February 2013 - Popular Music

Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Tori Amos - Under the Pink
Missy Higgins - The Ol' Razzle Dazzle
John Mayer - Born and Raised
Something for Kate

• Beautiful Sharks
• Echolalia
• The Official Fiction
• Desert Lights
• Leave Your Soul to Science
• Shotgun Karaoke EP

Thrice - The Alchemy Index

As can be seen, I went completely nuts for Something for Kate during February.

The reason was the ongoing transformation in my reaction to the new album, Leave Your Soul to Science.  In my entry for January I consciously stopped at the end of January in terms of my reaction, because (being rather tardy in my blogging... as I am again now) I was well aware that over the first couple of weeks of February I had completely fallen in love with the album and scarcely listened to anything else... except other Something for Kate albums.  And then I just shuffled them all together into a giant celebration-of-SFK playlist.

I simply could get enough of the soaring, intense melodies and Paul Dempsey's glorious voice.

Different songs on Leave Your Soul came forward at different points, as some took longer to appreciate than others. Although, even on an album that's quite strong throughout, tracks 2 through 6 represent a golden patch.  Five songs that are as diverse representations of this band as you're likely to get, but on different days in February each one of them became something that would get completely stuck in my head or have me pressing repeat or have me just living and breathing every moment of the music as I listened, feeling transported.

The fact that music can do that is, well, wonderful. Uplifting. Just like this...

January 2013 - Classical Music

Nada.

Not a thing.

I don't believe that's happened since I started the blog, although it's entirely possible it's happened before. I certainly go through periods of not listening to classical music.  But this was a major dry patch which lasted for at least 6 or 7 weeks.

And I wasn't happy about it.  Yes, part of it was during a holiday, and I knew full well that I wouldn't be listening to classical music in that period as I didn't take any on my iPhone, and thought it unlikely I would be in the right mood.  But then I came back, and I still just couldn't get 'settled'.  There was something of a vicious circle between not being in the right calm mental space for classical music, and being in an agitated mental space partly because I wasn't listening to classical music.

For the record, I finally broke the drought a couple of weeks into February by listening to 5 minutes of Janacek.

January 2013 - Popular Music

Missy Higgins - The Ol' Razzle Dazzle

Maroon 5 - Holiday Gift

John Mayer - Heavier Things

John Mayer - Born and Raised

Ed Sheeran - Holiday Gift

Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science

The xx - The xxmas single

iTunes was in a giving mood over Christmas with 'The 12 days of iTunes', so during January I dutifully listened to the music freebies.  The Maroon 5 one was fairly pathetic. Of the other 2 artists, who were both little more than names to me, the offering from The xx was reasonable and the Ed Sheeran one (3 live tracks) was rather good.  If these things are essentially advertising to get people interested in an artist's work, than Ed's campaign has succeeded. 

Apart from that, it's not so much that I didn't listen to a lot of music (although there was a holiday during which listening was minimal), it's more that when I did listen it was largely to the same things a lot.  The continuation of post-Christmas Missy Higgins and John Mayer was eventually terminated very late in the month by Something for Kate's 'new' album, which came out in the second half of 2012.

The first 3 days of listening to Leave Your Soul to Science were a gradual process, moving from "oh, that sounds a bit different to normal SFK..." to "I think I like this" to "I'm falling in love with this".  I mean, there's probably some element of that with most albums, but it's particularly the case when an artist has shifted their sound, and Something for Kate have definitely done that.  Although in some ways this is not so much a shift as a broadening. There's a wider range of sounds and styles than ever before.

Some of my initial unease was probably generated by the very first track, 'Star-Crossed Citizens', which completely threw me on the first several listens.  Just who thought up those pulsing guitars in the chorus, I don't know, but it sounds very odd... until you finally notice the beautiful melody that's floating over the top of that noise.

There's plenty of other oddities as well. 'The Kids Will Get The Money' sounds like it's a bit repetitive and not going anywhere... and then your perception shifts and you realise that being a broad soundscape is the whole point.  Some songs seem too straightforward and then all of a sudden they aren't. Others seem too breezily tuneful and then after enough listens you find you're addicted to the turns of the melody.

That's all I'm going to say about it for the moment, because that was the impression from the first few days of listening, in January.

December 2012 - Classical Music

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.24
Bridge - Five Entr'actes from 'The Two Hunchbacks'
Bridge - Coronation March
Dvorak - String Quartet No.9
Faure - Dolly
Faure (arranger) - Il est né, le divin enfant
Liszt - Dante Symphony

And that was it. Oh dear.

Look, December is a funny month. As already mentioned in this month's pop entries, there's Christmas preparations, not to mention pre-Christmas parties. And... well, looking at what I listened to in December 2011, I'm about to look stupid for saying this, but this time around I just wasn't in the mood for the exploration of new serious music. Mentally, I had switched off from this kind of thing.

I don't even really remember much about what I did listen to, to be honest. Not even something has large as the Dante Symphony.  Essentially it was 2 of Liszt's mildly interesting symphonic poems strung together.  Oh dear, should I be saying such things?

I think the Dvorak was nice...

Year in Review

Only 324 different recordings listened to this year, compared to last year's 438.  That's rather surprising to me.  Both the pop and classical numbers are down.  Did I actually listen to less music? That honestly seems unlikely! Did I spend more time listening to the same things repeatedly?  In the case of the classical music I find that plausible because of how much new music I bought, but then I bought lots of new music the previous year as well.

Yes, okay, this year I bought even more - but more importantly perhaps more of it was tougher or more challenging music.  As much as I adore Holmboe, most of his pieces take multiple listens to digest.  With Bach's cantatas I was unearthing an entire new genre, and the mere fact that both my Bach and Faure purchases were vocal meant I had to find time to sit down and read as I listened.  My German is from years ago in high school and my French is almost non-existent.

I'm generally pretty happy with the results, though.  I'm not sure how many personal favourites I've unearthed, but the gambles I made with new music have tended to pay off.

I just have to keep going until I get through it all at least once...

December 2012 - Popular Music

Tori Amos

• Boys for Pele
• from the choirgirl hotel
• Abnormally Attracted to Sin

Kate Bush - Never for Ever
Crowded House - Temple of Low Men
Electric Light Orchestra - The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra
Gomez - In Our Gun
Gomez - Split the Difference
Missy Higgins - The Ol' Razzle Dazzle
Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
John Mayer - Born and Raised
Moloko - Do You Like My Tight Sweater?
Pearl Jam - Backspacer

December isn't the easiest month for sitting around and listening to music.  Okay, it doesn't have to be "sitting around", but it does have to be a mental space where I can spend time in one place or on one task for the length of time an album lasts.  December tends to have a lot of rushing around - getting ready for Christmas, trying to plan holidays (sometimes), and trying to get things done at work when people said it would be done 'this year' and they suddenly realise that the year is almost over.

The most notable listening would have been in the week after Christmas. Not only the time and space for it with a week off, but 2 new albums as presents, both of which I'd had my eye on since they were released mid-year.

One was Missy Higgins' first album for several years.  I also think in some ways it may be her best. What's striking about The Ol' Razzle Dazzle is how melodic and 'catchy' it is.  There's something deeply ironic about opening an album with a smooth-sounding song about having writer's block, but that's exactly what 'Set Me On Fire' is. Mind you, the lyrics do say it was the lyrics that were the trouble, not the melody.  There are plenty of other songs with tunes that stick in the brain. The more I listened to this record in the period after Christmas, the more I enjoyed it.

I haven't listened to John Mayer's Born and Raised as much, but it also seems to be a pretty solid album. It has a very relaxed feel to it. Everything from the artwork to the lyrics makes it clear what kind of album you're supposed to be listening to, and while I won't claim to be any kind of expert on Americana it seems to tick all the right boxes.

Perhaps it's relative weakness is that 'ticking boxes' is often all that it does. Quite a lot of the songs seem quite safe in a way. However, you then hit something like 'Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967' which is utterly magical and, as a piece of storytelling, completely unlike anything else Mayer has done.  As he himself seems to recognise in an interview I watched.

Year in Review

Only 116 albums listened to this year, down from 134 last year in the space of the 10 months I kept records for. I'm not sure if that means I listened to less pop music, or listened to the same things more often.  Certainly, things like my dedicated Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell sessions would have lessened the variety.  I haven't yet looked at the classical statistics, but I do suspect that there were periods of the year where I was very classically focused - if only to churn through the massive number of purchases.

New pop albums are comparatively sparse in comparison. New Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, the aforementioned Missy Higgins and John Mayer Christmas presents, Sting's Live in Berlin (still haven't tried the CD version of that yet!) newish Gotye and Washington, very old David Bowie, newly purchased but already familiar Bryan Duncan and Beth Orton.

There are actually several more purchases that I haven't even listened to yet.  Which I plan to soon, although I've also become reminded recently of a couple of things I purchased years ago and haven't unwrapped. It does happen, and sometimes it's nice to just put something aside for that day when I'm in mood for new music and I'm not in the mood to actually wade through completely unknown artists.

November 2012 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht (Lord, do not enter into judgement with your servant)
• Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe (You people, glorify God's love)
• Siehe zu, daß deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei (Make sure that your fear of God is not hypocrisy)

Barber - First Essay for Orchestra
Barber - Songs, opus 13
Beethoven

• Symphonies 5 and 6
• Cello Sonata No.3
• Violin Concerto (2nd movement)
• Ah! perfido
• Variations on 'Maedchen oder Weibchen' for cello and piano

Bridge

• Isabella
• Dance Rhapsody
• Suite for Strings

Dvorak - String Quartets 2 and 6
Dvorak - Allegro appassionato for string quartet
Faure - Songs, opuses 46 and 51
Faure / Messager - Souvenirs de Bayreuth
Holmboe

• String Quartets 6 and 9
• Violin Sonata No.3
• Svaerm (Swarm), string quartet version
• Ballata
• Quartetto, op.90

Janacek - String Quartets 1 and 2
Janacek - Violin Sonata
Liszt - Mazeppa
Liszt - Hamlet
Poulenc

• 3 Pieces for piano
• Nocturnes
• Humoresque

Vivaldi

• Gloria, RV 589 with introduction Ostro picta
• Gloria, RV 588 with introduction Jubilate, o amoeni chori
• Credo in E minor

Almost the same list of composers as the previous month, as I continued to plow my way through the recent purchases.  But that makes it sound like a chore. It isn't, and in fact if it starts feeling that way I stop for a while and switch to something else (often in the pop music world).

Holmboe continues to fascinate and delight. With my raft of different recordings, I deliberately chose this month to listen to a group of works that are quite close together chronologically - the third violin sonata is opus 89, the quartet for flute, violin, viola and cello is opus 90, and string quartet no.9 is opus 92.  They do have different moods to a certain extent, although I confess that over a month later I can't clearly remember the details.  My vague memory is that it was actually the Ballata, or ballad, for piano quartet that was the most distinctive piece from this list.

Janacek continues to bring a lot of rewards, and I'm definitely glad about making that particular purchase even though I'm only about 1.5 discs through a 5-disc set.

And then there's Faure... I only listened to 2 sets of songs this month, but that included Clair de lune (Moonlight), considered one of the great songs not only of Faure but of French composers generally.  And I think it lives up to is reputation. The match between poetry (by Verlaine) and musical style is a really good one, and it doesn't surprise me that Faure continued to use Verlaine's poetry quite a bit in the years after this.

Which is not to say that the other songs around this period are bad. Far from it. I rather like Les presents (The Gifts), Moonlight's far less famous stablemate, and Spleen (another Verlaine poem) with its pattern of raindrops made an impression on me, and Au cimetiere (At the Cemetery) has plenty of power (I always do go for the really dark ones...).  But even in that company, Claire de lune does stand out as something pretty special.

Frankly, if you don't have the words in front of you/speak fluent French, it's not quite the same. And the picture of wolves is completely wrong for a song about courtiers dancing - unless it's a commentary on the intrigues of court? Unlikely. But what the heck.

November 2012 - Popular Music

Tori Amos

• Boys for Pele
• Midwinter Graces
• Night of Hunters
• Gold Dust

Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel…

Sheryl Crow – The Globe Sessions

Bryan Duncan – Mercy

Gomez – Liquid Skin

Gomez – In Our Gun

Gotye – Making Mirrors

Patty Griffin – Flaming Red

Ray LaMontagne – Til the Sun Turns Black

Joni Mitchell – Dog Eat Dog

Nichole Nordeman – Woven & Spun

Radiohead – Kid A

Radiohead – The King of Limbs

Something for Kate – The Official Fiction

Tears for Fears – The Seeds of Love

Rachael Yamagata – Elephants… Teeth Sinking Into Heart


Production of this post was delayed due to technical difficulties. And now that I've copied November's list across, I've been struggling with getting the formatting to its normal state and I still don't think it's quite right...

...which is a way of delaying for a few lines the realisation that I'm not entirely sure what to say about this particular collection of music that I listened to.

One thought is that The King of Limbs still hasn't grabbed me the way that a Radiohead album should, or normally does.  It seems rather insubstantial. And that's not simply a function of length, although it's easier for a brief 8-track album to feel insubstantial than a sprawling 20-track one. It's also a result of several of those tracks not yet convincing me that they live up to the usual standards of Radiohead.

Having completed my Joni odyssey, I promptly went back and listened to Dog Eat Dog again. One of the main reasons for that was my enjoyment the first time around. Despite it's poor reputation, it seems to me to be a fairly good album. It's certainly not a happy one, lyrically, which I suspect is one of the reasons it's disliked.  But while it is somewhat heavy-handed, it actually comes across as far less miserable than the more recent album Shine - and yes, I do realise that's a comparison that no-one in the 1980s was in a position to make.

And rounding out the commentary on albums that are either underappreciated by me or underappreciated by others is Patty Griffin's Flaming Red.  A music blogger that I highly respected really disliked this album, Patty's second, for being so unlike her debut. While I understand where he was coming from, and agree there are some missteps that 'aren't really Patty', hindsight has shown that Patty does sometimes like to head into rock territory, and some of the noisiest songs on Flaming Red are among the best. The wild squall of the title track doesn't sound so out of place now as it did when I first heard it, and neither does the sleazy sound of 'Wiggley Fingers'.  But it's the longest song, 'Mary', that is also one of the most quintessential Patty Griffin songs in her catalogue.  This is what she brings so often, the aching gap between heavenly aspirations and earthbound realities, but this time the lyrics make it explicit.

Hope you like it.