2009

Music-wise I'm glad 2009 is over. For a couple of creeky months at the end of the year I fell out of love with music for a bit. Hitting one of those spells where nothing I played made any sense and walking round listening to podcasts for most of the time. I was in a rut, caused at least partly by a bunch of sub-standard albums that I'd hoped for better from. Music for a while felt stale and lifeless.

I was dragged out of this rut by the exceptional new Tindersticks album (more on that very soon) and listening to the Velvet Underground. Music is starting to make some sense again.

I don't think that 2009 was a vintage year but there were some records that did more than tread water or cover old ground. These were the records that I kept returning to and the ones that I'll treasure from a pretty bad year for new music...

God Help The Girl 'God Help The Girl'

A superbly crafted pop record. It told a story but more importantly than that, it was great to listen to, revealing a little more each time you played it and introduced the wonderful vocal talents of Catherine Ireton. The closing track spoke to me a lot too and became a real comfort. A truly accessible, imaginative and quite splendidly fun record.

Camera Obscura 'My Maudlin Career'

There are similarites between my first and second choices and that is no coincidence. In a year when so much was dull and worthy, these records had a spark. Tracey-Anne Campbell and Camera Obscura produced their most finely crafted album yet, catchy melodies and tunes with heartfelt, personal lyrics that tugged at the heartstrings. Effortlessly good.

Mark Eitzel 'Klamath'/ 'Live From Copenhagen'

Eitzel's studio album was difficult and took a while to click with me. The mix of acoustics and electronics sometimes hiding great songs but they crystalised eventually and like every Eitzel record this had some stunning songwriting and also some pretty melodies. 'Live From Copenhagen' was not a real album (see my full review) but it was the most powerful live recording I have heard in years, the sound of an amazing songwriter singing his songs.

The Duke and The King 'Nothing Gold Can Stay'

I kept returning to this. Its such a listenable mix of folk and soul, lovely melodies, great songwriting but sounding so modern and unique. I really regret not seeing them play live yet.

Bill Callahan 'Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle'

A major return to form as Bill "gets dark again". Just great songs and moods.

The Mountain Goats 'Life Of The World To Come'

Great idea (each song was named after a bible verse), superbly executed. Some of these songs provoke an awful lot of thinking, deeply personal and beautiful songs from John Darnielle. The piano and vocals pieces were particularly heartbreaking.

Mentions should also be made of records by Hope Sandoval, M Ward, Morrissey (massively under-rated that one), The Twilight Sad and The Duckworth Lewis Method, all of which were really good.

As it stands, 2010 looks like being a quite incredible year. The Tindersticks album is incredible and there are albums to come from The Innocence Mission, Arcade Fire, Low, Radiohead and others. I am personally really looking forward to seeing Tindersticks play abroad for the first time and seeing Pavement play in May.

Lets hope 2010 lives up to expectations...

God Help The Girl 'Stills' EP

Two albums have been dominating my listening time in the past few weeks and they are both records that I under-rated at the time of their release. I have considered re-reviewing both but it may suffice and ease my conscience to just go on about them endlessly and wait for the 'end of the year' lists to right my wrongs.

One is The Duke and The King's sublime 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' and the other is Stuart Murdoch's 'God Help The Girl' side-project. When I first heard this record, I thought it a little showy and forced. In my defence I did keep listening and what I heard eventually was exceptional songwriting from Murdoch and Catherine Ireton's wonderful, crystal clear voice. The songs are sad, happy, funny and wise, the story is compelling and the ending tugs at the heartstrings. It is a monumental achievement and a beautiful, winning piece of art. Thats what I should have said first time round. At least I have learnt my lesson and am now 'living with' albums a lot longer before writing about them.

Anyway, GHTG have now issued 'Stills', an EP of songs from the same sessions as the album but which didn't make the cut. This appears to have nothing to do with quality, but instead Murdoch's intention to sequence the album so that the story unfolds with each song. It works on the album but means that this EP is also essential listening.

From the brassy 'I'm in Love with the City' to the torch-song 'Stills' and the funny/tragic 'The Psychiatrist Is In' these are five more perfectly executed pop songs and fans of Ireton's warm vocals will find plenty to love here.

I have only two more wishes from God Help The Girl...a London performance of the album in its entirety and a box set with the album, the EP and the b sides.

Get to work then Stuart...

['Stills' is out now via Rough Trade on 10" vinyl and download]

new Mark Eitzel record and other stuff

Morning.

You catch me midway through my week off, with a spare 5 minutes between swimming, watching cricket and listening to awful cds that I have to review for the other site I work for. I can't imagine I'm going to write about them on here, various reasons, but mainly it just doesn't feel right. Its nice to be sent free music to listen to though...this has only ever happed with 'the other site I write for', never Tracks and Gigs, hmm, hint, hmm, hint....

Anyway, I'm slightly panicked about the amount of records that are out on 31st August this year. God knows how I am a) going to afford to buy them all, b) going to find the time to review them all.

Nothing to review so far this week, but I am going to re-write a review of the God Help The Girl album later this week. I'm not afraid to say that I got that album badly wrong when I first reviewed it. In the 2 years I have been writing this blog, this album is the one that has most made me think "oops, why didn't I wait a while longer before reviewing that", so I am going to do it again. Sorry to all concerned.

Great news today in that the Mark Eitzel LP now has a tracklisting. It is out in September, tracklisting below, am still waiting (not so) patiently for tickets to his London show to go on sale..

1 Buried Treasure
2 Like a river that reaches the sea
3 The Blood On My Hands
4 I Miss You
5 There’s Someone Waiting
6 What Do You Got For Me
7 The White Of Gold
8 I Live In This Place
9 Why I’m Bullshit
10 Remember
11 Antennas
12 Ronald Koal Was A Rock Star

God Help The Girl 'God Help The Girl'

So I obtained a promo of God Help The Girl, the new project from Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. It is a story set to music, with a film to follow, sung by Stuart and several guest vocalists. Murdoch has been working on this for some time, as evidenced by the fact that two of the songs here originally appeared on Belle & Sebastian's excellent 'The Life Pursuit' sung by Murdoch, although they were penned with this project and another singer in mind.

The trouble with concept pieces like this is that it can be difficult to devote attention equally to enjoying the music and following the story. This was a slight problem on the Decemberists' superb 'The Hazards of Love' and is more of an issue here, largely because the three female vocalists have relatively similar voices. The story centres around the main character, Eve, who is voiced by Catherine Ireton, sings "there is no way I'm looking for a boyfriend" and then proceeds to fall in and out of love as the record progresses.

Musically, the sound is lush. Lots of piano and lots and lots of strings, it was recorded with a 45 piece orchestra. All sounds fantasic, yet somehow I found it deeply....annoying and at times it reminded me of an episode of 'How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?'. Much of it is fine, 'Pretty Eve In The Tub', sung by Murdoch over a plink-plonk piano is funny, sinister and then beautiful, 'Come Monday Night' is a torch song for those who feel overworked, underpaid and overstressed and is sung with much warmth by Ireton and 'I'll Have To Dance With Cassie' (which should really be the finale) is a joyous 'let's do the show right here' stomp.

But, what could be a great EP is fleshed out into an inconsistent and repetitive LP. There is a truly dismal karaoke re-working of B&S's 'Funny Little Frog, inconsequential instrumentals and fluff like 'I Just Want His Jeans'. One of the record's strongest aspects, the blend of Murdoch's and Ireton's voices, is underused with show-tune 'Hiding Neath My Umbrella' being the only real duet.

Its a shame, because this is a great concept, on paper it sounds great but on record doesn't quite cut it. The film on the other hand, may well be brilliant.

6.0

['God Help The Girl' is out in June on Rough Trade in UK and Matador in US. There is a pre-order deal with bonus tracks etc. check out www.godhelpthegirl.com ]

God Help The Girl / Twitter

I previously reported that a new Belle & Sebastian record was due this year, a concept album about a girl who falls in love with a swimming pool attendant.

Turns out I wasn't quite right. The record is a "story set to music" and it is created by Stuart Murdoch, as a solo project of sorts, albeit one with several guest vocalists. It is called 'God Help The Girl' and is out on Rough Trade in June.

You can hear a track from it, called 'Come Monday Night', at http://www.godhelpthegirl.com/

Its rather lovely and a nice taster for the LP.

In other news, TracksandGigs is now on Twitter, username: tinderplank. I may post first impressions of albums and gigs etc there, so should you be so inclined you could check that out.

A review of the new Bill Callahan album should appear here in the next couple of days.