Click here to listen to God*

 

The NME website is currently allowing you to stream the new Weller album, '22 Dreams', ahead of its release on Monday. My advice would be, do so. It's really rather good. Perhaps even as good as some of the recent orgasmic reviews have suggested. Listened to 'As Is Now' on double vinyl today for the first time. It really is a wonderful record and I remain baffled by its failure to sell. If you haven't bought it since it's come down to, oh I dunno, £1.27 or thereabouts, then you're a muppet. I know I risk alienating the casual reader with a remark like that, but there you go, eh? Life's too short to hold grudges. Apart from in the case of George Lamb, obviously. What was I saying? Oh yeah, go here...

NME Weller Page

and scroll down to the Paul Weller Media Player section. You'll need to register, but they don't want much info. Then click and you're off. Enjoy.

*It's a track on the album.

Plus, you can hear the new album from, the rather fabulous, Ron Sexsmith here. I've not listened to it all yet, but if you like the old stuff you'll like this. A little like Spiritualized, each album has plenty in common with the previous one, but if you like one, you'll like them all. Have a listen. It's free. That seems less of an endorsement than I'd meant. Never mind.

Scorpio, if you must know

I was definitely annoyed about something earlier and I was going to rant about it on here. Seems to have slipped my mind now. Although I can muster a mild amount of ire for the 'limited edition' version of the new Spiritualized album. My complaint is not with the music; it sounds exactly like you'd expect a Spiritualized album to sound - Quiet, loud, quiet, loud, discreet drugs reference, quiet, loud, blatant drugs reference, quiet, loud, invocation of the good Lord, quiet. No, my problem is with what you actually get for the extra few quid you have to pay on top of the normal edition. It's a slim hardback book, with some photos of medical equipment. The CD is slotted into a little cardboard sleeve page at the back of the book. That's it. I've had some slightly shite special editions in the past, but this one is the ultimate. To be six quid more than the normal version but to have bugger all meaningful to add AND a case that's a sod to store is taking the piss. So, if you're after that album, stick to the normal CD or the double vinyl.

To follow up from Monday, the Richard Swift album is enjoyably odd. I wouldn't be so brash as to say there are any actual songs on there, but there's some fabulous crashes, bangs and noodles as he gets out of his system whatever it is he feels he must prior to unleashing his next solo album proper. Good quality vinyl pressing too. Audio samples here.

Thought it was worth pointing out a new re-release programme by Stateside Records. If, like me, you're rather fond of Cannonball Adderley, then you'll be aware that plenty of his stuff is quite hard to track down. I was rather pleased to see a compilation covering the Axelrod era on sale during my Bank Holiday browsing, entitled 'Walk Tall'. It appears to be available online for a little more than bugger all. Off you go, I'll wait.

Anyway, I noticed one other new Adderley release alongside it, the concept album of sorts, 'Soul Zodiac'. I wondered at the time if this would mean a reissue programme for the albums from this era, including the much-vaunted, 'The Black Messiah'. Well, yes and no. 'Soul Zodiac' is the only one getting a physical release, but a stack of other albums from that era are now available for download as 320kbps mp3s from the Stateside Records online shop. Regular readers will be aware of my mixed feelings about download-only releases. Ultimately, if the music isn't going to be out there any other way then I've no problem with them, even if I'd rather a CD or vinyl. However, with these, I can understand that the record company wouldn't expect to sell that many and are therefore testing the water with one CD, whilst offering us muso types the chance to get our ears wrapped around some quality music. I've yet to download, but I suspect that 'The Black Messiah' will be on my hard drive sooner rather than later. They're not the first label to do this, I know, but this is the first time it's happened where I've actually been interested in the product for sale.

 

What do you mean, 'how predictable'?

I thought I'd use this Bank Holiday for some record shopping. Not an especially innovative idea for me, I know, but that doesn't stop it being thoroughly enjoyable. I spent a rather splendid few hours mooching around Birmingham's (open) record shops and have picked up some nice little bits and bobs. The new Weller single came out today and I've added both 7"s to my collection. One of them has been advertised on pre-orders as 'dinked'. I was curious to find out what this means and, it would seem, I'm going to have to remain curious. I'm buggered if I know in what way either of the pieces of vinyl I purchased are 'dinked'. Still, both sides of this double a-side are brilliant and I'm genuinely quite excited about the release of the new album, '22 Dreams', next Monday.

Also picked up the 7" of The Young Knives' 'Turn Tail'. I already own the album, but this version is from a lathe recording. A quite magical version recorded with the band standing round one mic and cut straight onto vinyl. Wonderful stuff and to be encouraged.

I appear to have been duped. Back in my reviewing-occasionally-for-a-national-magazine days, I was less than polite about Green Day's 'American Idiot' album. It's shite, by the way. I wasn't wrong. However, today I was merrily browsing through the racks in HMV to decide what to go and buy for a quid less in Zavvi (they're a big independent now, you know) when I happened across Foxboro Hot Tubs' new album, 'Stop, Drop and Roll'. It's packaged like an old 60s garage band, and while I knew it was a new recording, I figured it would be the sort of thing I might well enjoy. So, I added it to the pile and it was duly purchased a little while later. My suspicions were first aroused when, stopping on the way back home for bread, milk and a lemon meringue pie, I noticed it was in Asda's album chart. Surely not? Anyhoo, got home, bunged it on and was tapping my foot along to the rather pleasant opening numbers when Google hit me for six and left me wondering if the world is really as I took it to be. It's fucking Green Day using a pseudonym! Plus, and this is the bit that's really fucking with my mind, it's actually pretty good. Really. A couple of songs have normal vocal style  of the twattish lead singer (he has a name? Oh, well I've always called him that) coming through, but overall it's a bit of loving pastiche. So, all was not lost there.

Also picked up the new album by The Shortwave Set, which has been on my mental list for a little while now. It's playing as I type and it sounds bloody good. Different to the delightful debut, but nevertheless it's a cracking set of songs. Apparently it's produced by Danger Mouse, but then isn't everything these days?

The new Futureheads is in the pile to play, as is Richard Swift's 'As Onassis', on which he comes on all 'sixties garage rock'. As long as he doesn't come on all 'Green Day' I'm sure it'll be excellent. Plus, it's one of the splendid recent vinyl releases that gives you a free digital download to allow it to become a portable listen. Great idea.

Will comment on The Shortwave Set, The Futureheads and Swift in due time, as well as the new 2DVD 'Later...The First 15 Years' set, which Zavvi are knocking out for a very reasonable £14 off the shelf. Not the cheapest online price, but bloody good for high street prices. I've only watched the sublime performance of 'Electrolite' (one of my all-time favourite songs) by R.E.M. so far, but with over sixty songs I'm sure it'll keep me amused.

As you were.

Yes, another new artist decorated in hyperbole!

£17.50! £17.50! That's all it cost to see Richard Hawley in a tiny little venue in Derby last night. Not only that, and that's more than enough for that price, but the support act was absolutely beguiling. Pete Molinari has, rather shamefully, not been on my radar up to this point, save for a decent tune that appeared on a recent Mojo cover CD.

Playing solo, with nowt but a guitar and a harmonica, Molinari's raw vocal performance had me entranced from start to finish. It's hard to capture quite why. For a start, he has a deep, languid speaking voice but, at times, he sounds almost feminine when singing. He's bluesy and folksy and, on certain songs, there's hints of Dylan, in line with his traditional influences. In amongst the rather splendid self-penned songs came what I truly believe to be the best version of 'Satisfied Mind' I've ever heard. Words won't do it justice, so I'll not even try. Instead, allow YouTube to win you over...

And find out more about Pete Molinari via this fantastic interview on the Undercover website.

(Oh, and check the mux for a track. Plus, new stuff from Occasional Keepers, Northern Portrait, Bon Iver and Elbow, plus classic Trashcan Sinatras and Band Of Horses)

Wonders of the web

Just found this and figured the discerning folk that frequent this here corner of the interweb would enjoy it. That's you, by the way. If you still don't have Laura Marling's album, 'Alas, I Cannot Swim' then improve your weekend immediately by doing so now.

Just splendid

I was doing my regular Saturday morning trawl of the music channels when I happened upon the video for Mark Ronson's not unenjoyable take on Radiohead's 'Just'. I'm well aware that this isn't exactly cutting edge reportage here, but you get what you pay for. Anyway, this video is only tremendously funny if you're familiar with the original. Which is here:

Lovely stuff. But what was he doing? Ah, we'll never know. Incidentally, all of Radiohead's videos from the EMI days will be available on DVD from June 2nd.

Anyhoo, back to the point of this post. Mark Ronson's done his own take on 'Just', originally for the 'Exit Music' project that offered covers of Radiohead tracks by a variety of artists, with some bloke called Alex Greenwald on vocals. It's a more upbeat take on the original, as you might imagine, although it seems strangely plausible. I know it's very much the done thing to automatically hate Ronson at the moment, but I don't have any problem in admitting that I actually rather like his 'Version' album.

'Just' was released as a single earlier this year, and the quite fabulous video that accompanied it can be seen here. Not allowed to embed it, apparently.

Weller-Weller-Weller-Uh, tell me more...

Despite receiving middling reviews for most of his albums since 'Stanley Road', Paul Weller is one of those artists who are almost entirely above critical opinion. They're safe from attack and have pretty much carved out their own corner of cool, in which they will reside forever. Having witnessed him in action last night at Derby's Assembly Rooms, I'm reasonably certain I get it.

Firstly, and this was the first time I'd seen him, he is a quite wonderful musician, whose boundless enthusiasm radiates from him for the duration of the gig. You can tell he really fucking loves the songs he's playing, and it's a sense of abandon you don't see at many live shows.

Secondly, he's just about got the art of building a set sorted. Admittedly, after the years he's had to perfect this he should really have it perfected, but the material he played ensured that a state of rapture was duly bestowed upon all present by the point it was time to head homewards. Sadly, 'The Eton Rifles' got the biggest cheer of the night. While I understand this from the nostalgia angle, I'm a firm believer that much of what Weller has done solo is worthy of attention. Ok, so 'Illumination' is hardly an album that'll appear in Mojo's 'Buried Treasure' feature in twenty years' time, but can you honestly deny the quality of 'Stanley Road' and 'As Is Now'? A friend I was with suggested that the audience looked like they were here just for 'You Do Something To Me'. I'd argue that that was far too modern for many of this audience. Not to say it wasn't a great audience, mind. Weller seemed genuinely chuffed with the response he got - presumably this was at least in part down to the plethora of new tunes being debuted - and as a result we received a bonus encore of 'All You Need Is Love', which was thoroughly charming and almost as good an end to a gig as walking out of Richard Hawley's Buxton date to the strains of Louis Armstrong's 'What A Wonderful World'.

Thirdly, the new album is likely to be shit-hot, based on the material offered up. Only the odd song ended up chugging as he was prone to do around the turn of the new millennium, and the upbeat stuff sounded urgent and, most importantly, fantastically soulful. I've long been of the opinion that he could release a truly beautiful soul record, in the mould of the live version of 'Broken Stones' which builds on the already brilliant foundations of one of my favourite Weller tunes and takes it off into orbit. It was last night's joint highlight along with 'Wild Blue Yonder', the recent one-off single that was supposed to launch a whole run of stand-alone singles. Ah well, he'll do whatever the fuck he likes, one supposes.

Fourthly, and this is the weird bit, I don't think I'll ever feel the need to see him live again. Taking nothing away from what was, in the main, an excellent performance, there's slightly too much of the self-indulgent guitar wankery that is so acceptable to fans in possession of rose-tinted ocular matter and the overwhelming sense of 'hope he plays a few from his days in The Jam' that hung over the crowd a little to visibly is a little hard to ignore. I'm glad I saw him, and he kept me entertained. But with ticket prices at £30 and upwards, I'm not sure that's the most likely route for my disposable income in the future. I can't be the only one who feels like this after certain gigs, can I? Great, but once is enough.

I've pre-ordered the new album, '22 Dreams', mind. Here's the new single.

It was a 'Jim'll Fix It' reference.

Regular readers of the blog may be aware of my penchant for record shopping on a Bank Holiday Monday. It just seems so right. Not that it ever seems particularly wrong. Hmm, this may just be a thinly veiled excuse for buying more records. Anyhoo, as I had a wander round my nearest music emporiums of choice I noticed that Elvis Costello's 'Momofuku' had indeed crept into the UK shops. Fopp were blasting it out at a quite magnificent volume and had it prominently displayed on their new releases shelf. However, the most disturbing moment of the whole process was the discovery of a copy of the vinyl in their meagre racks. £13! Bargain. Pretty much the price I paid for the US import that's not proved to be particularly speedy. It's moments like this, moments when you think that you've cleverly circumvented the machinations of 'the man' only to have your face - or ears, I guess, as this is music related - very much rubbed in it (whatever the figurative 'it' is), that really piss me off. I shouldn't be annoyed. I'll have the album in no time at all on vinyl, a kind soul shared their bonus download code with me so that I can actually enjoy it already and yet, there I was smarting at its presence in the racks. I have to confess, dear reader, that I did spend a minute or two attempting to conjure a reason why I needed two copies of 'Momofuku' on vinyl thus rendering the purchase of this copy an absolute necessity. Thankfully, common sense kicked in (a new experience in a record shop) and I left without it. That said, if it doesn't turn up soon I may lose the plot.

Fopp are in the middle of a big clearout, with plenty of CDs at £3. Once the price is this low, I find it quite hard to avoid temptation and duly left with six titles from the vast range on offer. I still feel a little dirty shopping in Fopp in the same quantities I used to. It's a bit like when you see celebrities so desperate to appear 'trendy' that they start wearing a Stooges T-shirt for every TV interview they do. Fopp is HMV in a Sex Pistols T-shirt, and it's not quite right.

Oh, and this blog proved how scarily instant the interweb can be yesterday. Mere hours after I'd posted about the new Costello album, a quote of the entire post appeared on the exact forums I referred to, link and everything. Kind of appropriate once you've heard the lyrics to 'No Hiding Place', the opener on 'Momofuku'. Hi all. Be regular readers, won't you?

In a nutshell, I've bought lots of records.

I've had a thoroughly enjoyable week, piling up CDs wherever there was space remaining. After getting hooked on the Trashcan Sinatras last weekend, the three albums of theirs I didn't own arrived from various different parts of the UK. DVD.co.uk have an insane 4 for £15 offer on that, at the time I ordered, included the deluxe edition of Joy Division's 'Still' amongst the spoils. Add in The Loose Salute, The Blue Nile, Northern Portrait and Ladybug Transistor after hearing them played on Gideon Coe's show and it's been rather a splendid week for new tunes.

The Northern Portrait EP , 'The Fallen Aristocracy' is a little charmer. Four songs of prime British indie jangle a la The Smiths, only made by a trio from Denmark. Even the cover looks like a Smiths record, which earns them a bonus points or two. Sample a track via the mux if you happen to be interested. See the previous post about this EP to order yourself a copy.

I'm now incredibly glad that I pursued The Trashcan Sinatras after 'How Can I Apply?' piqued my interest last week. Its parent album, 'A Happy Pocket' is a total charmer of Teenage Fanclub proportions, while 'I've Seen Everything' - their second album - also has a touch of late Beatles to it. The harmonies are divine and every last second is so delicately constructed I can't help but wonder why I didn't know about it before this week. That said, when you look at it on Amazon, most of the reviewers seem intent upon mentioning Travis, which is enough to make you think again. The aforementioned, 'How Can I Apply?' has also made it to the mux this week, and their first three albums, while not in print, can be tracked down for reasonable prices by trawling all of the different online outlets for second-hand music.

'Momofuku' to you and you and ba-ba-bahh. Bonkers name for an album, even more bonkers approach to distribution in the UK, but nevertheless, the new Elvis Costello is upon us. It's actually really rather good. It was supposed to be double vinyl and download only, but it didn't quite work out like that and a CD copy will be in all good stores from tomorrow. Which is more than can be said about the vinyl edition. That said, it would seem that it has just reached British shores as Amazon briefly had two copies in stock on Friday. HMV are knocking it out cheap too, but to me it seems like the sort of thing you should buy from an indie store. You know, one of the shops that carried on supporting vinyl even when the big stores were trying to persuade us that we didn't need it anymore. The ones who haven't just come flooding back to it because they sense the opportunity for a quick buck. Anyway, despite the fact that the album actually came out in the US on April 22nd didn't seem to bother the distributors in the UK who, despite seemingly having told most shops that the UK release date would essentially be the same, have been unable to supply any copies to any shops until the last couple of days, thus bringing the vinyl release date, at least in the UK, in line with the CD's appearance. Dopey, if you ask me. I ended up buying my vinyl from the US because I was tired of waiting, and it's this kind of balls-up that the industry could do without right now. Some of the more charming if neurotic types over at the Elvis Costello forums have decided it's all a deliberate part of Costello's plan to piss off the UK because some posh people went to Glastonbury the other year. Is it fuck.

Oh, and the Portishead album's actually rather good. There had been mumblings about the record after a sub-standard leak appeared some time ago, but the beefy and brutal sound of the double vinyl has made me sit up and take notice. 'The Rip' may well be one of the finest tunes released this year. Still think that £40 boxset's a big old load of bollocks though.