A Festive Update

Just a quick one to inform you, my loyal readers, that I haven't forgotten about you but I've simply been busy over this Festive period.

Rest assured articles and reviews are being written and early next year (possibly before) I will unveil a series of exciting posts looking back at all of 2009's best musical offerings.

Until then, please enjoy the seasonal satire to your right. Thanks for checking in and have Merry Christmas, Winterval or other religious holiday.

Tom

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Guest Review: Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up

Those who heard Paolo Nutini’s 2006 debut breakthrough These Streets heard a 19 year old with a big future. Acoustic-based singer-songwriters aren’t hard to come by, but Paolo’s accent, rock band set-up, and good looks set him apart and gained him media coverage and plenty of adoring fans.

But its 2009, and he’s on the difficult second album. Still only 22, after success with singles such as Last Request and Jenny Don’t Be Hasty, the record company would certainly have been hungry for a good follow-up.

Sunny Side Up was released at the end of May just in time to be the soundtrack for the English summertime. And when the first single was released, listeners could have been excused for thinking it was going to be a familiar second album, despite Candy being a good track. Paolo singing to his lover over a delicate, acoustic 4-chord set-up seemed pretty in keeping with the majority of These Streets.

However, come the album’s release, you hit the play button and the first thing you hear is a brass section with some free playing organ in the background. With a ‘Hey!’ from Paolo, we’re suddenly in reggae mode and it is unbelievable. I found myself picking up the CD inner expecting to see the words ‘Producer: Mark Ronson’ but I was glad to see the name Ethan Johns instead.

This first track, 10/10 clocks in at under 3 minutes and is a perfectly fun, catchy song, but needless to say it’s a massive shock. Paolo’s band are barely audible for trumpet and keyboard.

But as we get past those 3 minutes, it seems he has struck a much nicer balance. Coming Up Easy, released as the album’s 2nd single, charted at only number 62 in the UK charts, his lowest charting single to date. However, for me, it is clearly the best song on the album. There is an almost motown-esque vibe to the song, but importantly the band is back in full glory. Brilliant Hammond organ riffs compliment, and with very small motifs the brass is completely welcome come the second chorus.

However, the golden moment of the song, in fact, the golden moment of the album comes in the final section of Coming Up Easy. The band drop down to just a simple snare-rim beat and the bass moving between two notes, echoed by the organ. The stage is set, and in a low swooning voice Paolo declares, “It was in love I was created, and in love is how I hope I die”. The drums signal for the band to rise back up together, and with Paolo singing higher the tension rises.

As Paolo lets out his rockier side, he hits his peak and it sounds simply brilliant. The band continues to jam for another minute, and it’s worth it. Each repeat sees the band playing harder and harder, and with Paolo improvising and wailing more on each line it’s a minute of magic which, despite there being 10 tracks left, is never quite matched on the album again.
The third single from the album was Pencil Full Of Lead and was undoubtedly the most popular. Banjo strums in the background along with playful drums, but oh my, the trumpets are most definitely back, along with everybody’s favourite – the harmonica solo. By the time Paolo is amongst it shouting incomprehensible words (and at the end murmuring), it just sounds like the equivalent of a 12-bar jam that 14-year-olds would consider blues. On the plus side, its only 2 minutes and 27 seconds long, and its meant in a much more fun manner than a bitter old man like me is willing to accept. But the brass intro really should make you cringe as well…

Growing Up Beside You, like Candy, sees the brass ditched, and more of a country influence comes in. Like he did so often in These Streets, Paolo is singing about his youth, and although the layered vocals grow tiresome quite quickly, the songs do work well and deserve their place on the album.

The second half of the album opens with another motown influenced number – No Other Way has more than a little in common with Coming Up Easy. A little more laid back, but still - the structure and the ideas are essentially the same, with another big note hitting ending from Paolo. It serves best as a reminder of Coming Up Easy and is in no way of the same quality.

Tricks Of The Trade is another high moment on the album. It’s just a man and his guitar, and it’s a welcome break. In the chorus Paolo sings ‘Lord, how our glory may fade, well at least we learned some tricks of the trade’, over effectively cheap sounding acoustics. It’s what was good about These Streets and it is definitely still worth hearing.

However, Chamber Music is an incomparably bad version in the same style. And when you’re hearing the harmonica blaring out of the speakers in what could conceivably be interpretations of Johnny Cash off-cuts such as Simple Things and High Hopes, it seems worth just pressing stop and starting the album again for a few tracks.

The thing is, Sunny Side Up sounds like two albums in one. One is a motown or soul album with reggae-esque beat influences, and the other is These Streets gone country. Or, These Fields.
For a second album, keeping the old fans happy whilst offering something to potential new fans seems a good way to go. And maybe making such a big change wasn’t such a strange move after all when we look at it like this. After all, there is no point in making the same album twice, as has been the downfall of many one hit wonders over the years.

However, the album still doesn’t quite feel right jumping from one to the other, and although Paolo still has a tremendous and unique voice, his broadened sound is one that is still developing. I’m looking forward to the next one.

Tom Stephens,
Visit Tom at http://youtune.tumblr.com


Buy Sunny Side Up on iTunes or Visit Paolo Nutini

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'Idiot Writes About Popular High-Street Clothes Shop' (Originally posted on Youtune)

A short while ago I was asked if I would contribute a short something to the excellent Youtune music blog, by the editor over there. Youtune isn't just about the music but is also concerned with the author's feelings and memories associated with a particular song.

The tagline sums it up nicely: "These are your tunes, and your meanings". Told you.

It's slightly departed from my usual avenue of writing but I enjoyed it as much as any other review and you can read the entry in it's entirety below or, better still, you can visit Youtune itself where you can peruse my entry and many others like it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Originally posted on http://youtune.tumblr.com on Dec 7th 2009
A short while ago, the editor was asked me to write an entry for this blog, concerning what a specific song means to me, and what memories it holds.

Taken at face value, this doesn’t seem like an especially taxing task. Everyone has songs they love, and everyone has reasons why they love those songs, right? Well yes they do, but as I found out, there’s a difference between songs you like and songs that you form a palpable, emotional attachment with. There’s no doubt that Rocket Man is one of Elton John’s finest moments, but do I feel genuine despair for the departing astronaut? No, not really. And as uplifting and enjoyable as it is, I’ve yet to rejoice in a loving celebration of life after listening to U2’s Beautiful Day.

As it turned out, it took good deal of thought to arrive at my chosen song and even now I’m not sure how it makes me feel. But I do know it forms the perfect soundtrack to the memories I’ve attached to it and that every time I hear it, something inside of me stirs and I can’t help but form a tiny smile. And I guess that’s what makes it great.

Champagne Supernova is not the most complex song you’ll ever hear (the majority is just 4 chords), but that’s not why I love it.
It’s lyrics are not the most inspirational or quick-witted and sometimes don’t even make sense, but that’s not why I love it.
And it’s not even very well arranged, clocking in at well over seven minutes. But that’s not why I love it.
What I love about it is all of those things.

Before I go on, a short disclaimer. Say ‘Oasis’ to someone and they’ll either begin to discuss a popular high street clothes shop or dismiss the band as arrogant has-beens as seems to be the trend now. Well I’d like to buck that trend and I’d even go as far to say that Oasis were the most important band of the 1990s, and that (What’s the Story) Morning Glory was the most important album.
I’m not embarrassed to say that and I’m not embarrassed to say that I think Oasis are dismissed too easily these days.

First of all, a bit of background. In 2003, I was budding ‘metalhead’ and listened to bands such as Metallica and System of a Down, and even played guitar in a metal band in my spare time. It was also about this juncture that, courtesy of my Dad’s record collection, I first heard Oasis’ second album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, and Champagne Supernova. From the moment I’d started, I couldn’t stop. Every song seemed to grab me with its simplicity and no-nonsense attitude.
Fast-forward a year and the heavy rock had all but gone. Bands such as Manic Street Preachers, Coldplay and Oasis had replaced it. They all typified the straightforward and catchy rock that I had grown to love as I advanced through my early teenage years.

It just so happens that those few years were some of the best of my life and I have memories of hot summer days spent doing nothing, but doing nothing with friends. And memories of grand plans and ambitions made with no care in the world.

It’s probably fair to say that I could’ve chosen any song from (What’s the Story)… but I chose Champagne Supernova for a few reasons.
The first is it’s simplicity. Using just a handful of chords it manages build into a stadium-sized epic that never once becomes dull during it’s seven minute length, and it is this attitude that gives the song some of it’s emotional weight.
It’s clear that Noel Gallagher and Oasis are from the 60s school of songwriting that requires no musical knowledge, and by simply getting up there, having fun and playing what ‘sounds good’, they’ve created a feeling of being able to do anything.

And they don’t give a fuck.

Secondly, however you look at them, the lyrics make no sense together. Aside from being totally contradictory, the line “Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball” suggests walking at a speed faster than gunpowder, down an imaginary hall that bears no relevance to any line before or after. And yet it’s brilliant, because nobody understands it. Nobody is meant to understand it and most importantly, nobody wants to understand it because they don’t care.

The line, “Where were you while we were getting high?” backs this up. It defines the song as something that isn’t political or philosophical but is about having fun and as before, not giving a fuck.
Even the title suggests celebration and excitement, and I can take a good guess that Noel Gallagher had no idea what a ‘Supernova’ was.

Maybe it’s the attitude and the enjoyment I like the most but this is all made easier by the fact that Champagne Supernova is a great song. A stadium-sized epic that has both heartfelt and soaring melodies, and is backed by huge guitars that weave between the vocals, and explode into the chorus.

I read somewhere once, an excellent description of (What’s the Story)… that works just as well to describe Champagne Supernova:

“It should be enjoyed at full volume, lager in hand, and in your mate’s back garden. All on the greatest English summer day imaginable.”

It sums up just what the song is about, how the song should be perceived, and most importantly, that you don’t really need to think about it at all. And that’s why I love it.


If you enjoyed this then please visit http://youtune.tumblr.com for more great entries.

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The Flaming Lips - Race For The Prize (Audio)

Taken from the aformentioned album, The Soft Bulletin.

Storming first track, which showcases the album's experimental yet accessible style and singer Wayne Coyne's higher lyrical themes.

Listen on Tumblr

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Review: The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

1999 was a fairly boring year in the grand, musical scheme of things. Notable releases came from old hats Blur and The Red Hot Chili Peppers and it also was the year that broke Sigur Ros and Eminem. But unless you’re an Eiffel 65 fan, that’s about it.

Fortunately for us however, 1999 was also the year that The Flaming Lips chose to release The Soft Bulletin and, ten years on, it still sounds just as fresh and original as it did then.

From the moment the raw drums of Race For The Prize kick in, The Flaming Lips transport you to their own world of psychedelic rock and only allow you to return after being transported around subjects such as Nobel prizes and astrophysics, and while it’s quite clearly an album from an experimental band, they’ve managed strip away the inaccessibility often found in the genre. The longest song clocks in at a non-progressive five minutes and fifty five seconds and there’s no over-the-top arrangements and no unnecessary guitar solos.

What we’re left with is the unusual song titles and their offbeat lyrics from the ‘70s, coupled with a melodic sheen from the ‘90s. This easily avoids a rehashing of bands from past decades and creates a progressive rock sound for the MTV generation.

After rip-roaring opener Race For The Prize, we move onto second track and album highlight A Spoonful Weighs A Ton. Opening with a black and white movie string section, it drifts along as an optimistic and uplifting song before, without warning, dropping into a Led Zeppelin inspired breakdown and emerging the other end as the uplifting track that entered around thirty seconds previously. It shouldn’t work, but effortlessly does.

Third track The Spark That Bled has an almost ethereal opening and soon develops into a relaxed call to arms against an unspecified oppressor, as evidenced by the refrain of “I Stood Up and I Said Yeah” and the final few lines of the country inflected bridge:

“The outreached hands had resigned themselves,
To holding onto something that they never had…
…'Cause in reality there was no reaction”

Similarly to A Spoonful Weighs a Ton, the floating sound of the song and the themes of the lyrics shouldn’t match up but they do. They work together to reinforce the idea and perhaps make it more effective.

After the almost instrumental The Observer and excellent, universe-filling track What Is The Light?, we find ourselves at the album’s second single and another standout track.

Waitin’ For a Superman is musically, the most straightforward track on the album. A simple four or five chord pattern, backed with stomping drums that deviate very little. It’s this simplicity however, that gives the song it’s weight and allows frontman Wayne Coyne’s actually quite sombre lyrics to really come thorugh. As the title suggests, this is song about disillusionment and the lyric “Is It Getting Heavy?”, is a direct question to a non-existent ‘superman’ who cannot deal with the problems as he should be able to. The final verse brings the song hope that works well with the track’s major key and shows that Coyne hasn’t lost faith in all of humanity after all:

“Tell everybody waiting for Superman
That they should try to hold on best they can”

Although these lyrics might at first seem wasted on such a simple and, musically speaking, happy track, it’s for precisely these reasons that the song has a weight and sadness that is better than any ballad would manage.

The only time the album gets close to losing itself in a psychedelic cloud is on ninth track The Gash. Despite having a chorus that is worthy of the album, it is lost somewhat in the mass of voices that form the basis of the track. A choir sings the majority of the melody and but for the booming drums and actually very good vocal melody, consumes the track in it’s unnecessary feeling of heaviness. I should point out this is a very minor and is probably more of a gripe with the mixing rather than the actual song

Dreamy but not pretentious, The Soft Bulletin sees the band move away from previous, more experimental sounds and embrace an almost childlike pop style. It has a pop sheen that is coupled with a fantastic sense of experiment that compliments the albums higher lyrical themes whilst remaining firmly on the ground. A concept album without a concept, it was the album that propelled The Flaming Lips out of the underground and firmly established them as one of the best and most popular bands to come out of the 90s.

On second thoughts, I don’t think I’ll bother with that Eiffel 65 review.

Buy the CD here Download the MP3s here Visit The Flaming Lips here

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Moving Home

Just a short message to keep you guys in the loop, and let you know that this blog has moved to it's new home on Wordpress. Nothing against Blogger, I just feel like Wordpress is my spiritual home!

This site will of course continue to be updated, but the focus will be elsewhere and the posts on here will likely consist of simple re-posts of the content which can be found at http://mainlygenius.wordpress.com. Don't hesitate to change your bookmarks for maximum enjoyment.

On another note, there will be a new review coming along very soon, and it's a really great album so look out for that.

Until then,

Tom Cornish (editor)

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