Boxing clever (and why I love Tindersticks)

The Monkey album, 'Journey To The West' came out today and it's really rather good. I'd anticipated having to give it a number of listens before warming to it. I figured it'd be awkward and difficult to get my head round, but it's actually pretty accessible. There's some lovely little Albarn melodies and flourishes throughout and, while there's still far too much to get your head round on the first listen, you'll certainly find yourself going back for more.

The only way you can get this on vinyl is via the special edition by The Vinyl Factory, which is £65 before P+P! As much as I love Damon's music, I'm not shelling out that kind of cash on a one album. It's one of many, similarly insane, projects that have been put before the record-buying public of late. When Radiohead announced the 'In Rainbows' project, back in October of last year, the media made bold claims about the impact it would have on the music industry and how free music would be the way forward. Far from it, it turns out. The actual legacy of the experiment is the 'discbox' effect, with prices ranging from 'a little steep' to 'taking the piss'. Primal Scream have one for 'Beautiful Future', also created by The Vinyl Factory. You get the album, on double vinyl, plus a 12" with one remix on it, a poster and a fancy, but flimsy booklet. All for the knock-down, bargainous price of £50 + P+P. No, seriously! There's one for the new album by The Verve, which features the CD/DVD and double vinyl (featuring two bonus tracks) and a booklet with 'exclusive artwork'. £40 to you. Likewise, Portishead's 'Third' came in a box with double vinyl, an etched 12" of 'Machine Gun' (available elsewhere for £4) and a USB stick with digital files of the album and some videos. Once again, £40. The new Oasis album will also be available in a £50 special edition and there are plenty of others that you can seek out in your own time. As nice an idea as they initially seem, it's starting to feel like the record companies have grabbed at this concept as a way of trying to prop-up flagging sales by fleecing the hardcore fans for as much as they're willing to pay.

Obviously, I'm in the minority in that I buy a lot of records and thus I'm exposed to a lot of these 'special' editions, whereas perhaps the casual fan is less aware of how common these are becoming. However, that doesn't make them any more palatable. The original Radiohead discbox is a delight. Worth £40? Probably not, but it was justifiable as a 'one-off', a treat, a nice item for the collection. But, now they're coming thick and fast, I'm finding myself tempted by many options and therefore choosing to buy none of them. The minute these become an acceptable indulgence, my record-buying budget goes out the window. I know, I know; I'm moaning about something I can just ignore. If I think they're too pricey, I can just not buy them. But they're so pretty!

Two more things before I go. Firstly, I was flicking through the Later - The First 15 Years DVD the other day and came across a truly joyous performance from Al Green. Sure, at times he does Grandad dancing and smiling that much is probably bad for your health (well, your jaw at least) but he just oozes enjoyment and I found myself grinning like an idiot by the end. Watch it yourself right now:

I've spent most of the last few days listening to the music of Nottingham's Tindersticks. Why had nobody told me about them before? I knew they were there but I've no real recollection of hearing much of their stuff previously and I'd never read anything that made me want to investigate, but I've really been missing out. Delicate but ambitious indie music that isn't ashamed to wear its soul and jazz influences in public, their back catalogue is an absolute joy. The first two albums, both, confusingly, called 'Tindersticks' are avilable now in expanded, double CD format and I cannot recommend them highly enough. That said, I'd also recommend all of their other studio albums, so you won't go wrong, whatever you go for.

Here's some YouTube-age to begin the love-in.

This is the track, 'For Those', rendered so beautifully on the Bloomsbury disc that accompanies the reissued version of their second album and in demo form on the debut's bonus disc.

A vintage Jools performance - firstly, 'No More Affairs'

and then 'Talk To Me'.

Finally, this is the much-revered, 'Tiny Tears', accompanied by some random footage, as it average You-Tuber's wont.

Good, aren't they? If you've just fallen in love, thank me later. If you already knew, why didn't you tell me?

Mixtape...blah, blah, nostalgia, blah...

I was about to start with a profound and incisive statement, but that new Bloc Party single really is fucking dreadful, isn't it?

I've spent a thoroughly enjoyable day rearranging bits of the record collection and ripping assorted tracks to the computer in order to refresh the content of my mp3 player and contruct a decent mp3 CD for a long car journey that's coming up. It's wonderful just browsing through the tunes that have, at various times in the last few years, meant rather a lot to me. I did the slightly embarrassing, but hugely popular, swivelling-a-little-bit-in-a-computer-chair dance to Stardust's 'Music Sounds Better With You' earlier and it was hugely satisfying. And what about 'Forever J' by Terry Hall? A beautiful, beautiful song which was sampled on 'Life In Mono' by Mono, which I've also ended up digging out. However, whilst finding out more about it I stumbled upon the Emma Bunton cover version. Eugh. Now, I actually really liked that soul-pastiche album she did a few years back. The one with pink cover. But this is not good. At all. The original is, however, and it would seem you can still buy it via the iTunes empire.

The mp3 player will soon be receiving a number of albums that I can't believe I haven't felt the need to put back on there since reformatting it a few months back. Most of Supergrass' back catalogue is still absent, as are the first two Portishead albums and Thom Yorke's 'The Eraser'. Not for much longer. Also going on will be Madness' wonderful track, 'NW5' that came out as a one-off single a little while back, but which will feature on their forthcoming concept album, 'The Liberty Of Norton Folgate'. If you've not heard it, I would put it up there with pretty much anything else they've ever done. It's great.

And with that cunning link (that's great and so is this) I should probably say a few words about the Jamie Lidell record I was on about the other day. Gilles Peterson has started offering a splendid service via TellJack that allows you to hear albums, in full, before deciding whether or not to purchase. You don't download anything, it's all done via high quality streams, but it's splendid. That's how I got to hear 'Jim', by Jamie Lidell. I keep calling it 'Son of Stevie' because it sounds like that sort of record Stevie Wonder would be making now if he was a) younger and b) as good as he used to be. To me, this album slots in quite neatly alongside 'Innervisions' and 'Talking Book'. High praise, I know, but it really is the best soul album I've heard in yonks. And, I've heard Sharon Jones and the new Al Green. Anyway, there's a track on the newly updated Mux (click on the tape in the right-hand column) along with a chance to hear the Terry Hall track 'Forever J' and the Mono track that sampled it. Plus other stuff. Stuff you'll like, I'd imagine.

I remember now what it was that I was going to talk about when I was going on about mp3 compilations. I was listening to Jeremy Vine's show on Radio 2 yesterday (the outraged voice of middle class Britain©) as he discussed the possible charges for broadband customers in the UK. Apparently, devious downloaders will be receiving angry letters in the near future, explaining that what they're up to is illegal. Assuming, of course, that they are downloading illegally, that is. They wouldn't make any mistakes, would they? Judging by some of the calls to the programme, mistakes have already been made and there will be more on the way. Predictably, one of the 'I ain't paying for it, why should I? I've ten CDs over the last twenty years and they were, like, £16 each, so why should I pay now?' brigade got on air. I've never really had a strong opinion about it one way or another, but with the number of independent record stores dying on their arses and bands failing to keep hold of their record contracts, you do have to wonder. Ok, so it's a symptom of a jaded industry, rather than the cause, but surely nobody who loves their tunes thinks it's a long-term approach? Weirdly, I've just noticed that the good folks at Norman Records are having a similar debate on their blog.

And finally, the nominations for the Mercury Music Prize came out t'other day and I was amazed by just how many I've actually heard and liked. The list is as follows:

Adele - '19'
British Sea Power - 'Do You Like Rock Music?'
Burial - 'Untrue'
Elbow - 'The Seldom Seen Kid'
Estelle - 'Shine'
Laura Marling - 'Alas I Cannot Swim'
Neon Neon - 'Stainless Style'
Portico Quartet - 'Knee-Deep In The North Sea'
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - 'The Bairns'
Radiohead - 'In Rainbows'
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - 'Raising Sand'
The Last Shadow Puppets - 'The Age Of The Understatement'

It's only Portico Quartet that I need to do any real research for - and I will, I'm sure. I can't think of a time when I've been so in line with the Mercury choices. It could just be that I've bought far too many records recently, and therefore whatever they'd gone for I'd have been in this position, but I'd like to think not. From my perspective, it's got to be between Elbow, Laura Marling and Radiohead. Radiohead are getting a bit of negativity thrown their way regarding this because of how established they are, but 'In Rainbows' really is one of their best albums and definitely one of the best albums of the last twelve months. Laura Marling is someone that I've raved about on here for almost a year now and I certainly don't intend on stopping. 'Alas I Cannot Swim' will be in my end of the year list and it's a near-perfect folk-pop album. It's an exercise in measured understatement, and it's all the more beautiful because of that. However, I think it should probably go to Elbow. They went off, not in possession of a record deal, and did it all themselves; recording a record that they would want to listen to. It's a wonderful, wonderful collection of songs and 'One Day Like This' could well end up as one of my all time favourite songs.

Any thoughts? Perhaps the blog will get spammed again by the vinyl collectors of Idaho. (See comments for previous post) I'm with Neil Hannon on Idaho.

Like I said, have a listen to the Muxtape.

A few, minor things

Christ, the coverage of T in the Park was dreadful. I mean truly awful. For a start, it was hosted by that bloody Bowman individual, along with 'Grimmy' (lovably cutesy nickname always means wanker - he doesn't disappoint) and Jeff Leach (whoever the fuck he is.) On top of this, the choice of songs offered up was piss poor. For example, when Primal Scream were shown, was it a late nineties/early noughties electronic beast? No. It was fucking 'Rocks'. What a surprise. R.E.M. headling, eh? Ah, well, headlines get a good few songs don't they? What can we look forward to? 'What's The Frequency, Kenneth?' and 'Man On The Moon'. That was it. Two songs!

"But, the Sunday night highlights package was 135 minutes long," I hear you cry. Indeed, but after the first hour, it consisted of The Fratellis, KT Tunstall and Amy MacDonald. Presumably, as I can't think of any musical reasons for showing them, because they're Scottish and it's a Scottish music festival. Just as the Glastonbury highlights were only based on English bands, of course. Numpties.

So, if I can recommend just one thing to do with T, it's to not bother even watching bits via the BBC website. Waste of time.

Secondly, I finally browsed through the photos and artwork found on CD2 in the 'In Rainbows' boxset earlier and was pleasantly surprised. There's some lovely stuff on there, such as this one, which is now my wallpaper. Not sure why I'm telling you this as if you've not got the discbox it's sold out and if you've got it, you're probably not as tardy as my good self. If you are, however, then go and have a look now. I remain of the belief that 'In Rainbows' is a truly great album, by the way.

But can he tell his arse from his Radiohead?

I've been shit, haven't I? Sorry about that. So much music, so little time. These ears have been privy to new albums by Al Green, James Hunter, Neil Diamond, Sigur Ros, Lau, Solomon Burke, Mark Morriss, Coldplay, The Zutons, Fleet Foxes and Brett Anderson recently and I've not really had a moment to stop and gather my thoughts. Add in the series of splendid German cheese, 'The In-Kraut' albums, vintage Moby Grape, Terry Hall, Dexy's, Hank Williams, Al Wilson, The Byrds, Miles Davis and Sinatra and it's been a delightful few weeks of listening. I can happily say that there's nothing shite in amongst that lot. Perhaps predictably, the worst thing in that list is the Coldplay album, but even that is reasonable and certainly many, many times better than their last.

Perversely, I don't intend to witter on about any of them right now, although I'm sure I will in due time. My two focuses for this post are Elbow and Radiohead.

'The Seldom Seen Kid', Elbow's fourth album, is well on the way to being my album of the year. 'One Day Like This', the recent single from it, is occupying similar territory in the corresponding 'single' list. It's not a return to form because every album they've made is great, but it's certainly a step up. I've been playing it a lot recently after getting the vinyl edition (2x45rpm 12" - wonderful stuff) and I can't find a weak moment on it. The ethereal nature of the songs are entirely in keeping with the phenomenal attention to detail that goes into the making of an Elbow record. There's little point singling out individual tracks as I'd just be writing out the tracklist in a slightly different order.

As a result of this adoration of the latest album, I've trolled back through their earlier stuff and I'd forgotten just how delicately poised, 'Asleep In The Back' is. Emotionally vulnerable, ensconced in a 'bad place', Guy Garvey's lyrics do not a happy picture paint. Aurally, it's an imperfect masterpiece. Yup, some bits go on too long and perhaps certain arrangements could have been worked at more, but it's a wonderful album, in the traditional sense of the word. The collection of songs work perfectly together and less well when separated.

In addition to the albums, anyone with an eMusic subscription can pick up pretty much all of their b-sides up to the end of their third album. There are some gems in there too and, if they get your attention, you'll need to dig a little harder for some of the more recent, predominantly vinyl along with limited edition CD releases, bonus material. I feel like I should conclude this section with a cautionary tale about what to avoid. I can't really think of anything though.

***

Meanwhile, my attention was sharply returned to 'In Rainbows' last night by the arrival of 'In Rainbows - From The Basement', a live video album, on iTunes. Ok, so it'll cost you twice as much as those in the US to purchase it from UK iTunes, but, on this rare occasion, I'm going to wholeheartedly endorse a digital product. I still feel a little dirty, even though it's good.

The performance of 'Videotape' found amongst these files is beguiling. After the stripped down performance that made the album, fans of the 'Head had begun to fret that the more complex and electronic interpretation of the track may never see the light of day. Well, fear not, for here it is. Go on, click on the brief preview now, treat yourself. I'll wait.

See. Anyhoo, the version of 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi' is rather splendid also - although that is true of pretty much every performance of that quite brilliant tune - as is the aggressive pounding of 'Bangers & Mash'. It left me thinking about the 'In Rainbows' album. I was playing it at work the other day and a colleague enquired, "Is this Radiohead?" I pointed out that it was and that it was from 'In Rainbows'. She replied, "Oh, which one's that? I don't have that one, although I've got all of their other stuff."

I was truly baffled. How could anyone who likes Radiohead not know about the existence of 'In Rainbows'? Back in October, it seemed like the news of the free download had spread around the whole world and media commentators were predicting massive shifts in the whole entertainment industry. And yet, here's someone who's stuck with them, right up to 'Hail To The Thief', who didn't even know that they had a new album out. With hindsight, it's clear to see that 'In Rainbows' was never quite the global phenomenon the British media made it out to be. Although, regularly refreshing various Radiohead message boards in the hope of being able to get on there and discuss the album back on October 10th, will remain a happy little memory of that time.

As for the music, opinion remains a little divided. Generally, it would seem that most people think it's a good record, at the very least. I think it's one of the best things they've ever done, and its concise nature and meticulous production charm the pants off me. These new iTunes performances have served to underline just how good 'In Rainbows' is and I simply expect the band to be outstanding and, as a result, don't always release how good each thing they release is.

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.

Sunday Shuffle - Take Five (more)

1. Jimmy McGriff - Cash Box

Funkier than the proverbial Mosquito's tweeter. Whatever that mad-as-a-table songsmith Nina Simone was on about, it's a cracking phrase and damned appropriate for this swinging bit of organ work from the really rather splendid McGriff. You only really need one album of his and, rather splendidly, 'The Best Of The Sue Years 1962-1965' was release a couple of years back at a bargain price. All the tracks match this hip-shufflingly high standard and never fail to raise a smile. Even when your rugby team has been booted out of the Heineken Cup by Toulouse. Smile along.

2. Freddie Hubbard - Hub's Nub

Cards on the table, I'm not sure I've ever played this before. I got myself a bulk load of jazz not all that long ago and I'm still working through it. Classy enough from the get go as it hails from the Blue Note stables and thus can't be anything other than good and is likely to be great. My foot's tapping at a fairly swift rate. Splendid trumpeteering throughout, although I'm finding it hard to passionately care one way or the other about this. I hate to say this about any piece of music, but it's, ahem, nice.

3. Radiohead - Something To Hate

From a bizarre Radiohead rarities collection that I dug up over at atease.com, this is nothing to write home about. In fact, it's an absolutely dreadful piece from the early peroxide days. What were they thinking. Thankfully, it's only 1:15 long!!

4. Laura Marling - (Interlude) Crawled Out Of The Sea

Technically, the next track was a Nick Abbot phone-in programme from 1998, but I've decided against including those. The next musical track was this, a brief moment of musical majesty from Laura Marling. To understand just how great she is, feel free to scroll down through this blog to see me rhapsodising at length about her on numerous occasions. Here she is performing it in a Brighton record shop, although it comes after 'Cross Your Fingers', as per the album tracklist.

5. Paul Weller - I Wanna Make It Alright

Quality tune from the somewhat overlooked, 'As Is Now'. After the somewhat bloated 'Illumination' and the pleasant enough covers album, 'Studio 150', this album was a surprisng return to form from Weller and this one is a lovely, Swinging-Sixties style piece that demonstrates what a wonderful, soulful voice Weller has.

Here's a live performance to enjoy

More than one pot of gold at the end of this I suspect

I figured every blogger and his dog (or should that be mouse?) would be talking 'In Rainbows' this week and thus stepped away from what was probably the most obvious thing for me to talk about on this page in months. Well, it turns out I couldn't resist.

Just to get the opinion bit out the way first; it's a great album. It's not life-changing, and it's not my favourite album released this year, but it is full of good tunes, musically interesting and stylistically challenging, as one might expect from Radiohead. It's concise, moody and fantastically precise. It feels like it has been meticulously crafted and that's no bad thing in my book. 'Hail To The Thief' sounded quite the opposite, and was played less as a result. 'In Rainbows' sent me back to 'Hail', as well as 'Amnesiac' and 'Kid A' will go on again soon. I've always been fond of 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac', but never that sure on 'Hail'. This hasn't caused any great change in viewpoints, but it has sent me back to some fabulous music. 'Drunken Punch-Up At A Wedding' was blasting out in the Rescue Rooms bar on Thursday night when I went to see Maps - quite possibly my all-time favourite gig - and it reminded me of why we all liked Radiohead in the first place. Ballsy, grumpy and unmistakably them. Anyway, I think it's a pretty decent record and am looking forward hugely to my 'discbox'. The low bit-rate was a bit of a shame, but it was a fucking download first and foremost, not the way to listen to music in the long term.

Now, the more interesting aspects of this week. Paul Morley has something of a reputation as a self-aggrandising smuggy whose writing attempts to build a house with nothing but hot air, but puts intellectual curtains in the window to give the air of something too clever for us mere mortals. Possibly the most convoluted metaphor ever, that. Enjoy. Anyway, this week he truly surpassed himself, and I say this as someone who has quite a lot of time for the chap. His track-by-track review for the Observer Music Monthly blog was spectacularly twattish. Whether it was meant to be a huge wind-up or taken seriously it was still the most bizarre thing I've read in ages. I'm well aware that picking apart a piece of writing I consider pointless is probably even more pointless, so I'll attempt to keep my criticisms specific and brief. Obviously this may still cause the internet to melt, but we shall see. (Incidentally, I've been reliably informed that the real way to melt the internet is to Google 'google'.)

The faux-ironic, I'm saying I'm not doing it but I really am, teee-heee-heee, approach grates from the off. I actually found myself needing power-naps in the middle of the review just to make sure that I would get to the end, so heavy is the over-bearing tone of 'this is about Morley not Radiohead'. I'm well aware that this is how he has always been, and re-reading old piece from the weekly music press his style is engaging, bold and provocative. His latter-day writings are often astute, amusing and erudite. But this was a pastiche. Hard to criticise him for it, as I'm sure he pocketed more than a few quid for the review, but there remains a worrying sense that he might have actually thought it added something on the subject of 'In Rainbows'. Still, he's not as mental as some of the people over on the atease message boards, who appear to think that the members of Radiohead are figments of their imaginations who should do as they're told.

Favourite bits of 'In Rainbows'-ism, is this page dedicated to creating artwork for the album. Some genuinely wonderful stuff here.

Good point

What do you do when the music stops?

It's boiling here. Technically summer from here on in, methinks. Which means one record in particular gets dusted down. Each year one album tends to get branded my 'summer album of the year'. It's not always obvious which record it's going to be, but once an album clicks into place it gets played constantly throughout the warmer months. In 2005 it was the sublime 'Road To Rouen' by Supergrass, and last year it was The Pipettes' debut album, 'We Are The Pipettes'. I started every work day with that album for three weeks on the trot almost a year ago. Harnessing all of the charms I've been exploring on the 'Girl Group Sounds' boxset, along with 21st century lyrics packed with wit and charm. It's a sing-a-long album and, as someone who mimes when called upon to join in with any kind of public singing, that takes some doing. If you didn't pick this record up last year, do so now and guarantee a smile till September.
This year's summer record looks like to be Wilco's 'Sky Blue Sky' as things stand, but it's not guaranteed just yet.

I listened to Christopher O'Riley's piano interpretations of Radiohead last night. Entitled 'True Love Waits', it's a collection of the great and good from the band's back catalogue played in sparse but oddly affecting fashion. Quite apart from allowing me to wallow in the foul mood I was in it also made me think about how much I'd enjoy something similar for a number of artists. R.E.M., Elvis Costello and Rufus Wainwright all struck me as possible contenders for this. Simply thinking out loud here, or whatever the typing equivalent is. In a 'loose-fingered' fashion, perhaps? Although that sounds a little odd.

Finally, 'Bit Of A Blur' by Alex James is out there. My copy's on its way from Waterstone's who send books via Royal Mail with free delivery, unlike a certain other internet store who are increasingly fond of those shoddy delivery networks that throw parcels around your garden, if they ever actually manage to deliver the thing in the first place. So, that was Waterstone's. Very reasonable price.
Really looking forward to this one, although I'm still not happy about him selling his soul (well, extracts from his book) to The Mail On Sunday. Will feedback on it as soon as I have something to say.