Random Review 2011 #5 Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms

C5S10CD15 Leads me to Patrick - Watson Wooden Arms. So where do I start, here is what I know or what I think I know about the band called Patrick Watson.

Although Patrick Watson is the mainstay of the band, Patrick Watson is a band rather than an individual and they hail from Canada, Quebec I think, although don't hold me to that.

If you add their music to your i-tunes library it automatically categorises the music as 'Rock' and truthfully the music of Patrick Watson is miles away from Rock as I see it.

I'm not sure how I came to have CD's by Patrick Watson, I bought Close To Paradise first, and I bought this blind on the back of a review (I do this a lot!) I think they said that the music was progressive and being a fan of Porcupine Tree, Pure Reason Revolution, and Black Mountain I took a chance on finding some new progressive rock music. What I got was not what I expected but something truly exciting. Patrick Watson are progressive if you mean they they are progressing music in a way that is not being done anywhere else, like Radiohead did after they threw the book out after OK Computer then they are progressive. I can only describe the music as Radiohead playing folk music, the songs on the most are unstructured to some extend and sometimes build adding layer on layer of sound until you are completely engrossed in the music. I have no idea how many instruments were played on this CD but I'm sure it ain't just guitar, bass, and drums!

I found it hard to listen to this CD in the car, some music is easy to listen to in the car, driving chorus', and dashboard thumping lyrics. Some songs lend themselves to the car, (Don Henley's Boys of Summer for example) but this CD demands your attention and forces you to concentrate on the music, it pulls you in and when driving this might not be the best idea! Eyes front watch the road! I deserves your full attention sitting relaxing, with a good glass of red wine, if you are so inclined. You should give yourself the opportunity to become lost in the CD and let the beauty immerse you.

The stand out tracks for me are Beijing, and Big Bird In A Small Cage which is simply stunning. It reminds me of Sufjan Stevens Size Too Small a fragile masterpiece of a song. The vocals sound a bit like Devendra Banhart singing Radiohead around the time of Kid A, with the volume turned down to 5. That might sound mad but this is how it sounds in my head.

Both of the Patrick Watson CD's I have are great, my favourite track is The Great Escape from the previous album and I'm not even sure how many CD the band have released ( I know of at least one more) but have listened to this CD again I'm off to find more Patrick Watson music.

If you like the music of Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead and Devendra Banhart and also like a challenge then I highly recommend this CD. Take a chance I'm sure you'll enjoy.

Mark 8/10

Random Review 2011 #4 Doves Lost Souls

C3S3CD6 made me smile, although it was an album I hadn't listened to for a long time it was a album that I was familiar with and loved.

For some reason when I think of Doves I think of Elbow and vice versa. I'm not sure why this is, they don't sound like each other, or maybe they do a bit. They are both from the Lancashire area (I think) and both arrived on the music scene around the same time in 2000. I think they both remind me at times of the late works of Talk Talk, and this can only be a good thing as I love Talk Talk.

So on to the album, the cover has a very atmospheric black and white photograph of a boxer, and this sets the tone for the CD. I always thing of Doves early releases as a soundtrack to a beautifully shot B&W art house film that says very little but leaves you feeling really good about life by the time it finishes.

Doves are one of the few bands around now that manage to mix stylish instrumental pieces along side beautifully crafted pop songs and manage to make them all seem relevant and never make you want to skip a track. There is a completeness to this CD that makes you want to play the album from start to finish and in this day and age where artists persist in filling CDs with 70 minutes of music (20 of which is no more than average) when 50 minutes of brilliant music will more than keep me happy!

So 12 tracks, all killer no filler, Catch The Sun and Here It Comes, are typical Doves and couldn't be mistaken for anybody else, driving bass, and hook laden chorus' that stay in your head for days. If you haven't heard Doves before The Places Between a best of collection might be a better place to start but I suspect that once you have that you will be one set away from purchasing all the back catalogue.

Mark 9/10

Random Review 2011 #3 Cody ChesnuTT The Headphone Masterpiece

C7s11CD7 takes me to the genre of Nu or is it Neu Soul, and a CD I don't think I have listened to since I bought it in 2002, and after listening to it again it's unlikely it will ever grace my ears again!

That's a harsh opening sentence so lets rewind a little bit and give this release a fair crack of the whip.

I love soul music and although I struggle with rap music, some of the newer R 'n' B artists have produced song great soul music over the last few years.

Can I just ask why does music from artists like Beyonce, Mary J Blige, Alicia Keys etc get labelled as R 'n' B ? Where I come from this stands for Rythmn and Blues and means exactly that, and although what they do has Rythmn it ain't the blues!

So back to The Headphone Masterpiece, 36 tracks tracks over 2 CDs, ChesnuTT spelt with 2 capital T's in the surname, (don't ask I don't know) and a CD I bought on the strength of a review in a music magazine (Mojo I think) that said that this release was an essential purchase. So was it? Not for me and here is why.

36 tracks some which sound unfinished, like sketch's of songs that later would be worked into full songs or thrown away, 36 tracks that sound like they recorded in someone's bedroom. This is what I thought before I did a little research and found out that they were recorded in Cody's Bedroom.

I'm sure that there is a good album hidden in all these tracks but you get lost in the minute musings and expletive heavy raps. B!%@* I'm Broke (it's not me that censored this and I think if you want to swear in your songs at least have the bollocks to write it in the title!)) is a prime example of this. It's offensive and not needed and adds nothing to the album, other than a bad taste in your mouth.

So what are the good points, well The Seed is a great song, later covered by The Roots, parts is sound like Lenny Kravitz and the sometimes the vocals sound a lot like Terence Trett D'arby, and truthfully I don't hate this CD, it just needs editing down to get rid of the rubbish. (the wonders of i-tunes will allow me to do this)

In the past I would never have given a CD away, as it was part of my collection, good or bad, but as time goes by I realise it's more about economies of scale and quality over quantity, so if anybody would like this CD it's yours for the price of the postage just let me know!

Mark 3.5/10 (sorry Cody)

Random Review 2011 #2 Crosby Stills & Nash - Greatest Hits

Column 2 Shelf 12 CD1 (C2S12CD1) Brings me to Crosby Stills & Nash Greatest Hits. so here is what I know about the collective. Graham Nash was in The Hollies, David Crosby has been in jail, for drugs or fireman offences, (or both), he has donated sperm to Melissa Etheridge (she may turn up in this column in the future) to have 2 children, and they have all recorded solo and also as CSNY, the Y being Neil Young.

So they you go that is the abridged gossip relating to the album but I'm sure that I could write a book on the life and times of these 3 guys (and I suspect many have) but lets talk about the music.

After getting into Neil Young In started to read about the Californian music scene of the 1970's specifically what was know as the Lauren Canyon scene which included The Eagles, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell among others.

Prior to buying this the CD I didn't think I would know any of the tracks but I suspect unless you haven't had a TV set for the last 10 years you will have heard Our House www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZtJWJe_K_w as it was used for some building society advert in order to encourage us to switch mortgages or run madly into their offices with a wheel barrow of cash!

What you get on this CD is 19 tracks from 4 albums, the most famous of which is Deja Vu. Checking the CD insert it's notable that most of the tracks are written by one of the individuals and only a couple of tracks are co-written. They share lead vocals however this doesn't disjoint the album as all the songs share the beautiful harmonies that these guys were famous for. The track Guinnevere sounds like Midlake or I should say that Midlake sound a lot like the track Guinnevere, as the track out dates Midlake by some 25 years or more, but the medieval melodies are very similar. The quality of the songs is very high and you get the feeling that these guys really enjoyed what they were doing. Marrakesh Express seems to be one of the more popular tunes but it's Suite: Judy Blues Eyes that opens the CD that really gets me, a stunning 6.30 minutes of pure magic.

If you like The Eagles there will be lots to like here and also Crowded House fans might enjoy this.

Marks 8/10

Random Review 2011 #1 Train - For Me, It's You

OK so my first random choice was Column 7 Shelf 1 CD 6 (C7S1CD6) and that was Trains 5 studio release and 6th release over all if you include the live album imaginatively titled Alive at Last.

So where do I start, Train originate from San Francisco and truthfully other than singer the Pat Monahan who looks a bit like Kelly Jones' (Stereophonics) older brother, I would and could have walked past the rest on the group in the street and not recognised them.

I first came across Train with the release of the great single Drops of Jupiter which seemed to be all over VH1 and MTV in 2001 when I actually watched these channels. It was a blast of American Rock from a sunnier place that suited my musical taste perfectly back then. Looking back the lyrics were crap 'the best soy Latte that you ever had and me' really! I've been to San Francisco twice and still never heard anybody ask for a soy latte! However the hooks of the song are great and lyrics aside I love the song.

So then I like Train enough to have all their CD's and also Pat's solo release (just sounds like Train) but truthfully without the aid of my random selector if I was looking for a Train CD to play I would have picked Drops Of Jupiter or the recent release Save Me, San Francisco which includes the infectious Hey Soul Sister so straight away the new system has forced me a road I may not have travelled, so what did I think?

I'm on my second play and have to say I'm really enjoying it, it's no different from any other Train CD, songs about love lost, love, or trying to find love, delivered with a West Coast smile and a ray of optimism that makes you want to smile. Song titles like All I Ever Wanted, If I Can't Change Your Mind, and Am I Reaching You Now, give you an idea of where the CD's sentiments lie. The lyrics are sometimes basic and childish but they are delivered in such a way that you want to punch the air sing along and in my case find a beautiful woman in the street and give her a bunch of flowers, (yes I'm that twee sometimes) I'm sure if I lived in California I would be doing it all the time!

Last night when I listened to the CD I thought to myself if Train brought out a Best of Cd how many of these tracks would make it onto the CD and my thoughts were 2 or 3 max. I still think this is the case but as last night I thought the choice was easy this morning the choice seems a lot harder. All I Ever Wanted is a killer track and a perfect lead off track and single, but tracks like Cab and Always Remember have really grown on me.

If you like bands the Goo Goo Dolls and fancy a change, or just want to be transported to the West Coast of America for 50 minutes then Train will be worth checking out.

I have really enjoyed listening to this album and sure I will revisit it sooner rather than later and it's inspired me to set up a Train Playlist for my i-Pod.

Mark 6.5/10

Random Reviews 2011

OK as you can see I have a few CD's by my rough calculating about 1800 on the shelves you can see. That doesn't include the box sets on the top, digital downloads, and stuff I haven't listened to yet, (it doesn't get sorted until it's been listened to at least twice!) but it's a good few to be starting with.

The Cd's are sorted by genre and alphabetically (sad I know) but truthfully their is a lot of CD's I haven't listened to in a long time and I have decided to do something about this in 2011.

So here is the plan, using a very complicated system (numbered cards in envelopes!) it's my intention to randomly select a CD at least three times a week and review the said CD) When I thought this up I was going to do a CD a day but realistically I don't think I could do this, so a minimum of 3 per week seems achievable, some might be old favourites and some might be re-discoveries and in one or two cases it might be Cd's I forgot I had!

I'm going to be a true as I can to the card selection, but as we all know from watching the lottery numbers sometimes "the balls fall strangely" and much that I'd be happy to review Dave Matthews Band Cd's for weeks on end I'm sure you'd get bored of yet another review of a 30 minute jam of the song #41, so maybe every now and again I might have to throw one back but hey I'll let you know!

Right I'm off to pick the first CD of 2011 so hold tight, I'll be back soon!

My Year In Gigs....

36 gigs at 17 different venues, in 5 different towns and cities from the old gospel of Mavis Staples to the cutting edge of Grizzly Bear, 2010 has been a great year for live music and here is some of my highlights.

January

Midlake brought their medieval sound The Cluny and managed to get 6 musicians on the stage which is to be commended. A great way to start the New Year.

February

Band Of Skulls where brilliant and I expect great things from them in 2011, and Tom McRae brought his wit wisdom and beautiful songs to Newcastle. (But more of Tom later)

March

Grizzly Bear challenged me musically something Yeasayer would do later in the year, making music that pushed the boundaries but sounded amazing. My love affair with the Dave Matthews Band saw me visiting Manchester Apollo for an amazing gig, supported by Alberta Cross, DMB were brilliant again, one of the most exciting live bands and although unfashionable on these shores I love them! I also saw the Stereophonics at Newcastle Arena and although the band were good I swore never to go to another gig at The Arena, a soulless, huge metal box of a venue, that leaves me cold every time I go to see a gig there.

April

Laura Marling, Tyne Theatre, engaging, old beyond her years, and a mega star in waiting. The Duke And The King at The Cluny turned out to be one of my gigs of the year, truly amazing and I would recommend anybody to see them. I smiled for hours after the gig. Look them up on YouTube playing outside The Cluny just brilliant.

May

Saw me attend 5 gigs and a festival, all bar 1 of the gigs were really not worth mentioning, but I again enjoyed the even expanding Evolution Festival on Newcastle Quayside, Ellie Goulding surprised me (very good) Paulo Nutini was everything I expected him to be (a shining star) and Lissie and Ben Howard were brilliant even though there was only a handful of people there to see them. 2011 will see Iggy Pop and Plan B headline so another exciting weekend beckons.

Of the gigs Natalie Merchant at The Sage Gateshead was simply mesmerising, promoting her Leave Your Sleep CD we were treated to 2 hours of stories and music than was enthralling.

June

The World Cup made sure that there was very few gigs booked in June so my diary was blank, however looking back I could have done with a distraction!

July

I was back with a bang, 5 gigs, David Ford at The Cluny was stunning on a very hot night, playing with an intensity that had the crowd braying for more. Newton Faulkner at Middlesbrough Empire was again cool, funny and entertaining, his one man Bohemian Rhapsody was a think to behold!

August

Again no gigs, so on to September.....

September

Wilco were everything I wanted them to be vibrant, intense, a little bit grumpy, but truly exciting!

Joanna Newsom and Fyfe Dangerfield were both excellent showing why their crowds are growing with each tour.

October

I Am Kloot played a great gig at The Cluny spoilt by a few drunken Geordies intent on getting drunk and talking loudly!

Tom McRae played the North East for the second time in October and The Sgae Gateshead was the best of the two, cardboard cut outs of Johnny Depp covers of Rihanna and members of the audience singing on stage, what's not to like!

November

Saw me take off to Seattle, 5 nights 4 gigs, the best of which, was Mavis Staples, gospel soul at it's best.

December

The Tallest Man On Earth (He's Not) was special, the venue was a church in Salford and his music suited the venue perfectly, beautifully crafted songs sung with a reverence that matched the surroundings.

I also saw the Goo Goo Dolls who brought their slick Amercian rock to Newcastle although good, I felt it was just one of many gigs they do and it could have been anywhere in the world. I know this is the case for most touring bands but it felt like it with the GGDs.

David McAlmont cancelled his December gig and that is where my year ended.

My Top 5 gigs of the Year were;

1. Dave Matthews Band
2. David Ford
3. The Duke and The King
4. Tom McRae
5. Natalie Merchant

I 2011 I have taken a vow of only seeing artists I haven't seen before and I already have 8 gigs lined up. Band of Horses, The Hold Steady, Mogwai, Rumor, David McAlmont, Iron & Wine, and John Grant and Teddy Thompson so it's already looking like a great year. I'm cheating a bit with Teddy Thompson as I'm really going to see the support ( David Ford) but hey I have never seen Teddy Thompson.

I'll keep you informed as the year unfolds but in the meantime keep it live and support live music!