Month: August 2024

More midweek spinnage

/ Tony / 3 Comments

Here we are once again at the midway point of the week with the scale starting to tip toward the weekend and, for me, the beginning of holiday season.

With that in mind, here’s what’s been going in the ears this week.

Smashing Pumpkins – Goeth The Fall

I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a new Smashing Pumpkins album in the way I have Aghori Mhori Mei in years. Released last week and heralded as one that’ll please the fans of the ’90s stuff and a ‘rock’ record, I’ve gotta say that’s about right. It’s not that good but I’ve been surprised how much I’ve been listening to it and enjoyed to the point of pre-ordering the vinyl.

Air – Kelly Watch The Stars (Edit Version)

While I’m not usually one for picture discs (especially overpriced RSD ones), when this one appeared in my local store’s sale it was an easy decision. Moon Safari is unimpeachable but getting this meant getting hold of the version that was played on MTV back in the day.

The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds

With the exception of Smashing Pumpkins there seems to be a much more mellow edge to everything here. Maybe it’s the build up of CBD but that’s where I’m at lately. I actually caught this one on the radio this weekend and it’s gained a few spins since. I’ve also just discovered that it’s Rickie Lee Jones talking about clouds – the lads in The Orb heard her trippy response to “So what were the skies like when you were young?” in an interview (who the fuck asks that without smoking something first?) and sampled it. After paying her $5,000 for its use first.

Ben Howard – Time Is Dancing

Oh man I played this album so much when it came out I was surprised that the CD still held up when I chucked it in the car this week. It’s coming up for its tenth anniversary – with the prerequisite re-release in special colours / clear / etc – and for me marks the perfect point in Ben Howard’s sound; moving away from the ‘only love’ festival-pleasing acoustic work and embracing the more experimental elements that would enthuse the later albums while still retaining a focus song structure.

Pearl Jam – Force of Nature

Anyway, here’s some more Pearl Jam and another favourite deep(ish) cut from recent times. Backspacer is the only album I’m missing on my record shelves (for some reason it’s not as widely available as other albums) and while not my favourite it has some wonderful tunes on it and I love the shift in this song’s vibe.

It always gets so hard to see, right before the moon – Five from The War On Drugs

/ Tony / 1 Comment

I know I’ve dropped a few tunes from The War on Drugs over the years here yet as I sit here with them in my ears through the day I figured it was time to drop a few more in one place in a more organised manner.

Originally formed when Kurt Vile and Adam Granduciel discovered their mutual obsession with Bob Dylan, the band dropped one album with that initial lineup before Vile’s departure to pursue his own solo career (on completely amicable terms) and a mass exodus of players led to Granduciel recruiting new members and gradually expanding on the band’s sound ahead of the release of 2014’s Lost In The Dream signified a massive shift in both their appeal and sound having arrived at a seemingly perfect combination of grand guitar-driven soundscapes that build and unfold into blissful tunes that combine obvious influences like Dylan and Petty with elements of My Bloody Valentines and Sonic Youth while retaining their own identity. From Lost In The Dream thru I Don’t Live Here Anymore they’d parlay this sound across three pretty-much faultless albums (so far) that inevitably occupy plenty of car stereo time as well as so often proving a mainstay in headphones as the sound manages to feel suited both to the intimate listen as well as creating a sensation of cruising down a clear highway at sunset.

A Needle In Your Eye #16

Debut albums are funny things when looked back on so many years later. Wagon Wheels is very much and album of 2008’s indie-rock feel and more heavily indebted to Vile and Granduciel’s love of Dylan than anything else with the band’s name on. While there’s plenty to enjoy Only ‘A Needle In Your Eye #16’ (I’m guessing the numbering of songs as ‘versions’ is another nod to Bob) is a real standout for me .

Brothers

Originally a longer tune on the Future Weather EP the version on second album Slave Ambient manages to retain the song’s vibe but bringing it into a tighter arrangement that – like a lot of songs on the album including the wonderful ‘Come to the City’ – feel like a clear transition is underway as Granduciel refines his sound.

An Ocean In Between The Waves

One of many highlights from 2014’s Lost In The Dream

Pain

A Deeper Understanding is another of those albums I can cue up and just let… flow. Adding a little more grit to the tone of Lost In The Dream, I love the sound of the guitars across the album and ‘Pain’ builds to a point that just lets these go.

Victim

It would be daft to repeat the same formula over and over and so, just as A Deeper Understanding adds to Lost In The Dream‘s sound, 2021’s I Don’t Live Here Anymore still contains just as many long burn, slow builders while adding a few more electronic elements and drum loops into the mix, bright sounding synths and upbeat tempos all wrapped-up in a mix that highlights the ‘morning in America’ era FM sound that manages to sound both reverential and fresh. There’s also plenty of lush guitar tones and scorchers too.