12th July - Feist's Let It Die

Artist – Album: Feist – Let It Die

Released:  12^th July 2004              

Sounds Like: Joni Mitchell meets Françoise Hardy meets PJ Harvey (what a good dinner party that would be!)

Ok, so, I’ve already spoken about how great the Canadian music scene has been in the last few years. Well to Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Destroyer, Elf Power, Neko Case, you can add Feist. Cos she’s a bit of a beaut.

Let It Die has the quite fascinating format of being half originals and half cover; in fact, the album is split cleanly in two – the first five songs are originals, including the lovely opener ‘Gatekeeper’ and the warm, acoustic melody of ‘Mushaboom’; whilst the last six consist of entirely sumptuous covers, including ‘L’amour ne dure pas toujours’, a respectful cover of one of the delectable Françoise Hardy’s best, whilst ’Secret Heart’ is a sweet, chirpy pop effort. ‘Inside and Out’ may well be the best track on the album, as Feist’s elegant vocals are married to a sparse and sophisticated verse arrangement and a wonderfully kitsch eighties chorus.

Now I’m not saying this album is going to change your world; far from it, but then this album is not designed to do so. Feist’s hushed, sensual delivery is perfectly backed by the sometimes jazzy, sometimes bossa nova, sometimes French pop soundtrack.  So it’s a bit quiet, it’s still great.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Gatekeeper – 2:16

2.       Mushaboom – 3:44

3.       Let It Die – 2:55

4.       One Evening – 3:36

5.       Leisure Suite – 4:07

6.       L’amour ne dure pas toujours – 3:16

7.       Lonely Lonely – 4:10

8.       When I Was a Young Girl – 3:08

9.       Secret Heart – 3:49

10.   Inside and Out – 4:17

11.   Now at Last – 3:16

Listen to ‘Inside and Out’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmG0sPyZJBg

28th April - Chicago Transit Authority's Chicago Transit Authority

Artist – Album: Chicago Transit Authority – Chicago Transit Authority

Released:  28^th April 1969

Sounds Like: One big bluesy rock jam

It’s hard to imagine that this jazz-infused rock jam band would go on to become the M.O.R balladeers responsible for the fluffy pop of ‘If You Leave Me Now,’ released just seven years after this landmark debut.

Blending freewheeling rhythm & bass and euphoric horn sections with the guitar chops of Terry Kath – a guitarist so talented that even the great Jimi Hendrix was a fan – and the trio of bluesy vocalists courtesy of Kath, Robert Lamm and Peter Cetera, Chicago Transit Authority created epic soulful rock and roll jams that meandered between the banal and the brilliant. Of the former, frenetic fourteen minute wig out ‘Liberation’ may not be overly bad, just overlong and overwrought, but ‘Free Form Guitar’ is as horrifically pretentious as its title suggests. Meanwhile, nothing, here or elsewhere, gets much more brilliant than the funky cover of the Spencer Davis Group’s ‘I’m a Man’.

Although most of the tunes here are energetic muck arounds from the seven piece, there are softer elements and more structure in a couple of the tracks chosen as singles, such as ‘Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?’ and ‘Questions 67 and 68’. Other highlights are the blues rock belter ‘Introduction’ and the politically charged ‘Someday (August 29, 1968)’.

Ultimately, the album serves as a great snapshot of a prodigiously talented group before they mellowed out and lost that edge, and, shorn of a few minute long solos and a few regrettable tracks, this would stand as one of the very best rock records around.

Albumaday... rating:  7/10

1.       Introduction – 6:35

2.       Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? – 4:35

3.       Beginnings – 7:54

4.       Questions 67 and 68 – 5:03

5.       Listen – 3:22

6.       Poem 58 – 8:35

7.       Free Form Guitar – 6:47

8.       South California Purples – 6:11

9.       I’m a Man – 7:43

10.   Prologue, August 29, 1968 – 0:58

11.   Someday (August 29, 1968) – 4:11

12.   Liberation – 14:38

Listen to ‘I’m a Man’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8vY3vAbAdQ