Faithful to himself, Morrissey still wants to convince us with bravado and courage… and I love the fact that he is still trying, I am well aware that lots of people may have taken all this for bad propaganda, but did you see these giant middle fingers flipped by the queen? And I haven’t even mentioned that his musicians were wearing ‘Crapitol Records’ shirts…
So a good, strange, long set. Laura is a major talent so maybe next time round everything she has planted here will make more sense to us. Till, then, watch out for the patterns, that’s God or Laura or both.
David – Laura Marling – A new one off her Director’s Cut version of Short Movie, a lovely song: completely perfect Laura territory, I’ve heard her play this live (on youtube) and she performs it in a different key here -not a great idea – B+
The bottom of the barrel was Monday evening. No “L” train to Brooklyn, a good 90 minute trip to the club, the doors are at 8pm, opening act, figure it is over 11p to 1130p and then what? If I get home by one it will be a miracle ad then not just work but work and the new releases tomorrow.
With a handful of early releases, here is some before the early review reviews, two are retreads three are new reviews, all are pretty good without changing the world.
If it works from the edges, if it is clearly bewildered, if it could only send her away and if true love, or at least true hope, is so difficult to cling to, these are flaws in life not song.Perhaps at her age, it is wrong to search out a new thesis, her failure here is in laying one out, in a confessional that doesn’t know where it’s at
I have been thinking hard about the new Laura Marling album, Short Movie, getting ready to review the Tuesday release, and also getting ready for the Monday concert at Warsaw. I’ve had it in heavy rotation and then began dipping into Laura’s earlier albums.
It is not true Laura is overly melodramatic when it comes to being in love, she is overly dramatic whatever she sings and it is absolutely true, she can’t build a fence, she has to be an “electric fence”. This song sounds more like Once I Was An Eagle than the other three I’ve heard
Short Movie – Laura Marling – I don’t see how a band helps, it doesn’t really flesh out the sound in any meaningful way at all… it is about the song, and the song is better than I first gave it credit (“they know that I love you, they’ll never know why” -quite) – A-
Warsaw is not my idea of a terrific pace to see a band -who wants to deal with Brooklyn? It says here take the L Train to Bedford Ave but then what? Still, I did it for Roulette (which ended up being two blocks away from the Barclay center) so I guess I’m stuck doing it here.
The name on the tip of your tongue is Ryan Adams though it sounds more the Cardinals to me, and as much as I like Ryan, I prefer Laura. It is like Dylan covering Donovan.
“America induces this fear in me. It’s so vast and so complicated. I feel like I’m here as a weird voyeur, watching it in a really strange way to make sense of it. Like the landscape of the desert, then you go four hours further north and you’re in the lush mountainous forests. You feel dwarfed by the country”
We are almost at the end of 2014, and do you wonder what 2015 has in store for us? We already know about some upcoming releases and these are the ones that excite me the most:
She is really unleashing a fierce emotion in ‘Short Movie’, with rage and passion, then eventually a lot is going on at the same time on this track, before everything culminates into a duel between Laura’s voice, strumming electric guitars and ascending strings
Bleed Me Dry – Laura Marling – Jesus, that is a magnificent lick. Laura bases the not untypical self-portrait round it on this yet to be released song and she finger picks it and her fingers seem to dance along the strings. Brilliance – A
She made two declarations of desire and limitations in a theatre with one of the cleanest sounds in the city, the acoustics were tremendous and you could hear every beat, every movement of her fingers down the fret. And then she walked and I swear I didn’t exhale once
At least we will get her for one day this winter and in a nice room, the Beacon is glorious. My hope is Laura will take one look at the Rockefeller center christmas tree and start singing “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here” and move.
‘I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even accomplished musicians continually offering to ‘help me out’ (without being asked), as if i did this by accident and i’m gonna flounder without them. or as if the fact that I’m a woman makes me incapable of using technology.”
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
The Golden Age – Beck – The lethargy is deathlike, the thing about death in a body is its lack of animation, it simply stops the body and then the body decays to dust. This decay, this rotting of the self, the inertness of life is the hidden subject matter of Beck’s masterpiece.
Sweet Baby James – James Taylor – Written for his nephew when his nephew was still a baby, it remains a self-portrait and a lullaby to loneliness and aloneness and late night fears put away and rocked to sleep – A+
There is something about Laura which is less naiveté repressed and more privilege expressed; it comes across as a form of feminism: a sort of proto-rock star unwillingness to be signed up for anything approaching a long term commitment : she lies back, she stands up, next verse.
Tug Of War – Paul McCartney – Lost in the midst of time, and never rolled out even when Macca is looking for something to change up in his show and despite it appearing on Wingspan, there is a real tug to the song, a sweet sadness – A-
(She) – JD Samson And Men – Soundscape of beeps and beats and techno jive experimental dance with repetition in the nix and intoned calls to a female deity – B+
As Fast As My Feet – Linda Thompson – A pop song but an old fashioned one that walks on its title melodic hook all the way there, with a sound not folk but folk-rock and of course, Linda’s gorgeous voice.
ARMS – Studio At Webster Hall, Tuesday, October 15th, 2013 – Todd Goldstein is a one band except he has a full band and they take the stage to a soundscape indie rock of power and beauty and a smart sound you would do well to listen to.
Dear Mary – Linda Thompson – A Linda blueprint English folk song to lead of her terrific 2002 album, Linda might take her time but she has never recorded badly and this new one finds her at the peak of her powers – A
Reflektor – Arcade Fire – It sounds like Holy Ghost plus LCD Soundsystem hit with gamma rays and turned into the incredible Hulk till it is a monster of pop awesomeness
This is the sort of meeting of a subculture defined by so many failed attempts to reunite in a moment and also extened the moment into the present. The moment was the Lower east Side in the late 1970s, and the extension was musical and triumphant.
The Long Lost – David Bronson – The prequel to Story is, at its best, just about the most deliriously deep and beautiful music you will here this year but so lost in its sorrow it can be difficult to penetrate
