The Rough Guide To Jug Band Blues

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A brilliant release

Amazon seem to have mixed up reviews from several Rough Guides here.  To be clear: this is a review of The Rough Guide To Jug Band Blues.

This is excellent, like all the Rough Guides to various blues genres.  It is very well curated and the sound is very good.

The music itself is wonderful.  Jug Bands were a very varied bunch and some of the music here is stretching the definition of blues pretty widely, but that's fine with me.  The tracks vary from the well-known, like the wonderful, stomping opener, He's In The Jailhouse Now to the downright obscure, but every one is a gem in its own right.  There is a wealth of wonderful, high-energy playing, some top-class singing (try Memphis Minnie!) and the whole thing is an absolute pleasure from start to finish.

The remastering is excellent.  The sound reflects the period, of course, but much of the hiss and crackle has been very well cleaned up and there's a surprising and gratifying amount of jug bass audible on quite a few tracks.

I think this is an absolutely brilliant release and I can recommend it very warmly.

Chvrches - Love Is Dead

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Another good album from Chvrches

Love Is Dead is another very good album from Chvrches.  They haven't really changed their formula of melodic, danceable electro-pop with fine, multi-tracked vocals from Lauren Mayberry delivering good lyrics.  I'm glad they haven't branched out much, because they do this very well indeed; this may not be an absolute classic, but it's an extremely enjoyable album with some very durable music on it.

If you liked Every Open Eye, you'll know you're on safe ground from the moment you hear the opener, Graffiti, and the album continues with a good, varied selection of tracks including some pretty obvious potential stadium anthems – which is just fine  by me because it's what they're good at.  The lyrics are again evocative, thoughtful and sometimes political.  Probably all I need to say is that if, like me, you like Chvrches first two albums, then you'll like this.  It's a very good band writing and performing at their best, I think, and warmly recommended.

Elmore James - 1951-1953

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Classic Elmore James

This collection of early Elmore James is an absolute delight.  I'm no James expert, so I can't make in-depth comparisons with other collections, but for me, this is the great man at his best.  Urgent, driving and often quite raw, it's slide guitar and singing of real skill and brilliance.  The sound quality reflects the era, so it's a bit iffy and distorted at times, but it's not enough to be a real problem and for me it just adds to the thrill of the music.

There's a good variety of stuff here and it's an album I can listen to from start to finish without ever feeling that it's getting samey; on the contrary, I often find that I'm smiling and even unconsciously dancing a little.

Real blues buffs will have more to say about this; I'm just an enthusiast, but speaking as an enthusiast, I can recommend this very warmly indeed.  I love it.

Taj Mahal - Taj Mahal

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Still an outstanding album

This is Taj Mahal's first album from 1968, and it's an absolute cracker.  Fifty years later, the man is a blues legend and it's easy to see why from this album.  It's a varied selection of electric blues at its very best, superbly backed by a small band, well produced and Taj Mahal's playing and especially his singing is just sensational. 

There's not much more to be said; if you like the blues you'll almost certainly love this and it is very, very warmly recommended.

Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Still a superb album

This remains a superb album.  My original vinyl copy was a treasured possession in the 60s (I still have it) and half a century later I can still see why.

Paul Simon really began to show his genius and originality as a songwriter on this album.  After the excellent Sounds Of Silence earlier in 1966, this moves into new territory both lyrically and musically, and the production is exceptional.  There are some deservedly very famous songs here, including Scarborough Fair and the 59^th Street Bridge Song (and Homeward Bound on the CD release which was never on the UK vinyl album and for me sounds incongruous here).  However, the delicate Cloudy or the fabulous For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her, to which I used to break my teenage heart are equally good, as are the witty A Simple Desultory Philippic, the thoughtful The Dangling Conversation and others.  It's class from start to finish.

This may not be Simon & Garfunkel's best-known album, but it's a piece of quiet excellence which for me really marks the coming of age of Paul Simon as one of the greatest songwriters of our age.  Very warmly recommended.

Brewer and Shipley - Karma Collection

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Rather bland and uninspiring

I'm probably in an unpopular minority here, but after getting on for 40 years I don’t think Brewer and Shipley's work has lasted very well.

There are some very good things about this release: it's excellent value for four albums, the sound quality is good and I think it's great that they have just put the original albums onto two CDs rather than bloat the reissue with a lot of dodgy "bonus" material.  My problem is with the music itself, which at this distance sounds pretty bland and rather dull to me.  It's a pleasant enough sound which formed a background to a lot of illicit smoking in student rooms, but it's not really much more than that, I'm afraid.  Take their version of All Along The Watchtower, for example; it's a cosy, undemanding, sub-Eagles treatment which robs it of much of its mystery and poetic power – and that's how almost all of this release strikes me nowadays.

There's nothing actively wrong with any of it and at this price it may well be worth having a nostalgic record of some of the music of the time, but I was disappointed in how uninspiring I found it and I won't be listening to it much, I'm afraid.

Joni Mitchell - Clouds

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Still great

Clouds is still a very fine album.  It is Joni Mitchell's second album from 1969 and it already shows her astounding virtuosity and originality as a songwriter, guitarist and singer.  The songs have the depth and beauty to have endured for almost half a century and still shine brightly.

Like a lot of people, I heard Judy Collins's version of Both Sides Now on the radio when I was 15, heard Joni Mitchell's name for the first time in the back-announcement and bought Clouds, which had recently been issued.  Starting with Tin Angel was a bit of a shock to my young, musically naïve ears, with its moody, atmospheric feel, slightly strange-sounding melody and original chord structures.  That applied to a lot of the rest of the album, too, but I'd invested a lot of pocket money in it so I stuck with it and it was the start of a life-long love of Joni Mitchell's music – and of this album.  It's a genuine classic and warmly recommended.

Dave Edmunds - Repeat When Necessary

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Still a great album

I bought this LP in 1979 and have loved it ever since.  It is Dave Edmunds doing what he does best with the people he does it best with.

This is the classic Rockpile lineup of Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Billy Bremner and Terry Williams, with a couple of guest appearances – most notably a quite astonishingly brilliant guitar solo from Albert Lee on the wonderful Sweet Little Lisa.  There are three more stone-cold classics in Girls Talk, Crawling From The Wreckage and Queen of Hearts and the rest is good stuff, too – although I've never been that keen on Creature From The Black Lagoon.  As an album it's a joy – full of life, driving Rock & Roll beats and great performances from a bunch of very fine musicians.

After all these years, I still play and love Repeat When Necessary.  It's a genuinely great album in my view – and I don’t use the word lightly.  Very warmly recommended.