July 2014 - Popular Music

Tori Amos

• Little Earthquakes
• American Doll Posse
• Gold Dust
• Unrepentant Geraldines

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Bryan Duncan - Mercy
Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark
Katie Noonan and the Captains - Emperor's Box
Pearl Jam - No Code
Radiohead

• The Bends
• Hail to the Thief
• In Rainbows

Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science

I made a brief mention of the album Emperor's Box when I first bought it last December (it was actually released in 2010), and wondered whether it would rival Katie Noonan's previous work with the band 'george' in my affections.

I think the answer is yes.

My growing familiarity with the album has brought it to the point where I know the overall shape of the songs, and can listen to the album in a more flowing way. Last month I found myself really, really enjoying the listening experience and wanting to repeat it.

The second of george's two albums, Unity, has arguably held a place as my 'favourite album released in the last decade' for quite some time, but it was released in 2004 and there needs to be a new contender. I don't know whether Emperor's Box is the replacement. For one thing, it's been such a long time since I've embarked on the painstaking and exhausting exercise of trying to rank my favourite albums that I've no idea where anything stands or what the contenders are (first rule: no more than one album per artist, so before we reach the main round there have to be sub-battles for Something for Kate, Radiohead and Patty Griffin at least). Secondly, I'm sure there are other serious contenders from the period, such as Fiona Apple's Idler Wheel and Radiohead's In Rainbows (if it survives the in-house contest...).

What I do know, though, is that Emperor's Box is very much a successor to Unity in terms of aesthetics and inventiveness. There's the same desire to play with the musical palette and come up with different combinations of sounds, with acoustic instruments blending with electric and electronic ones. There's the same desire to let the music flow and pulse and avoid square, flat-footed rhythms. There's the same emotional range with songs that sound passionate, even angry mixed with songs that are tender lullabies (although it's rather startling to read the lyrics of the fierce rocker 'Page One' and discover it's actually a wedding night love song).

I don't know if it's the best album to enter my collection in recent years, but I do know it's an album I'd recommend to anyone as well worth hearing, and it seems to be getting richer with more listens.