Having spent a few days in Liverpool and completing a particularly challenging walk in the Yorkshire Dales, there has been little time for anything else in the past week. However a couple of new albums have come my way so I thought I should use these pages to give a few brief initial thoughts.
Getting my hair cut these days tends to be a pretty quick affair. The usual trim and I'm out of there in less than ten minutes, However, as Richard's scissors snip away at what dark hair remains, leaving only the grey behind (I must speak to him about that), we exchange views on what is happening in the music scene. Gigs we have attended or albums we have heard. That sort of thing.
On the latter subject, Richard mentioned the band Temples and what he regarded as their excellent album 'Sun Structures'.
'A bit like The Beatles', is how they were described to me, which makes sense considering that Noel Gallagher has been banging on about them for a while now and his former band Oasis made a career out of attempting to sound a bit like The Beatles, though personally I could never really get away with Oasis.. Anyway, I reckoned that Temples were worth giving a hearing. So I did.
Certainly the opening track 'Shelter Song' starts in a promising fashion with some distinctly Byrds sounding guitar and the album title track throws in several late 1960's cliches during its five minute duration. Catchy pop hooks abound and stylistically I am reminded of one of my favourite albums of last year, 'We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic' by Foxygen. However whereas Foxygen threw in the kitchen sink as far as their influences were concerned, I feel that Temples seem to lack the variety required to sustain an album lasting almost 53 minutes. Nevertheless there are some fine moments on the album and you can sample the opening 'Shelter Song' by clicking here.
I have followed the career of Richmond Fontaine since their 2004 album 'Post To Wire' and have also been a follower of the literary career of songwriter Willy Vlautin beginning with his wonderful novel, 'This Motel Life'. Now Vlautin has reappeared with a new band, The Delines and they have issued their first album, 'Colfax'.
There's certainly no mistaking the fact that Vlautin wrote this collection of songs as they retain his trademark storytelling with tales of downtrodden characters, drab bars and diners, trailer parks and dusty highways. What sets this album apart however, is the fine voice of Amy Boone. Whereas Vlautin's songwriting has in the past been somewhat constrained by the self confessed limitations of his own voice, here he is set free as the range of Boone's vocals offer him a far broader palette. I am still absorbing these songs which mostly retain that fine plaintive steel guitar sound familiar to fans of Richmond Fontaine, but clearly we have here a contender for one of the best albums of the year.
Click here to listen to 'I Won't Slip Up' for a taster of what this album has to offer.
I recall that last year I was waxing lyrical about the number of great new albums that were released. By March 2013 I had enjoyed Richard Thompson, Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer, Pere Ubu, The Villagers and Steven Wilson. Some haul! And better was to follow!
This year there have been meagre pickings. A bit of a mixed bag in the form of 'High Hopes' from Bruce Springsteen and that has been just about it. Granted I haven't yet gotten round to listening to the latest works by Beck, Seth Lakeman or St. Vincent but reviews of those have not really filled me with enthusiasm.
Consequently I have welcomed with open arms, the latest from the Drive-By Truckers, the results of their first studio sessions for four years.
The writing and singing credits on 'English Oceans' are shared fairly evenly between Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, resulting in what sounds to me like a more varied album than either 'The Big To-Do' or 'Go-Go Boots'. Both of those albums were the result of their previous studio visits back in 2009 and each featured only three Cooley compositions.
Hooked up once again with long time producer David Barbe, they have come up with an album that sounds a little more basic than the two previous releases. Recorded over thirteen days last August, it gives me the impression that the band had fully formed songs ready and knew exactly what they wanted to achieve in the studio. Once again they have delivered the goods (have they ever released a bad disc?) with songs covering political subjects, parenthood, mortality and lost friends. There is also the intriguingly titled 'Pauline Hawkins' which I learn was written by Hood from the point of view of one of the characters in the recently released novel, 'The Free' by Willy Vlautin who of course fronts his own excellent band, Richmond Fontaine.
It's a great rocking, catchy record with the usual lyrical storytelling and at the present time, is the main (nay, only) contender for album of the year.
Thank goodness for the 'Truckers'.
