September 10th, 2007
September: the month of great albums
Forgive me. Not back blogging a wet weekend and already having to cheek to talk about albums that will probably feature in those ‘Best of’ lists at the end of the year.
*First up is an album that will be very near the top of mine - Marry Me by St Vincent. AKA Annie Clarke, the occasional member of Polyphonic Spree. When she played Dublin last year as part of Sufjan’s Steven’s band, she almost stole the show as the support act. She’ll be playing Dublin three times later this year: supporting The National on their two Irish dates at the Ambassador on November 30th and at the sold-out Olympia gig on November 1st. She will also play her own headline gig at The Sugar Club on November 24th, which promises to be a special show. Opener ‘Now Now’ is deliciously old skool, sounding like an early 4AD release and the bass flanges definitely reference The Cocteau Twins. I LOVE this album and don’t doubt it will be one of the year’s most talked about.
*Andy Weatherall has an excellent new homage to rock through the ages compilation entitled Sci-Fi-Lo-Fi featuring all kinds of wonderful stuff like bluesy rock and roll classics from Joe Boot and the Fabulous Winds, Link Wray’s excellent ‘5-10-15-20 (Can Your Monkey Do the Dog?)’, The Milkshakes’ original version of ‘I Want Candy’ right through to T-Rex, The Fall and The Cramps.
*Speaking of compilations, An Taobh Tuathail, one of the best music shows on Irish airwaves, release a compilation on Psychonavigation, featuring the kind of music the show is lauded for championing. Among the 12 tracks are the brilliant Chequerboard and Jimmy Behan. For more details and to listen to the tracks, go to Psychonavigation.
*Another Irish release to watch out for this month is John Hegarty’s new album Guiding Light released on September 21st on Sonic Revelator Records. Influenced by the combined songwriting might of Burt Bacharach, Brendan Benson, Scott Walker, Tim Buckley and Paul McCartney and the musical musings of Big Star, The Velvet Underground, Dinosaur Jr., Gram Parsons and The Byrds, the first single, also called ‘Guiding Light’ is a lush chunk of heart-broken philosophy. The album will be launched with a show at Crawdaddy on Thursday, September 20th with support from Dinah Brand. Listen to single ‘Guiding Light’ here:
*PJ Harvey’s latest White Chalk will undoubtedly leave some of her fans scratching their heads. Gone are the noisy guitars and guttural angst in favour of pianos and falsetto whispers. It’s an unexpected detour for Harvey, who showcased some of this material during her fantastic set at last year’s Electric Picnic. It’s a really haunting piece of work, evidenced by this track, ‘When Under Ether’ over here:
*Yet another great album from a female artist, Emma Pollock (ex-Delgados) releases her first solo album, Watch the Fireworks on 4AD. My favourites are ‘New Land’ and ‘Paper and Glue’ but you can listen to four other tracks over on her website.
*Next to hip hop and a total breath of fresh air: (no, not Curtis the new 50 Cent album), but Cadence Weapon. One time Pitchfork hip reviewer and blogger, 21-year-old Canadian Rollie Pemberton has a fantastic funkyness undercut by bone dry lyricism and dark, dense beats on Breaking Kayfabe out on Big Dada. Check out ‘Sharks’ and ‘Black Hand’ on his myspace page.
*Tim “Stereolab” Gane and Sean “High Llamas” O’Hagan have collaborated once again, this time on the score for a French film, La Vie d’Artiste by director Marc Fitoussi. Released on Too Pure, it features gorgeous string-soaked instrumentals. Amazing.
*Another album I’m very excited about is Mantaray, the first solo outing from Siouxsie (she of The Banshees) which just arrived a few minutes ago. Bizarrely, this is her first ever solo release after years with The Banshees and as part of The Creatures, with her ex, Budgie.
Also out this month and highly recommended are Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam, Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew’s Spirit If, and also worth checking out are La Radiolina from Manu Chao, Twisted Nerve compilation of skewed folk oddities and prog rock shufflingA Kind of Awe and Reverence and Wonder , the new King Creosote album, Piecework by Ewan Pearson and the new album from Icelandic band Mum, Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy. I’m very fond of Mum musically, even if I can only handle KristÃn Anna Valtýsdóttir’s vocals in small amounts. Although apparently she was amazing at the gig last week with Fat Cat labelmate Mice Parade at The Village.
And finally… most disappointing album of the month? The new Stars album, In Our Bedroom After The War. I’ve never been very convinced by this band, especially as they’re outshone (no pun intended!) by most of their Arts and Crafts labelmates, but this is very tedious…
September 10th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Is the full remix of Cortney Tidwell on Ewan Pearson’s CD? It got a little bit of chat this year but it deserves to be really huge.
September 11th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Great to see my favourite Irish blog back, just what i was missing from my morning coffee and cigarette break. Scrabble was only a temporary solution.
To answer Ronan, it’s the 12″ mix by Ewan, so yeah, it’s the full 12 minute version of the Cortney remix, and it’s awesome!!
September 11th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Thanks Cillian, glad to be back.
The Courtney track is one of my favourites on it, also love remix of Goldfrapp’s Ride A White Horse.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Have to disagree on St. Vincent. I find it very difficult to to the point of abhorrence. That Mongrel review (which is not up yet) sums it up quite nicely.
Cadence weapon is fantastic , great album. Definitely one of the best of the year.
Defo agree on the Stars album, they’ve been shown up for the MOR band they are. cringeworthy. And what’s up with the cover? looks like something you get with the Sunday Times or something!
September 11th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Wow, Niall, very surprised you dislike the St. Vincent album that much, I think it’s so original and her voice is exceptional. Some of the Mongrel reviews are spot on, but a huge chunk of them are lame, nasty and ultimately quite lazy (as in the St. Vincent one and most of the Irish stuff they review).
Thank God I’m not alone on Stars, I just cannot figure out how they’re so popular.
And Cadence (among others) has restored my faith in hip hop.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:58 am
I’ll give it another spin for sure, but I just felt like I was trying to like the album because of what I’d heard but the penny never dropped. She looks like a good live performer in fairness.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
We liked Stars! Just haven’t heard the latest album yet …
http://www.infactah.com/2005/09/stars-sugar-club-friday-september-9th.html
September 11th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I don’t mind Stars really but they probably are the least original of all the A&C punters.
Very curious about new PJ. I like me guitars and noise so I wonder how the pianos will sound?
Never heard of St. Vincent, but she’s very cute.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
[canadian] leave Stars alone you guys! [/canadian]
The title track for White Chalk is one of the most haunting and beautiful songs I’ve heard this yea. can’t wait to get the album.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
White Chalk is amazing. I love it.
September 11th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
I really *love* the new Polly Harvey record: The Devil and Silence are just so powerful. Don’t like the St Vincent album at all, but maybe seeing her open for The National boys will change my mind. Will be looking forward to the Emma Pollock record as I was always a bit of a Delgados fan. I think 2007 may be the year for great female albums! (*cough* M.I.A’s Kala *cough*)
September 11th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Oh I just remembered that I do like the third track on the St Vincent album a lot though
September 11th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
The Kevin Drew album will be available on very plush packaging limited to 3500 only….get em whilst you can…
September 12th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Cadence Weapon is one of the best records of the year.
19 when he wrote & produced that beast of a record.
Not too keen on St Vincent - but if she is good enough for The National then she is good enough for me.
Kev Drew - amazing record but it needs Brendan Canning’s touch. Canning is the real dude behind BSS, not Drew.
Stars - ridiculously disappoint follow up to the rather splendid “Set Yourself On Fire.”
September 12th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
That STARS record sucks so much - it’s like The Corrs with Jim singing in places
Agree with you on ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, KEVIN DREW, TWISTED NERVE (did you check the VOICES OF THE SEVEN WOODS album yet?) and PJ HARVEY
Wait till you hear the ROBERT WYATT album - a thing of great beauty
And check out FLYING LOTUS too, either the “Reset” mini-album or last year’s “1983″ album
And how about some Sinead love for LITTLE DRAGON?
September 12th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Quality Hip Hop has always been here. the problem with it is most people think Hip hop is the major label nonsense we’ve been told is hip hop but check out any release on Lex, Stones Throw, ANticon, Mush over the last 3 years - all quality. Edan, cLOUDDEAD, Odd Nosdam, K The I etc. Damn there has been some fine records released over the years - just forget Fiddy Cent et al and dig a bit deeper
September 12th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
I was going to blog something along the lines,” Dear God, she’s good!” but that would be stating the bleeding obvious and only serve to demonstrate the point. A most welcome return to Blogosphere.
Paige
September 12th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Agree with St Vincent - fab album. Delighted she’s supporting the National - didn’t know that - another reason to look forward to what’s looking like a very fabulous gig.
Welcome back Sinead.
(One of my bfs shares your name and filled me on your life by way of bitching about hers!!)
September 12th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Hey Sinead,
Welcome back and cheers for the kind words about the compilation.
Stars LP has been sitting on the window at home. At least now I know that I don’t need to listen to it.
Mr Carroll - I see you’re quite fond of the Little Dragon LP. Like the instrumentation of it (sparse, nice spaces) but the vocals leave me cold. Have given my copy to Cyril Briscoe, who’s digging it.
That Voice Of The Seven Woods LP is indeed quite fine though.
Will check out St Vincent and give Cadence Weapon a proper listen.
Great to see the masters Pearson & Weatherall produce more sterling works. Both live for their music and it shows.
PS I don’t think that KristÃn Anna Valtýsdóttir sings with Múm anymore but I could be wrong.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Cian - you need soul to appreciate Little Dragon, which Cyril obviously has in abundance
September 13th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Colm, weirdly I remember that post very clearly!
Dave, Una, Q, GWAOF - White Chalk is indeed a thing of beauty.
Q you seem to be in a minority on Stars as I am on St. Vincent.
Have you mind your mind up about going to see The House of Love and Terry *swoon* Bickers?
GWAOF, I think this is an amazing year for female albums, from MIA to St. Vincent, Feist, Bjork and Emma Pollack. Great to see you back blogging, I missed Young Hearts Crying. Is Eclectic Honey still on the go?
Manuel, haven’t seen those Kevin Drew fancy packages yet, hope they’re a bit more imaginative than the cover I have.
Ah Pedro, I love your ramblings over on ‘On the Record’. Agree with everything you said there, but I’m hoping you’ll be convinced by St. Vincent live.
Jim - love The Corrs analogy about Stars, Niall was also spot on with the MOR tag. It’s a very dubious album indeed.
Havent heard the VOTSW album yet but love the Little Dragon stuff, although I’m with Cian, the singer’s voice lets it down a little, not sure why. They’re playing the Sugar Club in November as far as I know.
Billy, there’s definitely never been a shortage of quality hip hop as the amount of vinyl on my heaving record shelves will attest (lots of old skool stuff, TY, Infesticons, Slum Village, Nas, Jurassic 5, really like Edan and cLOUDDEAD too). I guess I’ve just been disappointed with hip hop over the last couple of years and the Cadence Weapon has restored my faith. Have you heard it? It’s bloody great.
Blankpaige, thank you muchly. You know of course that me blogging again is all your fault, don’t you?
Dr. Auds, how the hell are you? Where’ve you been? Delighted someone else likes St. Vincent, I was feeling very lonely around here.
I actually got an email from the other Sinead Gleeson saying that not a day passes when someone asks her “Was that you on the radio/TV/the paper?” to which she’s getting tired of saying it wasn’t! Now she’s going to have people asking how the baby is.
Cian, great to have you stop by. Really enjoying the compilation and I think Chequerboard is just one of our finest musicians. John is a legend.
Given the variety of views on St. Vincent, would love to hear your thoughts. The Weatherall compilation is great fun. Killing Joke are even on it!
You know what? You’re right about Kristin. I’ve had the album on in the background and most of the songs have multiple vocals with several people singing so I didn’t notice she wasn’t there. Maybe that’s why I like it so much!
I love my quirky female singers, but her voice was always a bit too much for me. I went to see them in Vicar Street a couple of years ago and I was sick of her by the end.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Hey Sinead, I have indeed heard the Cadence Weapon - superb, have you checked out the shape of broad minds album? possibly hip hop album of the year.
Cian - Kristen has indeed left Mum, she’s now married to Avey Tare. They released an album earlier this year - Pullhair Rubeye (i think) on pawtracks, if you heard any tracks on their myspace they were very reminescent of the Panda Bear album which could be one of the reasons why when they released the album all the tracks were then recorded backwards! still an interesting listen. BTW love the show and the CD
September 13th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Jim - perhaps you’re right, I left my soul along with other things in El Segundo many moons ago. But seriously, it’s your one’s voice that lets me down - sound a little bit too polished and nicey nice for my pallette. I’ve often wondered about singers that one can’t get into (seeing that Sinead mentioned Kristin from Mum as an example), would one like the songs were someone else to sing them? Example, I can’t stomach Fionn Regan, but say if Hot Chip or Junior Boys or Sufjan convered ‘Put a Penny…’, I’d probably buy copies for everyone I know.
St Vincent - I’ve a nagging feeling I gave that one away to someone without listening to it. But maybe it’s still at home, will go and seek.
This Cadence LP is getting rave reviews everywhere - will bring on my holidays.
Glad people like the CD - hope it’ll be easier to get clearance for tracks for Vol 2 now that we’ve the first one done.
Billy - cheers for the Pullhair Rubeye tip, there’s one that slipped under the radar.