New

So, here we are, a new year... Okay, ANOTHER new year, my last post was in December 2010, so let's pretend 2011 wasn't and it's not been that long at all.

Except it has. So, I had a dust round and gave the old girl a lick of paint. Bam.

I think the problem was the format. I was strict about it being album reviews, which took a long time to write, so I didn't. From now on it's a blog about music, that's all. Hopefully that's broad enough to entertain me.

I doubt  it though.

As you were.

The Christmas Songs You Might Not Know You Need

Let's face it, we're all listening to the essentials, but are there any less well known ones you're missing?

Yes. These may be some of them.

Of course there are also some I'm missing, so tell me if there are any you know of that aren't here.

Donner And Blitzen - Badly Drawn Boy SPLINK

The soundtrack to the film About a Boy is crazily good. Seriously, there is no reason for it to be anywhere near as good as it is. Tucked away at the end is this little gem. It's a little bleak if you listen to the lyrics, but it's just so damn Christmassy. It's been in so many adverts over the years that I'm sure you'll recognise 30 second snippets from it. Any song that can pull off the line "Baby it's not your sleigh-ride" must be good.


It's Clichéd to be Cynical at Christmas - Half Man Half Biscuit SPLINK

 In true HMHB tradition, a song that is in danger of being just a brilliant title for a song. It manages to avoid this by inserting pure distilled Christmas music to the degree that you don't even have to listen to the lyrics if you don't want to. It's got choirs of children, strings and oddly I Saw 3 Ships Come Sailing in. What more could you possibly want?


Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) - The Darkness SPLINK

Okay, so you may know it, but do you know it's actually really quite good? You sort of assume The Darkness are bad, but they're really not. In fact the whole of Permission to Land is most definitely worth a re-listen. Yeah, it's overblown and slightly ironic, but hey, why shouldn't it be? It's also pretty much guaranteed to get stuck in your head so it's value-for-listen; you can hear it all day.


Lonely This Christmas - Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine SPLINK

If you've heard of Carter USM you probably find it heard to imagine how this will sound, unless you know it already. If you haven't then you're probably still sniggering at the name. Don't deny it, I'm watching you. But I really don't understand what's so hard to grasp, it's a indie-punky acoustic version of a WHAM song, so what? But yeah, if your Christmas is feeling over-polished and too commercial, this is what you need. 


Songs for Christmas - Sufjan Stevens SPLINK

Okay, okay, it's not really a Christmas Song, more a 5 CD collection of 42 Christmas songs. But being a 5 CD collection of 42 Christmas Songs, I'm not going to go scouring through it trying to find the best one for you. Therefore I'll just tell you that, overall, it's good. There's a bit of padding, granted, but there are some crackers (please, no pun) too.


Have Yourself a Very KT Christmas - KT Tunstall SPLINK

Well, if I'm allowing myself albums now, we'll have this one. When you think about it, of course KT Tunstall should have a Christmas EP, she's just got one of those voices. Granted, a fifth of it is a cover of Fairytale of New York which I haven't even brought myself to listen to. But the rest of it's ace. It's also got 2000 Miles on it which is apparently that Christmas song, you know THAT one, which you never knew the name of.


Well, come on, show me what you've got for me, now. Tweet me or comment, whatever, I don't care.

Merry Christmas and all that.

A Statement of Regret.

To whom it may concern,

You may remember that, in my last post, I called The Brute Chorus a tiny little bit pretentious in relation to their addition of the clapping and general "look at us we're so live"-ing. Well, a chap called daniel: record-play commented on the post saying that it actually was, you know, recorded live in a single take. While I feel a bit of a plum, I feel most of the blame lies with whatever genius recorded it to such a level that I actively refused to believe it could have been live. It is quite literally incredible.

But nonetheless, I was wrong, libellous and just plain rude. In future, I promise to do at least some research before being any of those things.

Also, apparently it's "Tigs from Chew Lips", and I did research that one. That'll teach me for trusting information found on music blogs.

Deepest Apologies all round,
Magnificent Josh

The Brute Chorus - The Brute Chorus

Warning: The following post frequently refers to my opinion as your's . I feel I should point out that I'm not egotistical or insane, just generalising.

At the risk of developing a pattern, this band are just the sort of band I hate. You probably know the sort I mean. They take photos of themselves in Black and White, they make people think they can speak French, they have haircuts and wear coats. Ghastly, isn't it. Except it isn't, and they're not and their album's kind of bitchin'.

You would expect me to say, then, that as soon as you play the first track, Hercules, you realise just how wrong you are. But no, you will experience a cowbell, the word "Hercules" repeated repeatedly, just what you'd expect from a black and white, not french, haircut coat band. It's disgusting, I mean, yeah the lyrics are good and when the tune comes in it's really kind of excellent and actually it's really quite ironic and funny and...

Balls. 
You realise you like it.

Okay. So now, they're not a sickening clone of a "we're so different" band, they actually are a "different" band. Like a turophobe finding the one variety of cheese they're not irrationally afraid of, you will realise that you don't hate all those other bands because of what they are, but because of what they're not. What they're not is Brute Chorus.

In fact, what Brute Chorus are is clever, madcap, experimental, loveable and only pretentious in the very weak manner that only occasionally makes you want to slap them. Yes I find it somewhat disheartening that they try and pretend the album's live by ending every track in applause; we're not fooled, it doesn't seem arty it just seems like you're trying to trick us into thinking you're playing live. You sit there, seething, until the next song lurches into being. It could be Grow Fins*, a little ditty about just going with life / a biblical flood and enjoying it.

"LET'S GROW FINS
Let it rain, oh let it rain"

Quite. And it's happy and manic and sounds like the indie-music equivalent of a brightly coloured clown on an out of control merry-go-round. Except not menacing. You may think you've got a handle on them but then their next song's called Nebuchadnezzar, named for the King who invaded Judah and Jerusalem and enslaved the Jews. There's a lot of that sort of reference.

Blind Ulysses is a moody, ambient ballad. The Cuckoo & The Stolen Heart is a duet with someone who is apparently "Tigs from Fiction", a furious skiffly hoedown of a number about death, deception and d...eath. Send Me a Message is a bitter cannonball of music. My point is that there really is a large amount of stuff here.

If I had to pick a single track as my favourite, though, it'd definitely be Chateux. I know, I know, after all I said about the French thing, you really can call me a hypocrite for this one. But come on, listen to it and disagree. It's the story of a dilapidated house set to, to all intents and purposes, random chords. It shouldn't work. It shouldn't work at all. But it really does. Completely. If you're not going to bother listening to the whole album, you have to at least listen to Chateux, come on, for me.

"I was lonely when you got here, I'll be lonely when you go,

So why should I let you in, my dear, that's what I'd like to know."

I do advise you to listen to it though, it's crazy stuff. And yet there's not a bit that doesn't work (except for the "live" thing). But, as so often happens when I'm in the process of writing these things, they've released a new album. I'll just do a quick review of it, just to stop you moaning.

This be the first single from it:



It's a little bit more grown up, as an album. It's more serious. There's no cannonballs, clowns or cheese, just good, clever, drummy indie tunes. And yet... when I listened to the first album for the first time I couldn't stop. I pretty much listened to it twice through and added half the tracks to my playlist right away. There's none of the with How the Caged Bird Sings. Don't get me wrong, it's not at all soulless or bad or anything; Lazarus, Could this be Love and Whipping Boy are excellent songs. In fact, most of them are. As a cohesive (or maybe not, maybe that's the thing) album, The Brute Chorus is just fantasticer. 


If you are a member of The Brute Chorus reading this after Googling the name, then do not be disheartened. I LOVE YOU, although I love 2009 you better than 2010 you and I feel I should not love either of you. Maybe I am just an indie tosser after all. I love it.

Goodbye.
That was a long one...

(I have since published this)

*The status of connection to Captain Beefheart's song of the same name is unknown.

Jamie Cullum - The Pursuit

SPLINK (spotify link, you see)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that some preconceptions are just right; Coldplay really are a bit too pretentious, Lily Allen's accent is ridiculous and, in respect to today's topic, Jamie Cullum's kind of slappable.

...and he's mean to pianos

So I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when I listened to The Pursuit (his last album, it's not new or anything, I just thought I'd accidentally slap something if I listened to it) and found that his music is entirely non-slapworthy. If you've listened to Amy Winehouse's Frank and thought "This is quite good, but I just wish she was a man, I'm not a bigot or anything, I just think women should stay in the crack-den." then you might just agree with me. Now, that's not a perfect analogy for at least 2 reasons. 1, that you could well like it if you haven't thought that and 2, that you might not like it if you have. But what can you do?

The album (remember the album, this is a blog about the album*) is a jazzy, poppy, rocky, hippitty-hoppitty affair but with the emphasis heavily on the jazzy bit. Of course, Jimmy C's pianoing fingers feature heavily, and there's solos and scatting and organs and saxes and bongos and everything you'd expect from a jazz thing. That being said, most of the tracks are pop-music lengths and there's "Rawking on the Daancefloor, actin nawty", which is something they do quite a lot in popular music isn't it? It's accessible, often loungey jazz that's hardly going to cause any revolutions but equally won't scare anyone away.

The overall tone isn't overly different to, say, Frank and is surprisingly varied. It can be upbeat-OH, Youtube video! Sorry, it's been a while.


As I was saying, the album does stuff like that, and then goes and does something verging on proper jazz and will then go spiralling off into actual pop like you've blown the tail rotor right off it's helicopter. Luckily, before crashing into the wooded hills of normalcy it uses a big jazzy parachute and somehow soars into the sky, breaking all laws of logic as it does so. I think I love is pure lounge, well it's got a string section too, but apart from that it's just James and his piano in a slow, plinky-plinkplonk-plonky. Then KABOOPH! straight in with We Run Things Another Way an odyssey in drum loops and layered synths. Then comes a cover of Not While I'm Around, that song from the end of Sweeney Todd.

The Pursuit may not be cutting edge stuff, but it's a well-thought out, stylish album that'll appeal to most of the people with ears. It's well balanced, diverse and manages to pull off everything it tries to do. It's even got a couple of singles that you'll have heard. Wheels, I'm all Over it, Mixtape, you may not be able to hum any of them at the moment but you'll remember them if you listen through the album.

Speaking of which, for all I know you've already listened to it, it could be popular for all I know. I'm so out of touch. He's got a new one out now, Devil May Care, which I'd have reviewed if I'd have listened to it yet. It's much more "proper jazz" than this one and will almost certainly be worth a listen. It looks like this:

Cullum is also host of Radio 2's Jazz show (LINK) which is definitely worth a listen every week.

The moral of this post is that just because you want to physically hurt a person doesn't mean they don't make an excellent album. Well probably 2 excellent albums. And a radio show. And actually, seeing as I haven't listened to any of his older albums, they're probably good too. And he's friends with Clint Eastwood.

Moral...


*500 points if you can name me that reference


EDIT: Devil May Care appears to be a compilation of collaborations, so I'll let myself off a bit.

Advanced Aural Fixation

I'm working on a proper post, I promise. But for now you've got to put up with what I have for you here.

It's the second instalment of Aural Fixation.

It's a bit mellower than the first, perfect for a bit of unwinding, everyone seems to be a bit stressed of late. It's still got a mixture of stuff I've reviewed and stuff I just think you should listen to. So listen to it and, as the kids say, "chillax".

Apologies again to my dedicated Japanese contingent, in not too many months, it won't matter any more though.

Also, awesome Spotify updates.

Plan B - The Defamation of Strickland Banks

The Defamation of Strickland Banks LINK
Who Needs Actions when You've Got Words LINK

There's a real problem with The Defamation of Strickland Banks. It's not Plan B, I love his voice. It's not the music. It's definitely not the combination of motown sensibilities with all the grittiest Brittiest rapping. The problem is, it's really popular.

Plan B was a singer-songwriter for many years. He wrote nice songs and sung them nicely. Nobody would give him a record deal because everyone said he looked a bit like Justin Timberlake.

Well... sort of... a bit, if you squint and squeeze him in a bit. But this made poor Mr B a bit angry, no one was listening to him because he was too nice. He'd show them, he'd make the least nice album had ever made. He did that indeed. He made Who Needs Actions when You've Got Words, which sounds like The Streets had been beaten up in an alley. It's so, so dark but fully narrative. There's graphic murders, there's sex scenes, there's anger and violence and bile and fists and hair and tracksuit bottoms and it's all played on an acoustic guitar. I like it, I have to say.

But this is not the album I was supposed to be talking about, because after seeing how angry Mr B. had become, I like to think someone gave him a nice big hug and a cup of tea. After he'd calmed down he went back into the studio with his Best of Marvin Gaye CD. And when he came out he had made this:

Which sounds like this:




Which is, as you can hear, fantastic. The subtle interplay of that groove from the soul stuff overlaid with all that grit and grime make for a combination unlike anything else. It's like you've put a tiger and a polar bear in a cage to see which one will win and you accidentally end up with a piger bear. This is music made with the LHC; supercollided EPs. There's a future in it.

What we have here is The Defamation of Strickland Banks, a 6 track EP of this sort of stuff. It's such a joy to listen to, the groove sitting at the back is infectious enough but when that power drops down like a piano on a ostrich farm you wonder how you survived without it.

All of which brings us to the problem. You've probably heard that before, haven't you. It's been all over radio one and stuff. Why is this a problem? Because, my little fans, what sort of service is it I give you if I tell you to listen to music you already listen to?

Because I want you to realise how awesome it is.

If you're like me, then you don't listen to Radio One. You don't watch MTV. You think mainstream music these days is fairly dull and far too commercial. Maybe we're just being snobs. Maybe we're as blinkered as the people that can bare to listen to such twaddle. I mean, of course, most of it is fairly dull and far too commercial but this clearly isn't.

Anyway, it turns out that there's grander things at work. The EP is just a preview of things to come, those things being a short film featuring the music. Then he's going to make a whole album of the sort of stuff he used to do, maybe even more into a hip-hop vein. THEN he's directing a film and will then release the soundtrack. Apparently this is all for 2010.... good to see his got his feet on the ground.

I can't wait to see how much of that he gets done, should be awesome.

I managed to stay fairly on track today, is it a bit weird? Let me knooooowwww.