Latest music reviews, including Dear Reader, Common, Never Shout Never, Mary Black and Laura Gibson
Dear Reader Idealistic Animals
Dear Reader: Idealistic Animals
“THE record is quite fatalistic, my worst fear being that life is completely meaningless and I have absolutely no control or power.”
Ouch! That’s some pretty heavy philosophical soul-searching, and one that every human being has had to face with a cold, harsh reality at some point in their life.
But here’s a woman going through the painful withdrawal symptoms of lost faith, and doing so in about as public a fashion as anyone could. She’s pouring her heart out, and all the confusion, chaos and bitterness explode out of every one of the 11 tragic-tinged tracks on Idealistic Animals.
This isn’t for the faint-hearted or those standing on the metaphorical cliff-edge of inner turmoil. It’s intense subject matter is likely to push you over the top. But what makes the desperate pleadings of a woman now finding herself isolated in the world palatable is the sugar-sweet vocals of one of the greatest female vocalists of our time, dare I even say it, up there with the ilk of the God that is Kate Bush! While unlikely to reach the heady commercial Wuthering Heights of Ms Bush, Cheri MacNeil has the sort of voice that could sooth in the harshest of personal storms. Softly caressing, yet pure and unpretentious.
So it is that MacNeil manages to give life to her 11 animal friends like a mother to a child, imbuing hopes and dreams for them all while still wrestling with her own doubts and fears. It makes for a push and pull experience, as the listener is tugged back and forth between joy and despair. The question is, upon which side will you finally come to rest?
It’s early days, but this has to be a candidate for one of 2012’s finest albums. Buy it if you’re brave enough!
Release Date: January 9
Common: The Dreamer/The Believer
THE album title reflects something of a beginning and a conclusion to a story.
There’s no defined ending. Just the closing of a chapter.
In the beginning, The Dreamer actually reflects on the deferred dreams of the lower class urban black community. Maya Angelou comes in with poetry reflecting on life on a slave ship to further the continuity. Musically, it’s a beautiful, cinematically soul/funk flow of sounds, ranging from distorted bass/guitar interacted to interwoven loops of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes to The Impressions.
On songs such as Gold and Lovin’ Lost, Curtis Mayfield’s voice almost duets with Common’s rhymes. One moment he’s contemplating the future of his daughter, then he’s discussing his racial hopes and even lapsing into some of the locker room dialogue a lot of hip-hop’s haters use against the genre.
John Legend contributes vocals to The Believer, which is sort of a false conclusion to the album where, after tales of longing, lacking and making the best from next to nothing, Common decides the dream of the oppressed is worth continuing to strive for.
On Pops Belief, Lonnie Lynn narrates a poem that continues where Maya Angelou left off, tracing the struggles of the black community up to modern times.
Even though the whole hip-hop gangster culture cliché is still showcased here, it’s merely referred to. There’s a 70s funk period reflection, but the album looks as much to the future as it revels in the past and present.
Two-time Grammy winner Common could be in line for a stack more awards on the merits of this album. But more than anything, it perhaps hints at 2012 providing a mood change in hip-hop music from its gangster roots to a more reflective period.
Release Date: January 9
Never Shout Never: Time Travel
NEVER Shout Never has been reborn.
While the moniker has long referred to 20-year-old Christofer Drew, it’s now the name of a full band with the messy-haired singer-songwriter at its helm – and the change couldn’t have come at a better time.
With six EPs and two albums under his belt, more than 2.5 million Facebook fans, nearly 50 million MySpace profile views and more than 157 million song plays, it’s clear that Drew has achieved breakthrough success since his first upload.
However, the talented guitarist experienced some dark moments following the release of his Butch Vig-produced album, Harmony, becoming “a little bitter towards the music industry” and left shaken by the break-up from his girlfriend of almost two years. But, through his search for a higher consciousness, he found a path of enlightenment that led to a whole new outlook on music and life.
In an almost therapeutic way, Drew has woven his experiences into Time Travel, the first album recorded and produced by Never Shout Never, which now includes Drew, Caleb Denison (guitar/drums/percussion), Taylor MacFee (bass) and Hayden Kaiser (guitar, percussion). The band members, who each contributed backing vocals on the full-length, holed up in Springfield, MO, just one hour outside of their hometown of Joplin, and dedicated themselves to making Never Shout Never’s most impressive album to date.
For those, like myself, who hadn’t heard of the band – or the man – before, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. This is a lush sound with fuller instrumentation, and the songs are infused with more experimental tangents than its predecessors … so I’m told!
Either way, what you get is a much more mellow, chilled experience than the ‘punk’ genre listing on iTunes would otherwise suggest! There are some cracking tracks on the album that are evidently infused with some serious emotions and bittersweet personal experiences, which makes them all the richer and, ultimately, fulfilling. This is music from the heart, but also the mind as well, with some clever compositions and simple, yet powerfully effective lyrics.
Hardly a new band for 2012, but they are to me and I’ll certainly be checking out their extensive back catalogue on the strengths of this great LP.
And if you like what you hear, catch them live and local at Leeds Metropolitan University on January 25.
Release Date: January 9
Mary Black: Stories From The Steeples
IN some respects, the same magic formula Mary’s fans have come to expect: great vocal, outstanding songs and first class musicians are what defines her latest LP, Stories From The Steeples.
Added to the mix this time are all three of her children and husband, as well as collaborations with Imelda May, Finbar Furey and Janis Ian.
Three songs were written by son Danny, who quite clearly has a bright future ahead as a songwriter. He also contributes guitar, and other son Conor adds bass guitar and backing vocals. Daughter Roisin does stellar backing vocals, as does husband Joe.
Imelda, Janis, and Finbar each share a song with Mary. Pat Crowley and the rest of the band shine as usual, bringing their talent to these wonderful songs that Mary always manages to mine from some of the very best songwriters. Intelligent lyrics that present stories to create images in your mind.
As expected, love stories abound here, but also family situations during troubled times, anti-war, travelling, old time American westerns and a children’s song are all covered. The last track – One In A Million – is an incredible, brilliant tale of love and life previously performed by Chris Wood and written by Hugh Lupton.
An outstanding compilation worth waiting for, but I hope the next one comes sooner. If this doesn’t make you happy and make you cry, you might want to check yourself for a pulse!
Release Date: January 9
Laura Gibson: La Grande
THIS time last year, musical proceedings were kicked off with the release of the The Decemberists’ King Is Dead, an album of warm Americana from Portland Oregon’s finest.
Thus it’s entirely appropriate that Laura Gibson – a former Decemberist with one of the loveliest voices this side of that other great Portlander Laura Viers – should commence 2012 with a feast of occasionally leftfield low-key roots folk music, which is guaranteed to captivate listeners.
Le Grande is actually a small town in Eastern Oregon, a name given to it by early French settlers. It’s a place where Gibson informs us that “people usually pass through on their way to somewhere else, but which contains a certain gravity, a curious energy”.
It’s this rustic tradition that she seeks to evoke on the album’s cover as she stands snuggly wrapped in an old Indian blanket in a woodland settling with a blazing fire throwing shapes into the night.
The album’s title track is also full of old western imagery and layered with pounding tribal drums, whispered ghostly voices and Link Wray-style guitars, giving it a spookiness that makes it a great start.
More North West coast melancholy is contained in Skin Warming Skin, which builds to a hypnotic choral chorus.
The rustling of tambourines kicks off the bluesy The Fire, another of Le Grande’s highlights, which skips along at a lively pace and which, by the end of its brief three and half minutes, will have you tapping your foot and largely feeling that things are generally OK in the world.
Ultimately, however, it’s the final two songs on the album that really puts that icing on the cake. The penultimate song – Time Is Not – has a dark edge and builds into a haunting construct, which will richly reward repeated listens. Finally, the concluding song – Feather Lungs – starts a slow hymnal and grows in a fragile piano lullaby, with Gibson pitching her vocal so perfectly she should be given an award!
Le Grande is a very elegant album, which you will grow intensely fond of. It draws upon the traditions of American folk but can also feel quite strange in parts, a quality that adds to its otherworldly atmospherics. An absolute must purchase to banish the January blues.
Release Date: January 9
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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