(161) Gary Clark Jr. –
Blak And Blu
Clark has received an incredible amount of positive press
since this especially since this album, his major label debut, was released
late last year. So, does this live up to
the hype? Yes and no. Whilst an
extremely proficient guitarist, I think Clark stylistically is really not all that dissimilar
to Australia’s own Jeff Lang. The only
real difference to these ears is that, unlike Lang, Clark has the benefit of
being an American (and therefore being somehow viewed as authentic – think of
the fuss made over Seasick Steve a couple of years back) and having a major label
behind him. The album is fine enough – Third
Stone From The Sun/If You Love Me Like You Say is a spectacular calling card
and probably a concert highlight - but it can do with some “dirtying up”. To me the album sounds too clean especially
for someone with such a fuzzy guitar sound.
Still its early days and this will do for now.
(162) Band Of Horses –
Mirage Rock
Now that’s almost more like it. I was given a copy of their previous album
Infinite Arms and must admit to being slightly underwhelmed. This is a good step in the right direction
with the addition of some loose sounding rockier numbers such as Knock Knock
and Feud to complement the ballads (Slow Cruel Hands Of Time is superb) and
general Americana. I suspect that the
next album will be the one that turns them into a major musical force or an
Eagles for the 21st Century.
(163) Foals – Holy Fire
My goodness, what happened here? Their previous album Total Life Forever was
one of the more promising albums from an English act in quite a while. However, large slabs of this sound like off
cuts from a below par Aztec Camera album.
A clear 80’s vibe permeates most of the record and only Providence hints
at the impressive results that will surely emerge should the band trust their
own instincts.
(164) Gallows – Self
Titled
Gallows are an English hardcore punk band who mixes Naplam
Death with a bit more melody and a greater political awareness. Tracks such as Victim Culture, Odessa and the
catchy Everybody Loves You (When You’re Dead) are as good as any act ploughing
this particular field at the moment. Plus,
like all good punk acts, they’ve got the good sense to kept things down to a
short running time. Given a natural
level of musical growth they could be an act that might mature spectacularly.
(165) Radiohead –
Pablo Honey (bonus disc)
I managed to snaffle a Japanese pressing of the reissued 2
disc plus DVD edition of Radiohead’s debut from a cheap import shop in the
city. The second disc brings together
early EPs incorporating mostly demos and live material, some outakes and a live
BBC session. Some of the material is worth hearing at least
once especially a demo of Prove Yourself, a spectacular remix of Blow Out, a
live Ripcord and an outtake called Coke
Babies. This latter track sounds very
much like Creep Part 2 which probably explains why it
wasn't released until now. Although its easy to hear from
the whole package how the R.E.M. comparisons emerged to dog them in this era,
what struck me was the existence of tracks such as US version of Stop
Whispering that sound more in tune with early period U2. This is a feeling the live BBC Session of 22
June 1992 does nothing to dispel especially on Nothing Touches Me.
After dinner I started on the task of reimporting 37,000
tracks onto my iPod. A partial re-education process was necessary owing to a
change in the iPod software since the last time I had to do this. Initially tracks imported easily enough and
then started to slow down. At midnight I
halted the import with the job about 60 per cent done.
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