Marc Jonson - Years

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A decent album

Years is not, as the blurb claims, a lost masterpiece, but it does have some good stuff on it. Marc Jonson’s debut album deserves to be released and Vanguard have done a good job of the remastering, so the sound is more than acceptable and the music is, by and large, pretty good. There are some good songs with intelligent lyrics and a baroque/psych tinge; I found echoes of the songwriting of James Taylor, Melanie Safka and some others. It does have its low points; A Long Song could do with being a much shorter song, for example, with seemingly endless repetitions of tedious stuff as a long, long outro. Overall, though, it’s a decent album and if you like early 70s singer-songwriter stuff, this is well worth a try.

Nicky Hopkins et al - Jamming With Edward

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Not great

This album sounds exactly like what it is; a bunch of great musicians amusing themselves by improvising some loose jams while waiting for the real recording sessions to start. It has its moments, of course – you’d expect nothing less from this bunch – but it’s not great. It’s a lot of noodling (very good noodling, admittedly) over a solid foundation from Watts and Wyman which doesn’t add up to much really. It wasn’t intended for realease, of course – I’m not even sure that they knew it was being recorded – so it’s probably unfair to criticise, but for me it’s not really an album to keep and play repeatedly. It’s one for real fans and completists, I think.

Joe Egan - Out Of Nowhere

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Pleasant but forgettable

I’m afraid I don’t think this album has aged well. Joe Egan was a fine performer to whom Stealers Wheel owed a good deal of their well-deserved success, but this solo effort isn’t in the same league as either Stealers Wheel or Gerry Rafferty’s own solo work.

As an album, it sounds very pleasant, with a pretty generic harmonised soft-rock sound, very decent vocal and instrumental performances and good production. The problem is the material, which really doesn’t add up to much at all, so the whole thing washes over me in a nice wave of sound and then vanishes from my memory.

I’m sorry to be critical because Joe Egan’s has left a fine musical legacy, but for me Out Of Nowhere isn’t a part of it.

J.S. Ondara - Tales Of America

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent debut

This is really good. I tried it because J.S. Ondara has an interesting backstory of immigration from Kenya to the USA, but it turns out to be rather special, I think.

Ondara has a beautiful, slightly breathy tenor voice which sometimes moves to falsetto and he writes very good, straightforward songs with thoughtful, intelligent lyrics. He sings of the joy of being in America and also of its struggles, and he sings with real heart; the combination gives his songs a genuine depth and sincerity which I find extremely engaging. The arrangements are generally quite simple, but this and pitch-perfect production gives a really atmospheric feel to the whole thing. Although their voices are wholly different, I think the album’s feel reminds me a little of Springsteen’s Nebraska – which is very high praise indeed.

I would urge you to try Tales Of America. I was surprised by how good it is and can recommend it very warmly.

Michael Chapman - True North

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A cracking album

This is a cracking album from Michael Chapman. I’ve been a fan since Rainmaker (50 years now); I’ve not always liked everything he has done but True North is one of his best, I think.

I reckon that Chapman was probably born sounding downbeat, world-weary and slightly indistinct, and he certainly hasn’t changed that. His voice is older now, but still has the evocative depth and delivery it always did. His guitar work is wonderful, of course, with a full, rich sound here and he understands the value of simplicity. There are times when, for me at least, he has taken this too far (Pachyderm springs to mind), but the balance here is perfect between melody and his guitar and other backing. So, for example we get the lovely instrumental Caddo Lake followed by the excellent Hell To Pay, a fine song with really classy lyrics.

This really is a very good album with no weaknesses and some very, very good stuff. Warmly recommended.

Beach Boys - Surf's Up

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Not great

I know a lot of people think this is one of the Beach Boys’ classic albums, but I can’t agree. For me, it’s a mixed bag of a couple of very good tracks – including the title song, which may possibly be classed as a classic track – some mediocre stuff and a couple of utter clunkers.

I thought when it came out that it was a long way from the Beach Boys glory days of surf classics like Fun, Fun Fun, then pop masterpieces like God Only Knows, Good Vibrations and so on, but one’s judgement aged 17 isn’t always the most reliable. However, revisiting it now, almost 50 years later, I think the same. There’s a sense of a band struggling to recapture lost magic and not managing it most of the time. Surf’s Up is still a very fine song, but much of the material is thin and relies far too heavily on arrangement and production, so although there’s a generic Beach Boys sound a lot of the time, it’s largely forgettable. Student Demonstration Time, their lyrically clumsy reworking of Riot In Cell Block #9, is pretty feeble and shows that pounding rock has never been their forte, while Take A Load Off Your Feet and A Day In The Life Of A Tree are to me just embarrassing.

This isn’t an album to be completely written off, but it’s a long way from their best. Other than the title track, I can’t see this finding its way into my player again any time soon.