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Post by countjohn on May 26, 2023 23:34:35 GMT
UPDATE: As I suspected the remaster didn't change much here and I think I'll just listen to the original going forward. Although Jailbird sounded gorgeous and Thorns in Roses I think was a little punchier. Still a great album to get into in either version.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 30, 2023 19:32:10 GMT
Bad //Dreems - Hoo-Ha! (released May 19, 2023) - above 7.5 / 10
Sort of like if The Clash were around now, and Australian.
Bad //Dreems have been around a long time but they sound younger and better now - and they also sound like they've learned a thing or two about albums as opposed to songs.
I always say there are not many overtly political albums that are good - and this is the first one that flirts with being great in a looooooooooooong time........because when you talk politics you sound like a dumbass.........you can't even do it on MAR ffs.........well they don't sound like dumbasses..........they sound.........right..........but that doesn't explain the songcraft this time out either.
Almost as good an Australian album as Amyl and The Sniffers "Comfort To Me" (2022) and more diverse, less repetitive and yeah - more political........almost as good an Australian album as Tee Vee Repairmann "What's On TV?" (2023) with a lot more on its mind.
The band has obviously been energized with things to say and that pisses them off - clocking in at 14 songs - with (almost) each song packed with ideas, detours and thrilling choruses. Some good songs like No Island get overwhelmed by the great ones - so they take a couple listens - and that's true for the middle part of the record but it all clicks and it all works - even the pitch black humor and "novelty" like song digression (the scathingly funny New Breeze (they're pissing into it, naturally).
Their 4th album - snags all the best parts of the previous 3 - and makes them integrated, coherent with ebbs and flows like an album should be where before they mostly wore you out. Here they are - in no rush - several songs slow down and turn into chants like a mad version of Midnight Oil but less easy to pinpoint and less eager to please.
A genuinely disturbing Rock record -at times vicious, elusive and slightly mysterious too, with lots of standout songs but also with clanging soundscapes and textures..........they already had one of the year's best songs See You Tomorrow - this album's amazingly original centerpiece - but several songs approach it...........and Sleaford Mods are probably jealous that this translates so strongly to the full length format they sometimes struggle with (the 2 bands - both around forever, both with a lot to love - share a sensibility and attitude).
The 2 songs that follow See You Tomorrow feel like an addendum and undercut the wallop of the previous 12.........but still:
One of the year's better albums atm after TV Repairmann and Local Drags ......may make my best of the year list too - with big ones coming up (full length debuts from NOBRO, Sprints, Clockworks, Grian Chatten (solo) and also CMAT's 2nd record.........)
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Post by themoviesinner on Jun 4, 2023 14:52:05 GMT
Listened to 3 rock albums from European bands these last few days. In Extremo - Sünder Ohne Zügel (2001) -- 6/10I'm a fan of In Extremo. I think their "Medieval Rock" sound with folk instruments is pretty unique, but what they do in this album, combining that folkish sound with more industrial, nu-metal elements, similar to Rammstein, mostly doesn't work. There are some songs, like the opener Wind and Vollmond, in which the two opposing styles blend incredibly well, resulting in some of the bands greatest songs, but the album sounds generally disjointed and weird and while there are some fantastic parts, the overall experience isn't very pleasant. Haloo Helsinki! - Kiitos Ei Ole Kirosana (2014) -- 8/10Great alternative/pop-rock album. It's catchy, memorable and offers a lot of variety in the instrumentation.
Måneskin - Teatro d'ira: Vol. I (2021) - 5/10Mediocre album. Zitti E Buoni, the song that won them the Eurovision contest in 2021 is an absolute banger, but everything else is mostly monotonous and banal, offering little in the way of twists or surprises.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 21, 2023 19:26:19 GMT
Matt Speedway - Home Demos Vol. 11 - the last free 5 song demo EP (?) - June, 2023 This one comes with this note: p.s - "I'll probably do another covers EP or two at some point but there's over 50 original songs on this project now. I reckon that's plenty!"
An extraordinary bunch of songs / sketches - he just gave away - starting in December 2021 to now....... though all are rough recordings - there are several great songs on those 11 EPS (all reviewed in this thread ffs) here for re-recording - for a solo debut or a Speedways record ............all 11 of the EPs are on his bandcamp page - link to the new one is below the photo Track 2 - "Standards" is particularly strong in this new batch of songs .... mattspeedway.bandcamp.com/album/home-demos-vol-11
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 30, 2023 6:31:32 GMT
Grian Chatten - Chaos For The Fly (2023) - 7 / 10
A genuine Rock Star - in an era of pretenders, charlatans, risk averse dumbfucks and illiterates - releases his first solo album while his band is in full ascendancy for artistic world domination..........which almost never happens in young gun Rock bands that are not breaking up btw.
The closest reference point to this music is something he did before - sort of - in the downbeat feel of the 2nd Fontaines D.C record - the dour, poetry heavy, beautiful bummer A Hero's Death (2020). That album was at first divisive - but its sound - dissonant, droning, clanging, Joy Division loving - was challenging and rewarding. No one else could have made it but them and it contains some of their most distinct peaks - it's a great, ambitious, flawed record (my #4 of 2020).
Chaos For The Fly - has the same impulses but not that same sound, peaks or batting average or especially musical wallop - and it also has a tendency to play it safe while appearing to be boundary pushing:
Many casual Fontaines fans (how can you be a "casual" Fontaines fan anway?) will like this better - his singing is less conceptual this time - he has never sounded crisper and the mood is spare, warmer and more inviting. The poetry vibe is heavier with the band not there to bang away in accompaniment.....
This record stalls - and peaks - in the middle: Bob's Casino and East Coast Bed are filler on an album like this - pleasant, boring aural wallpaper - but right in the middle is a song that rivals great Fontaines D.C. instant classic curveballs like Oh Such A Spring, Nabokov and Dublin City Sky - eerie, singular, fully realized - All of the People (posted in 2023's Best New Music thread) is this record's left-field stunner.....
Some songs are impressive without being revisit worthy: Salt Throwers Off A Truck for one........ the closer Season For Pain is sort of like that but with a more sinister undertow - deeply felt, with an almost mocking musical passage that makes it almost carnival-like over a repetive fade-out. Chatten uses this mid-song switch a lot - whether it's musical instrumentation, lyrical or in the female vocals of Last Time Every Time Forever ...... at its best Chaos For The Fly - for about 6 of its 9 songs - carves out a path for him after his band and simultaneously to it..........it's just a gentler, less visceral path than Grian Chatten usually takes....
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 8, 2023 16:25:55 GMT
PJ Harvey - I Inside The Old Year Dying (2023) ~ no rating number ......but......I can't think of a recent record quite like it.......and it sure doesn't suck.......
Difficult, harrowing, at times unpleasant, hypnotic, masterful, poetic, brilliant......dense.......probably a classic - especially in its sound design which is creepy af and vaguely demonic....
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Post by Martin Stett on Jul 11, 2023 14:37:03 GMT
Nick Drake - Bryter Layter (1971)
Overproduced, sappy elevator music topped with cloying lyrics. I find it interesting that he went from this to the cut back, minimalist Pink Moon, which is superior in every conceivable way. 5/10
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Post by Martin Stett on Jul 19, 2023 14:29:13 GMT
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986)
Maybe I ought to take more Pacinoyes recommendations into account? I expected a bleak, tedious album of misery, but the word that comes to mind is goofy. The album is all over the place lyrically - some songs are examinations of self-destruction and loneliness, others are silly pop pieces about breasts - but the one constant is a wacky pop styling to the music that always makes it enjoyable. This won't go onto any list of my greatest albums or anything like that - it is quite forgettable because of its refusal to have any cohesiveness of theme - but as a random collection of songs, it ain't bad at all. 7/10
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Post by Martin Stett on Jul 27, 2023 15:09:26 GMT
Sheena Ringo - 加爾基 精液 栗ノ花 (Kalk samen kuri no hana)The English translation of that album title: Chlorine Semen Chestnut Flower. I'm on the weird side of music again. It's good to be back. After attempting several of the highest rated albums of the 2000s on RateYourMusic and abandoning each of them in disgust (the artists I bailed on were System of a Down, Wilco, Deftones, Viktor Vaughn, Converge and Ween), I saw Japanese artists Sheena Ringo next on the list and thought "this might be the one." I had never heard her before, but she is (a.) Japanese - and thus inherently better at music than any pasty white dude could ever be - and (b.) the visual basis for I-No, the electric guitar wielding witch from the Guilty Gear video game series.* And Guilty Gear has awesome (mostly metal) music. That latter led me to believe that this would be a straightforward rock album, but... hoooo boy, no way no how. This is art pop, baby! (Supposedly her previous albums were more straightforward before she went nuts and did this.) Somewhere between the inventiveness of Laura Nyro's Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and the weird art noise of After Dinner's Paradise of Replica - both of which would probably rank in my top ten albums ever, if I made a list - this is a delightfully wild ride. From an opening pair of songs that sounds like Katamari Damacy in the midst of a severe panic attack to jazz to cabaret to rock - often in the course of single songs - Ringo is constantly keeping things new and strange, always playing with instrumentations (sometimes standard rock instruments, sometimes throwing in folk instruments and synths) and vocal filtering and I love it. One song sounds like a James Bond theme song and a Power Rangers theme song at the same time! I'm not sure how much I love it just yet - this is a lot to digest - but dang, it is good to see that SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE can make me excited to hear music from this century. 9/10*On a side note, the final song on the album - "Funeral" - is very clearly an inspiration for "The Circle" from Guilty Gear Strive. The Circle is one of the best songs in a game filled with bangers, but I had pretty much forgotten about the Guilty Gear connection until I heard a progression that was very clearly Bedman's tortured "God... Can you see the radiant light? Can you hear the beautiful chant? Can you feel the tender warmth? (Nothing here...)"
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dazed
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Post by dazed on Jul 28, 2023 13:13:49 GMT
Travis Scott - Utopia: 8/10
travis scott has never been one of my favorite rappers. i’ve always liked some songs off his albums, but i never revisited them continuously. utopia is my favorite of his so far though. you can tell this album is heavily influenced by ‘yeezus’ (especially modern jam and circus maximus, the latter sounding like black skinhead 2.0 albeit for the weekend verse) and although it doesn’t quite reach the consistency and highs of yeezus, i can’t help but appreciate the ambition here. probably the best travis has rapped on any album.
favorite songs:
modern jam sirens circus maximus hyanea thank god telekinesis til further notice topia twins looove
least favorite songs:
i know? my eyes god’s country delresto k-pop
delresto and k-pop are the only ones i think won’t have the a chance to grow on me. especially k-pop, i was hoping that song wasn’t going to be on the album. sounds like such a bland summer song you’d hear on the radio for 2 months straight and then never hear again.
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 7, 2023 19:50:07 GMT
Hüsker Dü - Tonight Longhorn (2023) - 7 + + /10 - Hard to rate........historical though
A lot like their Savage Young Du collection but less on-point and not at all super fast like Land Speed Record - this would be great if it was shorter..........the band tries out so many songs - too many - that they actually sound like good Art school bands in this era (The Embarrassment, etc) with lots of things done right .........but with no clear direction.
Covers of The Heartbreakers, a much better, slower and more melodic Don't Try To Call and missing the incredible Data Control reveal kind of what happened to them soon after this: eventually they wrote songs that wiped out a whole bunch of songs they had written previously that danced around the same musical ideas - In A Free Land, Target or Everything Falls Apart sound like a restart..........still that is a couple years away - and Chartered Trips is like almost 5 years away (gulp) and some of this is a real loose blast anyway........also in quite funny form ...........which they weren't always when they became more focused and awe-inspiring.
They are telling jokes after track 1 here.......
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 10, 2023 16:44:46 GMT
The Hives - The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons (2023) - 7.5 / 10
The Hives are not an album band....they are - and always were - a singles band......but many of those early songs (especially Die, All Right!) are songs I love - and this is a singles album with a lot of songs still to love.......basically a 1-2 punch to the face through the whole record........their first album in years ............and their best album in more years than their last one.
Kind of saves their career tbh .......it's not great...but......one of the most fun bands of the last 20 years when Rock and Roll has degenerated to privileged fnckwads tunelessly strumming songs about bullshit that cause coyotes to howl in unison........
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 14, 2023 6:13:04 GMT
Short takes:
Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You (2023) - ~ 7 / 10
Sort of this year's Japanese Breakfast where it's playing Pop that is pleasing to the ear without being insulting. This record is also noticeably tight in arrangements and how it deftly weaves her impressive voice with sounds and textures so she is singing below them, floating above them and sometimes as another instrument herself..........it's sexy too.......... and otherworldly and grounded which is rare enough all by itself.......
Foo Fighters - Here We Are (2023) - 5.5 /10 -
No, here you are Dave ........also his vocals are either growls or overly polished to maddening effect......dull
Lankum - False Lankum (2023) - ~ 7 / 10
Folk horror:
This band has a masterpiece song that I posted a lot - a jaw-dropping arrangement of Go Dig My Grave that starts the album - and that nothing on here can hope to top tbh........a lot of this sounds like Fairport Convention (mostly a good thing)......these songs are long, difficult, knotty, frequently spellbinding and turn dark on a dime......pounding instrumental Irish folk passages that sound like they could have scored Banshees of Inisherin..............would be good with PJ Harvey's new album - the fascinating I Inside The Old Year Dying
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 3, 2023 16:28:45 GMT
Two for one:
Jeff Rosenstock - Hellmode (2023) - Somewhere around a 4 / 10
A once interesting artist loses the plot:
Sort of like Pete Buttigieg making an album:
What was once interesting, likable and seemingly intelligent is now actually revealed to be kind of a fraud, a bad actor, an incompetent tool bag ........and that makes you want to never take him seriously again...........though Buttigieg may carry a tune better than this tbh........Hated it
Half Catholic - Art in Heaven (5 song EP) - 7 ++ / 10
They often start the pre-chorus a little soon - immediately after a verse - rather than exactly on the next beat - so when they change tempo it's jarring in a great way - the songs sound buoyant and twist and turn and bridges stick out since everything was set to "go" right away........
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Post by MsMovieStar on Sept 3, 2023 21:54:50 GMT
Oh honeys, I met Lourdes in LA but I hadn't heard her album - which is an 8/10 for me.
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 10, 2023 8:19:13 GMT
The Speedways - Triple Platinum (Compilation - 2023 / 2018-2023 Released Oct 27th, 2023) - 9 + / 10 - reviewed on vinyl
My favorite current band .........and yeah one of these days they're going to break my heart..........but not yet...........
A 12 song "Greatest Hits" ("Triple Platinum" yeah right) designed for people too stupid to have gotten the word yet - 4 songs from each of their 3 sensational albums - and the 4 songs from the 1 man band debut are re-done with the full 4 piece band now
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 14, 2023 14:52:10 GMT
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska (1982)I've never listened to a Springsteen album, but I've heard enough of his songs through commercials and such to know that he's a terrible singer and writer and I don't know why I do this to myself - I like some popular albums, but Pet Sounds was the first and last time any of them came close to greatness, these musicians are not for me, this album is gonna blow so much - The sparse instrumentation - consisting mainly of guitar and harmonica - doesn't present much variety to the musical ideas, but this was clearly envisioned as a lyrical album. If this album was a novel, it would have won the Pulitzer Prize. It has that "Great American Novel" ambition to it: it is about the soul of the nation in the twentieth century, seeking a reason to believe. All of it filtered through a man burdened by his childhood, seeking a way to escape the scars he still bears from it.
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 14, 2023 15:00:40 GMT
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska (1982)I've never listened to a Springsteen album, but I've heard enough of his songs through commercials and such to know that he's a terrible singer and writer and I don't know why I do this to myself - I like some popular albums, but Pet Sounds was the first and last time any of them came close to greatness, these musicians are not for me, this album is gonna blow so much -The sparse instrumentation - consisting mainly of guitar and harmonica - doesn't present much variety to the musical ideas, but this was clearly envisioned as a lyrical album. If this album was a novel, it would have won the Pulitzer Prize. It has that "Great American Novel" ambition to it: it is about the soul of the nation in the twentieth century, seeking a reason to believe. All of it filtered through a man burdened by his childhood, seeking a way to escape the scars he still bears from it. Did you end up liking it? It's my favorite Sprinsteen album tbh........how about those yelps at the end of "State Trooper" - come on ........that's awesome
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 14, 2023 15:08:31 GMT
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska (1982)I've never listened to a Springsteen album, but I've heard enough of his songs through commercials and such to know that he's a terrible singer and writer and I don't know why I do this to myself - I like some popular albums, but Pet Sounds was the first and last time any of them came close to greatness, these musicians are not for me, this album is gonna blow so much -The sparse instrumentation - consisting mainly of guitar and harmonica - doesn't present much variety to the musical ideas, but this was clearly envisioned as a lyrical album. If this album was a novel, it would have won the Pulitzer Prize. It has that "Great American Novel" ambition to it: it is about the soul of the nation in the twentieth century, seeking a reason to believe. All of it filtered through a man burdened by his childhood, seeking a way to escape the scars he still bears from it. Did you end up liking it? It's my favorite Sprinsteen album tbh........how about those yelps at the end of "State Trooper" - come on ........that's awesome Uh, yeah, I liked it. I adored it. I think this is a magnificent collection of poetry. I am gonna need some time to absorb it, but wow. The music itself doesn't get in the way, and that's the key to it. None of this is virtuoso stuff, because Springsteen doesn't seem to care about memorable tunes here. It is all in service to the stories he is telling.
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Post by themoviesinner on Sept 16, 2023 18:24:48 GMT
The Speedways - Talk Of The Town (2022) -- 8/10I now understand why pacinoyes is a big fan of this band. This was great. Simple, but not simplistic, songs, some wonderful riffs, catchy guitar leads and overall, a very enjoyable and memorable experience. Definitely one of the best rock/power pop albums of recent years.
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 16, 2023 18:52:37 GMT
The Speedways - Talk Of The Town (2022) -- 8/10I now understand why pacinoyes is a big fan of this band. This was great. Simple, but not simplistic, songs, some wonderful riffs, catchy guitar leads and overall, a very enjoyable and memorable experience. Definitely one of the best rock/power pop albums of recent years. Glad you liked it - it's an interesting record because it really feels like a band on this one where their first 2 were smaller - I mean I love all 3 - but Talk of the Town is the one most people would gravitate to because t's recorded crisply and performed in a more thought out way.........it also has some of the best and most tasteful guitar playing on a Power Pop record - which was a new wrinkle for them.........some of that sounds like........Thin Lizzy but in a Pop band with the interlocked guitars imo
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 22, 2023 4:58:34 GMT
The Replacements - Tim - The Let It Bleed Edition (2023 / 1985) - 11 / 10
Despite being thought of as the 80s Stones it is The Beatles who weirdly hang over The "Mats myth in an ominous sad and funny way:
The Beatles from 1964-67 anyway - were both the "biggest and the best" and The Replacements, like the beautiful, distinctly American trash that they were, could only be half of that.
That's why people assign titles to them so much - Let It Be is "the most "them"", but Tim has the best songs, but Pleased To Meet Me has the best sound but Dead Man's Pop or ________ is the most underrated and on and on..........and of course the simple truth is every Replacement album in 9 glorious years 81-90 is essential listening and no amount of revisionist history - and with them it's all revisionist, all the time - can ever change that (there is an article in the current New Yorker that is almost like a parody of what they really were tbh) ........they are still routinely ignored AND mistakenly praised for things that discount what colossal fuckups they were...........and this reissue both plays into the truth and the lie about how big they "could have" been:
The songs are tremendous of course......in some cases, in some ways more tremendous.......and in some cases - now ambitious - in ways they never get credit for (being fuckups will do that to ya) .......and yeah it will maybe get them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame............ which would be the funniest, most ironic joke of all, huh?
The "Ed Stasium mix" sounds a lot richer and deeper and little bits creep in and out now - "Here Comes A Regular" - one of Westerberg's greatest songs which makes it as great as anything, anybody ever wrote - getit? - is hair on your forearms raising, chill inducing stuff and it always was and still is - and while you may not think that requires a repurchase his vocal performance is noticeably shattering around the piano in this version......"Little Mascara" is a standout here which has a lot of backing vocals and more ringing guitar parts....with an entirely new fadeout .....
Essential listening too......in a lot of ways.......not the least of which is yet another ripping live show....
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 27, 2023 15:19:00 GMT
Ichiko Aoba - Windswept Adan (2020)
Contemplative modern "folk" that owes a lot more to video game and movie soundtracks than to the folk tradition, but that isn't a bad thing. The arrangements do a good job of transporting the listener to the realm of wind and sea and harsh nature, and this is a good listen for a cold, cloudy day (which is what I've got right now). Nothing about this is especially amazing, but it almost perfectly succeeds at what it aims for, save for a couple of oddly chaotic tracks towards the end. 7/10
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 28, 2023 14:20:17 GMT
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Ella & Louis (1956)
Standards from two jazz legends sharing the stage together. How could this be so damn boring?
Well, I think the problem is that we have two legends together who are too humble to step up and do anything interesting, like they're afraid to step on each other's toes. Another problem is that Satchmo was never actually good in the first place (don't tell my mother, she may literally gut me for saying that - one of her favorite stories is how she got to see him perform and even shook his hand). And yet another is that these are *ALL* standards, with nothing to latch onto as something exciting that either one could run with. Some of my favorite albums are 1950's vocal jazz - Born to Be Blue by Anne Phillips, Lullabies for Losers by Ethel Ennis, I Wonder What Became of Me by Anita Ellis - but they all have some "out there" selections, and even their standards are arranged and sung in such ways that they feel very different from most singers.
This album could have been done by any singers or bands at any time. The only thing keeping it from anonymity is the inimitable pair of voices at its center - a pair of voices that aren't attempting any creativity or artistry here. 4/10
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 12, 2023 14:30:30 GMT
Cathie O'Sullivan & Summerhaze - Summerhaze (1987)
As the board's resident folkie, I knew that I had to try out this Australian folk-jazz (very much in that order) band Summerhaze. To get the obvious out of the way: Yeah, I hear a lot of Pentangle here. But Summerhaze is more experimental and open to trying out unorthodox (in folk) mixing and arrangement, veering near but never fully falling into the camps of "ambient" or "discordant." This feels like an evolution of Pentangle, and at many times closer to Yoko Kanno (I hear echoes of "Run Wolf Warrior" and "Tower of Babel" in the arrangements here - especially when Jim Denley breaks in on his alto sax) than anyone else.
There is a gossamer-like quality to this music - aided by Cathy O'Sullivan's fragile singing - that sets it apart from other folk bands. I personally don't care for O'Sullivan's lyrics - her attempts at poetry are far eclipsed by the traditional songs here (just compare the original "Loving One" to the traditional "Cruel Sister") - but this is more about a feeling than anything else - and the music on something like "Loving One" is so good, one can't complain. I wouldn't say it is better or worse than other folk acts, but it is worth a listen for us unwashed loser folk fans. 7.5/10
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