John Cale "Mercy" (2023)

Mercy

release date: Jan. 20, 2023

format: digital (12 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,74]

producer: John Cale, Nita Scott

label: Double Six / Domino - nationality: Wales, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Mercy" (feat. Laurel Halo) - 2. "Marilyn Monroe's Legs (Beauty Elsewhere)" (feat. Actress) - 3. "Noise of You" - 6. "Moonstruck (Nico's Song)" - 8. "Night Crawling" - 9. "Not the End of the World" - 11. "I Know You're Happy" (feat. Tei Shi)

17th (or so?) studio album by John Cale following M:FANS (2016) - which by many isn't really considered an actual new album as it's a redrawing of songs from Music for a New Society from 1982, although, from my perspective it's still a new album containing newly re-arranged songs. A new studio album doesn't necessarily mean new compositions; however, his last to feauture newly written material was Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood (2012).

Cale was 80 years old when he recorded this album, and you could ask yourself if his high age would show on this album - it doesn't! Actually, the album is a most wonderful combo of soft art rock, singer / songwriter and subtle but noticeable electronica. Several tracks are collaborations - the most prominent artist is probably Weyes Blood (on "Story of Blood"). For the moment, I just feel that is one of the weak songs here, but you can't really put a finger on anyone's contribution that lifts this from Cave's shoulders. Through and through, it's the successful product in the spirit of the artist himself.

The album has been met by positive reviews, and I must confess that it strikes me as one of his better and more coherent studio albums. Since the relase, Cale has been on a world tour with the new album.

The album is still new to me - I rate it just under 3,75, but it might just grow stronger during the following months.

Highly recommended.

[ 👍Pitchfork 7,8 / 10, Mojo 4 / 5, Uncut 4,5 / 5 stars ]

U2 "Songs of Surrender" (2023)

Songs of Surrender

release date: Mar. 17, 2023

format: digital (40 x File, MP3)

[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,72]

producer: The Edge [aka David Evans]

label: Island Records - nationality: Ireland

Album by U2 released as a new studio album, which means it succeeds Songs of Experience (Dec. 2017). The album comes in a standard 16 tracks edition (1 disc cd / 2 lp vinyl), or a 'Deluxe Edition' (4 disc cd / 4 lp vinyl) and a number of special issues. At a first glance it could look like a clever marketing construct as all songs here are newly recorded mostly acoustic versions of old songs - all compiled and put together by The Edge, who has 'invited' Bono to put new vocal arrangements to the recordings. Half of the band didn't have to do anything as Clayton and Mullen Jr. didn't even put any work into this The Edge solo project of utilising old recordings and recorded tracks to re-arrange what appears as a coincidental selection.

Old wine on new bottles? Yes, and no. Firstly, the songs are not really new - people, or at least: fans should be familiar with every single composition. And secondly, other artists have with or without success made this type of re-recordings of a back catalogue; however, in this particular case, I don't really spot ANY improvements, and to issue costly deluxe editions of something like this is difficult to see as anything else than profit thinking. I don't find any great versions - perhaps because I already feel done and over with this once great and innovative band, but bottom line: I just don't like it. For me, this band made its last relevant album back in the year 2009, and before that in 2000, and those albums weren't even close to great. Their last truly remarkable album remains Achtung Baby from 1991.

You've probably noticed how their most recent albums share bonding titles, like a smart marketing scoop of sorts, complete without limitations - you may imagine 'Songs of Wonders', 'Songs of Patience'... 'Lust', 'Greed', 'Profit' - at least there's room for many follow-ups in that category: Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, and now a 'Surrender'-version. Who knows, perhaps a fitting title for an upcoming album is 'Songs of Redundance'? Like the other two, this is not recommended.

[ 👍Pitchfork 5.7 / 10, The Guardian, NME 3 / 5 stars ]

Shocking Blue "Send Me a Postcard" (1968) (single)

l-r.: Cor van der Beek, Mariska Veres
Klaasje van der Wal, Robbie van Leeuwen

Send Me a Postcard, 7'' single

release date: Dec. 14, 1968

format: vinyl (IMA 1002) (1970 issue)

[single rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]

producer: Shocking Blue

label: I. M. A. Records - nationality: The Netherlands

Tracklist: A) "Send Me a Postcard" (4,5 / 5) - - B) "Harley Davidson"

Single release by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue originally released on Pink Elephant in '68 and released for the Scandinavian market with this issue in 1970. The single appears to be the band's only third single and it's one of three consecutive non-album single releases following the band's album debut Shocking Blue (Nov. 1967). The band was formed in '67 and went through changing line-ups with a different output starting with music influenced by The Beatles and a folk pop style as expressed by American quartet Brothers Four, but from '68 when Mariska Veres became the band's lead vocalist after founding member Fred de Wilde left, the band changed style to a bolder psychedelic rock founded in American West Coast blues rock. For this single, the band consists of new member vocalist Marika Veres, and the three founding members: lead guitarist and main songwriter Robbie van Leeuwen, bassist Klaasje van der Wal, and drummer Cor (Cornelis) van der Beek. Both tracks are credited van Leeuwen, and the single became an international hit, which was perceived as a fine attempt with a mix of styles exemplified by Jefferson Airplane and The Doors.

The band continued up until 1974 when songwriter and composer van Leeuwen left to concentrate on his newly formed band Galaxy-Lin, and Shocking Blue then released its final album Good Times (1974) after which Mariska Veres left to pursue a solo career and the band split. Shocking Blue reformed in 1980 in their classic line-up and stayed together until '97 when van Leeuwen now left for good, and from hereon and up until 2006 the band was continued around Veres and new lead guitarist André van Geldorp with a changing line-up. The band was put to an abrupt end Dec. 2006 as Mariska Veres died from newly detected cancer.

Shocking Blue was much more than just a few single hits, and among them definitely Send Me a Postcard - they showed an alternative to American and British psychedelic rock, which isn't just covers and copy, and together with Danish band Savage Rose, they stand as a strong European contribution to the vast pool of rock and to the formation and the development of psychedelic rock of the 1970s.

This Swedish issue of the single, released three months after the band's third album Scorpio's Dance (Sep. 1970), was part of my older brother's record collection, and it's a single I vividly recall from age 10-14 years of age - and at that time, it was one of my absolute favourite rock songs.

~ ~ ~

This post is part of MyMusicJourney, which enlists key releases that have shaped my musical taste when growing up and until age 14. Most of these releases come from my parents' and / or my older brother's collection.

l-r.: Robbie, Cornelis, Mariska, Klaasje