Here In The Pitch, the fourth album from Californian Jessica Pratt sounds like it was beamed in from a 1960s space age country lounge. Pratt sounds a bit like a British, blue-eyed soul singer on “Empires Never Know” over a dreamy, otherworldy piano. An acoustic guitar and spacey sounds swirl in the mix of “Get Your Head Out” while “By Hook Or By Crook” has a slight bossa nova feel. “World On A String” simply floats on air.
Highlights book end the album. The single, “Life Is” has Phil Spector levels of drama in every bass drum kick while Pratt softly sings, “when you’ve fallen out, get both feet on the ground”. Here In The Pitch closes with the sweet sentiments of “The Last Year”. “I think it’s gonna be fine/I think we’re gonna be together/And the storyline goes forever”. A truly wonderful record.
It doesn’t take long for Idles to ratchet up the tension on their fifth album, TANGK. Bass drum and piano start “Idea 01”, an intense song about family and what can be lost in the fire. “Monolith” closes the album in much the same way. There is a quiet intensity to the minimal track that closes with a jazzy saxophone. In between, the band from Bristol lead by frontman Joe Talbot unleash a rage of love both quiet and loud in equal measure on an album produced by Nigel Godrich.
“Gift Horse” has a bit of a Sleaford Mods vibe and a chorus that lights up a fire of excitement. “My baby, she, she’s so great/I wake up grateful every day” – a hidden love song to a daughter. The LCD Soundsystem collaboration “Dancer” is a heckuva tune to jump around to, the vibe continues on “Hall and Oates” that brings the noise like a heavier 90s indie rock track. Sandwiched between those tracks is the sweetness of “Grace” set over a low-end rumble. All is love, “Make me pure” is the message that is spread over much of the very good TANGK.
It’s been well over 40 years since Bob Marley died of cancer at the far too young at the age of 36 yet his profile in pop culture has barely diminished. The biopic movie One Love released earlier this year grossed $180 million at the box office, his posters adorn college dorm rooms, and his face can be seen on t-shirts around the world . Originally released in 1984, Bob Marley & The Wailers’ greatest hits album Legend has been a best seller since its release. It’s the one album that even non reggae fans will have in their collection, the songs it contains are absorbed just by living.
Reviewing Legend in 2024 holds no mystery – it’s a 10/10 and one of the greatest albums of all time. While everyone has their favourite tracks, these are mine…
As the first track on the album, “Is This Love” immediately pulls the lister in with a gentle reggae vibe mixed with some soft rock guitar. “Could You Be Love” was a smash success, going top 10 across Europe when released in 1980. A funky guitar lick rides under the joyous singing of the I Threes vocal trio on both the verses and the classic chorus.
With the US election just a few days away, tensions on both sides are running high, soundbites bleeding into newscasts across the world, especially here in Canada. The central theme of “Three Little Birds” to “Don’t worry about a thing, Cause everything gonna be alright” is a welcome message of positivity. The seemingly simple mantra carries a lot of sunny heft. Surprisingly, “Buffalo Soldier” did not appear on an album until posthumously released on Confrontation in 1983. A fascinating phrase used to refer to Africans stolen from their homeland, brought to America who end up becoming soldiers.
Like Bob Dylan in the 1960s, Marley is often viewed for being of the people, for the people through political songs like the classic “Get Up, Stand Up”. Legend does a very good job of showing different sides to the man on tracks like “Waiting in Vain”. A midtempo track with a terrific percussion breakdown that tells of someone longing for the love of a woman. It’s not for the masses, it’s a personal struggle but one that everyone can identify with.
While the nitpicking on an album like Legend are fairly minor, one of the gripes would be this. “Redemption Song” is a spine-tingling acoustic song that incorporates parts of a Marcus Garvey speech. “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery/none but ourselves can free our mind”. Marley’s raspy voice is powerful, a true folk classic that is impossible not to join in when he asks, “Won’t you help to sing/These songs of freedom?”. How this does not close this majestic album is a mystery.
Legend is record that I only came to recently. As mentioned, the songs are everywhere, I suppose I never felt the need to hear it as I always hear it just by living. That was a mistake on my part. In his book, All-Time Top 1,000 Albums, author Colin Larkin did not allow greatest hits to be included but in the year 2000 version of the list, there at #60 sits Legend. It received so many votes as one of the greatest albums of all time that it could not be ignored and had to be included. An album whose legend keeps being discovered by a new generation of fans every year.
The ladies of The Last Dinner Party were already living out rock fantasies before releasing a note of music. Opening slots for The Rolling Stones and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds would be the pinnacle for most bands, not the starting point. Prelude to Ecstasy is full of sweeping cinematic drama, the theatre kids have made an album. A galloping drum in the chorus as singer Abigail Morris sings “You think it’s romantic… we’re both just addicts”. An expansive vocal performance and drums power “The Feminine Urge” on a track about mother/daughter relationships that “nurture the wounds my mother held”. Heady stuff.
Produced by producer of the year, James Ford, the album has thus far yielded a staggering seven singles including “Beautiful Boy” about the ease in which pretty young gents can move through life. The quintet’s twin guitar attack gets turned up on “Sinner” that also adds dissonance on “My Lady of Mercy” on an otherwise clap happy pop song.
The highlight of the album is first single, “Nothing Matters”. An expression of love with nothing held back. The group singing in the chorus lifts the song into an anthem when they sing, “And I will f*** you like nothing matters”. It’s a powerful moment on an album full of them. At times, Prelude to Ecstasy can be a bit tiring, like a precocious teenager who is mostly clever but hasn’t figured it all out yet. It’s a minor gripe, the debut from The Last Dinner Party is full of histrionic outbursts of great songs.
When David Bowie released the second boxset in a career spanning history, Who Can I Be Now (1974-1976) in 2016, the set also included The Gouster. This album was never released but eventually came in out in a revised form as the Young Americans LP. The two albums share four tracks in common, all in alternate forms including the sax driven “Somebody Up There Likes Me”. It also contains the track of the same name as the boxset, a midtempo piano driven track with a lot of horns as well.
The Gouster contains two future singles. The first being “Young Americans” that brims with Philadelphia soul and the second being “John, I’m Only Dancing”. The disco soul number would eventually be released in 1979 in edited form. The version here clocks in at 7 minutes, a true disco dancefloor edit. Leaving off a few upbeat numbers from Young Americans, The Gouster is a slower take on what eventually would become a big album hit for Bowie in 1975.
The Light Appears 