Mark Kozelek "Lost Verses - Live" (2009) (live)

Lost Verses - Live (live)

release date: May 12, 2009

format: digital (14 x File, MP3)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,84]

producer: Mark Kozelek

label: Caldo Verde Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Unlit Hallway" - 2. "Carry Me Ohio" - 3. "Four Fingered Fisherman" - 5. "Salvador Sanchez" - 8. "Tiny Cities" - 9. "Lucky Man" - 10. "Send in the Clowns" - 12. "Tonight in Bilbao" - 14. "Katy Song"

Live album by Mark Kozelek released between two Sun Kil Moon studio albums: April (Apr. 2008) and Admiral Fell Promises (Jul. 2010). Most recently, however, Kozelek also released the live EP 7 Songs Belfast (Jul. 2008), and, on a whole, Kozelek's discography doesn't appear to lack live releases. From 2001 to 2014, he has released no less than (approx.) 16 solo live albums.

Lost Verses - Live consists of 14 tracks with a total running time of 74 minutes with songs recorded from seven concerts between 2007 and 2008. More precisely, it's mostly two concerts from Kozelek's European tour recorded Nov. 2007 - the first in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the second is from Lisbon, Portugal. The remaining five live recordings are from concerts across the USA between Apr. and Nov. 2008. As usual, Kozelek has included some cover songs - here limited to two by Modest Mouse (tracks #3 and #8) and the classic "Send in the Clowns" by Stephen Sondheim. Kozelek's own compositions are mainly tracks released under the name of Sun Kil Moon, either made with the band or for later albums under the same name but while performing as a solo artist, but there has also been room for songs from his time with the band Red House Painters, as there are tracks released under his own name.

All recordings mostly sounds like renderings of Kozelek's solo performances, and maybe that's the whole point, although Red House Painters' guitarist Phil Carney is credited as guitarist, and the recordings also come from tours where Carney supported Kozelek in Europe as well as in the States, and he doesn't appear on all fourteen tracks.

With this, Kozelek documents his abilities as songwriter, as vocalist, as guitarist, and not least as a skilled storyteller. Due to the sparse instrumentation, it's in a quiet and perhaps somewhat introverted domain, but the compositions and the performances are definitely not flawed.

Lost Verses - Live is a super fine and highly recommended album from a most gifted songwriter.

[ PopMatters, Sputnikmusic 4 / 5, Pitchfork 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Etta James "Her Best - The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection" (1997)

"Her Best - The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection", compilation
release date: 1997
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: various
label: Chess - nationality: USA

20 track compilation album by Etta James.

B-52's "The Best of The B-52's - Dance This Mess Around" (1990)

The Best of The B-52's - Dance This Mess Around (compilation)
release date: 1990
format: vinyl
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: various
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

Best of compilation album by B-52's focusing on the band's first two albums. The band had only just released its "comeback" album Cosmic Thing in '89 on a new label, Reprise Records, so their old company, Island Records found it timely to issue this collection of old material.
[ 👍allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Edwyn Collins "Badbea" (2019)

Badbea
release date: Mar. 29, 2019
format: digital (12 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: Edwyn Collins, Sean Read
label: Analogue Enhanced Digital - nationality: Scotland, UK

Track highlights: 1. "It's All About You" - 3. "I Guess We Were Young" - 5. "Outside" - 6. "Glasgow to London" - 10. "I'm OK Jack" - 12. "Badbea"

9th studio solo album by Edwyn Collins released by Collins' co-founded micro label AED is his first album out in six years - following Understated from 2013. Stylistically, it's a blend of the many styles Collins has been involved with in his long musical career. It contains elements of pop soul, sophisti-pop, indie pop and singer / songwriter, but it's first and foremost a quite coherent output. There's the ever-present echo of an ancient proto-punk energy, which makes me think of The Stooges and Patti Smith. It's psychedelic rock bits and pieces, art punk twists with screaming horns and also a very present subtle caring in ballad-like and honest-to-the-bone songs of present days - delicately woven songs with acoustic guitars and his charismatic crooning. On top of that there's also left room for electronic traits scattered around to widen the stylistic expression rather than the attempt to take control of songs. And quite surprisingly, it doesn't feel much like the usage of too many styles. And I think, primarily thanks to the production sound and Collins' dark vocal, which cleverly binds it all together.
The front cover depicts Collins in a confronting fragile portrait hinting to his physical conditions after multiple cerebral hemorrhages that struck him around 2005.
This is a warm grower and a recommendable listen. It's so great to see and hear Collins back!!
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Gregory Porter "Take Me to the Alley" (2016)

Take Me to the Alley
release date: May 6, 2016
format: 2 lp vinyl (gatefold) / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,92]
producer: Gregory Porter and Kamau Kenyatta
label: Blue Note Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: A) 1. "Holding On" - 2. "Don’t Lose Your Steam" - 3. "Take Me to the Alley" - - B) 2. "Consequence of Love" - - C) 2. "In Heaven" - 3. "Insanity" - - D) 1. "Don't Be a Fool" - 2. "Fan the Flames"

4th studio album by Gregory Porter is released as a double gatefold vinyl lp containing 12 tracks with three compositions on each side and a total running time at just above 51 mins. The cd release comes in various issues where most contain 13 or 14 tracks. Porter has already established himself as a shining star and a renewer of jazz, and he obviously likes to work with familiar collaborators. Producer Kenyatta has taken part as either producer, engineer or studio musician on all his albums and many others are old friends found on his previous albums, including Chip Crawford, Aaron James, Emanuel Harrold, Keyon Harrold, Yosuke Sato, Tivon Pennicott and Ondrej Pivec.
Porter has successfully relaunched the jazz genre into popular music by combining it with soul and rhythm & blues and this is also what he does on this with the continued style found on his two previous fine albums, Liquid Spirit from 2013 and Be Good from 2012.
The album has, like Porter's other albums, been met by international acclaim, and it's really no big surprise. You may argue that the album doesn't provide much new other than repeat the formula he delivered on his 2013 album, where he brought his jazz and pop soul combo into popular music territory, but it's not a mere reproduction of the blueprint to success rather than a display of musical ingenuity. He sings like a prodigy and he has written and composed the majority of the tracks - why shouldn't he be allowed to dwell on what he does better than anyone else. Porter is a gift - and not just to jazz, but to the world of popular music.
A highly recommended album.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, 👍The Guardian, The Telegraph 4 / 5, AllAboutJazz, PopMatters 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Mogwai "Atomic" (OST) (2016)

Atomic (soundtrack)

release date: Apr. 1, 2016

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,27]

producer: Tony Doogan

label: Rock Action Records - nationality: Scotland, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Ether" - 2. "SCRAM" - 4. "U-235" - 8. "Are You a Dancer?"

Original soundtrack by Mogwai to the documentary "Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise" (Aug. 2015), a film about nuclear history by Mark Cousins. The album sees Mogwai exploring a style with strong bonds to 1970s krautrock and electronic music by Kraftwerk and Godspeed You! Black Emperor (e.g. "Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!" from 2000), and by doing so, the album doesn't follow the path of the bands most recent releases.

The album is the band's first in a new line-up (the first in 16 years) after founding member John Cummings left the quintet in 2015 to pursue a solo career, so here the band has been reduced to a quartet of Stuart Braithwaite, Dominic Aitchison, Martin Bulloch and Barry Burns. It's 48 minutes of primarily progressive ambient music with a commemorating touch of the aforementioned German styles blended with ambient post-rock.

Atomic is not really great but nor is it of irrelevance. It's thematically narrow and stringent music, which possibly serves its purpose, but as a standalone release it lacks diversity as well as polarity; however, imho, it outshines most of their previous soundtrack albums.

Later this year (Oct. 2016) Mogwai also contributed with four compositions for the soundtrack to the documentary "Before the Flood" by Fisher Stevens.

[ bandcamp ]

[ 👉Pitchfork 7,1 / 10, 👍Drowned in Sound 3,5 / 5, The Guardian 3 / 5 stars ]

Mark Kozelek "7 Songs Belfast" (2008), live

7 Songs Belfast (live)

release date: Jun. 10, 2008

format: digital (7 x File, MP3 - 2012 reissue)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

producer: non-produced

label: Caldo Verde Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Michigan" - 2. "Around and Around" - 4. "Gentle Moon" - 5. "Carry Me Ohio" - 7. "Tonight in Bilbao"

Live EP by Mark Kozelek count six takes from The Black Box, Belfast, Nov. 4, 2007, and the final seventh track recorded from The Dancehouse Theater in Manchester, Oct. 30, 2007. The EP was originally issued as a limited free CD for customers on the record company's website and sold for Kozelek's Autumn tour 2008. In 2012 the EP was issued as a digital album.

The seven compositions here are acoustic versions with either Kozelek solo or supported by guitarist Phil Carney on six of Kozelek's own songs and "Around and Around" by John Denver.

The EP's two best tracks originally stem from the Sun Kil Moon debut Ghosts of the Great Highway (Nov. 2003), and of these two, track #5 is found in a better version on the live-album Lost Verses - Live (May 2009).

Excellent live release, which is however overshadowed by the 2009 album.

The Cranberries "In the End" (2019)

In the End
release date: Apr. 26, 2019
format: vinyl (LTD. gatefold cranberry vinyl) / digital (11 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,06]
producer: Stephen Street
label: BMG - nationality: Ireland

Track highlights: 1. "All Over Now" - 2. "Lost" - 3. "Wake Me When It's Over" - 5. "Catch Me If You Can" - 9. "Summer Song" - 11. "In the End"

8th and final studio album by The Cranberries released more than one year after the accidental and most tragic death of lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the band, Dolores O'Riordan, Jan. 2018.
The album has been a long way in the making - partly because of O'Riordan's untimely departure, and for the remaining band members having to come to terms with the fact that what was to be a restart of the band with a ready-made promotion plan and a scheduled tour list, was all of a sudden something completely different - and final. Also, what had been recorded of Dolores' vocals were only demo takes, so what could easily have ended as a shelved half-finished last album had to be mixed and arranged to fit what had been laid down.
Stylistically, the band aims at the core of its own strengths: their special blend of soft alt. rock jangle pop and dream pop in a singer / songwriter outing, thanks to O'Riordan's talent for songwriting, which in a way takes the band back in time to its more successful releases of the '90s.
Stephen Street is credited as additional musician and he has mixed and produced the album so skilfully that you forget the circumstances that were at play. Without O'Riordan's sparkling demo vocals these songs could only have been shelved. Instead we are blessed with one final last chapter - all thanks to The Cranberries: Dolores O'Riordan, Noel & Mike Hogan, and Fergal Lawler.
The album has been met by positive reviews, and after only two days, I dare already say that it's truly a fine accomplishment. The album contains sincere ballads and uptempo rockers in a tone that puts the album at the very top of all the band's releases.
In the End may be one of the saddest ends to a great band, but at the same time it's a gem to have been handed to us all - despite devastating circumstances, and it's definitely highly recommendable.
So far a certified top 3 album of the year!
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5, 👍The Guardian, Clash, The Independent 4 / 5 stars ]

2019 Favorite releases: 1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Ghosteen - 2. The Cranberries In the End - 3. Rammstein Rammstein

Stuart A. Staples "Arrhythmia" (2018)

Arrhythmia
release date: Jun. 15, 2018
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]
producer: Stuart A. Staples
label: Lucky Dog Recordings / City Slang - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "A New Real" (4 / 5) - 3. "Step Into the Grey" - 4. "Music for 'A Year in Small Paintings' "

3rd solo album by Stuart A. Staples released a full twelve years after his most recent solo album is as Tindersticks' albums produced by Staples himself and released through his own label Lucky Dog in collaboration with City Slang.

Since Leaving Songs (May 2006), which nearly came to mark the break with Tindersticks, Staples has established a strong and seemingly more stronger second unit of the original Tindersticks. The new version of the band - with roots in Asphalt Ribbons, which, in addition to Staples, also consisted of guitarist Neil Fraser and keyboardist David Boulter - is a consolidated unit who since 2006 seems to have reignited the band's joy of playing music together and since then it has been able to constantly seek out new ways without losing its distinctive character. Staples has been revisiting some of the same paths on his solo albums, where he also has used the skills of Fraser and Boulter along with several other recurring artists that he prefers on his releases. Staples has also collaborated with the two French musicians Thomas Belhom and Christine Ott on the creation of the soundtrack Minute Bodies - The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith (2017).

On Arrhytmia - which directly refers to a disorder ('a-rhythmic heart rhythm'), rhythms that can either be too slow or too fast - Staples experiments far more than he usually has. The album is 54 minutes in total running time but it only consists of four compositions. The first cut is just over five minutes long [and wait, wait, wait…'Was it what's lost? - Was it what's...' ], the following track clocks in at ten-and-a-half minutes, the third is nearly seven-and-a-half minutes long, and the fourth and final instrumental composition is nearly 31 minutes long [!]. On the vinyl issue, this final composition fills the entire B-side, which is titled: "Music for 'A Year in Small Paintings' " is Staples' music for wife, Suzanne Osborne's screen printed work "A year in small paintings - Skies, Sep. 2010 - Sep. 2011" [see also here]. In fact, in addition to Staples, the track is also credited three other Tindersticks members, Neil Fraser, Dan McKinna, David Boulter, as well as French composer and multi-instrumentalist, Christine Ott. The track appears as a kind of new-classic post rock with a clear influence from ambient.

Arrhytmia is an exciting album, which certainly doesn't use ordinary pop structures, and which to a large extent demands active listening in order to get the whole experience. If you give the album a go, it is definitely worth an experience and something that, in the right mood, may give rise to great enjoyment.

Recommended.

[ The Line of Best Fit 4 / 5, Uncut, Loud and Quiet 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Bob Mould "Sunshine Rock" (2019)

Sunshine Rock
release date: Feb. 8, 2019
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: Bob Mould
label: Merge Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Sunshine Rock" (studio session) - 2. "What Do You Want Me to Do" - 3. "Sunny Love Song" - 5. "The Final Years" - 7. "I Fought" - 9. "Lost Faith" - 11. "Send Me a Postcard"

12th studio solo album by Bob Mould is like all his solos produced by Mould and it's his fourth consecutive album to by released on Merge. It's the continued story of the old rock artist, who has found his niche on his older days. It takes off where he left us on Patch the Sky in 2016, which again took off from the two previous releases. The album is Mould's 4th since what many saw as his "comeback" album, Silver Age in 2012 - an album that followed several years with musical experiments and the then most recent "folk rock-ish" Life and Times (2009) - and his most welcomed 2012 rocker presented Mould's nice return to form - something he has proved to keep to ever since.
Sunshine Rock may not appear as alternative and heavy as his most recent studio album, but it still stays very true to the power pop label he is first and foremost associated with. Sometimes he turns up a bit on the alt. rock side of the style, at other times it's more harmonically composed, but it's always power pop with hints and bonds to the old punk rock soul and with a natural link to an American tradition of folk rock as personified by Neil Young, and the album is in my mind one of Mould's more bold releases to share a common ground in songwriting style with his time in Hüsker Dü. In this respect you may compare to Candy Apple Grey (1986) and Warehouse - Songs and Stories (1987). Track #11, "Send Me a Postcard" is a mighty fine cover - originally a blast of a [non-album] song by Dutch [Jefferson Airplane-ish] band Shocking Blue issued as a 7'' single in 1968 [ check the original here ].
The album has been met by positive reviews, although, it hasn't reached the favourable position on the albums chart list as his best charting album in recent years, Beauty & Ruin from 2014. Bob Mould keeps rockin' away - that's what he knows, and he does that better than most. What also comes to mind here, is his long legacy with power pop tunes and how he may find it increasingly difficult not to repeat himself if he doesn't add more to his new material. Having said that, the album is a prolific example of alt. rock craftsmanship and something essential in a collection of contemporary alt rock.
[ allmusic.com, Mojo, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, 👍Slant 3,5 / 5, Pitchfork 7,6 / 10, Uncut 4,5 / 5 stars ]

The Chemical Brothers "No Geography" (2019)

No Geography
release date: Apr. 12, 2019
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: The Chemical Brothers
label: Virgin EMI - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Eve of Destruction" - 3. "No Geography" - 4. "Got to Keep On" - 6. "The Universe Sent Me" - 7. "We've Got to Try" - 8. "Free Yourself" - 9. "MAH" - 10. "Catch Me I'm Falling"

9th studio album by The Chemical Brothers issued after a near four year hiatus is like the most recent Born in the Echoes released on Virgin EMI and as always produced by the duo. It's a ten track collection on which Tom Rowlands and Ed Simmons take a stronger grip on acid house than usually - a style closely related to electro house and something I don't really spend much time listening to. Basically, it's a bit like returning to the early days of techno. There is also some progressive house parts here and there, but the best thing about the new album is the lust to also include big beat as they did on the 2015 album.
The album has been met by positive reviews, and it seems like the duo has re-found its potential.
The album is so fresh to me, but for the time being, I really enjoy it, and from my experience with The Chemical Brothers one simply has to digest their new material to let it unfold before judging too hard. For now; I rate it good above 3,5, but is it a 4 star album and bettering the 2015 release?
[ 👍allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, The Guardian, Mojo, Q Magazine, Uncut, NME 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 2,5 / 5 stars ]

Little Simz "Grey Area" (2019)

Grey Area
release date: Mar. 1, 2019
format: digital (10 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Inflo [aka Dean "Inflo 1st" Josiah, aka Dean Cover]
label: Age 101 Music - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Offence" - 2. "Boss" - 3. "Selfish" (feat. Cleo Sol) - 5. "Venom" - 6. "101 FM" - 7. "Pressure" (feat. Little Dragon) - 8. "Therapy"

3rd studio album by Little Simz [aka Simbi Ajikawo] following 2 years after Stillness in Wonderland (Dec. 2016) on her own independent label Age 101 Music.

Her sophomore 2016 release came out to fine reviews but failed to attract a bigger crowd - bassically like her debut A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons (2015), which had been hailed as the new big thing, but as much as these releases didn't attract a broader public attention, then all of a sudden with Grey Area everyone now knows about Little Simz.

I didn't know of her until I came across this one by chance, and my initial thought was "yet another artist of conscious hip hop", I must admit - 'cause it's a genre, I mostly consider obsolete. "Conscious"? I don't get the term. When is contemporary hip hop NOT about social engagement anyway?! More interestingly, this is UK hip hop with bonds to grime and warm neo-soul with a blunt use of drum and bass. And musically, this is normally not a preferred genre of mine, as I find a lot of so-called contemporary rap and hip hop too generic building on the same well-known formulas, but Simz just makes her own original blend. Securely, she sings soulfully, she raps with speed and a sneer that doesn't let any angry grime rapper have a say, and she skilfully drops her points.

Grey Area came out to critical acclaim, and the album topped the Official Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart Top 40-list as well as on the Official Independent Albums-list in the UK. The album was also nominated the Mercury Prize in 2019.

She may not have as many believers as West, Drake, Ocean, or Lamar but imho, she links better with Lauryn Hill and ultimately has more to offer than most other and better known contemporary hip hop artists, and she rightfully deserves more recognition.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Q, The Observer, 👍The Guardian 4 / 5, NME 5 / 5 stars ]

Sun Kil Moon "April" (2008)

April
release date: Apr. 1, 2008
format: 2 cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Mark Kozelek
label: Caldo Verde Records - nationality: USA

Tracklist: 1. "Lost Verses" - 2. "The Light" (4 / 5) - 3. "Lucky Man" - 4. "Unlit Hallway" - 5. "Heron Blue" - 6. "Moorestown" - 7. "Harper Road" - 8. "Tonight the Sky" - 9. "Like the River" - 10. "Tonight in Bilbao" - 11. "Blue Orchids" (4 / 5)

3rd studio album by Sun Kil Moon following the covers album Tiny Cities (2005) is a 2-disc and 2 lp standard release issued on Caldo Verde. The CD issue contains a bonus disc containing four alternate versions (not included on the vinyl issue) of tracks #10, #2, #9 and #8 on the standard album.

Again, the style is intact and there's only small changes from Kozelek's "normal" alt. folk style. The compositions here are just a bit more orchestrated than was heard on its predecessor Tiny Cities and a few tracks are more folk rock-oriented, which suits their harmonies so fine, and they also point more directly back to the fine indie rock debut Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003). All tracks here are credited Kozelek and that's really when he shines the most. And therefore, this album also makes it to be the so far second best by this interesting artist, in my opinion.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Slant 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]

The B-52's "Wild Planet" (1980)

Wild Planet
release date: Aug. 27, 1980
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]
producer: Rhett Davies, B-52's; Chris Blackwell (exec. pro.)
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Party Out of Bounds" - 2. "Dirty Back Road" - 3. "Runnin' Around" (live) - 4. "Give Me Back My Man" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "Private Idaho" - 6. "Devil in My Car" (live) - 9. "53 Miles West of Venus"

2nd studio album by The B-52's follows closely on the same path laid out on the debut from '79 with an uptempo new wave with strong bonds to the 1960s surf rock - especially thanks to the guitar-sound as played by Ricky Wilson. The strong musical and stylistic resemblance with the debut may be explained by the fact that the band already had "too many" songs in its repertoire when they began recording songs for the debut album, and instead of releasing an unlikely double album for its debut, the band just shelved these songs for a later release. This is a documented fact as The B-52's played most of these songs at concerts as early as 1978.
The album cover nearly duplicates the debut cover as it's held in the same style depicting the band members in what seems an early 1960s time bubble.
Wild Planet is a strong album without any fillers, and it's really an astonishing thought if they had actually pulled it off and released all songs on a double album in '79. They really could have, and it only makes it so much more reasonable to listen to these two albums at the same time.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 5 / 5 stars ]

Robin Guthrie & Mark Gardener "Universal Road" (2015)

Universal Road

release date: Mar. 23, 2015

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,04]

producer: Robin Guthrie & Mark Gardener

label: Soleil Après Minuit - nationality: UK

Track highlights: 1. "Universal Road" - 2. "Dice" - 7. "Sometime" - 10. "Blind"

Collaboration album by Robin Guthrie and Mark Gardener produced by the duo and released on Guthrie's label. Guthrie's most recent release was yet another collaboration work, the 2014 soundtrack album White Bird in a Blizzard, made with longtime collaborator Harold Budd for a movie by Gregg Araki, who also directed the film for which Guthrie and Budd made their collaboration debut Mysterious Skin: Music from the Film (2005). Guthrie's most recent solo album is Fortune from 2012.

Together with Gardener the two artists share a common background in "classic" 1990's dream pop. Guthrie was one of the founders of the Scottish trio, The Cocteau Twins, who released eight full-length studio albums from 1982 to 1995, and Gardener is lead vocalist and guitarist in the English shoegazing quartet, Ride, who debuted with the acclaimed Nowhere back in 1990 - a band who originally released four studio albums from 1990 to their split in 1996. However, the band reformed in 2014 and they have released a fifth studio album in 2017 and have a sixth album have been announced for release later in 2019.

Musically, the album comes closest to the music by Ride as it's dream pop with Gardener's typical melancholic vocals and a strumming guitar sound, which doesn't really rhyme too strongly with Guthrie's discography. Guthrie's ethereal swirling and echo-fused guitar appears here and there as background fill but it doesn't really put a solid fingerprint on an album where Gardener seems to "steal the show".

It's all very nice and well-composed but it also sounds very much like music made at least two decades earlier. Sometimes you find Guthrie starting a song quite nicely after which Gardener's vocal and britpop harmonies turns it into something else. And it's not so much that Gardener destroys Guthrie's intro, but more that their mutual efforts backfires into something less original. I'm not impressed and feel they could have utilised their individual strengths better - instead it sounds like bits and pieces from their earlier works smashed together without obvious attempts in making new music.

A bit of a disappointment.

Elvis Costello & The Imposters "The Delivery Man" (2004)

Deluxe Edition

The Delivery Man
release date: Sep. 21, 2004
format: digital (21 x File, FLAC - Deluxe)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Dennis Herring and Elvis Costello
label: Lost Highway Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Button My Lip" - 2. "Country Darkness" - 3. "There's a Story in Your Voice" (with Lucinda Williams) - 5. "Bedlam" - 7. "Monkey to Man" - 8. "Nothing Clings Like Ivy" - 10. "Heart Shaped Bruise" (live with Emmylou Harris) - 12. "Needle Time"

19th studio album by Elvis Costello following the quiet solo album North (2004) is his first studio album with new material to be credited Elvis Costello & The Imposters, although, the backing band also backed him on When I Was Cruel (2002) and on the compilation album Cruel Smile (2002).

The album is made on the primarily country music label Lost Highway Records and recorded in four different locations in the "deep" South with the majority recorded in Oxford, Mississippi, some in Minnesota, Nashville and live in the studio in Los Angeles, which in many ways already indicate an album consisting of songs with focus on country with a mix of country rock, alt. country and singer / songwriter material. Aside from The Imposters: Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher, the album also feature Emmylou Harris on three songs (tracks #8, #10 & #14), guitarist of the Doobie Brothers, John McFee on two songs (tracks #2 & #10) and Lucinda Williams on track #3. Apparently, both Nieve and Thomas wanted to make the album with their old backing band - which would include bassist Bruce Thomas, but Costello were specific that he would no longer make music with that Thomas, and instead Dave Farragher makes the backing trio a new constellation.

The Deluxe Edition contains 7 bonus tracks (in 2-cd format) similar to the bonus disc "Delta-Verité - The Clarksdale Sessions", seven tracks recorded live in the studio using antique microphones, tube amplifiers and old recording equipment.

At a first listen, it may be an odd experience, but as always with Costello you need to adjust to his intentions, and his ideas about the music. He very seldom reproduces the sound and the style on a follow-up album, so you really have to keep an open mind to what he's on to next, and with this I felt taken on the wrong foot, and then upon listening again immediately accepted it 'cause you never know where he's going on his releases, and mostly, it's never bad or mediocre 'cause he's so full of ideas and musicality - and then he simply loves so many styles, which may make it appear as a mish-mash - but it never is just that. Here he incorporates the traditional American country music that he also explored on Almost Blue (1981). Back in the days, I sort of enjoyed his '81 album, which was more in the style with original country (as executed by Hank Williams and the like), and that of course could've been experienced in arrangements close to the original sources, but that's not the case on this one. This is not entirely a country record, although that style takes up the majority of tracks, but it's often in a combo with folk and or jazz elements, which altogether makes it a more diverse experience. Costello makes use of his talent for song structure and lyrical content, and he uses his strong vocal register - not to be confused with range, 'cause it's narrow and highly characteristic but always delivered with a strong passion that resonates through and through. And speaking of his ability to throw himself over new styles, he had been working on the music for Aterballetto Dance Company of Reggio Emilia [Italy] back in 2000 simultaneously while writing and composing music for classical artist Anne Sophie Otter (which was released as For the Stars in 2001], and written several songs for his new [20 year-old younger] partner Diana Krall for her 2004 album The Girl in the Other Room (re. Apr. 2004). With the album Il Sogno (togeher with London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas), he also re-arranged the ballet music songs for a music album, released on the same day as The Delivery Man.

The songs here reflect a happy and content Costello, who privately has moved in with American jazz and soft rock vocalist and pianist Diana Krall. The two married in 2003, and it's evident that Costello finds himself in a better position than perhaps ever before. He sings with warmth and passion and without the usual wry use of sarcasm and irony that has been key elements on many former albums. Instead, he narrates about real emotions and he delivers with energy and artistry as a matured storyteller. Yes, several songs are heavily inspired by others - Tom Waits seems like an obvious source to more than one song, but Costello is that musical chameleon who absorbs and reconstructs in new ways, and that's how he has made a long-lasting career.

I like it - it's definitely a grower.

[ allmusic.com, Blender, Rolling Stone, The Guardian 4 / 5, Uncut, Q Magazine 3 / 5, 👎Mojo 5 / 5 stars ]

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Mogwai "Rave Tapes" (2014)

Rave Tapes

release date: Jan. 21, 2014

format: digital (10 x File, MP3)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,12]

producer: Paul Savage

label: Rock Action Records - nationality: Scotland, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Heard About You Last Night" - 3. "Remurdered" - 5. "Repelish" - 6. "Master Card" - 10. "The Lord Is Out of Control"

8th studio album by Mogwai following only a little more than a week after the ep release of Music Industry 3. Fitness Industry 1. (Jan. 12, 2014) and 1 year after the soundtrack album Les Revenants, and more directly, following 3 full years after their most recent studio album: Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (Feb. 2011). Although, almost released together with an ep, this full-length doesn't share much of the style from that. Three tracks (#3, #9, #10) share titles with tracks from the ep, but here they have been re-arranged and are not easily identifiable with the versions on the ep. This brand new album comes with ten new tracks and a total running time around 49 minutes that altogether reflects more confined and shorter compositions than what they used to throw in. Here, the tracks run from 2:35 to 6:25 minutes as the longest, but the relative narrow time span of tracks is not the most striking trait about this - instead the music has grown into more electronically-founded with what you may label as synthwave with less focus on their noise rock background centrered on guitar sound. In that respect, Rave Tapes sound more contemporary with its stronger electronic sound, although, the title doesn't give what it may suggest - but that's Mogwai, right! meaning: things don't necessarily mean what they suggest. "Rave" is diffinitely not to be taken literally. They incorporate electronics to a larger extent, but the irony is that it doesn't exactly blow off the roof of anything. I find that no specific tracks demand one's attention, which makes the album a bit of a bland experience, and in general, I wish the band would be more explicit - as they are on the fine Music Industry.. ep. Rave Tapes doesn't sound as a band wanting to demonstrate how far they have come but more like another score to a film, and the album is just not one of their most challenging works. Despite my feelings, this became Mogwai's first album to ever peak as high as number #10 on the UK albums chart list. Previously, Hardcore Will Never Die... had reached number #25 and Rock Action number #23.

Not recommended.

[ bandcamp ]

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5, 👍Pitchfork 6 / 10 stars ]

Tex Ritter "Songs of the Golden West" (1961)

Songs of the Golden West

release date: 1961

format: vinyl (SREG 1001) (1966 reissue)

[album rate: 2 / 5] [2,18]

producer: Lee Gillette

label: Regal - nationality: USA

Studio album by Tex Ritter originally titled Hillbilly Heaven and released in 1961 by Capitol Records. Already in '61, the album was issued with the title Songs of the Golden West in New Zealand, also with the same cover as this UK reissue. This version was again reissued in '69 in Australia and in the UK, now with a new cover, and another issue with the title Deck of Cards was also reissued in the UK. All of these different issues, however, has the same tracklisting as the original album from 1961.

The album was part of my parents' record collection, and I only got this after my dad's passing in 2016. I don't recall this from my childhood, and I think my dad purchased this at some point during the 1990s at a time when he had begun listening to country music and especially the music by Willie Nelson and Jim Reeves.

Martha Wainwright "Goodnight City" (2016)

Goodnight City

release date: Nov. 11, 2016

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]

producer: Brad Albetta & Thomas Bartlett

label: Play It Again Sam - nationality: Canada

Track highlights: 1. "Around the Bend" - 2. "Franci" (4 / 5) (live in studio) - 3. "Traveller" (live in studio) - 4. "Look Into My Eyes" - 6. "Window" - 8. "Alexandria" - 10. "One of Us" - 12. "Francis"

4th studio album by Martha Wainwright following a full four years since her last studio album Come Home to Mama (Oct. 2012), but most recently it follows the duo-project The Wainwright Sisters and their debut Songs in the Dark from 2015, where Martha stars alongside half-sister Lucy Wainwright Roche.

Goodnight City is, as usual, produced by husband Brad Albetta, who, however, is involved for the last time as the couple should divorce in 2018. Here, Albetta shares producer credit with Thomas Bartlett, who previously participated as keyboardist on all of Wainwright's albums since the Edit Piaf album Sans Fusils, ni souliers, a Paris..." (2009). The album offers 12 tracks with a total running time at just over 45 minutes. In the past, Wainwright has been songwriter and composer on the majority of her songs, but here she's alone credited half of the tracks and as co-writer on two. Four tracks are written and composed by others, respectively by Michael Ondaatje & Thomas Bartlett ("Piano Music"), Beth Orton ("Alexandria"), Merrill Garbus ("Take the Reins"), and brother Rufus Wainwright ("Francis").

Stylistically, there is a small change to trace since her 2012 album on a collection of songs mostly native to mainstream pop / rock - and most clearly, this is more subdued in a modern singer / songwriter style with ties to folk pop. In the main, 'cause you'll find detours with more tempo and energy, such as on the slightly out of place rock-wrenching and Iggy Pop-inspired "So Down", but also on the glitch pop-arranged "Take the Reins" - both of which fall somewhat outside the big picture. On "Around the Bend" Martha imitates the role model Joni Mitchell quite a bit, although the song is actually very fine, but I guess that's just how things are with Martha Wainwright: she's fully capable of lots of good stuff and she has a great vocal, but too often she tend to over-dramatise a bit. Best track here is Wainwright's own "Franci" - not to be confused with Rufus' "Francis," which rounds out the album - but both songs were written for Martha and producer Albetta's 2014 son, Francis Valentine Albetta.

The album is a welcome return to Wainwright in her more usual style, despite resulting in a record low on album charts worldwide.

[ The Guardian, Gaffa.dk 4 / 5, 👍Under the Radar 3,5 / 5, The Independent 3 / 5 stars ]

Sharon Van Etten "Remind Me Tomorrow" (2019)

Remind Me Tomorrow
release date: Jan. 18, 2019
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,76]
producer: John Congleton
label: Jagjaguwar - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "I Told You Everything" - 2. "No One's Easy to Love" - 4. "Comeback Kid" - 5. "Jupiter 4" - 6. "Seventeen" - 7. "Malibu" - 10. "Stay"

5th studio album by Sharon Van Etten follows nearly 5 years after the 2014 predecessor and is produced by star-producer John Congleton who has worked with Erykah Badu, David Byrne, Lana Del Rey, Jens Lekman, Modest Mouse, Sigur Rós and St. Vincent - to mention but a few. Stylistically, Van Etten doesn't generally release a new album like the former, it seems. Here, she has moved away from the alt.country codes and instead moved into the crowded territory of indie pop and synthpop. It's still also a singer / songwriter release, which also makes it unmistakably Van Etten. Her fine mellow (singing) tone overshadows stylistic changes, which dwells on slow repetitive rhythms but also more vibrant quirkiness that in some ways have her share DNA with St. Vincent - though just slightly enough to make the comparison and at the same time, too little to call it similar. Van Etten is still one of a kind, and although it may not be up there with her great Are We There from 2014, this is another fine album from her warm hands.
Remind Me Tomorrow showcases Van Ettens great potential as someone to pay attention to. It has been lauded as one of the best album releases of the year, and she doesn't hesitate out new angles and styles on an album that puts her closer to St. Vincent than ever before. I find it refreshing 'though I don't find it up there alongside her great 2014 album, which is her clearly so far best album.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, 👍NME, Rolling Stone, The Guardian 4 / 5 stars ]