Month: October 2023

Wooo! You got a date Wednesday, baby! Midweek spins

/ Tony / 2 Comments

The will is there, the time isn’t always there for getting back into this after a summer lay-off… but lobbing up a quick ‘I’ve been listening to this sort of thing’ list isn’t a bad way to get into it, I guess.

It’s been a surprisingly music-heavy time lately helped by needing (thanks to throwing my back into a ridiculous shape) to work from home a bit more meant the turntable got more action than usual. Though that does mean less of my listening went to ‘new’ music rather than newer stuff from the familiar like the new albums from Slowdive (a clear march on album of the year) or Explosions in the Sky (absolutely brilliant).

Slightly off topic but I’ve also been enjoying the Wes Anderson helmed takes on some Roald Dahl short stories that have been added to Netflix lately. As a fan of both film maker and writer it’s been great to sit down as a family (my wife and I are about halfway through ‘Asteroid City’ and waiting for it to really take off…) but more surprised to see the credits for each of them cite Maidstone Studios (about a mile or so from our place) as a location for filming. While a lot’s been filmed there over the years (it used to be the location for Jools Holland’s Hootenany) it’s a surreal idea to think Wes Anderson was working away that close to home.

Getting back to the listening…. I don’t think I even made it all the way through the new song from U2, ‘Atomic City’. What a lot of shite. I wouldn’t say that they’ve done much of note for some time but someone clearly bypassed all elements of quality control there in the rush to cash-in even more from their no doubt minimum wage gig at the Sphere. No doubt Rolling Stone will praise it as record of the year… Anyway here’s a quick heads up on what I have been listening to….

Bleach Lab – All Night

Bleach Lab’s newly released debut Lost in a Rush of Emptiness is a wonderful thing, another gorgeous slab in what seems to be a resurgence of etherial, shoegaze fuelled dreampop.

Cocteau Twins – Heaven or Las Vegas

Speaking of etherial shoegaze lushness… I’m fast playing catch-up with Cocteau Twins and their Heaven of Las Vegas album has been getting a lot of spinnage lately.

Motörhead – Emergency

It can’t always be ‘Ace of Spades.’

Bruce Springsteen – Burnin’ Train

I’m toying with the notion of updating my ranking of Springsteen’s albums given he’s released two studio albums since then. A recent free-trial of Apple TV meant I was able to watch the Letter To You feature which was a lot of fun – the somewhat overly hokey voice-over narrative aside – and much more of an insight into the E Street Band’s recording approach than ‘Blood Brothers’ proved especially when it came to Stevie Van Zandt’s role in terms of arrangements and increased solo playing as on this cut. I really must get hold of SVZ’s book….

The War On Drugs – Change

What to do when you discover a new record shop has opened in your town after years of no alternative to HMV? Well… you go in and browse and if you find I Don’t Live Here Anymore on vinyl for a tenner less than you’ve seen it anywhere else you buy it, take it home and spin that sumptuous album because no matter how many times you hear it it’s still fucking great.

Mitski – Heaven

One of those names I kept hearing / reading but never followed up on until I heard ‘Heaven’ on the radio a couple of weeks back and have been hypnotised ever since.

There’s a piece of Maria in every song that I sing – Five From Counting Crows

/ Tony / 1 Comment

The Counting Crows are one of those bands that seemingly achieved mainstream success overnight on the back of their hit single ‘Mr Jones’ – they managed to pull of a neat trick of combining complex and wrenching lyrics with a roots inflected take on alternative rock with a sumptuous production (thanks to T Bone Burnett) that hit the magical sweet spot between sounding nostalgic and contemporary just at that moment in the early ’90s. August and Everything After remains one of that decades strongest albums and while they’ve continued to pump out solid albums (albeit with an increasing number of years between them) since they’re probably still best known for that first flurry of tunes. Or singer Adam Duritz’ (now removed) dreadlocks and his ability to punch way above his weight with the ladies.

That strange DJ function on the streaming service most of use recently plucked a couple of their songs out of my listening history and I thought throwing up a few of there’s would serve as a toe back into posting here.

Perfect Blue Buildings

August and Everything After is just an exquisite combo of rich ballads, brilliant melodies and cracking musicianship all pinned down by Adam Duritz’ lyrics and voice. There’s a particularly strong trifecta in the middle of the album with ‘Perfect Blue Buildings’, ‘Anna Begins’ and ‘Time and Time Again’ but ‘Perfect Blue Buildings’ become one of the groups most beloved songs and there’s something about that line ‘It’s 4:30 A.M. on a Tuesday, it doesn’t get much worse than this’ that hits the sweet spot for me.

A Murder of One

After an album of relatively serious, angsty ballads and a run for Springsteenism on ‘Omaha’, ‘A Murder of One’ is a joyous, upbeat way to end an album and a cracking tune to boot.

Angels of the Silences

How do you follow up the success of August and… ? Recovering The Satellites is a bloody good album. Problem is it’s also a pretty long and heavy one – feeling every minute of its near hour length at times. It’s got a lot of great tunes on it but I always found it too much for one sitting and a lot of the quiet joy that lives between the lines of August.. missing here. ‘Angels of the Silences’ always hits the spot though with its urgency

I Wish I Was A Girl

Third album This Desert Life is an underrated gem in Counting Crows’ catalogue – after the overwrought writing and weight of their second album, it’s a tighter, more professional effort that relatively zips along at 11 songs but each of them are very well-crafted and benefit immensely from both a lighter tone and Duritz seemingly having reigned tendency to over-emote. Hooks and cracking melodies abound but I’ve always loved the lyric and delivery of “You dive into the traffic rising up, and it’s so quiet, you’re surprised and then you wake.”

1492

Those first three albums still find their way into my ears a lot. Their fourth Hard Candy was pretty solid but I kind of drifted away from Counting Crows and, it seems, so did many. After another few years between albums they dropped the double album Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings in 2008. They’ve dropped another one and a half studio albums in the 15 years since but I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything about them. ‘1492’ – all dirty guitars, energy and frenzied lyrics – has been a favourite since I heard it and one I never reach for the skip button over.