Adam's Music Reviews #8 (Dec 2020)

UPDATED JUNE 2021

So, England is going for a third crack at a full blown lockdown, cos the other two were just great weren't they? To paraphrase the coffee cup phrase, 'same s---, different year.' On a serious note, if everyone heeds the advice, we might not need a fourth lockdown. Or a fifth. Or a sixth. Anyway, this means no trolley wars in the supermarket and definitely no rioting, sorry! The flip side of this (pun intended) is that there's plenty of time for me to sit, beer in hand, gazing out over the twinkling lights of Ashford with some top notch albums playing. I've also plenty of time to review them.

There's a bit of a nineties vibe this time around. It seems that people are flouting the lockdown rules by having illegal raves, so I thought I'd demonstrate how it's possible to have a legal rave on your Jack Jones! The musical musings and humour continue in '2021: A Musical Odyssey' - now available in digital and paperback formats.

Simon and Garfunkel - Bookends (1968)

When I was a teenager I remember borrowing vinyl LPs of S&G from my auntie and I always viewed this album as the 'weird one' in their catalogue, but it was also the most compelling, from the snippet of 'The Sound Of Silence' woven into 'Save The Life Of My Child' to the dissonant orchestral backing to 'Old Friends.' The first half is a journey from childhood to old age with the tempo gradually slowing with each track. I tend to think of the ages of the four main songs as the speeds on my old record player – 16, 33, 45 and 78 (although the line 'How terribly strange to be seventy' in 'Old Friends' indicates otherwise).

I'm convinced that there are two homages to the Beatles song 'I Am The Walrus' here too, with the reference to a Kellogg's cornflake in 'Punky's Dilemma' (a la 'Sitting on a cornflake...') and the 'coo-coo-ca-choo' in Mrs Robinson. 'Fakin' It' is just a great song, full stop, as is 'Hazy Shade of Winter,' which really should be played among the seasonal wintry songs at this time of year. I may be in the minority but I even like 'Voices Of Old People.'

Simon and Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966)

More pure gold from the transatlantic duo. It was in winter 1991 that I went into Woolworths (yes, Woolworths) and bought the entire S&G album collection on tapes (yes, tapes). I think it came to £27, which would have been about five weeks of my paper round money. Anyway, this one has the atmospheric song 'The Dangling Conversation' and some thought provoking lyrics in 'Patterns' and 'Flowers Never Bend...' On my original set of tapes, 'Homeward Bound' was on 'Sounds of Silence' rather than this album, so the running orders of my CD versions always seem slightly alien to me. 

Nobody has ever sang so poetically about somebody daubing a swearword on an Underground wall and nobody has ever been brave enough to juxtapose one of our favourite Christmas carols with a news report reflecting the truly dismal state of the world. Top notch stuff. S&G forever!

Barclay James Harvest - ...And Other Short Stories (1971)

I actually heard the BJH song 'Hymn' played on BBC Radio 2 a week or two ago, because of its theme appropriate to Christmas. Personally, I like their early albums the best, of which this was the third. Lighter in feel than the first two albums, this one still has some great moments. 'Little Lapwing' reminds me of Simon and Garfunkel's 'Song for the Asking' with a 'Boxer-esque' crescendo bolted on the end, complete with thrashing drum sound. 'Medicine Man' similarly has an orchestral bolt-on coda and 'Blue John's Blues' builds to a frenzy, reminding me of the Beatles' 'Hey Jude' a bit. Harry's Song is a favourite of mine, but the high point for me, as is so often is the case, is a segue - between the gentle song 'The Poet' and and the prog power chords of  'After The Day.' The segue is a lost art now that most people just download individual tracks, but the next album tries to redress the balance.

Adam Colton and Teresa Colton with Anna Vaughan - Silicon Country (2021)

There's nothing wrong with listening to your own music now and again, and I was particularly pleased when my mother, my sister and I completed recording this album, now available to stream or download on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes et al. My mum (Teresa) has always wanted to record an album of her own country songs and Anna's bass and harmonies are an added bonus here. My favourites are my mum's ballads 'Running With Vampires' and 'Broken Toy.' The album concludes with a mini-musical / concept piece called 'Silicon Symphony' which I wrote as a song cycle about a girl who has a silicon chip implanted in her brain. With lockdown giving me plenty of time, I eventually wrote a novel on the same theme (The Nightshade Project). There's plenty of harmonica this time around, some dabbling on the keyboard and I've even decided to have a break from the political songs. Unless you read between the lines that is...

Bomb The Bass - Clear (1995)

I've never been hugely into dance music, and with the full-on rap opener I wasn't expecting to like this album. However, I bought it for the ambient track 'Somewhere' and consequently grew to like the experimental fare elsewhere on the album. Author, Will Self, does a bizarre monologue about drug abuse which may have inspired comedian Chris Morris with his disturbing monologues and consequently gave me the idea to record some monologues from my novels (search for 'Adam Colton monologue' on YouTube if curious). Sinead O'Connor likens England to a vampire in the final track (!) which even has an acoustic guitar strumming away, and it's fun to try to spot all the classic rock references in Braindead. There's even a sound like Tibetan bells in one of the tracks.

R.E.M. - Out Of Time (1990)

It's strange how songs always evoke memories, and I bought this one a few years after most people did. I remember being totally bored one night and driving 35 miles to Margate with this on in the car to pass the time. I am more aware of the impact of unnecessary driving on the climate these days and I'm also toying with the idea of writing a kind of autobiography in album reviews.

Anyway, a couple of tracks on this one have additional vocals by Kate Pierson from the B52s (remember Love Shack?), and the music is pretty varied, with the instrumental 'Endgame,' the brooding 'Low' (possibly my favourite track), the Elvis-esque vocal on 'Belong' and of course the classics, 'Shiny Happy People' and 'Losing My Religion.' The next two albums the band did were similarly top notch, but there are many others that are well worth listening to as well.

Frank Zappa - Zoot Allures (1976)

Zappa is an acquired taste that is a bit like Marmite. No, not brown and sticky! Most of what he did was in rebellion to being arrested for obscenity in 1965, with Zappa viewing it that restricting language and subject matter is just a form of control (did I get that right?). Thus. I think this is the approach you have to take to his lyrics, as there is always a purpose behind what can often seem like adolescent humour. That said, this is the 'go to' Zappa album for me. The guitar playing is phenomenal throughout and the segue going into 'Wino Man' is the album's high point for me. The wailing women on 'The Torture Never Stops' are controversial to say the least but if you put predispositions aside and get used to Zappa's deep almost satirical vocal style you'll find this album very enjoyable.

Frank Zappa - Broadway The Hard Way (1989)

I often wish that Frank Zappa had been alive during the Trump era. This particular album shows him at his most political, and his anger at the hypocrisy of politicians from both USA parties, as well as TV preachers who indulge in greed and prostitution, is only thinly disguised by the humour. As ever, the lyrics are uncompromising and even Elvis and Michael Jackson are sent up, but this was the point – there should be no holy cows if speech is truly free. These days it seems as though you can swear as much as you like but society has seemingly stopped critiquing itself which is pretty dangerous when you think about it. Anyway, those purely in it for the music will lap up the guitar solo in 'Outside Now' and will no doubt enjoy the jazzy feel of 'Murder By Numbers' sung by Sting. The references may be dated but the issues are more prominent than ever. Behind the madness FZ seemed to always be on the side of tolerance and diversity and this mix of live and studio tracks goes to both ends of the spectrum.

Animals - Pink Floyd (1977)

This was the album where Roger Waters first bared his teeth at the world. With the loose theme of dogs, pigs and sheep inspired by George Orwell's 'Animal Farm,' the venom is pointed at business, censorship and religion in equal measure. At first I found the corrupted version of the Lord's Prayer somewhat distasteful, but 'Sheep' is a great song, with some nice tinkling on the electric piano at the start, building to a rocking finish. The steady cowbell in 'Pigs (Three Different Ones)' is also fab. but the penultimate devastating chord of 'Dogs' is the piece de resistance for me. As for 'Pigs On The Wing,' worth checking out is the version where the two halves are joined together with a solo by Snowy White. Seriously, check it out...

Life - The Cardigans (1995)

The Cardigans were a band from Sweden and amazingly two of the members were formerly heavy metal musicians. This was the album they released before they made it big and here Nina Persson's voice has an enchanting quality about it that I can only sum up as 'fresh sounding.' The version of this album released in Sweden is different to what we got in the UK; our version being a hybrid, selecting tracks from their first album and omitting three of the tracks from the Swedish version of 'Life.' Got that? Now this was a good move because we got to hear the full-length version of 'Celia Inside,' which is my personal favourite with its jazz-inspired guitar solo. The rest of the album is quirky and varied. 'Hey! Get Out Of My Way' has a motif reminiscent of Johnny & The Hurricanes. And there's even a laid back cover of Black Sabbath's 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.' What's not to like?

First Band On The Moon - The Cardigans (1996)

It's no secret that I enjoy a good segue, and on this album the band used the approach right the way through. The melodies are superb and Nina Persson's vocals still have the quirky quality that she would ditch either consciously or subconsciously later on. The single 'Lovefool' is a song that seemed to encapsulate the naive optimism of the mid-nineties, and it still gets regular airplay today. The end of 'Been It' gives an indication of the band's penchant for heavier styles, as does the jazzy cover of Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man.' 'Step On Me' takes the 'damsel in distress' theme of 'Lovefool' a somewhat disturbing stage further, and 'Choke' has a top notch riff. The band were about to drop the quirkiness, so the two albums I reviewed here are like youthful innocence frozen in time.

The KLF - The White Room (1991)

When The KLF were big in the early nineties I dismissed them as a 'bunch of nutters.' They burnt a million pounds for art after all, which simultaneously makes me think 'what a statement' and 'what a waste.' If you get the USA version, the album is of a similar format to Primal Scream's 'Screamadelica,' being half rave music and half 'chill out /wind down' material. The UK version winds down sooner as the version of 'Last Train To Trancentral' is not the single version. The vocals continually self-promote, with impassioned vocal lines like 'Take me to the church of the KLF.' Regardless, it's all very enjoyable and American country singer, Tammy Wynette, was impressed enough to rerecord 'Justified and Ancient' with the group, the original version of which graces this album.

Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue (1977)

There are only a handful of people for whom endlessly creating great melodies is natural. Paul McCartney and Harry Nilsson spring to mind. Jeff Lynne is another master. From the opening of 'Turn To Stone' to the closing of 'Wild West Hero' the quality on this double album never drops. I even like 'Birmingham Blues' where Jeff Lynne demonstrates a genuine affection for Britain's second largest city. The joyous 'Across The Border' has a Mexican feel with its trumpets and there's plenty of bittersweet melancholy in the form of 'Steppin' Out' and my personal favourite, 'Big Wheels.' Three words: what a song!

Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record (1976)

This was the first of four regular albums that set the bar so high that the critics of the eighties dismissed ELO. Schoolboy error. We open with the dramatic orchestral intro to 'Tightrope,' and once again classic follows classic. Telephone Line, Rockaria, Livin' Thing - you know these songs! 'Mission (A World Record)' is a rare thing, a futuristic song which evokes nostalgia with its lines 'Who are you and who am I? How's life on earth?' Meanwhile, 'Shangri-La,' which closes the album, repeats the emotional punch and name-drops the band's heroes with the line 'Fading like the Beatles on Hey Jude.' One word: superb.

AND FINALLY: I've also given the single of 'Air On A G String' b/w 'Prelude 16' by Jacques Loussier a few spins recently. This is the jazz rendition of Bach that was famously used for the Hamlet adverts. It may have inspired Procol Harum to base 'Whiter Shade of Pale' on the same melody a year later, and my only criticism is that unlike most jazz pieces this doesn't even break the four-minute mark, so you have to put the two tracks of the single on 'loop' to really savour it. And with ongoing restrictions set to continue well into 2021, we'll have a lot of time indeed for savouring.

Adam's Music Reviews #5 (Nov 2020)

This particular post is being written while my home county of Kent has been plunged into 'tier three' coronavirus restrictions (basically a lockdown under another name). Cue the puns – it'll all end in tiers, three is the tragic number, etc. I was thinking what it must mean to be a hedonist in this situation – do you go all-out and make a cup of tea, or have a bit of a kip, or look out of the window, or really go to town and get a biscuit from the kitchen cupboard? It's life, but not as we know it!

Anyway, while sitting on the sofa drinking a glass of wine and listening to Pink Floyd I realised that we are at last living the lifestyle proposed by BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme. Let's face it, it's either that or The Matrix, and the 'desert island' scenario seems much more pleasant than floating in a sac of liquid wired up to a parasitic computer. Yes, we are pretty much on our own with just music for company, so what would one choose? Well, I've done my ultimate Desert Island Discs a couple of times before, so I thought 'How about writing about the albums I have listened to in their entirety over the past fortnight?' Like or not, I'm doing it, so here goes!

John Coltrane – My Favourite Things (1961)

Jazz is a genre I only really got into a couple of years ago. 'Kind of Blue' by Miles Davis featured highly in my book of 'The All-Time Top 1000 Albums' so I thought I'd give it a bash. Since then it has opened up new vistas, although I tend to like the 'cool jazz' era and then skip the post-bop era and pick up again with fusion. If I'm talking a foreign language, it was all Greek to me too until a couple of years ago. Anyway, this is an album for those who like to hear tunes they recognise played in an improvisational way. Coltrane's saxophone playing is superb and occasionally bordering on frenzied and the piano breaks are also pretty amazing.

Tears For Fears – The Hurting (1983)

When I was a child in the eighties I was not a fan of the 'current' bands, despising what I viewed as excessive use of synthesizers and much preferring the 'real instruments' of the sixties. However, with the passing of forty years, the bands of the era seem worth reappraising and this album is a gem. Like U2's 'The Joshua Tree,' the first half of the album is so strong that the second half tends to get passed over. 'Mad World' is a classic, even if you only know the Gary Jules' 'Christmas number one' version, but there are plenty of other angst-ridden atmospheric pieces here including 'The Hurting,' 'Pale Shelter' and 'Ideas as Opiates' which could be an anthem for our age – 'Lies spread on lies, we don't care.' Trump, anybody?

Tears For Fears – Songs From The Big Chair (1984)

Tears for Fears again, yes, but this is an album I've had much longer, initially because 'Shout' was such a good song. The other two hits 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' and 'Head Over Heels' appeal next, but then one gets into the more ethereal stuff and you realise that Tears for Fears were not really an eighties pop band (like Duran Duran, etc.) but more akin to bands like Pink Floyd in what they were trying to achieve. Talking of which...

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)

Although I have professed 'The Dark Side of the Moon' to be my favourite album in both of my 'Desert Island Discs' blogs, this is the one I tend to go to for instant Floydian gratification. 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' is a symphony in two halves with some of Dave Gilmour's bluesiest soloing. The keyboard work by Richard Wright reminds me a bit of Procol Harum at times. Every song on the album is an out and out classic. Enough said.

The photograph depicts my visit to Grantchester Meadows in Cambridge, surely the 'Penny Lane' of the Pink Floyd world?

Pink Floyd – Meddle (1971)

OK, I've been having a bit of a Pink Floyd week. There is the side-long epic 'Echoes' (remember 'sides?') and five very pleasant tracks to boot. This is Pink Floyd at the nearest they ever got to 'easy listening,' with 'A Pillow of Winds,' 'Fearless' which has an added surprise for Liverpool fans, the vaudevillian 'San Tropez' and finally 'Seamus where the band let a canine take the vocals. If you don't believe it's a dog watch 'Live in Pompeii.' There's also the Doctor-Who-like 'One Of These Days (I'm going to cut you into little pieces)' – lockdown fever in action! As a footnote, I'm actually sure that I had this album as a 'hand me down' vinyl record as a child, although it was a bit tough for a ten-year-old to appreciate admittedly.

Barclay James Harvest – Barclay James Harvest (1970)

'Who?' I hear you say. Well, in truth BJH were bigger in Germany than in their native England. They were also the only band I know that had their own touring orchestra, as evident on this, their debut album. The album takes in a variety of styles from the rock of 'Taking Some Time On' and 'Good Love Child' to the balladry of 'Mother Dear.' I particularly like the orchestrations and plodding bass of 'When The World Was Woken,' and the the closing track 'Dark Now My Sky' is a symphonic masterpiece. Eccentric, yes, but superb!

Barclay James Harvest – Once Again (1971)

OK, OK, I've had a bit of Barclay James Harvest week too. What do you expect in lockdown - imagination? This was the band's second album and another bona fide classic, although lyrically pretty dark with a slightly unhealthy fixation on shuffling off this mortal coil, 'Happy Old World' being the most obvious example. It always seems a bit excessive to use a mellotron when you have an orchestra, as a mellotron was a keyboard instrument playing recorded loops of orchestra notes, but that's exactly what BJH did here to excellent effect. To break up the drama there is the lighter 'Vanessa Simmons' and the rock blast of 'Ball and Chain.' There's even a Jew's harp on the final track, but the show-stopper is 'Mocking Bird' which builds from a quiet ballad into frenetic rock before exploding into two of the most dramatic orchestral chords you'll ever hear in a rock song. If You like Pink Floyd, you'll like BJH.

Blonde on Blonde – Bob Dylan (1966)

In the 'Desert Island Discs' blogs I cited 'Bringing It All Back Home' as my favourite Bob Dylan album, although in reality it is so hard to choose with so much quality. This one was arguably the first double-album released by a rock act, the other one possibly being Frank Zappa's 'Freak Out.' Either way the contents are terrific, with bluesy tracks such as 'Pledging My Time' and 'Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat' interspersed among folky classics like 'Just Like A Woman.' There's a humorous poke at the Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood' with 'Fourth Time Around,' although in truth the flow of influence was mutual. And finally, 'Say Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' – an eleven-minute epic with Dylan at his most poetic.

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants - Oasis (2000)

This is often viewed as the album where the legend imploded and I was formerly of that opinion. However, a listen twenty years later reveals that we were all wrong. Admittedly, the expletively-titled opening track leaves you wondering what kind of ride you're in for, but the content is actually surprisingly good. 'Go Let It Out' perhaps sums up our feelings in these times, 'Is it any wonder that princes and kings, Are clowns that caper in the sawdust rings?' The album has a darker brooding feel than most Oasis albums and the final track 'Roll It Over' is sublime, but for me the high point it when Noel launches into the guitar solo on 'Sunday Morning Call.'

Tonight -David Bowie (1984)

Certainly not an album that springs to mind as classic Bowie, in fact initially I thought 'What on earth has happened to him?' However repeated listens make it more palatable and you can even overlook the eighties instrumentation. 'Loving the Alien' is actually a very good song, and it's quite novel to hear him having a go at reggae as well as covering a Beach Boys classic, a feat few would attempt. Most of the songs were written by Iggy Pop, but eventually you do appreciate this as much as Let's Dance although 'Ziggy Stardust' it ain't! After this one fast forward to the furious rock of Tin Machine.

Well, that's nine albums that I've played in the last week or so. I could well be back with another set in ten days or so. A few singles I've played a lot in the last week include 'A Forest' by The Cure, David Bowie's 'Absolute Beginners' (make sure you get the full length version) and 'Someday My Prince Will Come' by Miles Davis (available as a nine-minute single track download album if you're not ready for the whole album).

And bearing in mind the kind of music I listen to, if you'd like to see any well-known albums reviewed feel free to post your suggestions in the comments. Keep spinning those decks!

STOP PRESS: The musical musings and humour continue in '2021: A Musical Odyssey' - now available in digital and paperback formats.