Author: Michael

Posted in Album Reviews

Camera Obscura – Look to the East, Look to the West (2024)

Posted on by Michael

After the sad passing of keyboard player Carey Lander in 2015, Glasgow’s Camera Obscura went on a hiatus.  Songwriter Tracyanne Campbell released the excellent Tracyanne & Danny album in 2018.  Her main band has now returned with Look to the East, Look to the West – their first album since Desire Lines over 10 years ago.  The new album sees the classic songwriting the band is known for.  They ease into the new album with the quiet sounds of “Liberty Print” before the dream beat kicks it up as Tracyanne sings, “I thought about the time he called me up/And asked if I loved him, I wanted to hang up”.

Album highlight “Big Love” pushes the guitar to the fore on a country song that incorporates a steel guitar. New member Donna Maciocia gets a co-writing credit on the feisty anthem “We’re Going to Make It In A Man’s World” where they tell the manager to “take your report, shove it right down your throat”. The album closes with several sweet tunes including “Pop Goes Pop” and the title track.

The album runs the gamut of indie pop, country, and 50s sounds.  A few of the tracks don’t quite hit the mark but then songs like “Sugar Almond” sees Tracyanne sing about missing Lander with just a piano accompaniment that tugs at the heartstrings.  It’s a welcome return from a fine Scottish indie pop band.

7.5/10

Posted in Album Reviews

The Kinks – Lola Versus Powerman and The Moneygoround Part One (2CD Deluxe) (2020)

Posted on by Michael

For their eighth studio album Lola Versus Powerman and The Moneygoround Part One, The Kinks led by Ray Davies  released a loose concept album based on the music industry.  From dreaming of being rock stars on the country sounds of “The Contenders” (before the guitar and piano get cranked up) right to the Southern Rock vibe of “Got To Be Free” when our man says goodbye to show business.  In between is an eclectic group of songs including the old ragtime feel of “Denmark Street” and the jauntiness of “The Moneygoround”.

It’s the band’s first album of the 70s and a few of the songs crank up the power rock guitar that would be heard throughout that decade. Dave Davies’ dirty guitar riff powers “Rats” and the expert bass work of John Dalton underlays the driving sound of “Powerman”.   “Apeman” rings just as true now as it did back then with its themes of over population, inflation, and crazy politicians. The catchy song went top 5 in the UK. Both Ray and Dave Davies have standout tracks on the album.  “Strangers” is a midtempo track from Dave about a close friend that died from a drug overdose.  The heartfelt song contains the tearjerker line, “strangers on this road we are on/we are not two, we are one”.

 One of the best rock songs of the 70s also appears in the gender bending hit, “Lola”.  Another heartfelt song, this time about meeting a transvestite (transgender?) in a bar and dancing all night with the lady but knowing something is different.  “Well I’m not dumb but I can’t understand/Why she walks like a woman and talks like a man” as the guy tries to figure things out. The single propelled the band back into the charts. While overall the general conceit of the album being the troubles of being a rock star can be hard to relate to at times, there are several truly great songs here that it is hard to resist.

In 2020 the deluxe edition added alternate and remix versions of most of the songs found on the original album.  The mono single of “Lola” switches the drink of choice to “cherry cola” while later a live version with a choir and orchestra strip the song of all it’s charm. One of the four version of “Apeman” to appear is an alternate stereo version that sounds like the band jamming to great effect. At the end of the disc, two songs from Ray Davies appearing on TV are added in “Marathon” and “Got to Be Free”. These have a distant, dreamy sound and standout among some of the hard rock tracks.  

Lola Versus Powerman and The Moneygoround, Part One – 9/10

Extras – 7/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown (2024)

Posted on by Michael

The voice is unmistakable from the one that is a key component of her band, Portishead.  Lives Outgrown is singer Beth Gibbons’ first solo album.  It has a woodsy vibe with an atmosphere of ghosts swirling around a campfire.  “Tell Me Who You Are Today” has a bit of nice guitar but then a foreboding tension fills the air.  “Burden of Life” has drums sounding like they are coming from deep in the forest.  Later, those same drums are more propulsive on “Reaching Out”.

“Floating On A Moment” is perfectly named as it does make it feel like you are floating in a river, heads up. The sound of birds chirping close out “Whispering Love” and the album. Lives Outgrown has gained much critical acclaim for it’s mournful folk sound and songs that speak about growing old and mortality. It may not register for all but for many, it will one of the better albums of the year.

7/10

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Madonna – Erotica (1992)

Posted on by Michael

The first studio album for Madonna after the Immaculate Collection greatest hits album wrapped up her first era was Erotica in 1992. For this album, Madonna worked with Shep Pettibone on a set of songs that was released at the same time as her infamous Sex book. The title track was the first single released. More explicit than past recordings, the club beat and catchy chorus took the song to #3 in the US. For “Deeper and Deeper”, a disco house vibe is worked into her sound with a couple of lines from her song “Vogue”.  The song has references to Mommy and Daddy with a story of a deeper sexual awakening.  The memorable 70s inspired video helped push the track into the top 10 and is one of her best tracks of the 90s.

The album is front loaded with singles.  Her remake of the Peggy Lee classic “Fever” fails to ignite while “Bye Bye Baby” has a slight Everly Brothers feel to the chorus on a single released outside of the US. “Bad girl drunk by six/kissing someone else’s lips” on “Bad Girl” sees the protagonist torpedoing yet another relationship.  Other tracks feel like rehashes of what has come before. “Where Life Begins” is filled with terrible sexual double entendres and covers similar territory as “Erotica” but not nearly as well. Worse is the studio joke song “Did You Do It” that has the beat from an earlier track with Andre Betts freestyling about whether he’s slept with Madonna.  It’s atrocious.

Erotica is tailor made for the burgeoning CD era. The beats are digitally crisp and the running time comes in at 75 minutes, about 35 minutes longer than most of her previous albums.  The second half of the album features the stellar ballad “Rain” that has a warmer feel than what came before it and the album closes with the minimal hip hop beats of “Secret Garden”.  With the extended running time, Erotica simply does not have enough good songs to make listening all the way worthwhile.  But with the digital age, also came the skip button that comes in handy when listening to Madonna’s first album of the 90s.

7.5/10

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Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (2024)

Posted on by Michael

Remarkably, Bright Future is Adrianne Lenker’s sixth studio album even with the success she has had as the lead singer in Big Thief.  The spare album was released in the spring 2024 and is enriched with many emotions.  The way she sings “don’t know what I’d do without you” on the chorus of “No Machine” makes it heartbreaking or the dusty piano that plays beneath “Real House” where she sings, “Now 31 and I don’t feel strong”.

“Vampire Empire” is a bit more rough and ready while “Feel Treasure” has a sort of epicness that Simon and Garfunkel could ring out of their minimal arrangements.  Bright Future ends with two terrific songs. She is joined on the chorus by Nick Hakim on “Donut Seam” that makes it sound a bit like Bon Iver on a track that sings to the human condition of swimming and kissing while the world burns.  “Ruined” has her best vocal on the album on a track that is a bit more pop in nature, though one with plenty of emotion. Adrianne Lenker is one of those rare artists whose solo work is just as intriguing as her main gig.

8/10