfarlo 'Reservoir'
Out of nowhere this London based band produced a fine record of pop masterpieces, mixing the multi-instrumental sound of Beirut with the passion and drive of Arcade Fire. Great stuff and 'Comets' is the ballad Chris Martin wishes he'd written.
There's the five. Yes I know Bonnie Prince Billy didn't make it...and nor did Morrissey.
stay tuned.
Showing posts with label broken records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label broken records. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Friday, 5 June 2009
Broken Records 'Until The Earth Begins To Part'
Back in January I labelled Edinburgh's Broken Records as the band to watch this year. Between their early singles and the release of this debut LP, their sound has evolved a little from the Scottish Indie Arcade Fire of their early releases to the Big Music sound that you can hear on 'Until The Earth Begins To Part'. It takes some getting used to and it won't be to everyone's taste, but to my ears this is a wonderful, joyous record.
I can't imagine anyone reviewing this record will fail to mention The Waterboys, because the music is big, loud and epic and Jamie Sutherland's forceful, passionate vocals remind me of a young Mike Scott. The record is full of brush strokes.. piano, accordion, violins, cello, trumpet..all here. The music is dramatic, energetic and powerful.
But none of this would mean a thing if the songs didn't do the sound justice and in the main, they do. 'Nearly Home' is the perfect opener, building slowly and then crashing to a dramatic finale, Sutherland employing his falsetto vocal for the first time. The title track and 'If The News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It' are anthemic stompers, 'Until The Earth...' in particular is a perfectly constructed feelgood folk-rock anthem, piano intro, slow build, big electric guitar chords in the background and then a huge, epic finish.
A whole record like this would be pretty exhausting though and luckily they don't attempt that. 'Wolves' and 'Ghosts' are the primary departures, both ballads and in the case of the former especially, really beautiful with some haunting piano and an effortless melody... they just about resist the temptation to turn it into 'November Rain'!
My only criticism here is that Sutherland has the 'passionometer' on his vocals turned up to 11 pretty much throughout, even when he is singing a quieter number with some restraint, you know he is just building up for a roll of the drums and a chance to cut loose again. Bruce Springsteen sounds subdued in comparison. It might not be to everyone's tastes.
You'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to enjoy this though. Let's be honest, it sounds bloody good. Every instrument known to man is played here and while the lyrics break no new ground, all about love, unity etc (there are a few topical digs at politicians too, nothing more profound than "they don't speak for me"), you'll find yourself singing along. I have a strong suspicion that Broken Records would be completely awesome live and I will be testing this out on a couple of occasions in the near future.
Big, passionate, feel-good music. Nothing at all wrong with that.
9.2
['Until The Earth Begins To Part' is out now on cd/vinyl/dl on 4AD. Broken Records play the ICA on 9th June and support The National at RFH in August]
I can't imagine anyone reviewing this record will fail to mention The Waterboys, because the music is big, loud and epic and Jamie Sutherland's forceful, passionate vocals remind me of a young Mike Scott. The record is full of brush strokes.. piano, accordion, violins, cello, trumpet..all here. The music is dramatic, energetic and powerful.
But none of this would mean a thing if the songs didn't do the sound justice and in the main, they do. 'Nearly Home' is the perfect opener, building slowly and then crashing to a dramatic finale, Sutherland employing his falsetto vocal for the first time. The title track and 'If The News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It' are anthemic stompers, 'Until The Earth...' in particular is a perfectly constructed feelgood folk-rock anthem, piano intro, slow build, big electric guitar chords in the background and then a huge, epic finish.
A whole record like this would be pretty exhausting though and luckily they don't attempt that. 'Wolves' and 'Ghosts' are the primary departures, both ballads and in the case of the former especially, really beautiful with some haunting piano and an effortless melody... they just about resist the temptation to turn it into 'November Rain'!
My only criticism here is that Sutherland has the 'passionometer' on his vocals turned up to 11 pretty much throughout, even when he is singing a quieter number with some restraint, you know he is just building up for a roll of the drums and a chance to cut loose again. Bruce Springsteen sounds subdued in comparison. It might not be to everyone's tastes.
You'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to enjoy this though. Let's be honest, it sounds bloody good. Every instrument known to man is played here and while the lyrics break no new ground, all about love, unity etc (there are a few topical digs at politicians too, nothing more profound than "they don't speak for me"), you'll find yourself singing along. I have a strong suspicion that Broken Records would be completely awesome live and I will be testing this out on a couple of occasions in the near future.
Big, passionate, feel-good music. Nothing at all wrong with that.
9.2
['Until The Earth Begins To Part' is out now on cd/vinyl/dl on 4AD. Broken Records play the ICA on 9th June and support The National at RFH in August]
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Single of the Week
runner up this week is Stuart Murdoch's 'God Help The Girl' project's 'Come Monday Night', which I blogged about in April..
BUT...single of the week...and on 4AD is..
Broken Records 'Until The Earth Begins To Part'
I blogged about these super Scotsmen in January and they are going to be HUGE. This single is a thing of wonder, soaring, uplifting and quite quite glorious. Trouble is, all the bands I want to compare them to (with the exception of Arcade Fire) are horribly unfashionable (hang on, are Arcade Fire fashionable now?) so I am going to whisper the following words. del. amitri. the. waterboys. Yes! Its the BIG MUSIC!
Enough. Single of the Week! Out on 4AD on Monday on lovely vinyl and horrible download. They're playing the ICA in June don't ya know. Can't wait for the album.
BUT...single of the week...and on 4AD is..
Broken Records 'Until The Earth Begins To Part'
I blogged about these super Scotsmen in January and they are going to be HUGE. This single is a thing of wonder, soaring, uplifting and quite quite glorious. Trouble is, all the bands I want to compare them to (with the exception of Arcade Fire) are horribly unfashionable (hang on, are Arcade Fire fashionable now?) so I am going to whisper the following words. del. amitri. the. waterboys. Yes! Its the BIG MUSIC!
Enough. Single of the Week! Out on 4AD on Monday on lovely vinyl and horrible download. They're playing the ICA in June don't ya know. Can't wait for the album.
Sunday, 11 January 2009
what's playing on the T&G stereo this week...
With virtually nothing new released yet this year, T&G have been listening to some (recent) old favourites this year:
- Everything Fleet Foxes! Still stunned by the brilliance of this band. The LP has had several plays along with the under-rated 'Sun Giant' EP and their superb Daytrotter session.
- Innocence Mission 'Street Map'. Their beautiful new EP has had several plays, especially 'A Thousand Miles', which sees them at their most upbeat and life-affirming.
- Various Broken Records 7" singles.
- Pavement's absolutely superb 'Live Europaturnen 1997' live LP, given away free with pre-orders of the 'Brighten The Corners' reissue and essential listening, not least for the extra verse about Kula Shaker in 'Range Life'.
- Animal Collective 'Merriweather Post Pavillion' - only arrived yesterday, so more on this soon.
Come on record company people...let's have some new releases...
- Everything Fleet Foxes! Still stunned by the brilliance of this band. The LP has had several plays along with the under-rated 'Sun Giant' EP and their superb Daytrotter session.
- Innocence Mission 'Street Map'. Their beautiful new EP has had several plays, especially 'A Thousand Miles', which sees them at their most upbeat and life-affirming.
- Various Broken Records 7" singles.
- Pavement's absolutely superb 'Live Europaturnen 1997' live LP, given away free with pre-orders of the 'Brighten The Corners' reissue and essential listening, not least for the extra verse about Kula Shaker in 'Range Life'.
- Animal Collective 'Merriweather Post Pavillion' - only arrived yesterday, so more on this soon.
Come on record company people...let's have some new releases...
Monday, 5 January 2009
best thing i've heard so far this year...
Broken Records 'Slow Parade'
Broken Records are without a doubt T&G's 'band to watch' this year. From Edinburgh, they have so far only released two 7" singles and this, the first, has just come to my attention.
Released last Summer but sounding like a perfect 'new year single', the title track is a quite stunning pocket symphony coming on like a heady mix of Tindersticks, Arcade Fire and Belle and Sebastian. Mixing various images of hope and fear such as walking on stage to sing and hearing the band start up, it has a euphoric feel even before the 'all hands to the pump' string-laden coda which will make your heart leap.
Conversely, the b side sounds like a sombre 'year's end' song with images of sitting on the top of a hill hand in hand with the one you love, watching New Year's Eve fireworks. Its a pretty ballad and will make you swoon.
The band's singer, it must be said, has a GREAT voice, sounding at times like Stuart Murdoch and then, when he changes to falsetto, the bloke out of the Darkness.
Sorry about all these comparisons but when something sounds THIS good, you have to try to describe who else it sounds like to set some markers down. To me though, ultimately, this single sounds like Arcade Fire covering a couple of Tindersticks songs. Pretty glorious.
Broken Records have a follow up single out called 'If The News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It', which T&G will be seeking out and commenting on later this week. Both are out on 7" vinyl on Young Turks. Pretty limited by all accounts. Hope they make an album soon.
[edit: they have an even newer single out called 'Lies'. more on that soon too]
Broken Records are without a doubt T&G's 'band to watch' this year. From Edinburgh, they have so far only released two 7" singles and this, the first, has just come to my attention.
Released last Summer but sounding like a perfect 'new year single', the title track is a quite stunning pocket symphony coming on like a heady mix of Tindersticks, Arcade Fire and Belle and Sebastian. Mixing various images of hope and fear such as walking on stage to sing and hearing the band start up, it has a euphoric feel even before the 'all hands to the pump' string-laden coda which will make your heart leap.
Conversely, the b side sounds like a sombre 'year's end' song with images of sitting on the top of a hill hand in hand with the one you love, watching New Year's Eve fireworks. Its a pretty ballad and will make you swoon.
The band's singer, it must be said, has a GREAT voice, sounding at times like Stuart Murdoch and then, when he changes to falsetto, the bloke out of the Darkness.
Sorry about all these comparisons but when something sounds THIS good, you have to try to describe who else it sounds like to set some markers down. To me though, ultimately, this single sounds like Arcade Fire covering a couple of Tindersticks songs. Pretty glorious.
Broken Records have a follow up single out called 'If The News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It', which T&G will be seeking out and commenting on later this week. Both are out on 7" vinyl on Young Turks. Pretty limited by all accounts. Hope they make an album soon.
[edit: they have an even newer single out called 'Lies'. more on that soon too]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
