25 & 26 May 2013 (Days 145 & 146) – Some music released during the last 12 months

Saturday morning.  Blinking, “M” and I emerge from our bunker ready to test ourselves in the outside world.  It takes only 30 minutes at a shopping centre to realise we need more recovery period, but not before I pick up a hardcover copy of Neil Young’s autobiography.

We then head off to “M’s” sister for lunch where I eventually doze on their couch.  By the time we leave, I realise I’m in no fit state to go to the football and return home.  Naturally, the Bulldogs win their first match since the opening round and against recent nemesis St Kilda to boot.

I then took the opportunity to catch up on this blog whilst taking in the following;

(# 374) The xx – Coexist (2012)

Take the first Portishead album, remove the scratchings and background noises and change the gender of the lead singer and what you basically have is this album.  This is not to infer that this is a rip off.  Rather, it is a well measured album of atmospheric rock songs given a hell of a lot of space in which to breathe.  Opening track, Angels, sets the mood for the album with only Sunset upping the tempo to any great degree.   Reunion could easily function as background music for a movie set in the West Indies.

(# 375) The Lumineers – Self Titled (2012)

This is the debut album for this American band that plays a version of folk music which, on the evidence of this album, is heavily accented with pianos or keyboards.  Songs are of all a high standard and are impeccably sung by Wesley Schultz.  Recommended for lovers of the sort of material produced by the likes of Mumford And Son or The Fleet Foxes. 

(# 376) The Tallest Man On Earth – There’s No Leaving Now (2012)

The Tallest Man On Earth is a Swedish musician by the name of Kristian Matsson.  This is his third album but the first that I’ve heard.  Matsson plays his guitar, and even more significantly, sings very much in the style of Dylan’s early folk albums although subject matter is very different.  A rhythm section provides backing on some tracks that’s so subtle that its presence barely registers.  

On Sunday, we hit town for lunch and did little else.  But I did buy the 25^th Anniversary Edition of R.E.M’s Green and when I got home couldn’t wait to play the bonus disc;

(# 377) R.E.M. – Live In Greensboro 1989 [Green 25^th Anniversary Edition – released 2013]

This show was recorded on 10 November 1989 which should mean that the band had been on tour for the bulk of the year.  I know this because I’d seen them on 12 February that year when they played at Festival Hall in Melbourne (the gig handbill is on the walls in my own hall of fame – support act that night was The Go-Betweens).   I was positioned immediately in front of Michael Stipe’s mic that night and he dared me to maintain eye contact during the entirety of World Leader Pretend.   

I’d like to report that the Greensboro show was as good as the show I saw but it isn’t.  A quick check of the cassette copy of the show I still have reveals part of the problem.  Although the set lists were broadly similar the Melbourne show was better constructed.  More importantly, the Greensborough show sounds very much like an ordinary show on the tour.   Stipe doesn’t appear to engage the audience as well as he normally does.  The band was by now playing before much larger crowds than they had previously; I’d guess  the audience was at least double the size of the Melbourne show and perhaps the band was still coming to grips with this.  Certainly the Greensboro audience appears to display an affinity for just the Green material and the set leans heavily on it and its immediate two predecessors. (There’s only a token presence of tracks from the first three albums.)  Still, it documents an interesting period in the R.E.M. story but, as far as the bonus discs of the reissued albums go, it’s easily the least essential.