Posted in Album Reviews

Julia Holter – Something In The Room She Moves (2024)

Posted on by Michael

Like everyone over the last few years, Julia Holter has had her fair share of challenges.  Becoming a mother during COVID, contracting the virus and losing her voice, plus the loss of family including her 18 year old nephew. Pitchfork lists her newest album, Something In The Room She Moves as “experimental” which is an apt term.  Melding jazz, ambient, RnB, etc into a blend that drifts along dreamily over the 50+ minute running time.

First single and song, “Sun Girl” creates a disorienting sensation including a bit of a jazz feel. The title track turns on sophisticated RnB with a touch of Kate Bush where she sings, “What I seek could be so nice” on one of the album’s highlights. “Spinning” has thumping percussion with a 70s synth that does that retro yet futuristic thing with a catchy chorus where Holter sings “I’m in the way/the tears are mine”.

Like her past albums, there is a lot to like on Something In the Room She Moves including the soft touch of closing track “Who Brings Me”.  The album as a whole can be a laidback challenge to listen as she experiments (there’s that word again) with sound and atmosphere.  Somehow, Julia Holter always makes it compelling with a desire to hear more of what she’s working on.  Adding a more straightforward, for her at least, couple of songs would make it a bit more accessible to a wider audience but for many, we’re happy to follow where she takes us.

7.5/10

Posted in Album Reviews

The Lovin’ Spoonful – Greatest Hits (2000)

Posted on by Michael

The New York based 60s folk rock group The Lovin’ Spoonful released their first single, the #9 single “Do You Believe In Magic” in July of 1960. The track sees singer John Sebastian talk of the pure joy of music and leads off their Greatest Hits album from 2000.  Coming in at a generous 26 songs, three of the first five tracks are classic 60s folk pop songs. “Daydream” has an old timey feel complete with a whistle bit for fans to join in.  The easy going “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind” captures the hardship of having to choose between two potential partners in a situation that is “not often easy and not often kind”.

Those songs see The Lovin’ Spoonful at their best, much of the rest of the album is a pleasant batch of songs that sound like they could be strummed around a beach campfire or appear in the background of a movie. Another top ten hit, “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice” has a nice melody, “Darling Be Home Soon” adds strings/horns on an introspective soundtrack song, and “Jug Band Music” is a fun upbeat number. The one standout from this is arguably their best song – “Summer In the City”.  The track captures the essence of New York City in the stifling heat of the summer complete with car horns honking, “but at night it’s a different world/go out and find a girl”.  The grit and coolness of the city oozes out of the #1 hit.

Within a few short years, the group over.  Complications due to founder/guitarist Val Yanovsky’s arrest for marijuana in 1966 helped in the demise with Sebastian leaving a couple years later. Drummer Joe Butler carried on the band’s name for one more album where he was the only original member. Surprisingly it turned out a very good ending track for this compilation with “Never Going Back”.  Over the last 50 years, The Lovin’ Spoonful’s handful of hits have lived on forever on AM radio.

7/10

Posted in Album Reviews

The Libertines – All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade (2024)

Posted on by Michael

While reviewing the first single from the new album by The Libertines, Justin Hawkins ponders if the band has moved into legendary status.  With a 20+ year recording career but only 4 group albums, sometimes the band is more myth than legend but “Run Run Run” is a perfect beginning to All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade.  “It’s a life long project of a life on the lash” as the band incites excitement with sped up drums and handclaps.

The main duo of Carl Barat and Pete Doherty have not lost their way with words.  On a song about immigration, Doherty sings of England and its “chalk cliffs, once white, they’re greying in the sodium light”.  “I Have A Friend” includes the line “the tears fall like bombs without warning” on a song based on Russia’s attack on the Ukraine. “Songs They Never Play On The Radio” is a track for the end of a pub night, with the lads hoisting pints with arms around each other.

The Libertines manage to work in lore about the band with talk of Arcadia and the Albion Rooms. Several of the tracks are dark and moody, and feel like they are from a different time entirely.  “Shiver” is a highlight that speaks of Queen Elizabeth’s death and watching the dying empire fade away. Before long they shift gears again to have bit of a knees up with “Oh Shit” that is all riffs and sing along choruses. It’s nice having the band in full run again as they settle into being a fine middle aged UK rock band.

7.5/10

Posted in Paper Chase

Albert Camus – The Stranger

Posted on by Michael

The Stranger written by Albert Camus was first published in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of France.  The book is written in the first person of Meursault and is broken into two parts.  At the start of the book, Meursault attends his Mother’s funeral in the country.  He shows little emotion during the small, sparsely attended ceremony before returning to his home in Algiers. Several days later while at the beach with friends, he kills an Arab stranger for no apparent reason. 

The second half of the book then deals with the trial as everyone tries to figure out what made him do it.  Meursault wonders why everyone keeps trying to attach meaning to the events that lead up to the murder.  The book is highly celebrated as being one of the best novels ever written. It’s a simply written, straightforward story that is filled with far deeper meaning than what is written on the page. Far smarter people than me will say it’s a book on existentialism and absurdism.  I just found it utterly fascinating. 

10/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Pet Shop Boys – Nonetheless (Deluxe) (2024)

Posted on by Michael

Even though they haven’t released a studio album since 2020, Pet Shop Boys never seem far away from the music pages.  A tour with New Order, a Soft Cell collaboration, a Noel Gallagher remix, an EP, etc. Nonetheless started its campaign with the strings and classical swirl of first single “Loneliness” before it ends with a throbbing dancefloor ready beat.  Neil Tennant sings that “you make me feel like nobody else can” on “Feel” over a bed of synths and a melody that sounds like a sped up ballad.

Working with superstar producer James Ford, this was the highest charting UK album for the duo since the mid 90s.  Many of the tracks look inward including “Why Am I Dancing” that has ecstatic horns to start as an old raver wonders why they are dancing/celebrating while being alone.  Tennant raps a verse on “New London Boy” that captures the joy and hardships of joining the gay scene in the big smoke in the 70s.

Nonetheless is a well produced album that sees Tennant and partner Chris Lowe expertly record their sound in 2024.  As the album goes on, a few of the songs are just OK.  “A New Bohemia” is a sweeping ballad and “The Schlager Hit Parade” adds a strummed acoustic guitar and a chorus that is the most immediate on the album. It’s not revelatory but instead works as a solid outing for this electronic royalty.

The deluxe version adds 4 redone classic tracks for about an extra $10.  For the most part, the reworkings take out the personality and punch that made the originals classics to begin with.  The hard beat of “Heart” is washed out and the story behind “Being Boring” disappears. Best of the bunch is “It’s a Sin” that for better or worse updates the sound to a more modern approach.

Nonetheless – 7/10

Deluxe Extras – 6/10