I hated Russell’s work with Damon and Bobby Womack, but otherwise the man obviously knows his shit, and XL is a great label. It gave us Adele and it gave us Tyler The Creator so, OK, some A&R man, that Russel. Anyway, for their 25th Anniversary XL are releasing a career spanning album or four
Bad Habit – The Kooks – When did these guys become the Arctic Monkeys? This is the sort of garage blues AM have been doing for years and I thought the Kooks had more going on, more like Squeeze, but they are one Alyson Camus review from hooking up with Josh Homme and visiting Burning Man – C
It has been five years since the jazz singer has released an album, including a stint in hospital just to keep us mortal, and to keep us more mortal, this is a tribute to his first mentor George Duke, who died last year. Guest stars join in on this lovely and loving tribute to the late pianist. ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
Caraway is a really good songwriter, and the album’s theme, faith in people, isn’t heavy handed: you can pick up on it as you choose; he has been doing this for years, he is a good, sometimes great rocker, and on the two albums I’ve heard, even at his worst he is never less than a complete pro.
So you have my former FB buddy Tay and you have Jordan who might well be the cutest kid who has ever lived (well, except for my Great Nephew James) singing “we Are Never ever Getting back Together” and after you stop smiling note that Tay even went through in the spoken portion.
ary Kemp, who wrote all their material, became an actor and Tony Hadley didn’t make it as a solo star and every now and then they’d come back together and in 2009 they released an album of remixes but in 2014, for their quarter century, we are getting an album of new material
The song is a standard because it is so easy for singers to sing, Sondheim gives them the time to breath deeply and pace the song, in the entire lyric there is exactly one run on sentence . So, along with it being a beautifully crafted number, it is one singers flock to.
In indie pop it has been deadly, and the trickle down effect has been worse. while part of the problem might simply be all the side deals the majors made with streaming service, the rest of the problem is semi-popular music doesn’t sustain itself well enough to feel much more than a hobby by professional musicians
Kisses For Breakfast – Melissa Steel – Already a hit in the UK, this is a huge summersmash in some alternative world, in this world it is a pop reggae move, a sort of warm Caribbean caress of a track that missed its window of opportunity, with dance Hall great Popcaan toasting – A
This is songwriting with the highest quality and it never waivers and the band, the times where it jams, jams very well, but the tightness here only allows for an occasional letting go: an odd place for a woman who cut her teeth on the LES punk rock scene to find herself.
He could have sold it to HBO and given himself the scope and time to tell the story the way it deserves to be told, or it could tell just part of the story, the Boston gig the day after MLK’s assassination would have been a great story to tell. So there is no time to tell the story
It is not every day a live performance changes instantaneously from a non believer to a fan, and it is not that I think Hurray For The Riff Raff were actually that great, they weren’t bad but not that great, but the songs revealed their stickiness and suddenly you could hear just how strong the riffs in the riff raff were. Blake Shelton was a blast
This is a real rarity, a better album than a single chart. From Coldplay to Clapton to Petty to,,, Guetta? The album is two years old!!! Still there isn’t one, well maybe “X” but no more than one, bad album in the lot, and Ed is more disappointing than lousy.
Magic continue to rule the world and here they are at # 1 in the UK, I hope the band are having a blast. Plus, while I feel like a bully picking on a coupla of teens, namely Bars and Melody off Britain’s Got Talent, this is so terrible it should be sold with a government label.
Inside Out – Spoon – This is about as different as indie rock can get, the 4 on the floor beat is used for a strange deconstruction of an indie song which hums along like an wall of sound power point presentation – B+
So $100 for four hours of better than average modern country played by topnotch Nashville Cats and singers who know better than to phone in anything. Ten times crazier? Maybe, OK, why not? Grade: B+
Ethan one upped his father though, producing a song off Sir Paul’s last album! Ethan’s production work also includes the likes of “Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon, Ray LaMontagne, Tom Jones, Kaiser Chiefs, Rufus Wainwright, The Boxer Rebellion, Crowded House, The Vaccines, and Crosby, Stills and Nash.”… Hell, Ethan produced Heartreaker AND Gold.
Sure, we’re hoping he returns to the Allman’s brothers for their last concerts ever in October, but even if he is, Dickey Betts, the country blues founding member of the Southern Boogie Kings, is unmissable at the Concert Hall at the New York Society for Ethical Culture this Friday. A fabulous venue (though the seats suck) for what should be a stand out performance.
This is the price of music overload: I know in theory both Hurray For The Riff Raff and Wreckless Eric are among the best albums of the year, I just can’t find the time to give them the attention they deserve, so they are relegated and filed away.
A little on the dog days of summer, right? Spider bags was a disappointment, not a disaster but not their best work, Peter and Mike are dilettantes, The Murder City Devils a little too fussy for my taste. I guess spoon by default.
Nashville Cats – The Lovin’ Spoonful – Remember the birth of country rock, you know where nobody could believe The Byrds were for real or even Gram Parsons existed at all? On this wonderful ode to the guitarists in Nashville, John Sebastian gives the back story to the coming of age of white US rock performers in 1966… Pick it – A+
In the lawsuit, webber aka the Really Useful Group said “We have no option but to proceed with legl action to recover costs associated with the project”. Personally, I would enjoy this story a whole lot more if we could find some way to involve Bono, but unfortunately, appearances notwithstanding, Bono is too old for the title role.
This best songs is in order of preference, this is where I stand song wise and most of these are singles as well, though I don’t think the top two will change much in the next five months, If you Have spotify, give it a listen.
Katy Perry – Barclay Center – July 25th, 2014 – Modern pop musics big sister plays hit after hit with a sort of las vegas meets ancient Egypt motif, just to prove lost love ain’t lost life and roaring is easy if you try hard enough.
It’s Late – Ricky Nelson – A 1959 hit, this is rockabilly as pop music and it is something that can’t be done in 2014, the guitar break is supple and sweet, just a couple of notes, but not one is wasted and the lyric so pared down he sings the entire thing twice and still brings it in at under two minutes – A
Co-editor Helen Bach has invented a new form of road rage, one where you don’t actually need the road to participate. Helen, similar to murder for hire would be consumer Morrissey, at least love animals but not me. I have blood on my hands and watch me lick it off slowly
No, Jon, it is not alright. It isn’t remotely close to alright, this is a dire, depressing version of one of the few bearable Bon Jovi songs. Yes, that was the worst moment, but there was lots and lots of competition: the last song “American Pie”, the ridiculous “Baba O’Reilly” not remotely saved by the violinist, “Bad Medicine” overblown and heavy…
It encompasses a grueling period during which Lewis’ father passed away, her band of more than a decade broke up, and she conquered two years of chronic insomnia. “All these things pushed me over the edge. In your mid-30s, you have to take inventory, or you’ll stumble.”
Take a look at this back up band. Graham Maby, Joe Jackson band member since the Look Sharp era, on bass; Rich Pagnano, the Fab Faux’s Ringo, on drums, and Andy York of the tremendous rockabilly Jason And The Scorchers and more recently John Mellencamp’s band
The Ed Sheeran album isn’t great but two songs on it are great, and the Bleachers album isn’t great either but “Roller Coaster” and “Leave Your Lover” are both such terrific songs they are gonna be duking it out for the rest of the year for supremacy round our way. I love one more, but the other one is better
Moanin’ At Midnight – Tomas Doncker Band – Rewrites the story of Howlin’ Wolf for the 21st century by a man who defies pigeonholes, especially blues pigeonholes, but finds himself a blues star despite himself.
Shimmy Shimmy Ya – Ol’ Dirty Bastard – this has the addictive kick of the Sugarhill Gang, and which nobody would claim ODB was Wu Tang’s greatest rapper, nobody came close to his mix of aggression and self-deprecation, and let this be exhibit A – Grade: A
It seems to me Spotify have settled themselves after last years somewhat stalled growth (and I still think they have passed on the older generation before they had to), are back to taking over the world of streaming by storm. And I believe this is a future of music distribution (which is what we are discussing, of course
Lady Gaga, who I am sick to death of, doesn’t simply jump the Shark here, but climbs on top of it, squeezes it between her legs and rides it like Slim Pickens at the end of “Dr. Strangelove” and in the worst is yet to come mode, Bennett delivers his single worst vocal performance of all time
Every week the US Albums charts is like this explosion of new albums, shooting stars, often gone he next week or the week after, while the singles charts is like water on stone, slowly slow slowly something cracks open the door. This week it is Sia, a song I don’t have much time for, but one thay has done the difficult, it has made its presence felt on the singles charts.
I know I prefer 5SOS to common but the reason they have the same grade is a question of ambition, both of these albums have one absolute ambition: the former to be a worldwide smash for teen girls, the other to seriously wory what is happening in Chicago, Ill. Common may fail but I applaud the attempt.
Recognize – Ol’ Dirty Bastard – Man, I miss this guy. I also miss the years Chris Rock was cool and on this gotta recognize recognition it is worth mentioning a certain Pharrell Williams co-produced the track… yup, he was a P.I.M.P. alright – Grade: A
Played with Bright eyes-y full throttle intensity, plus horns, plus back up singers, plus two girls on guitar, plus Conor emoting the holy fuck out of them, they supercharged the evening. I didn’t like the horns on “Hundreds Of Ways on the recorded version, but it worked here and the three song opening did something Conor didn’t quite do at Carnegie Hall a couple of years ago, it grew him up without changing him.
“community leaders such as Run DMC, Wu Tang Clan, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Common, Spike Lee, Danny Simmons, MC Lyte, Brandon Martinez, Brooklyn Borough President, Eric Adams, and more are expected to participate and be in attendance. A full-scale concert will also be held at the Barclays Center on Saturday, September 20th”
And wait, there is a delay: “My darlingz, I’ve pushed the release of Anaconda to next week, Monday 8/4. I promise you will understand why before the week is out. Loveeeeeeee uuuuuu”.
Stop Your Stobbing – the Kinks – Those background harmonies, Ray’s wife at the time, right, the “oooh ooohs” under “stop it stop it”? I could listen to it forever. It is like Torre giving the ball to Cone for one out in game six of the world series in 2000: Ray wasn’t doing her a favor, he used her for what the song needed – A
Eric Clapton And Friends – The Breeze (An Appreciation Of JJ Cale) After the dire Old Socks, this coulda have been a disaster, but it isn’t, what it does is place Cale out of the “Cocaine” one hit wonder category and into the basic blues canon with some of Clapton’s greatest acoustic warm glow performances since Ocean boulevard rising to the occasion – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
The first four (“Summer Of 69” a Golden Boys cover) everything you dreamt it would be, and the next four less focused, more inclined to art rock, less hard more spooky and as the last song “Eyes Of Death” ends the feedback comes in just like the beginning of the album, s if Spider bags have created a self contained world. And they have. Just not their best one.
At Newport he seemed better able to move from one extreme to the other while maintaining a sort of benign self-regard. With such a huge back catalog, Adams can really pick and choose and at Newport he chose to be a classic rocker near his peak.
I’m still old and she still doesn’t care what I think . Which isn’t exactly the truth either, I don’t want to get “it depends what “is” is” on you, but you put two qualifiers in her comments. The first is “most” –clearly, in order to listen to 17 year olds MOST, she must listen to older people less than that, which is not not at all
I’ve also seen what’s happened to other music sites that I respect and read regularly, like Rolling Stone, Paste, Stereogum, etc. The mindless fawning over celebrity, the playing up of pseudo controversy and fake “news” for marketing and publicity purposes, the endless milking of informational and promotional teases, the pay-for-play business model of sponsored content…
I guess it is the guy in me, the lover of lists, but I find stuff like Billboard charts and here the Spotify streaing list interesting though, really, what here couldn’t you figure from the Billboard’s singles charts. Iggy, Sam Smith, Ariana, Nico, maybe Sia is a little higher than I thought would be, and maybe “Break Free” broke free a little earlier on Spotify than Billboard but what other surprises?
You And Your Smiling Face – Dennis Brown – This song should have, even if it didn’t break through for brown, been covered and broken through for some mainstream Claptonish rocker and made him if not as big as Marley, certainly second in command – A+
Towards the end he covered the crown prince of reggae Dennis Brown and nailed it in the afternoon’s most triumphant moment. Despite his youth, he has a certain gravity about him, he is the real deal not a contender for Reggae and for testifying.
A heavy duty concert week for me, Keith Urban, Action Bronson, Danny Brown, The Roots, Katy Perry and Chronixx, and not a dog in the lot but pride of place goes to Keith because it was just such a cool scene and Keith was a good natured country ramblin’ guy AT FORTY SIX!!!!
