Category: Album Reviews

Posted in Album Reviews

PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying (2023)

Posted on by Michael

It’s been several years since PJ Harvey has released an album and it may not get the juices flowing for some to read it’s based on her long form poem, Orlam.  Those people however would be wrong. Working with producers Flood and John Parish for I Inside the Old Year Dying, Harvey keeps the album moving with the longest song clocking in at just over 4 minutes.

The best songs here are the ones that reference Elvis Presley including the acoustic guitar track “Lwonesome Tonight” and the clattering beats of “August”.  One of the best moments on the album is the solid drum beat on “A Child’s Question, August” and the deadpan chorus of “love me tender/tender love” sung with actor Ben Whishaw.

The title track is louder with dissonance and distortion before disappearing in a quick 2 minutes.  There is a dark atmosphere of dread on “All Souls”, a distant bass bangs away on “I Inside the Old I Dying”.  On these tracks, PJ Harvey adds texture and changing moods that is kept up through this album. I Inside the Old Year Dying sounds like it could be filled with 10 minute slogs but instead flies by like the wind on a dark summer’s night.

7.5/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Weathervanes (2023)

Posted on by Michael

Jason Isbell is having a helluva year.  HBO is home to the very good Isbell documentary, Running With Our Eyes Closed. He is set to appear in the Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon and he just released his new album with his band the 400 Unit, Weathervanes.  The album opens immediately with Isbell’s voice on “Death Wish”.  Eventually strings appear, piano twinkles with percussion bits.  Another reviewer likened it to The Cure, this is an apt description – a country Robert Smith singing of loving someone suffering through depression.

That song is a departure from the rest of the album.  “Cast Iron Skillet” has a bit of a twist on modern country with the line, “Don’t wash the cast iron skillet/Don’t drink and drive, you’ll spill it”.  A warm acoustic guitar envelopes “Strawberry Girl” while “King of Oklahoma” tackles the hard luck story of a chap trying to stay afloat while thinking, “never thought I’d wind up this far behind”. Isbell lets his voice soar on “Middle of the Morning”. The lockdown track inspired by his personal experience is a good one where he makes the claim that “I’m tired of living in the moment and sleeping through the dream”.  An adult remembering that he wanted to be a spaceman.

Isbell’s musical gift is making smart lyrical choices.  Two of the standouts see him thinking about far bigger issues than the usual hunting/fishing/drinking songs that fill modern country radio.  “Save The World” immediately ups the intensity on a track about a school shooting in Nashville and how to process what that means for the country and his family.  “White Beretta” tells the story of Isbell driving his girlfriend to the abortion clinic back in the late 90s.  Not sure if they are making the right decision, he let the girl make the decision regardless of his mental struggles.

Jason Isbell’s music on Weathervanes expands the palette and also pulls it back into familiar country territory.  There are bits of keyboard, atmospheric moments, and several times where he adds 80s rock into the mix.  But it still goes back to the stories he tells on songs like “Volunteer” that tells of a boy being raised by parents who were just kids. He doesn’t always hit those heights but there are enough great moments on Weathervanes where Isbell reaches for being one of America’s great storytellers.

8/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Bjork – Post (1995)

Posted on by Michael

As most of the UK alternative music fans were in the throes of Britpop, Bjork released her second album of the 90s with Post. Immediately, “Army of Me” comes in like a bomb, flying through the air and crashes into a throbbing bass line.  A personal song, Bjork is defiant as she tells another to stop complaining and get to work. The deep bass weaves itself through most of the album and on the Nellee Hooper produced “Hyperballad” adds a jittery beat as Bjork sings of the little battles we have in relationships that our partners know nothing about. The protagonist throwing objects off a mountaintop before her boyfriend wakes, “I go through all this before you wake up”.

Sixth single, “I Miss You” is a propulsive Howie B produced track that projects horn stabs and tumbling drums as Bjork sings of her next love. “Isobel” feels cinemantic with strings and jungle drums.  The cinema is drummed up even more with “It’s Oh So Quiet”.  The memorable Spike Jonze directed video sees Bjork dance through the streets while the song is an inspired remake with hushed verses and explodes into colour for the chorus. In contrast, “Possibly Maybe” starts with the sound of a computer connecting to make a data transfer. She remembers an old love, the beat taking over in spots, trip hop from Bristol bringing a dark melancholy beat.

Remembered as one of the finest albums of the 90s, Post is definitely of it’s time but remarkably does not sound dated.  It’s a testament to Bjork’s songwriting/producing that she standouts among other 90s artists, inhabiting her own world.  Darker than her Debut album, the colourful album art makes Post look cosmopolitan as Bjork takes in sounds from all over the streets of the UK.

9/10

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Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Council Skies (2CD Deluxe Edition) (2023)

Posted on by Michael

With the new release of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ album, Council Skies, the singer embarked on a new round of media arguing with other singers. This time the foe is Matt Healy of the 1975 who responded with the brilliant retort, “The difference between me and Noel is I do a series of interviews to promote an album, whereas he does an album to promote a series of interviews.”  And while the statement may have truth in it, the interviews have been great and the album is a good one.

Guitarist Johnny Marr appears on first single, “Pretty Boy”.  The electronic beat underlays the gender bending lyrics of “there was a girl like me/there was a boy like you”. “Open the Door, See What You Might Find” adds strings and bells ringing to a belter of a chorus.  The title track is a midtempo number who’s string section makes it sound vaguely like a James Bond theme whereas the horns kick in on “Love is a Rich Man” on that track’s easy spirit while adding joy, and lightness.

The album really shines on second single “Easy Now”.  The stellar anthem of a chorus sees the Chief sing, “I’ll be there/I’ll wait for you I swear”.  The verses and chorus dovetail into one another, producer Paul Stacey adds a guitar solo on one of Gallagher’s most uplifting post Oasis songs. With the announcement of Noel’s split from his wife of 12 years, the dreamy ballad “Dead to the World” takes another meaning as he sings, “I’ll bend over backwards for love”.  On Council Skies, little by little Gallagher continues to stretch his sound with additions to his repertoire that result in a solid album for the 56 year old.

The 2CD deluxe version adds an additional 14 tracks made up of new tracks, radio sessions, instrumentals, and remixes. “We’re Gonna Get There In the End” and “Flying on the Ground” continue the lightness of touch.  Remixes by Pet Shop Boys and David Holmes adds a spacey club dimension to the sound before Robert Smith adds his touch to “Pretty Boy”.   The second disc closes with a radio session version of Oasis classic, “Live Forever”. Thankfully Gallagher’s recent airing of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is not included.

Council Skies – 8.5/10

Deluxe Edition Extra Disc – 7/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Bob Dylan – Self Portrait (1970)

Posted on by Michael

The first Bob Dylan album of the 1970s continues his leftfield turn that he took with both John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline.  Self Portrait is made up of four sides of six songs per side, mostly two-three minute songs vs the epics he released through the 1960s. A mixture of new material, live tracks, and covers – it is an eclectic mix of songs that has confused and confounded fans and critics alike for over 50 years.

One of the most striking and memorable songs is the lead track, “All The Tired Horses”.  Using female singers, the song creates a hypnotic groove as they sing the same lines over and over again – “All the tired horses in the sun/How am I supposed to get any riding done?”. The only single released from the album is “Wigwam” that sees Dylan sing along “La dah dah dah” to a horn section that rises and falls. The live version of “Minstrel Boy” on the other hand is a chore to get through.  Other live versions include a laidback take on his own classic, “Like a Rolling Stone”.

“Days of 49” is one of the most Dylanesque tracks here, the midtempo song takes in storytelling over six verses. Dylan tackles a Gordon Lightfoot song in “Early Mornin’ Rain” then on side two, a country sounding version of a song made popular by The Everly Brothers’ “Let It Be Me”.  The sentimental “Blue Moon” makes an appearance but the most memorable cover is his version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”.  Sung as a duet with himself in two different singing styles, it is difficult to make out if it’s a tip of the hat to his contemporaries or a parody of one of their most beloved songs.

For listeners coming to Self Portrait for the first time, expectations will be low as the album has been maligned for years.  While certainly not a lost classic, there are several songs that are worthy of repeated listens.  It would have been hard at the time to make sense of what Dylan later described as a joke album and saying that the album is a pleasant background listen when it’s made by the voice of a generation is faint praise.  But all these years later, Self Portrait does indeed make for a pleasant listen.

6.5/10