Drinking Water To Stay Thin

I remember becoming obsessed with the Manics when 'A Design For Life' was receiving its first plays on Radio 1. I'd followed the news about Richey's disappearance without really knowing anything much about the band. The subsequent enjoyment I derived from the parent album, 'Everything Must Go' brought about my first ever 'i love this - i must buy everything they've ever done' moment, something which has plagued my record-buying ever since. I remember thinking 'Generation Terrorists' was too long (it is), that 'Gold Against The Soul' was beefy but a little uncool (yup) and that 'The Holy Bible' was plain bloody scary (yes, although I've since realised it's also an amazingly good record).
Buying the cardboard wallet, 2 CD sets for each single was a delight and the quality of the b-sides ensured that I was always there on release day, queuing up with more than one copy. I'm playing the Stealth Sonic Orchestra Instrumental version of 'Motorcycle Emptiness' as I type this and it's beautiful. It was released on the second CD for 'Australia', the picture on the inner sleeve being a morose sheep, and proved that remixes can occasionally be good value.
This sense of good will was tested a little with 'This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours', an album that needs three or four songs removing from it, and 'Prologue To History' adding into the mix. While well-meaning, 'SYMM' is a truly appalling attempt at dealing with the Hillsborough disaster. In addition, the singles didn't quite scale the heights of the EMG era, in particular 'Tsunami', which remains one of the few Manics songs that actually make me want to detach my right foot with a rusty spatula, lightly saute it and attempt to eat it with chopsticks.
'The Masses Against The Classes' seemed like a step in the right direction, with its 'Motown Junk' for the noughties feel but what followed was a musical junkshop, 'Know Your Enemy'. There's some great stuff in there if you're willing to spend long enough searching, but to get to it you'll have to wade through a pile of shit. There's a good EP in there, waiting to be let out one day.
My enthusiasm began to falter, a situation not helped by the lacklustre new tracks for 'Forever Delayed' the cash-cow greatest hits. However, a last-minute headline at V2002, replacing Travis, demonstrated to me that the band were finding their fire again. The b-sides set, 'Lipstick Traces' has its moments, but it's far from essential listening, and served as interim product before the next studio album, 'Lifeblood' appeared in 2004.
Lots of people seem to think 'Lifeblood' is shite. Even the band appear to be distancing themselves from it, despite the fact that it works superbly as a set of songs. Ok, so whoever picked 'The Love Of Richard Nixon' as the lead-off single needs shooting, but tracks like '1985', 'Glasnost', 'Empty Souls', 'I Live To Fall Asleep' and 'Cardiff Afterlife' deserve to be heard. Thankfully for those who haven't yet had the pleasure most shops appear to be selling this album for £3 or less these days. Give it a good home.
Finally the critics are back on side with the new album, 'Send Away The Tigers', and with good reason. It has the energy of the first couple of records, some of the spikey sound of 'The Holy Bible' and the crowd-pleasing sweeping choruses of 'Everything Must Go'. It's short, it's powerful and it's unashamed fun. If you can listen to 'Autumnsong' or 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough' without pogoing round the room then I expect you to have a bloody good reason why.
I'm off to see them very soon. Can't wait.

Ooooh...a card sleeve!

Walked in this evening to find the deluxe edition of the Wilco album on the floor. I hadn't thrown it there, nor had it crept in during the day and arranged a provocative pose for itself - it had simply come through the door from an online shop. My initial quibble is with the phrase 'Deluxe Edition'. It has a card sleeve - like all Wilco albums on Nonesuch - and the booklet and discs come in a normal jewel case. The only 'deluxe' thing about it is the bonus DVD. But then surely you just say 'Bonus DVD' on the packaging. If it's deluxe I expect it to be in a ridiculous book that doesn't fit on the shelf or in a digipack made of old egg boxes - not a bloody jewel case. If anything this is a sensible edition - with a bonus DVD. It's a minor gripe because the DVD is great. For a start the audio is LPCM 48/16 rather than Dolby Digital. If that means bugger all to you, all I'm saying is that the audio is excellent quality. The interview with Jeff Tweedy is nicely chopped around some live performances. He comes across as a decent enough chap who just wanted to make a good record. Thankfully he succeeded.
I feel obliged to point out that all of the naysayers that have been calling this album average are talking out of their, no doubt perfectly formed, fundaments. It's a cracker of an album and one which has rarely been away from my cd player for the last few months. It's certainly gentle, and less spiky than the last couple of albums but the songwriting is meticulous and the tunes gradually ensnare you until you keep wanting to go back and hear them again. So, in closing, it's great. Just not deluxe, like.

The Manics managed a No.2 album with 'Send Away The Tigers', I notice. It's great compared to the absolute stillborn release of 'Lifeblood', but I read with interest that it got there with sales of 38, 697 - only 700 or so copies behind the number one album from the Arctic Monkeys. 'Lifeblood' sold 23,000, or thereabouts, in its first week, missed the top ten and was never seen again. I have to confess to being slightly surprised by their resurgence - not because the music's shite, simply that I never thought they'd be 'cool' again. I'll be seeing them on the current tour and will feedback accordingly.

The Moz singles boxset for the years 91-95 was also on the doormat this evening as I'm on a bit of a Smiths/Moz kick at the moment. Currently digesting two books on his music and will attempt to form my thoughts, feelings and interpretations of his work into something here fairly soon. It's pretty, by the way. I'm a sucker for these things.

Here's a track from the spiffing Wilco record, entitled 'What Light'.



More soon.

It's Still Here

Hello again.

It's absolutely pissing it down here, and has been for the last 48 hours. My foot's aching after falling down the stairs, but apart from these things, all is well. I hope the same can be said for you. Amongst the music related post this month was a particularly scary promo item with additional security. Now, I'm used to watermarked CDs - apparently any rips from these discs can be traced back to the original. Not sure if this has ever happened, I would imagine everyone's too shit-scared to try it - and sealed cases for promos, but for the promo of the new Marvin Gaye reissue set for 'In Our Lifetime' it not only had a unique number on the CD, but it was also written on the jiffy bag. I didn't really feel like I should be opening the thing, for fear of somehow incriminating myself. It's like when you see a police car and you automatically feel guilty - even though you've done nothing wrong (unless we have any drug-barrens or multi-national fraudsters reading). Anyway, I'm pleased to report that the music on the discs is spiffing, containing the original mixes of the album before they were remixed, without Marv's consent, ahead of finally being released.

Other promo stuff of note - in other words, some bands to keep an ear out for in coming weeks and months - includes Dirk Darmstaedter's new album, 'Our Favourite City'. While his name makes him sound like middle-management in Ikea, the music is sun-kissed indie-soul straight out of the world of Josh Rouse's excellent '1972' album. The cover looks bleak and you expect it to be a mopey, singer-songwriter record with 'woe is me' written through it and twelve songs that are identical bar the painful metaphors for loneliness. Joyous pop of the highest order. He used to be in a band called, 'The Jeremy Days'. Poor bugger's clearly never had any luck with names. See and hear him in action here:

Also, coming soon is the new album by Jonathan Krisp with the quite tremendous title, 'No Horse, No Wife, No Moustache'. It's part Royksopp and part Lemon Jelly. It's that quirky dance music with vintage samples and easy listening sounds peppered with electronic trickery and loops to provoke twattish grins on a hot summer day (and after 48 hours of solid rain, as it turns out). It's on the Cookshop label, while Dirk is on Tapete.

There's plenty of vintage soul on the way as part of the Stax 50 celebrations, including the Johnnie Taylor live album, as well as the old Stax/Volt singles boxset reisssued as 9 separate CDs. Those CDs are naturally essential items for any self-respecting record collection and currently going for £5 in that there high street shop that rhymes with, well, shop. Also, 'This Is Soul', essentially the FIRST soul compilation has been reissued in a mini-LP-style gatefold sleeve along with a stack of bonus tracks. Nothing new, but they all sound tremendous next to each other - and it looks pretty!

As for the more conventional stuff, there's some great mainstream releases on the shelves at the moment. People always expect me to be apologetic for liking the Manics, but I stand by the fact that they are rarely anything other than excellent. 'Know Your Enemy' was a pile of shite and 'This Is My Truth' was a few songs too long, but otherwise there's much to love. 'Send Away The Tigers', their latest offering, is one of their best. Short and to the point, it's riff-heavy, power-chord-obssessed and epic in a way that every other writer is comparing to 'Everything Must Go' - can't see any point in disagreeing for the sake of it. If you've had even a passing interest in the band in the past, you'll love it.

Wilco's album got a mention last time out, and it's finally in the shops now. It's possibly their best, and so I will briefly talk about it again. The heavyweight vinyl edition is on the way, as their 180g vinyl pressings for their last two studio albums were quite something, and this one will suit that treatment just as much. Not much more to say other than buy the bloody thing.

Say it very quietly, but the Travis album's quite good. It's their best since 'The Man Who', if not their best ever. There's bit more kick on some songs and they've ditched the two things that have held them back in recent years. (1) Fran's desire to be politically active in his lyrics, despite this sounding really rather crap (2) A constant determination to keep making songs that sounded like the old, successful ones. 'The Boy With No Name' sounds much less forced and is all the more enjoyable for it. Still not the greatest lyrics, mind.

Tiny Dancers have an album called 'Free School Milk' out in a few weeks and it's barn-storming indie-pop to listen to whilst chewing on a bit of straw and putting on an embarrassing and potentially offensive 'farmer' accent. 80% enjoyable album from a band who are almost frighteningly eager to please. If you're after future eBay profits, then picking up their early singles now mightn't be a bad idea.

The Maps album, 'We Can Create' is a thing of electronic beauty which will wash over you at first, and runs the risk of not being recognised as the classy collection of tunes it is. Mark Ronson's 'Version' is worth picking up for the Amy Winehouse take on 'Valerie' and a funk/soul instrumental take on Coldplay's 'God Put A Smile Upon Your Face'. There's also a re-worked version of Maximo Park's 'Apply Some Pressure'. Their latest album, 'Our Earthly Pleasures' reminds me of The Jam and Gene at times - no great surprise that they'd be linked - and in no bad way. It's got some intriguing lyrics, a number of which I'm still not sure about - Profound or Shite? An example: "Nightfalls, And towns become circuit boards". Listening to it the first time, in the rain, it charmed the pants off me, but when I listened back to it I was less sure. Anyway, it's a decent little record that I'll keep returning to.

Oh, and Bjork's new album's out. It has to be said that listening in surround sound to her music makes me even more convinced that sounding like a mad fucker on your records must make it quite fun in the studio. At times 'Volta' is beguiling, but at other times it's plain scary. I've no idea if it's any good yet - does anyone else feel like listening to Bjork is a little like homework? You know you should do it, but it's hard motivating yourself to do it properly, or to get to the end. Hmmm, and the packaging's a sod to get into.

More soon. Much sooner than before. No really.

Speak soon,

Gaz

(Cross-posted to the blog in the hope of you nipping over to the site)