Richard Shindell - Careless

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good album

I hadn't come across Richard Shindell before, but a friend recommended this to me and I'm delighted he did; I think it's exceptionally good.

Shindell largely tells stories, and he tells them brilliantly.  He has a fine voice, there's some very good guitar work and the whole thing is very well arranged and produced.  What makes these songs special, though, is the lyrics.  Set to lovely tunes which really bring out the meaning of the words, there are quite extraordinary images and references in songs like Infrared, quirky and amusing stuff like a blues narrated by a stray cow, and Careless, Your Guitar and especially All Wide Open all have me close to tears. 

It's not often I hear a new album and am quite so taken with it, but I'm genuinely impressed by Careless.  It's a fine, intelligent piece of work, and I can recommend it warmly.

Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Profound and brilliant

I was given an advance copy of You Want It Darker a week or so before its release; it has been a pretty constant companion ever since and I'm still enjoying it immensely.  Old Ideas was a masterpiece in my view, but I wasn't nearly so impressed with Popular Problems and wondered whether Leonard Cohen had another really good album in him.  He had.  This is it.

Aged 82 now, Cohen is looking death squarely in the face throughout this album which has a very valedictory feel to it.  The images of getting out of the game and the flame going out each occur in two separate songs, he sings "I'm angry and I'm tired all the time," and so on, and he's still dealing with the ideas of sin, grace and resignation which have underpinned so much of his work for so long.  I'm pleased to see the old social bite still there among the spirituality in lines like "As he died to make men holy, Let us die to make things cheap," and there's rage against those who use religion as an excuse for hate, killing and oppression, ("I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim"), as well as a wry take on his…er…lively sexual past: “I don’t need a lover; the wretched beast is tame.” 

A large part of what makes Cohen's songs and lyrics so great (and I don't use that word lightly here) is that he often works less by addressing an idea directly and more by allusion and suggestion which, with his genuine poetic ability, allows him sometimes to express something of the inexpressible.  This means that it is often a mistake to try to ascribe too specific a meaning to his lyrics, but it seems to me that throughout much of this album, even while talking about love and relationships, Cohen contemplating his own mortality, and wrestling with his relationship with his God, which has never been an easy one.  Lines like "I'm so sorry for that ghost I made you be, Only one of us was real and that was me," and "A million candles burning for the help that never came" show that's still true; he isn't expecting an easy, loving reconciliation and is possibly expecting nothing at all.  It is met with typical Cohen insight and honesty which permeates the whole album and which I find very powerful and profoundly moving. 

You Want It Darker was produced by Cohen's son Adam, who has done a superb job, I think.  The sound isn't quite what we've become used to; there's rather less of the female backing sound from the likes of the Webb Sisters, for example, and there are strings and choirs (some with a Gospel tinge) in places, and also a good deal of mournful, Klezmer influenced violin (not a plywood one, judging by its lovely sound).  The arrangements and production serve the songs and Cohen's performances beautifully and Leonard himself sort-of-speaks, sort-of-sings much of the time, while managing to imply the melody somehow.  As we all know, he was born with the gift of a golden voice, and it sounds fabulous here.  Of course it's weary and full of cracks, but there's still a magnificent depth to it - a sort of whispered basso profundo - and he puts these songs across like the master he is.  The effect of the whole thing is absolutely mesmerising.

Old Ideas closed with Cohen in Old Tom Cat mode with Different Sides.  You Want It Darker ends very differently with an absolutely stunning reprise of Treaty, superbly arranged for string quartet and with Cohen reciting just a few lines, sounding rather like Last Words, to close the song and the album.  It's a masterstroke, I think; it's a perfect summing up of the mood of the album and leaves me moved and in silence every time I listen to it.

It may be too early to use words like "masterpiece," but I strongly suspect that time will show You Want It Darker to be among Cohen's finest work.  I hope very much that this isn't to be his last album, but if it is, it's a fitting way for one of the very greatest of singer-songwriters to bow out. I think this is a real gem.

Kate Rusby - Life In A Paper Boat

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very fine album

I love Life In A Paper Boat.  Kate Rusby has again produced a fine mix of the traditional and her own compositions, all excellently arranged and performed.

Really, the first two tracks tell you most of what you need to know: Benjamin Bowmaneer is a traditional ballad about the Napoleonic Wars (which I used to sing along to in my Folk Club youth and which brought back real nostalgic pangs) beautifully arranged and produced to give quite a modern sound but remaining absolutely true to the spirit of the original, and Hunter Moon is a stunningly lovely song written by Rusby herself…and that's the story of the album.  Beautiful arrangements and production (by Damien O’Kane who has done a superb job) of fine material.  Kate herself sings magnificently (of course), the musicianship throughout is top class and especially in the title track, the social bite is still there.

It really is a pleasure for this old folkie to see English folk music being both preserved and developed by so many brilliant artists in recent years.  Kate Rusby is at the forefront of them (and has been for many years) and this is a very fine album even by her extraordinarily high standards.  Very, very warmly recommended.

Pentangle - Finale

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent live Pentangle

This is really good.  One can never be sure with archive live material whether the recording quality will be decent, and there's sometimes a risk with great groups who re-form that the music won't be up to standard (although with Pentangle that risk was very low indeed).  In fact this is excellent on all: five superb musicians creating something really special together, and beautifully recorded.  One of the things which made Pentangle so truly great was the fact that although they were near-genius musicians, what mattered was the ensemble; there's no ego or jockeying for position, they just play together and for each other - and that is just as evident here as it ever was.

This is a compilation of recordings from the 2008 reunion tour.  The repertoire speaks for itself - great, great songs from throughout their recording career with the classic mixture of traditional and contemporary tracks.  All five are on excellent form, perhaps mellowed and deepened by 40 years of playing (and life) experience; John and Bert play superbly, Jacqui is perhaps a little huskier and less pure of tone than of old, but still makes the perfect voice for the band and Danny and Terry play with their usual quiet brilliance.  It really is first-rate stuff and it brought me out in goose-bumps in places – for example, in superb versions of Light Flight and The Snows.   

The recording quality is excellent.  Both John and Bert had a hand in the final production and it is beautifully done.  The recording quality is first-rate, it's perfectly balanced and everything sounds wonderful; I think Danny Thompson's bass is especially well recorded and is a pleasure to listen to. 

I saw Pentangle live sometime around 1970 (and still have the autographed programme).  They were astonishingly good then, and here they are just as good - possibly better.  It's just a joy to listen to from start to finish, and very, very warmly recommended.

(And just in case you missed it, John Renbourn's last live recording, Joint Control, has just been issued and it's excellent, too.)

Bon Iver - 20, A Million

Rating: 1/5

Review:
Oh, per lease!

I had what I would normally consider to be the good fortune to have access to an advance copy of this album, but after a couple of weeks in its company, good fortune is not what it feels like.  I have liked much of Bon Iver's work up to now, but the ridiculously pretentious track listing tells you most of what you need to know about this album, I'm afraid.  It's a collection of largely unpronounceable, meaningless symbols, presumably to be read, in the time-honoured manner, as "The Artists Formerly Known As A Good Band."

The music (I use the term loosely) matches the silly incomprehensibility of the titles.  It is fragmented, full of odd, disjointed sound and lyrics and with just the occasional passage of recognisable musical structure.  I'm sure the band had a good time making this and they might well describe it as "experimental,"  but it's not made with an audience in mind and I'd describe it as self-indulgent nonsense.  I have forced myself to listen several times, but it gets no better.  There are some decent moments – but some dreadful quarters of an hour.[1]

Here's one description I've read:

"The album’s 10 poly-fi recordings are a collection of sacred moments, love’s torment and salvation, contexts of intense memories, signs that you can pin meaning onto or disregard as coincidence. If Bon Iver, Bon Iver built a habitat rooted in physical spaces, then 22, A Million is the letting go of that attachment to a place."

Er…what?  If that means anything to you whatsoever, you might enjoy this album.  Personally I'd say it was less a case of "letting go of that attachment to a place" and more letting go of any attachment to musical coherence or credibility.  I have respected and enjoyed Bon Iver's previous music, but this has very few redeeming features and I'm reluctantly compelled to denounce it as mostly vacuous drivel. 

My advice? Avoid.

[1] I adapted this line from Rossini (talking about Wagner) and am happy to acknowledge my source.

Amanda Shires - My Piece Of Land

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very fine album

I love Amada Shires' work.  It is quirky in a way, but often still singable and direct and she continues her distinctive style on this excellent new album.

Marriage and impending motherhood seem to have taken some of the spikiness from her style (probably temporarily) and these songs are more about the subtleties of the life of the heart.  She still has the ability to create a very fine song, though and this is a terrific, varied set.  The opener, The Way It Dimmed has a driving but subtle beat to it (with some great twangy guitar from Jason Isbell, whose influence is detectable in a lot of places) while Harmless is a thoughtful, delicate song about the fine lines between friendship and the beginnings of unfaithfulness.  My Love (The Storm) has a minor-key, slightly dark but infectious feel, When You're Gone is an out-and-out rocker (and a very good one, too) and so on.  There's probably nothing here with the sheer impact of the brilliant Devastate, but it's really good, varied set of songs. (I'm not so keen on the Nellie-The-Elephant feel of Nursery Rhyme, to be honest, but every album has songs which appeal more than others.)

It's all beautifully done, with excellently crafted songs, intelligent lyrics and very well-judged production.  Shires sings with that unusual, slightly breathy voice which sometimes cracks a little or bends notes unexpectedly and which gives her music such a fine, individual style.  In short, this is a really good album from a very fine songwriter and performer, and I can recommend it very warmly.

Jacqui McShee's Pentangle - At The Little Theatre

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Jacqui McShee - but definitely not Pentangle

This is a perfectly competent album.  Jacqui McShee sings very beautifully and expressively, the material is great stuff and her band are good musicians – but Pentangle it ain't.

Part of the problem for me is that I love Pentangle's work – and by that I mean the work of Jacqui McShee, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox together.  They were all quite exceptional musicians and together they produced something really special.  Among their truly exceptional work were their versions of many of the pieces on this album; Once I Had A Sweetheart, House Carpenter, I've Got A Feeling, Cruel Sister and others were absorbed into my musical bones in my teenage years and the versions here, while perfectly acceptable, aren't a patch, I'm afraid.

I don’t think this is just an old fogey's prejudice (although it may be, I suppose).  There's nothing here to mach the brilliance of Jansch and Renbourn's guitar work, the wonderful fluidity of Thompson's bass or the subtle expressiveness of Cox's percussion.  In places I think McShee sounds better than she did back then, but the whole isn't much more than a very competent but slightly ordinary set.  I'm glad to have heard Jacqui sing so well, but I doubt that this will get many outings in my player and I can only give it a lukewarm recommendation.