6th November - Joanna Newsom's Ys

Artist – Album: Joanna Newsom - Ys

Released: 6^th November 2006

Sounds Like: A day too late

Fancy me doing a blog on the 5^th of November and not mentioning Bonfire Night! What was I thinking??

For those of you that aren’t from these fair (rainy) isles and don’t know what Bonfire Night is – that’s right guys, I have had readers from some pretty exotic locales: Sri Lanka, the Philippines and, er, Guernsey – it’s an annual celebration with fireworks and massive bonfires, where we celebrate a failed attempt to blow up parliament 400 years ago. We celebrate by burning a big straw effigy of one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes (wait, are we practicing voodoo?!), braving the rain and the snow and the cold, and eating strange things like toffee apples and a mysterious cake-like substance named parkin.  We British do some strange things eh? 

Then again, you Yanks gave the world a strange enough thing of your own in Joanna Newsom. Her second album Ys is a sprawling folk album – released in the 21^st century but belonging to the 12^th – where ancient, ornate fairy tales are weaved around an emphatically plucked harp and Newsom’s distinctive, gambolling voice. Possibly the most grounded of the five epic tracks is opener ‘Emily’, a tribute to her sister that clocks in at only 12 minutes long.

The thing is, Ys is great but it is weird. Joanna Newsom is weird. Van Dyke Parks (who contributed the orchestra arrangements, and was also responsible for the Beach Boys’ symphonies on Smile) is weird. Combine the two, and you’re bound to get fireworks. Weird fireworks. There’s no point pretending that it’s not. But, like the celebration of Bonfire Night that we have enjoyed for centuries, it’s traditional and unique, earthly, storied and special, and it has the rare power to illuminate your evening.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Emily – 12:07

2.       Monkey & Bear – 9:29

3.       Sawdust & Diamonds – 9:54

4.       Only Skin – 16:53

5.       Cosmia – 7:15

Listen to ‘Emily’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak8S8FN3ycA

1st November - Nick Drake's Bryter Layter

Artist – Album: Nick Drake – Bryter Layter

Released: 1^st November 1970

Sounds Like: A crisp November morning

Whether yesterday evening for you consisted of drunken debauchery at a Hallowe’en party or, like me, watching scary movies with no lights on, the chances are you require some gentle, soothing music this morning. Enter: Nick Drake.

Bryter Layter was Drake’s second album, and it’s also his most unchallenging; one where’d he moved very slightly away from the pastoral folk countryside of debut Five Leaves Left to a poppier setting, and one where he hadn’t yet been possessed by the demons that consumed him on final record Pink Moon.

‘Northern Sky’, though understated, stands amongst the greatest love songs of all time, the Hazey Jane’s (actually the name of a pretty good Scottish group) are brilliantly light folk-pop efforts, ‘Fly’ is as delicate as insect wings and ‘One of These Things First’ is busy and fun, bouncing along on Drake’s gossamer croon. All told, it’s a fantastically assured album and one that softly but confidently blows those Hallowe’en cobwebs away.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Introduction – 1:33

2.       Hazey Jane II – 3:46

3.       At the Chime of a City Clock – 4:47

4.       One of These Things First – 4:52

5.       Hazey Jane I – 4:31

6.       Bryter Layter – 3:24

7.       Fly – 3:00

8.       Poor Boy – 6:09

9.       Northern Sky – 3:47

10.   Sunday – 3:42

Listen to ‘Hazey Jane II’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSZ9oX0rLgg

Also released on 1^st November:

1988: My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything

Also released on 1^st November:

1970: Grateful Dead – American Beauty

Also released on 1^st November:

1994: Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York

1st September - Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left

Artist - Album: Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Released: 1st September 1969
Sounds like: living on Solid Air

Nick Drake is music's best answer to the neglected artist, ignored and unappreciated in his lifetime but declared a genius posthumously. Despite the fact that his three full albums are now each considered to be masterpieces, they would have been considered flops in their day had anyone even noticed they'd come out. The complete lack of success and his battles with mental illness marks him out as a kind of Van Gogh-lite, although admittedly his influence doesn't quite extend as far as the earless Dutchman's.

Five Leaves Left was his first album, and back then Drake wasn't beset by the depression brought about by his failure to sell any records. The music is pastoral and moody, but never maudlin and melancholy, nor as lonely, as with his later work. The English graduate plays with autumnal imagery and has a wistful tinge, but there's no sign of the hounded tone his later songs possessed.

The cult of Drake have placed the man on a pedestal alongside the great English poets, his heroes Blake and Yeats. This may be over-egging it a bit but tracks such as 'The Thoughts of Mary Jane', 'Fruit Tree' and 'Day is Done' have an equally distinctive Englishnessicity. Drake also liked to experiment with tunings on his expertly plucked guitar and the creativity didn't stop there - 'Cello Song', 'River Man' and 'Way to Blue' are unique compositions, nominally folk but really some baroque form of original thinking that we've yet to name. We haven't had to; nobody since has made music like this.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1. Time Has Told Me – 4:27
2. River Man – 4:21
3. Three Hours – 6:16
4. Way to Blue – 3:11
5. Day Is Done – 2:29
6. Cello Song – 4:49
7. The Thoughts of Mary Jane – 3:22
8. Man in a Shed – 3:55
9. Fruit Tree – 4:50
10. Saturday Sun – 4:03

Listen to 'Cello Song': you can't on YouTube! There's no footage of him performing in existence. Just buy the album already...

Also released on 1^st September:

1987: R.E.M - Document

23rd August - Jeff Buckley's Grace

Artist - Album: Jeff Buckley - Grace
Released: 23rd August 1994
Sounds like: Heavenly

Here's a little debate to keep you and your otherwise socially awkward friends going in the pub over this long weekend: just who is the greatest singer in pop history? There are plenty of candidates from the soul canon - the velvety smooth voices of Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye and Al Green; the shape shifting pipes of Aretha Franklin, delicate and angelic one moment, monstrous and powerful the next; the ticks and woops of Motown stars like Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson; and older, stately contributions from the queens of the blues and soul like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. Folk has given us the beautiful singing of Sandy Denny and Tim Buckley. Recent pop songstresses such as Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston may have had a tendency to over do it, but, you have to grudgingly admit, they are pretty good. In rock though, it's less easy to pinpoint great singers - half the time it seems like not being able to sing matters, eh Liam Gallagher? Few would argue with Van Morrison, Elvis or Robert Plant (that's quite the trio), but beyond those I tend to draw a blank. That said, rock can lay claim to Jeff Buckley, son of Tim, who may have been the best of all.

Jeff only recorded one full album before he died (aged just 30, not of drugs or violence, but of drowning whilst swimming in Wolf Creek and singing Led Zeppelin - I couldn't help but love this guy when I was 14), but what an album to leave us with. Diverse influences such as Eastern raga, folk, lounge and classical music, and, most prominently, Led Zep, combine to create a record that is complex but easy, dramatic but unpretentious, and bombastic but intimate. His cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' helped to turn the song into a standard, whilst two of his originals - the epic 'Lover, You Should've Come Over' and the glorious'Last Goodbye' - are up there with the best rock songs of the nineties. The guitars are intricate without being showy, and the band posses an almost telepathic understanding. Above it all, Jeff's voice soars, swoops and waltzes with incredible flexibility, as you imagine his ghost does now. It's the stuff legends are made of.

Analbumaday... rating: 10/10

1. Mojo Pin -5:42
2. Grace - 5:22
3. Last Goodbye -4:35
4. Lilac Wine - 4:32
5. So Real - 4:43
6. Hallelujah - 6:53
7. Lover, You Should've Come Over - 6:43
8. Corpus Christi Carol - 2:56
9. Eternal Life - 4:52
10. Dream Brother - 5:26

Listen to 'Grace': www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3adFWKE9JE

Also released on 23rd August:

2005: The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema

22nd June - Joni Mitchell's Blue

Artist – Album: Joni Mitchell - Blue

Released:  22^nd June 1971

Sounds Like: she’s kind of blue

Didn’t get your fill of depressed Canadians with Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night? Why not try Joni Mitchell’s Blue – now even more sad!

Before Blue, Joni Mitchell had experienced some success, first writing songs for others and then as a solo artists in her own right. But the emotion shown on those biggest songs – the philosophical ‘Both Sides Now’, the disappointment on ‘Woodstock’ and the environmentally angry ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ – gave no indication of the raw wounds exposed on this, her fourth album.

Detailed here is the heartbreak of broken relationships (she had recently split up with her longtime boyfriend Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills & Nash fame), failed marriages (‘The Last Time I Saw Richard’) and, most tragically of all, giving up the baby she couldn’t afford to keep (‘Little Green’).

Mitchell herself has said of it “I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy”. Like cellophane though, she does come across as delicate and eye-catching. The sparse arrangements centre mostly on lightly picked acoustic guitars and her wonderful, distinctive voice. And as weak or crushed as she may have felt, she did possess incredible courage to be able to detail all of these issues with unparalleled power and perception.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       All I Want – 3:32

2.       My Old Man – 3:33

3.       Little Green – 3:25

4.       Carey – 3:00

5.       Blue – 3:00

6.       California – 3:48

7.       This Flight Tonight – 2:50

8.       River – 4:00

9.       A Case of You – 4:20

10.   The Last Time I Saw Richard – 4:13

Listen to ‘Carey’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO4WXTIZ7Uw

Also released on the 22^nd May:

2003: Beyoncé – Dangerously in Love

Also released on the 22^nd May:

2004: Wilco – A Ghost is Born

27th May - Bob Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Artist – Album: Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

Released:  27^th May 1963

Sounds Like: Another day, another Dylan

It’s gradually becoming clear that Bob Dylan is one of my favourite artists of all time.  I mean, I always knew he was good, and that I was supposed to like him, but it never occurred to me that I ACTUALLY liked him. I do! I really do. Today is the fourth time, in only 148 days that I have sat here trying to convince you just how awesome each album is, that a Dylan has been the centre of attention. Another indication of my adoration is the fact that I had a huge poster of this album cover on my bedroom wall since I was 16.

In many ways, this was the first record on which Dylan showed his true genius. His debut, though pleasant, was riddled with covers which only served to dilute his skill and rein in his immense talent. Here, there are still a couple of covers – the fine ‘Corrina, Corrina’  and ‘Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance’ – but it’s the originals that really stand out. ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ wasn’t just a milestone song, it was a torch song, a landmark for the flower power ideal. Other protest songs such as ‘Masters of War’ and, particularly, ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall’ shone, but Dylan was more than a one trick pony. ‘Girl from the North Country’ was a delicate love song, possessing that inalienable quality of Dylan’s folk songs of sounding timeless. ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’ is ostensibly a love song but with tongue driven squarely in cheek. Elsewhere, there are the oft-lauded but questionable ‘Bob Dylan’s Blues’ and ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream’ that maybe I just don’t get.

I may have already given two Dylan album’s the full ten out of ten so far, but the eight I’m going to give this is not to be sniffed at. This was a fantastic effort, and really paved the way for the brilliance that was to come.

Albumaday... rating:  8/10

1.       Blowin’ in the Wind – 2:48

2.       Girl from the North Country – 3:22

3.       Masters of War – 4:34

4.       Down the Highway – 3:27

5.       Bob Dylan’s Blues – 2:23

6.       A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall – 6:55

7.       Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – 3:40

8.       Bob Dylan’s Dream – 5:03

9.       Oxford Town – 1:50

10.   Talkin’ World War III Blues – 6:28

11.   Corrina, Corrina – 2:44

12.   Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance – 2:01

13.   I Shall Be Free – 4:49

Listen to ‘Don’t Think Twive It’s Alright’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZPh3hpxLKs

Also released on the 27^th May:

2003: The Thrills – So Much for the City

19th May - Alexander "Skip" Spence's Oar

Artist – Album: Alexander “Skip” Spence - Oar

Released:  19^th May 1969

Sounds Like: Insanity

 For anyone who’s listened to the summer harmonies and the amiable psychedelic garage rock of Moby Grape’s 1967 self-titled debut, this schizophrenic and intense set from guitarist and chief songwriter Alexander Spence will have come as something as a shock. It’s introspective and sparse feel of the songs had little to do with the pop melodies of before, and that’s before delving into the harrowing lyrical content.

The roots of this record stem from Skip Spence’s attempt to smash a hotel door to pieces with an axe and subsequently do this same to his Moby Grape bandmates Jerry Miller and Don Stevenson a la The Shining. Spence as a result had to spend six months in a New York mental hospital (yep, that’s all!) and put together the bare bones for this twelve song cycle.

The insanity permeates this album in a much more subtle way than in contemporary recordings by the likes of Syd Barrett. Songs such as ‘Broken Heart’, ‘All Come to Meet Her’ and ‘Little Hands’ serve to showcase the melodic genius still within his warped mind, but ‘Margaret/Tiger Rug’ and ‘Books of Moses’ demonstrate the mentality of a man losing his grip on reality. The nine minutes plus of  ‘Grey/Afro’ is a difficult listen, yet ‘Weighted Down’ is perfect country pop. The fragile beauty of ‘Diana’ always brings a lump to my throat.   

Skip Spence deserves the same critical and commercial re-evaluation that Nick Drake and Elliott Smith enjoyed not so long ago, as this stands as a fine example of depressed acoustic guitar folk to rival either of those posthumous icons.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Little Hands – 3:44

2.       Cripple Creek – 2:16

3.       Diana – 3:32

4.       Margaret/Tiger Rug – 2:17

5.       Weighted Down (The Prison Song) – 6:27

6.       War in Peace – 4:05

7.       Broken Heart – 3:29

8.       All Come to Meet Her – 2:04

9.       Books of Moses – 2:42

10.   Dixie Beach Promenade (Yin for Yang) – 2:53

11.   Lawrence of Euphoria – 1:31

12.   Grey/Afro – 9:38

Listen to ‘Diana’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVP-S8MNE0M

7th April - Leonard Cohen's Songs From a Room

Artist – Album: Leonard Cohen – Songs from a Room

Released:  7^th April 1968               

Sounds Like: The idol is boxed in a room

What a hero Leonard Cohen is. Poet, novelist and one of the most acclaimed and influential singer songwriters of the last five decades, he operates on a higher literary plane than the majority of his folky contemporaries. Not stopping there, Cohen is also an inductee of the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and a Companion of the Order of Canada. He’s a practising Jew with an interest in Buddhism, and he’s had a long standing association with Budhhist monk and teacher Kyozan Joshu Sasaki up at the brilliantly named Mount Baldy Zen Centre. Plus, a friend of a friend of a friend knows him, and apparently he seems like a nice guy.

With such a grand list of achievements it can be easy to forget that at times his music can be hushed and humble. Here, on his second album, it’s even hesitant. With Cohen’s admittedly limited vocals, and the absence of much ornament besides his trusty acoustic guitar, his work is reliant on the quiet confidence he tends to bring, be it on his stunningly realised debut or his later 80s experiments with synths. Here he seems a little constricted, as though he doubts whether the material is worthy of following his first Songs from Leonard Cohen. Perversely, for that very reason, this isn’t his best effort.

On the other hand, it’s still good. Songs like ‘Story of Isaac’, the conversion of a French poem ‘The Partisan’ and the bittersweet romance of ‘You Know Who I Am’ are exceptional works of art, whilst ‘Bird on a Wire’ - not really my favourite, it’s a bit boring – nevertheless seems to be a bit of a headline draw for the fans.

Not Leonard Cohen at his best, but even when the legend isn’t quite at 100% he’s still better than most of his peers.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Bird on a Wire – 3:28

2.       Story of Isaac – 3:38

3.       A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes – 3:18

4.       The Partisan – 3:29

5.       Seems So Long Ago, Nancy – 3:41

6.       The Old Revolution – 4:50

7.       The Butcher – 3:22

8.       You Know Who I Am – 3:32

9.       Lady Midnight – 3:01

10.   Tonight Will Be Fine – 3:53

Listen to ‘You Know Who I Am’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPkUyPU6nw4

Also released on the 7^th April:

2003: Athlete – Vehicles & Animals

Also released on the 7^th April:

2004: Jens Lekman – When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog

28th March - King Creosote & Jon Hopkins' Diamond Mine

Artist – Album: King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine

Released:  28^th March 2011

Sounds Like: Cardigans, bushy beards, and neeps and tatties.

Contentious decision time – rather than Houses of the Holy from hard rocking titans Led Zeppelin, I’ve opted to listen to Diamond Mine, a low selling, low key collaboration by Scottish troubadour King Creosote and ambient producer Jon Hopkins...

Personally, I was absolutely enamoured by the pair’s sketches from Scotland, a collection of songs that evocatively brings up images of stone wall cottages and cosy pubs in a fishing town in Fife. The album begins with a barely heard welcome from a bonnie wee lass and the muffled sounds of a shop counter transaction. Brian Eno-esque piano chords provide a sparse backdrop. The lightly strummed guitar don’t make an appearance until the second track ‘John Taylor’s Month Away’, a song much more in the style of typical KC (KC rules OK?). His lilting, softly accented croon captivates. And the album follows that pattern from there on in. Ambient, atmospheric break is followed by lovely acoustic ditty, follows ambient break, follows acoustic ditty. After just over half an hour, we finish with the last few notes of gentle coda ‘Your Young Voice’ and we’re transported back to our real lives; in my case, the charcoal grey skies and tall buildings of Manchester.

It goes some way to show the high regard that I hold this album in that i haven’t crow-barred into this review as many national stereotypes and clichés as humanly possible, as I did for Frenchies Air, the (not actually) Canadian Neko Case and St Patrick’s Day. Och aye the noo indeed.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       First Watch – 2:37

2.       John Taylor’s Month Away – 6:32

3.       Bats in the Attic – 3:43

4.       Running on Fumes – 6:36

5.       Bubble – 5:35

6.       Your Own Spell – 3:51

7.       Your Young Voice – 3:17

Listen to ‘Bats in the Attic ’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAt4sk8znk4

Also released on the 28^th March:

1973: Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy

27th March - Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home

Artist – Album: Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home

Released:  27^th March 1965         

Sounds Like:  A record breaker

So, Bob Dylan here becomes the first artist to have had three albums reviewed on this blog, following 1964’s The Times They Are A-Changing and 1975’s Blood on the Tracks in January.

What’s surprising is that this effort doesn’t really sound anything like the other two. I mean, sure, his voice is still a squawk as in the older recording, and his lyrics are as well chosen, funny and tender as in later album, but, musically, this is going down a very different path. Here, Dylan’s forsaken the limited folk of his earlier records for the electric folk rock that he made his own. He has a go at Chuck Berry style Rock and Roll for ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, a song hilariously revealed to be a George Formby original in mock news comedy The Day Today (youtube it!). The second half is more traditional in tone but there’s a succession of more than five minute long songs, sprawling, all-encompassing tales that broke the rigid conventions of the time.

The calibre of the songs on this album is just extraordinary: ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit’, ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, ‘Gates of Eden’, ’It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’; each one stakes a credible claim to be Dylan’s greatest ever single track, and each works exceptionally well with the others to create an entirely listenable and rewarding masterpiece of a whole.

And for that reason, Bob Dylan also becomes the first artist to have more than one perfect rated album on this blog. Now hear this Robert Zimmerman, I gave two tens to you.  

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Subterranean Homesick Blues – 2:21

2.       She Belongs to Me – 2:47

3.       Maggie’s Farm – 3:54

4.       Love Minus Zero/No Limit – 2:51

5.       Outlaw Blues – 3:05

6.       On the Road Again – 2:35

7.       Bob Dylan’s 115^th Dream – 6:30

8.       Mr Tambourine Man – 5:30

9.       Gates of Eden – 5:40

10.   It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – 7:29

11.   It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – 4:12

Listen to ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqNk9C8iUII

Also released on the 27^th March:

1991: Slint - Spiderland

19th March - Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate

Artist – Album: Leonard Cohen – Songs of Love and Hate

Released:  19^th March 1971

Sounds Like: Pure poetry

Leonard Cohen is the lyricist’s lyricist. Bob Dylan is the critic’s choice, his cryptic stream of consciousness and confrontational attitude being the epitome of cool. Paul Simon appeals to hopeless romantics and foppish first year English students alike, with his beautiful character studies far outweighing his awkward nods to hippiedom. McCartney and Lennon are simple and powerful, the lyricists of the masses. Morrissey for the older indie kids. Alex Turner for the younger. But Cohen is a poet. Not just in that his lyrics are poetry, he actually was a poet. I know this because I robbed a book of his poems from my ex-housemate’s parent’s house before they moved to the Isle of Mull.

As a result of his literary leanings, Cohen’s words are very much the defining element of his songs. His baritone voice, though warm and deep like Sam Elliott’s the Stranger in the Big Lebowki, is obviously limited.  His sparsely plucked acoustic guitar is never meant to hold your attention. And so it comes back to his lyrics.

The title of the album gives something of a clue to the content – let’s face it, you don’t get much more Ronseal than a name like Songs of Love and Hate. But they’re not straightforward songs of passion. The most celebrated song, ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’, is about a love triangle between the jilted narrator (”sincerely L. Cohen”), his ex-lover and his “brother”, his “killer”.  ‘Joan of Arc’ is more about spiritual love, as it follows the inner dialogue of the saintly Joan as she burns at the stake. ‘Avalanche’ covers both ends of the spectrum as it details a failing relationship and the efforts made to keep it alive. These are heavy, well-worn stanzas that explore the breadth of human emotion and they could only work under the penmanship of the master, the lyricist’s lyricist.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Avalanche – 5:07

2.       Last Year’s Man – 6:02

3.       Dress Rehearsal Rag – 6:12

4.       Diamonds in the Mine – 3:52

5.       Love Calls You by Your Name – 5:44

6.       Famous Blue Raincoat – 5:15

7.       Sing Another Song, Boys – 6:17

8.       Joan of Arc – 6:29

Listen to ‘Joan of Arc’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHjnjIbwvGI

Also released on the 19^th March:

1962: Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan

Also released on the 19^th March:

2002: Flogging Molly – Drunken Lullabies