Loudon Wainwright III - Late Night Calls (Live)

Rating 4/5

Review:
A welcome record, but not an LWIII classic

This is a recording of a radio broadcast made in Cleveland in 1972. Loudon Wainwright plays solo in a studio with a small live audience, in an extremely informal atmosphere. There's some good stuff on it, it's a nice record of Loudon's live style of the period and I'm glad to have it but it's not a brilliant album, to be honest.

There is some material which wasn't on studio albums but the songs are largely taken from his first three albums, for which I have a particular affection,. I still have my original vinyl copies bought at the time, and he signed the first two for me when I went to see him play live a couple of times on his first UK tour in 1972, so you can tell I'm a hard-core fan :o). I saw him play quite a few of these songs then, so I'm really pleased to have a reminder of that time and Loudon's witty, self-deprecating way of relating to an audience. The performances here are pretty good, but it sounds to me as though Loudon was a little disorientated by the shambolic-sounding way the recording was set up, so it doesn't quite have the electric excitement I felt at the time. The sound is decent but not brilliant, and the whole thing is one of those albums I'm glad to have heard and I'm glad to have, but which I won't play that often, I think.

LWIII fans like me will want this, of course, and no-one could be disappointed in it, but if you're just looking for early LWIII recordings, I'd recommend the first three studio albums well before this. Certainly if you're looking for a place to start with him, try the early studio albums first or Older Than My Old Man Now for a more recent gem. It's good, but it doesn't have quite the brilliance of a lot of Loudon's work.

The Beach Boys - Surfin' USA (mono & stereo)

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A welcome issue

It's good to have this on CD.  I was 9 years old when Surfin' USA first came out and it's a real pleasure to me to be able to hear it in clean, well-transferred digital sound.

The music itself is…well, it's a nostalgic record of Brian Wilson finding his songwriting feet and The Beach Boys beginning to develop that wondrous sound.  In truth, anyone coming to this cold nowadays might be pretty underwhelmed and if it weren't The Beach Boys most of it would probably just be forgotten by now - but it *is* The Beach Boys and some of us remember it with huge affection.

The transfers are good, although I'm not that keen on the stereo versions, some of which have been re-worked from mono originals.  That's OK, though – the whole thing costs next to nothing and I just play my loved mono versions, and you can play whichever you prefer, or both.

This is a really welcome issue, it's well mastered and it's a proper bargain.  Recommended – especially to nostalgic old gits like me.

Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another excellent album from Jason Isbell

This is another very fine album from Jason Isbell. It was always going to be difficult to follow the superb Southeastern, but think he's done it very well.

The album is typical Isbell: fine, often slightly mournful melodies which get inside you and really speak to you, great chord sequences and intelligent, thoughtful and evocative lyrics. Add to this his very fine singing and guitar work, a very good band and slightly held-back, sympathetic production and you have a very good album indeed.

The material is typical Isbell: the life of the working man, the value of love, the pain of its loss and excoriating self-analysis - with some other, often unusual stories thrown in. He's still doing it brilliantly. The title track, with the repeated line "I don't think of why I'm here where it hurts/ I'm just lucky to have the work..." set to an emotional, rather beautiful tune and chords couldn't be anyone else - possibly other than Springsteen, whose Nebraska-ish echoes can also be heard in the excellent Speed Trap Town. Isbell's music is his own, though, and often more hauntingly beautiful and less polemically driven than Springsteen's.

This is another album of quite varied but consistently excellent songs, from the quietly lovely, very original love song in Flagship to the more rocky 24 Frames and the wonderfully evocative Hudson Commodore (which brought Neil Young's Unknown Legend to the back of my mind). There's perhaps nothing here with the extraordinary emotional punch of Elephant, nor the piercing evocation of loneliness of Ride With Me, but it's very fine stuff nonetheless.

I only discovered Jason Isbell with Southeastern, which I thought was a truly exceptional album with a quite extraordinary quality of music and especially of lyrics. This is in the same league, I think, even if it's not quite such a towering masterpiece - which are, let's face it, are very rare things. It's a really good album of great material, superbly performed and produced and very warmly recommended.

Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker - Carnegie Hall 1971

2/5

Review:
Ruined by dreadful sound quality

This is a very good concert, completely ruined by dreadful sound quality. Even as a long-term Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker fan I can't recommend it, and to be honest, I think it's a bit of a con charging fans full price for such a poor recording. The sound is badly distorted, sounding as though it's coming through a tiny speaker stretched well beyond its capacity, and very poor balance making the whole thing sound like an indistinct mush. It almost sounds as though it could be any old band in a pub somewhere, and to do that to Canned Heat is just plain wrong.

However much you may love Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker, my advice is to avoid this: it's seriously disappointing.

The Who - Live At Shea Stadium 1982

Rating: 3/5

Review:

Not a great live recording

This is a decent but not a great live recording.  I don't think The Who were ever less than good live and sometimes they were quite stunning (as they were when I saw the at The Valley in 1974).  For a variety of reasons, this isn't one of their best, but it's well recorded and a good record of the band at this time, if not much more.

There are some great songs on this album, and it's always a pleasure to see The Who perform their classics, but even those are a little lacklustre at times.  As others have noted, Kenney Jones is a great drummer but didn't quite gel with The Who so that magnificent, driving rocket behind them, which Moon provided before his death and Zak Starkey has provided more recently, is missing.  Even the great, great Who songs don't quite blaze as they should.  Also, some of the material from around this time isn't that great in my view, so there are some pretty ordinary passages.

This is certainly no Live At Leeds, and in some ways it's a little sad to see such a great band running into the doldrums slightly.  As a Who fan of 50 years standing I'm glad to have this, but it's not one I'll be playing that often, I suspect.  If you're looking for a really fine Who performance on DVD, I'd recommend Quadrophenia Live In London.  Obviously, it's very different: there's no Entwhistle and Townshend and Daltrey are 30 years older, but as a live performance it's superb and miles (and miles and miles) ahead of this.  Only a qualified recommendation from me for this one, I'm afraid.

Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very impressive debut

Just to add my voice to the chorus of praise for this excellent album of very well crafted songs: they are melodic, lyrically intelligent and very well played and sung and it's a very impressive debut.

I am genuinely surprised by how much I like this album.  I have been listening to music seriously for well over 40 years and I have seen a lot of bands hyped to bits on their debut only to vanish again quickly for lack of real substance.  I was therefore sceptical about Wolf Alice and the attention My Love Is Cool has received, but I was wrong.  They have produced an exceptionally good debut album and I think they have the talent to last for a long time.  I suspect we will be seeing a lot more really good stuff from this band, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Wolf Alice develop because they may well become something really big.  I can recommend this warmly.

Pete Townshend - Truancy: The Very Best Of Pete Townshend

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A very good representative compilation

This is a very good representative compilation of some of Pete Townshend's solo work over the last 45 years or so.

I think Townshend is one of the finest composers and songwriters of the last half century. His melodic and harmonic ingenuity and innovations have been a constant inspiration and delight to me. I Can See For Miles set a monumental standard in 1967 with its Purcell-like harmonic progressions and he has built on that masterpiece since then with some truly enduring work which will stand with the greatest music of the late 20th Century, I think. His work with The Who has been my constant companion for half a century and has brought me immense pleasure.

That said, I have never felt that the standard of his solo work was quite that of the stuff he produced with The Who. It has the same musical complexity and intelligent, original lyrical content (sometimes even more of both), but for some reason it hasn't spoken to me in the same way and I respect it rather more than I like it. It could be that the superlative combination of those four massive talents in The Who brought out the best in Townshend's writing and in his performances. It may also be that, great musician and guitarist that he is, Pete isn't a great singer and the rather average vocals can't really convey the depth in this material. To be honest, I don't really know why it is, but for me this solo work just doesn't quite hit the spot.

All of this is a very personal reaction and please don't let me put you off. There's nothing wrong with any of it - far from it - and you may well disagree with my view. Certainly if you like Townshend's solo work, or you are looking for a place to start with it, this compilation will serve you very well and I can recommend it on that basis.