(189) Joan Armatrading
– Steppin’ Out
This is a wonderful concert recording of Armatrading quite
early in her career before she hit the real big time with the Me Myself I and
Walk Under Ladders album. On this she
leads a crack band powered by the drumming of Little Feat’s Ritchie Hayward
through the highlights of her early repertoire. Mama Mercy is a powerful opener
leading into the jazzy Cool Blue Stole My Heart and a brace of ballads, the
pick of which is probably Love And
Affection. The heat is reapplied
for the closing trio of rockier numbers You Rope You Tie Me, Kissin’ And A Huggin’ and Tall In The Saddle. It is a very fine set from a much
underappreciated artist and why this album remains in limited CD release will
continue to be a mystery.
But there was one thing about the download version of the
album that really irked me. In their
infinite wisdom, the label concerned basically ended and started almost every
track at the point in which the music started or ended. As a result this makes for an incredibly
disjointed listen as the tracks literally jump into each other. I could possibly understand this happening if
I bought each of the tracks individually but I did select the "purchase album"
option. Surely it wouldn’t have been
that difficult to put the entire album there with appropriate track definition as
per a CD release? But I should be
grateful as they did remember to keep the introduction though.
The rest of the day was spent listening to some really
clever acts, starting with;
(190) Damon Albarn –
Dr. Dee
Albarn has carved out such an eclectic career with his work
in Blur, Gorillaz, The Good The Bad And the Queen among others that an opera
based on the life of John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I’s scientific adviser shouldn’t
really come as that great a surprise.
Although structured as an opera, it doesn’t have long stretches of
classical instrumentation and operatic vocals.
These mesh with the other musical elements quite well but ultimately I’ll
play his more mainstream work more frequently.
(191) Portishead –
Dummy
It takes only the first 30 seconds of the aptly named
opening track Mysterons – theramin, scratching, drums and the unique voice of
Beth Gibbons – for Portishead to grabs the listener’s attention. Once focused, they
never allowed the listener to lose it with a number of brilliant tracks
including Sour Times, Numb, Biscuit and Glory Box. It Could Be Sweet is not all that different
to a Sade track and that the rest of the album doesn’t ultimately follow suit
is testament to the musical vision of Gibbons, Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley.
(192) Squeeze – East Side Story
On this Squeeze made
the leap from likely New Wave obscurity to the reliable creator of albums chock
full of with clever songs with often witty lyrics about everyday life. It is probably their best album although its
successor, Sweets From A Stranger, runs it close. Although it contains formidable tracks such
as In Quintessence, the insanely catchy Is That love and Mumbo Jumbo and the hilarious
country of Labelled With You, everything is overshadowed by one of my very
favourite songs, Tempted.
(193) Fountains Of
Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers
I think there’s a pretty good case in describing the
Fountains Of Wayne as an American version of Squeeze. A friend of mine reckons this album is a bit
overproduced but, if true, it still doesn’t get in the way of the wonderful tunes. Many of these appear to be about the perils
of sustaining a (non musical) career such as Bright Future In Sales, a great number about a travelling salesman.
All Kinds Of Time and Little Red Light are in this vein and Stacey’s Mom gave
the band a well deserved hit.
(194) Pavement –
Wowee Zowee!
Not many albums start with a phrase such as “There is no
castration fear” but this is a Pavement album after all. This was their response to the success of the
more traditional sounding Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain being a form of retreat to
the fractured sounds of Slanted And Enchanted. But this approach does not get in the way of gems such as Rattled By La Rush, Grounded and Fight
This Generation. Father To A Sister Of A
Thought added a bit of country to their overall mix up.
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