Erin Rae and The Meanwhiles - Soon Enough

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A good, interesting album

This was a wild punt in the dark for me after hearing a couple of samples – and it turns out to be rather a good album.  Erin Rae has a good voice, she writes a very decent song and it's a nicely made album.

It's not easy to categorize this music.  Americana is such a broad term that it doesn’t help much, but Erin Rae's music is slightly folky, slightly rocky in places, slightly quirky in others and is just a good, interesting and enjoyable listen.  Her vocal style reminds me somewhat of Alela Diane (which is a very good thing!) and although her songs aren't of Alela Diane's standard (yet, anyway), they're well crafted and interesting.  The band are excellent with restrained arrangements and unobtrusive but well-judged production, and I think this stands out a little from all the good Americana around at the moment.

This isn't an album to stand you on your ear on first hearing, but it's well worth listening to a time or two and allowing it to grow because there is quality here.  I'm glad I discovered this and I will be looking out for more from Erin Rae and The Meanwhiles.  I think they have a lot to offer and I'd recommend this to anyone who likes a thoughtful, musically and lyrically literate song.

Natalie Merchant - Natalie Merchant

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An outstanding album

This is a fantastic album, I think. I was bowled over by it when I first heard it and it has just got better on repeated hearing.

Although I've been aware of Natalie Merchant in a vague sort of way for a long time, this is the first album of hers that I have heard properly. It won't be the last: it features extraordinary songwriting, excellent singing and very good arrangements and production. You can get a sense of the album's tone from the artwork, featuring Merchant in a bleak, dirty concrete cell in varying degrees of thoughtfulness or despair. The music and lyrics aren't unremittingly miserable, but it's not one to get you in the mood for a fun night out, that's for sure. However, it has it redemptive moments and the music and performances are so compelling that it never becomes depressing.

I find it hard to give a real flavour of this album. Natalie Merchant is very much her own woman, but I get echoes of greats like Tracy Chapman, Patty Griffin and others. The music is varied, tuneful, often mournful and always very musically rewarding. Her lyrics are remarkable - allusive and suggestive rather than direct much of the time, and extraordinarily evocative of the daily struggle and the human condition as a result. This is fine, intelligent songwriting by someone who has honed her craft over many, many years and found her true individual voice.

I would suggest listening to some samples here (available on the mp3 page). If you like the sound of them, don't hesitate. This is a very fine piece of work with genuine depth and which is a pleasure to listen to. This will certainly be one of my stand-out albums of this year and it will last for a very long time, I think. Very, very warmly recommended.

Emily Barker - Dear River

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excetionally good

I think this is quite remarkably good. I hadn't heard Emily Barker before and I've plainly been missing out. This is an album of exceptionally thoughtful, atmospheric and musically fine songs with very good, original lyrics.

It's hard to categorize the style of this album (which is probably a good thing) but it has a sort of Americana feel but to me has a very English sound (Anglicana, perhaps?) - from an Australian artist, of course. The instrumentation of The Red Clay Halo is varied but is basically accordion, cello and viola with variations, and it gives a very distinctive sound which sets off Barker's songs perfectly. Her voice is very haunting and she can really put over a song, and the standard of musicianship throughout is consistently excellent. The production is great and the overall effect is a deeply involving, personal album which I find quite spellbinding.

The Limited Edition of Dear River includes a second version of the album consisting of acoustic demos. Usually I find such bonus material weak at best, but here it makes a terrific album itself. The stripped down versions of these songs, all apparently recorded in one day, are really good and in my view are well worth having.

I warmly recommend this album - I think it's something rather special.

Gregory Alan Isakov - The Weatherman

Rating: 3/5

Review:
A bit ordinary

I'm afraid this won't be a popular view, but I didn't think all that much of this album overall. Some individual tracks are quite pleasant in themselves, but as a whole album I really didn't think it added up to much.

I tried this because I heard some of the opener, Amsterdam, and thought it worth a try. The song has a mournful quality with Isakov's weary, slightly creaky vocals giving it quite a haunting atmosphere. The backing and instrumental work is OK but nothing that special...and that's what I thought throughout the album really. Second Chances is a nice enough song, too, but is pretty similar to Amasterdam in may ways - the strummed guitar, similar production and vocals an so on - and there's precious little real variety through the whole album. Looking below the surface, too, the lyrics don't add up to a lot for me, and in places - The Universe, for example - I found them almost painfully juvenile.

I'm sorry to be so critical. This album would be OK as background for late night atmosphere when you weren't listening to

Thea Gilmore - Regardless

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent album from one of Britain's best

This is an excellent album. It's among Thea Gilmore's best work, which is really saying something. After John Wesley Harding, which I didn't really see the point of to be honest, and the very good "collaboration" with Sandy Denny, Gilmore has returned to writing songs which are purely her own and which feature her trademark lovely tunes, terrific musical structures and thoughtful, intelligent lyrics. Her voice has always been simply fabulous and has lost none of it's quality, and she has a growing maturity in putting a song across.

There is a fine variety here with, for example, the rocking single Love Came Looking For Me, the atmospheric title track (which is a real stunner), the magnificent, declamatory Let It be Known, the lovely This Road - a song to her children - and the old, spiky Thea is still there in the edgy Spit And Shine. There isn't a duff song here, although some are stronger than others, of course. The arrangements are fuller than they often have been, but beautifully handled so that you get no feeling of corporate gloss over the songs, and the band are as good as ever.

Thea Gilmore is one of Britain's very best, in my view. She writes really good music and terrific lyrics and is a top-class singer and performer. I thought Murphy's Heart was a near-masterpiece. This isn't (yet) quite in that league for me, but it's very, very good. She says that she's "still trying to change the world, one minor chord at a time," and for me she's managing it. As Keats might have said, I have been half in love with easful Thea, and Regardless has only strengthened my love of her music and my deep admiration for her. I hope this fine album does something to gain her the wider recognition she richly deserves. Very warmly recommended.

Wendy Lanchin - Walking After Midnight

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A fine debut

Wendy Lanchin is a veteran of the North London jazz scene, but this is her first CD.  I think it's an excellent debut; it's a little outside my normal repertoire, but I really like it.

The music is quite eclectic.  Lanchin has chosen some jazz standards like the title track and My One And Only, but there is a wide range of material here from composers like Tom Waits, Kirsty MacColl, Suzanne Vega and others, and it makes for a really good, varied programme.

Wendy Lanchin is a fine singer with a lovely, flexible voice which is often a sort of dark velvet in texture – and I think she sounds simply fabulous in lower registers.  She has a real ability to put the songs over, and I think she has extremely classy phrasing and the ability to time and hit those difficult notes absolutely spot on and make them sound utterly natural.  Her fellow musicians are also excellent and very sympathetic to both the music and Lanchin's voice.  It's very well arranged and produced, so from the smoky, sultry Angel Eyes or Head through a lovely version of He Moved Through The Fair to the sexy swing of  Temptation, I find it all a real pleasure.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable collection of fine songs, very well performed.  What more could you ask for, really? Very warmly recommended.

Magic Bus - Summer of Love

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A brilliant compilation

The title of this compilation may be a bit misleading – most of these tracks don't come from the Summer Of Love in 1967, and Magic Bus isn't among them – but who cares?  It's a fantastic compilation of brilliant music, some of it not that easy to find. 

Personally, I love these eclectic compilations; anything which features Windy by The Association, Baba O'Reilly by The Who and Eric Burdon's warm San Francisco Nights gets my vote.  And, just at random, look at this sequence from CD3:

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

The Troggs - Wild Thing

Fleetwood Mac - Man Of The World

Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love

Enough said.  This is music which needs no critique from me.  It's brilliant, and very warmly recommended. 

Track List:

Disc: 1

  1. The Mamas & The Papas Monday Monday

  2. Flowerpot Men Let's Go To San Francisco

  3. The Lovin' Spoonful Daydream

  4. America Horse With No Name

  5. The Turtles Happy Together

  6. The Byrds Turn Turn Turn

  7. Mama Cass It's Getting Better

  8. Albert Hammond It Never Rains In Southern California

  9. Stephen Stills Love The One You're With

  10. Marmalade Reflections Of My Life

  11. David And Jonathan Lovers Of The World Unite

  12. The Association Windy

  13. The Herd I Don't Want Our Love To Die

  14. Eric Burdon & The Animals San Francisco Nights

  15. Traffic Paper Sun

  16. Spanky And Our Gang Lazy Day

  17. The Monkees Take A Giant Step

  18. The Easybeats Friday On My Mind

Disc: 2

  1. Joe Cocker With A Little Help From My Friends

  2. Cat Stevens Peace Train

  3. Simon & Garfunkel America

  4. Beach Boys Wild Honey

  5. Donovan Hurdy Gurdy Man

  6. Elton John Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

  7. Big Brother & The Holding Comapany Piece Of My Heart

  8. Bob Dylan Rainy Day Women 12 & 35

  9. Woody Guthrie This Land Is Your Land

  10. Arlo Guthrie Coming To Los Angeles

  11. Country Joe & The Fish I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag

  12. The Allman Brothers Band Melissa

  13. John Denver Rocky Mountain High

  14. Canned Heat Going Up The Country

  15. Jose Feliciano Light My Fire

  16. Bobby Hebb Sunny

  17. Fairport Convention Who Knows Where The Time Goes

  18. Grateful Dead Friend Of The Devil

  19. Melanie Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma

Disc: 3

  1. The Who Baba O'Riley

  2. Lynard Skynyrd Free Bird

  3. Deep Purple Smoke On The Water

  4. Steppenwolf Magic Carpet Ride

  5. The Troggs Wild Thing

  6. Fleetwood Mac Man Of The World

  7. Jefferson Airplane Somebody To Love

  8. Vanilla Fudge You Keep Me Hanging On

  9. The Fraternity Of Man Don't Bogart Me

  10. Grand Funk Railroad We're An American Band

  11. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Mr Bojangles

  12. The Moody Blues Om

  13. The Yardbirds Heart Full Of Soul

  14. Kenny Rogers & The First Edition Just Dropped In

  15. Three Dog Night Mama Told Me Not To Come

  16. Atomic Rooster Devil's Answer

  17. Status Quo Pictures Of Matchstick Men