Mount Microphone

I have been a big James Blake fan for a little while now, I think his voice is very smooth and tidy in presentation and his production style is very recognisable the best way I can describe it is - dubstep fused with high end art, safe but in the realm of pushing the envelope. The Colour In Anything was released, and it was good. But it didn’t quite have the bite the debut and follow up had. And now we are here, Assume Form. On Assume Form James Blake has ventured further into a safety zone and more so away from the reason I originally took to his music. Now I tell a lie, James Blake released an EP called Enough Thunder in 2011. And it was interesting in production, but it had a cover on it - A Case Of You originally done by Joni Mitchell, most notably covered by Prince. And here comes this relatively undiscovered by the masses guy who not only covered such an outstanding song, he actually made it better. It was a very moving take, fused with a messy but almost unconditional love intertwined with it. That voice of his made love seem like a fragile concept, something one should not indulge within too much at the risk of breaking it. On his albums James Blake has touched on love, but as song titles suggest “Limit to your Love” there was always a negative undertone to it, a query or a doubt. Assume Form is filled with a different take on love, a tale where love has consumed his world in a thick red cloud. Don’t be too fooled, Blake’s music still sounds like that of a cold winters day. But there is a strong warmth to it also, a burning light that you desire in that cold exterior Blake gives us. James Blake seems to have landed on his feet and is managing to articulate a strong love and infatuation in a way that isn’t gross or sickly but is simply a state of being. This album is stacked with notable features, my favourite being André 3000. To say he hasn’t released that heavily anticipated studio album we may or may not ever get, the man is certainly in the realm of top rappers today. The most notable track here is Can’t Believe the Way We Flow, it’s a very impressive whirlpool of a track that really showcases Blake is not only a singer but an excellent producer. Another personal favourite for me is I'll Come Too, the sentiment is just so sweet and the melody is equally as infectious. The sentiment here seems to be capturing the simple feeling of how you’re willing to throw a lot of rules out of the window, simply because you love a person and you want to be with them, why? Because you love them. The following track Power On has some of my favourite lyrics on the entire album depicting the idea that love can help throw out pre-existing notions of what is actually important in your life, it’s a simple concept but the execution and display here is rather beautiful here are the lyrics – “I thought sex was at my pace, but I was wrong I thought it mattered more I'd say, but I was wrong I thought you were second place to every song I thought you'd overstayed your welcome I was wrong, power on, power on”

James Blake 2018, Credit: C Flanigcan/WireImage

Arguably one of my favourite album titles ever

If you've ever felt like an outcast, even if you don't enjoy the music embedded within this it will somehow strike some sort of chord with you. Blink is a really solid opener, it just gives an outline of what you're gonna get on this. Acoustic guitar, sad lyrics and a sad narrator. Trust me, things are as bleak as they sound on this. Now I'm Sad, is one of my favourite Crywank songs, the way James flows over his very sombre guitar is just endearing as he tells you about why he's sad. "Hindsight fucked me up, the past facilitates resentment". He's sad, he's been rejected, "sad songs won't make up for this shit" and "sorry means nothing" he croons softly into the microphone. It's almost desperation, it's almost too much to the point of being uncomfortable. But it's real, honest and raw and for that I have to give this project props. IOIWRME is another one of my favourite Crywank songs, it's so heartbreaking and memorable. It's skeletal and really just highlights to me how empty and thankless being a human really is and can feel sometimes. This is much more musically structured than the James is Going to Die, which helps add a little bit more charm and personality. The music here also makes you care a lot more about what James has to sing about. But this is still a project trying to find its note, that they soon find on later releases. Songs like Nostril Tampon really miss the mark as far as I'm concerned the lyricism on this track just not quite doing it for me. Also a few of the themes sort of become redundant for me and aren't really shown in a new perspective which turns me off a little. The lull really hits me around tracks 6-8, before it picks back up for a very solid ending. Despite my somewhat mixed feelings on this, it really was a huge step in the right direction for Crywank as far as I'm concerned, and certainly warrants it's worth with the highlights.

The Life of Pablo went from being one of my least favourite Kanye albums to being one of the brightest ones he has released. The upgrading of the tracks truly being a god send to this album. What felt like demos and disjointed ideas soon became a true spectacle to behold. This was certainly a step up from Yeezus for me, it feels a lot more authentic and certainly more like an artistic statement as opposed to an attempt to slot into a specific genre. The only thing that stops this from being rated higher in my books is that this thing has some really average songs layered in-between some of the classics Kanye offers us. Feedback feeling like a gimmick as opposed to an essential part of the story that Pablo holds, Low Lights feeling unnecessary and a little too disjointed in the track sequencing easily breaking up the feeling this album holds. Also the Silver Surfer intermission just feeling like an unneeded attempt to boost this album up and gain some brownie points. Those are the low points, time for some of my favourite HIGHLIGHTS Pablo has to offer. The first two gospel style tracks here really adding to Kanye's reputation of having some of the greatest intros to his albums; these songs feeling so heavy and meaningful, but lush and gorgeous all the while really carrying heavy credibility to Kanye moving the rap game forward into a brighter direction (some sort of Gospel Rap hybrid). The Panda remix pt.2 goes hard (this is treadmill music kinda hard), Kanye's additional verse at the beginning of this really adding to the track. Famous is easily one of the best Kanye songs in his entire discography, to say he's this far along and still producing tracks like this...it's brilliant. The Nina Simone sample gorgeous, keeping Kanye to his roots, yet he flies off the rails with some of the most fire driven bars of his career "I made that bitch famous! God damn!!!"... Pretty brutal. Rhianna has such a sexy sounding voice here too. The only thing that has to be considered in the same playing field as Famous is Waves. I'm by no means a Chris Brown fan, I think he's overrated by those who do rate him. But his part on Waves is gorgeous, the beat here is so lush and choppy as we go through this little portal of beauty. The simplicity in the verses just making sense here. Waves and Famous are the two anchors that hold Pablo down if you ask me reassuring me that Kanye knows exactly what he is doing here. Waves is followed by FML and Real Friends. Both raw and dark tracks, Real Friends truly carries the sound that made Kanye's music popular and sounds like it could easily be off the college dropout if Kanye remade it today. The lyrics current but the packaging aged and classic.

The Life of Pablo for me is Kanye truly laying out specific layers of his being, it has a lot of religious undertones, a huge reflection on family dynamics and really seems to be Kanye bringing a lot of elements and flaws of himself on the table. The ego taking the main stage, and when it’s Kanye Wests ego (the self-proclaimed “biggest rock star on the planet”) it’s a fascinating show. This could have been my favourite Kanye album, the only thing holding it back from being that is the amount of fat I wish he would have trimmed off making this a slightly tighter project.

Kanye in some of his Pablo merch

A true veteran in the world of music. Appreciated by a broad spectrum of music lovers from your arty types, to your “I like all genres besides rap and country” type. Nick Cave and his Magic Band (also known as the Bad Seeds) comes slicing in with a 4 track EP of live material. He takes his cult classics, some new material and brings them to the live stage. I’ll be damned if this isn’t an impressive EP, most artists seem to flesh out their best work in the studio. But Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds seem to have truly honed this set of songs, really taking the term musician very seriously. The first track here is Jubilee Street, and there’s a real swagger and snark to Nick Caves vocals here, his delivery only that of a seasoned veteran in the music world. The music behind him is just this monstrous rhythm of guitars, it’s a great opener. And packs a real huge punch of glitz and debauchery. The ever so delicate Distant Skies comes next. Arguably one of my favourite tracks in Caves entire career. The instrumentation here just as delicate as the studio version, it’s handled with such care. The meaning of “less is more” really ringing true as far as the instrumentation here goes. No matter how much I listen to this, it doesn’t get old. They really did my favourite song off Skeleton Tree some real justice on the main stage. The tension heavy, and the music is very fragile. The track tapers off into a instrumentation based composition of sorts, the violin that this thing ends on is simply mesmerising and a very powerful moment. From Her to Eternity, is so mechanical and gnarly. The rhythmic pulsation of this track is near perfect in this live setting. It draws up and back down again perfectly. “FROM HER TO ETERNITY” Cave bellows out. If there’s one thing this EP makes you believe it’s that Nick Cave is not going to slow down...at all. The mans 61, I know people his age and boy they don’t have half the energy this man seems to be able to harness and allow to materialise on the live stage. His energy seriously oozing out on this track as he holds his own - battling the roaring guitars and instrumentation for that centre stage. The truth is they both coexist perfectly together and deliver such a strong track. The Mercy Seat, feels like complete decay surrounding you. And behind that golden rust is some real beauty, the relentless piano not holding up. Before the track picks up pace with some primal drums. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds manage to clean up this EP with such class. It’s a clustered track routed in deep claustrophobia, and is such a great closer for this EP. The band leaving you with the feeling you just digested a really fantastic piece of music. It’s a truly realised EP and does such a great job at making you appreciate the true emotional heaviness and beauty that music can hold in the live setting. 

Below is the live video for each track, the stage presence here is astounding

Jubilee Street

Distant Sky

From Her to Eternity

The Mercy Seat

What we have here is essentially a fantastic advertisement for one of the greatest albums ever. This “EP” (the thing goes on for almost an hour), is a real mouthwatering piece. It contains parts of Soundtracks For The Blind, blends them together and condensed the behemoth of an album down to an hour, as a promotion for a German audience. Ligeti's Breath / Hilflos Kind, the main body here is a version of Helpless Child sung in German by Michael Gira. It’s brilliant, and almost as mesmerising as the version we have all come to know. The build up to this main body is a compelling drone piece formulated from other tracks from Soundtracks, it’s the first track and arguably the most compelling one this has to offer. It’s a distilled outlook of hopelessness and the never ending helplessness that you feel as the those hypnotic drums linger over you as three chord synths strike into your entire being. Once this track is done you could have been left with this and think you’ve just listened to one of the best extended plays in the history of music. But this is Swans, there’s a shit ton more that this record has to offer. Then we end up with a version of All Lined Up under the name of Ich sehe die alle in einer Reihe, it’s a German rendition yet again. And the music is still as impactful and downright as eerie. The thing about this record is, it just feels so menacing. And not being able to understand a word Gira says just adds a touch more of mystique behind this entire thing. This track feels so lonely, and yet chaotic in itself. It is the sound of nothingness if nothingness had a sound, mixed with pure chaos in the sound of relentless drums and chaotic drone fuelled guitars. Surrogate Drones, is essentially surrogate 2 mixed with Surrogate Drones this is almost your breather from the overwhelming emotional tirade this thing sets you on. But somehow it turns into quite the opposite, this track is a pure feeling of an oncoming threat. And as soon as you get to the Surrogate Drones section of the track you realise that this threat will eat you up alive, and won’t stop into it consumes your soul and eats your face. Until you full on confront the threat. A threat that comes in the form of YRP. A track that is essentially about giving up everything and submitting to a life of worthlessness, your fate now in the hands of others. Jarboe comes swinging in with her beautiful performance of YRP. It’s incredibly emotive, the lyrics strong. But the bellowing performance from Jarboe is fearless, it’s full on submission. I personally love Jarboe, I think the way she commits herself into a performance is completely selfless and does not hold back. You can’t accuse this lady of not giving it her all, and this is a prime example. Her bellowing almost blood curdling at times, a lot of artists could learn about commuting to their art in the way Jarboe does on this performance. A throwback comes back to us from the Love of Life and White Light era of Swans (all that gothic folk goodness). It’s a track that features Jarboe as a young girl talking into a tape recorder and has that near iconic (in my mind anyway) “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!!”. The stark contrast from this little girl so innocent and full of joy, over the near beautiful instrumentation here when compared to the haunting YRP is very powerful, and very purposeful I think. I’m a big fan of this track featuring on this release, it’s a great addition. M/F is another Jarboe prominent track, this time she’s bellowing over a sinister sounding acoustic guitar. It’s a wild one to say the least. Soundsystem an insanely dramatic piece with huge build ups and tension so icy you feel like if a beat is missed the entire momentum of your existence would just snap. It draws you right in and keeps you alive. It’s the build up of a near euphoric release. Arguably the best way to end such a dramatic selection of songs. This entire EP is incredibly atmospheric and indulges the listener completely into its world. This is my go to album if I don’t want to commit a huge chunk of time to Soundtracks. It isn’t quite as great as Soundtracks For The Blind but does offer a slight peak behind the curtain at the menacing beauty that Soundtracks has to offer.

The impossible to replicate duo of Michael Gira and Jarboe

Moving has an absolutely gorgeous vocal arrangement on it, and carries a great intro for what would be the debut album of arguably one of the greatest female artists of all time

Track 2, Saxophone offers some fantastic instrumentation as implied by the title of the track, and Kate Bush just seemingly owning the stage with her very fluid lyrics. It has some shimmering keyboard, and a beautiful saxophone as the title suggests. It’s a very great track and really foreshadows some of the music that was to come from Kate Bush on some of her more musically daring albums such as Hounds of Love.

Strange Phenomena though not a bad track at all the vocal delivery here is something that seems locked more so in that old traditional dance hall style of music that was really booming ten years prior. So by today’s standards it feels as a track it feels a little dated to an extent. Though this is not in anyway a slight to the sheer talent Kate Bush displays on this album, her pure melodic presence is astounding especially for a 19 year old trying to find her own sound. Kite is a strikingly annoying piece production wise, the winding up style synthesiser driving things here leaves little to be desired. The track seemingly locked and anchored in the bizarre synth that sounds like an advertisement from the days they realised that voiceovers needed a bed behind them to make the advertisement more effective.

The Man With a Child in His Eyes is a piano ballad that is rather brilliant. Kate Bushes pure talent driving through relentlessly as she goes over the top of this atmospheric piano, backed by a synthesiser. Her lyrical content being quite drawing, and delivered in the way that would have you believe that 19 year old Kate Bush is a seasoned veteran in this field. An astounding track show casing talent.

Wuthering Heights is the complete bombshell that you could hope for on a debut album, the track so good that when I listen to this thing digitally I sometimes get caught up with just replaying the damn thing (and I’m usually an album sequence purest). Kate Bush really storming through with an absolutely gorgeous track. One of the most stunning of her career inspired by the book of the same name. An 18 year old Kate Bush took to pen and paper and crafted the biggest track of her career, her first number one. It feels so inspired and important, the lyrics delivered with such a beauty about them. It’s absolutely astounding. And that completely slick guitar solo from Ian Bairnson is so slick and perfectly executed it’s unbelievable.

 James And The Cold Gun was a track in the running to be the first single before Kate fought for Wuthering Heights, and you can sorta see why. The tune a little bit more immediate and slightly less experimental in the terms of a driving melody. It’s a decent tune but does fall a little into a theatrical slump, I mean this thing even has a piano breakdown at the end of it before it builds back up to a moody guitar solo.

L’Amour Looks Something Like You is a completely enchanting song, it draws so much beauty. It’s a song where I think so many different meanings can be drawn. But there is a real sexual energy in the lyrics here, and the astounding confidence in Bush’s delivery here leaves the listener longing for so much more, and all you can do is hit that replay button yet again!

It feels wrong to an extent giving an album with tracks as spectacular as Wuthering Heights on, and as seemingly beautiful as L’Amour Looks Something Like You, anything less than full marks. But unfortunately this album falls short in places. Tracks like Kite carrying an irritating gimmick of sounds, trading beauty for catchiness.

This is very sexual, the voice, the lyricism and the production. It's very in your face and can be a little overbearing at times. The vibe here is very relaxed though, it's almost like a female version of Channel Orange era Frank Ocean on display. And just like Channel Orange era Frank Ocean I’d say this is rather disjointed, almost like a bunch of ideas thrown together as opposed to a fully cohesive piece of music. Unfortunately the majority of this music isn't all too memorable for me either, especially compared to the rest of the GOOD music releases over the subsequent weeks prior to this release. But there are some solid arguments as to why this is one of the stronger albums Kanye helped release in this space of time Never Would Have Made It is a complete ballad, the clangy production is really quite gorgeous as the outdoor sounds just set this beautiful vibe, this is a pure summer track. “You are the sunshine in my life”, and holy shit, you believe it. If I take a tune away from this release it certainly is this upbeat, melodic monster of a track.

Issues/ Hold On is so melodic in its production, it’s a real slice of paradise. Its non-boundary pushing, but doesn’t intend on being so. This reminds me of Feist in its casual like bliss, and is a rather melodic highlight that this piece has to offer. “You tell me you love me, well tell me again”, it’s a very strong piece of music that demands attention as opposed to being disregarded in the flurry of albums Kanye was hyping up around this time.

Hurry offers up a hyper sexual tune, and a very forgettable Kanye verse, Kanye almost coming up with his offering to say that this has his approval as opposed to contributing to the song at hand.

3Way is a real low point here - sex appeal, sex appeal, sex appeal. Sure sex appeals, but it sure doesn’t beat the real thing with this song that is literally describing a 3Way. It’s an alright track, the vocal delivery very slick in its wake. But unfortunately the lyrics do nothing for me besides trying to appeal to the connotation “sex sells”, unfortunately you can’t purchase me that easily as I require some substance.

Teyana carries a real confidence with her as she goes over the slick production Kanye offers up during the track Rose In Harlem this really shows a side of her that just dominates. A real swagger about Teyana prevails here, and carries a real integratory to her vocal delivery, pulling off a great performance, a performance that does not relent. WTP is a spectacle to say the least Teyana does perform up to a really good standard as she goes over this very strange piece of production, in essence this is very plunderphonics in style. And to be quite honest it’s the only time the sexual appeal on this album actually appeals. The character on this track does not fuck around either, the production really being a fun little piece as Teyana just drawls out a real beautiful demeanour that appeals to a strong level. Unfortunately this track doesn’t feel like a fulfilled conclusion and more so an appeasement that is meant to leave you in awe, unfortunately it doesn’t quite achieve that and leaves you thinking “damn that Teyana is a talented lady I hope she releases something a little stronger and more consistent soon”. This album is strange, but I like it. It has shimmering moments of beauty and real depraved moments, amped up with sex (that does not sell for the most part).

Teyana promoting a pair of Classic Reeboks, her dominating presence on display yet again

Pinkerton is marmite, you either hate it or love it. I personally love this record, it is so unapologetically honest. Across The Sea is the most prime example of this as Rivers Cuomo talks about his guilty thoughts of an 18 year old girl from Japan "I wonder what clothes you wear to school/ I wonder how you decorate your room/ I wonder how you touch yourself at night", it's so brutally honest. Pinkerton is sad, but it's also real. Real feelings of loneliness, wanting to get back to The Good Life. It's a desire to be more than what you are, and deals heavily on the topic of empty relationships and how they take a toll, but all you do is desire more,.Tired Of Sex is an amazing opener and lays the foundation for every single track that is about to unfold once you turn this record on. Pinkerton isn't a nice record like Weezers previous album, it is a dark little stepbrother that rightly gets rejected by a lot of people. It's dark, it's self indulgent, it's creepy and gross and yet that's the appeal. It's just relatable, if you feel empty and unfulfilled this is probably going to strike a chord on some level. And if you are a fully fulfilled person, sit back and enjoy some of these catchy choruses and hooks. It's an album I can enjoy sonically and emotionally, it fufills me. The Blue Album is great, Pinkerton just makes me feel something The Blue Album only comes close to on a few tracks like Say It Ain't So. Maybe I'll grow out of Pinkerton at some stage of my life, but it's always going to be an important record that managed to comfort me when nothing else could. If the guy that made The Blue Album feels like this, I guess it's okay to be a fucking mess sometimes.

Weezer, 1996

Physical Release

Swans – Filth/ Swans EP

Filth the first studio album by the Notorious New York giants known as Swans. Their presence seemingly forever pressing, and it all started with these first two releases. (I’m not counting Circus Mort, I’m talking Swans!!).  

Filth is one of those records I instantly fell in love with, it’s abrasive, commanding and very defiant of what was expected at the time. It is one of the pioneering records in the No Wave scene, and certainly commands a respect now looking back at its impact. Also in this I’m going to go over the original self-titled EP Swans released before Filth, it’s a more up paced piece of music and is often overlooked (fucking Filth followed this you can’t blame people for turning a blind eye of sorts).

So up first is one of the rarest pieces in my entire collection, below is the “Art Edition” of Filth. This is an original 1983 test pressing of Filth. Gira and Jarboe instead of wasting these test pressings decided to create art on the plain white sleeves. And then appropriately signed these by Gira (since Jarboe wasn’t in the band around the creation of Filth). This is limited to 500 copies.

Up next is a 1991 cassette release, this release though embodying the artwork of Filth is actually a combination of the 1982 EP and the former mentioned 1983 album. The track listing interchanging between the two as follows -

L.P. 1983

A1 - Stay Here, A2 - Big Strong Boss, A3 - Blackout, A4 - Power For Power

E.P. 1982

A5 - Speak, A6 - Laugh

L.P. 1983

B1 - Freak, B2 - Right Wrong, B3 - Thank You, B4 - Weakling, B5 - Gang

E.P. 1982

B6 - Sensitive Skin, B7 - Take Advantage

The clear shelled cassette and the insert

Below is the 2014 repressing of Filth one of my first ever purchases on vinyl, this is a 180g solid pressing. The album here has never sounded clearer, it sticks to the original track listing and I managed to get this signed when I saw Michael Gira in London on his solo tour. Also within this package we get two posters, one being a poster for a gig and the other advertising the album.

The two posters you get with this edition

Released on Saturday 20th of April is the record store edition of the Swans EP. This is limited to 3000 pressings and is still readily available on the YGR website (signed by Gira and all). As I said earlier this is more of a release for the die-hard Swan fan and is a really nice edition capturing the very first step Swans took as an entity. Within this you get a Lyric sheet and yet again an incredibly solid 180g pressing. I’d say this is a must have for any Swans completest and embodies everything you could hope for from a pressing of this EP.

The Lyric insert that comes with the Record store day release

Finally is the three CD set of Filth. This is a fantastic disc set containing a whole bunch of rarities and live recordings. The first CD on here is the standard Filth album with all the tracks going from Stay Here to Gang, on the tail end of the first disc you get a whole bunch of recordings from a live Swans show from The NY Kitchen.

Then on disc 2 we have Body to Body which is a compilation of sorts gathered from 1982-85 and then released for public consumption in 1991. On this version of the compilation a very nice addition, in the form of a Live Version Raping a Slave from Berlin in 1984. My personal favourite track from this compilation is the brutal Mother My Body Disgusts Me.

And on the 3rd and final disc we get the self-titled EP followed by a set of songs from two live shows the first being in CBGB NYC recorded from 1982-83 and the other live recordings being from a 1984 show in London.

This 3 disc CD set is a real definitive overview of Swans during the filth era and is a real complete in-depth look of Swans from that time. And is available here.

The inserts and layout of the carefully crafted CD

This isn't the Swans people were expecting on a Swans comeback album, it's not quite as experimental or as "out there" as a lot of their material, and it also lays some pretty straight forward foundations as opposed to the pushing of the envelope we have come to expect from Swans. The line-up taking a huge jump from where the band left off with Soundtracks for the blind, the absence of Jarboe being the biggest change. 

Michael Gira reactivating the seemingly never ending journey that is Swans

But what this album does, it does very well.

No Words/ No Thoughts is a great little opener. It really does help lay down the mood for what to expect on this album. It's a dusty trip across the desert under the beautiful stars seen on the artwork for this album. Unfortunately like the majority of the tracks here this entire piece feels like it is reaching for something higher, something more epic. Unfortunately this is something that they don’t quite grab here for the most part. Fortunately Swans manage to find that higher sound on their next trilogy of albums, a real sweet spot in music history if you ask me.

One of the most memorable songs on here is Reeling the Liars In. The melody ever so memorable, and the lyrics quite messed up

"We are removing their face, collecting their skin".

Sonically this carries on that dusty desert theme, riding horseback through the middle of the night, needing to get to your destination before sunrise.

Jim is a song I have had the pleasure of seeing live during a Michael Gira solo show, and boy seeing the swagger that we hear on this recorded version of the song in person is something quite fantastic. This is easily my favourite song that My Father has to offer, it's truly a menacing beast of a song.

"Let's piss on the city that's burning down there!" Gira belows,

"Take your mechanical beast to heaven, ride your beautiful bitch to the ultimate sin!" he snarls as you spectatein awe.

My Birth almost foreshadows what we can soon be expecting from Swans, the chainsaw like guitars roaring away as Gira recites his lyrics to us, really trying to make a more lasting impression within the listeners mind.

Eden Prison does not fuck around, it's menacing and its delivery is fierce. It's one of the big stand out tracks here. The rhythmic passing towards the end of this track just brays the listener over the head repeatedly as if the instrument is trying to relay a message or a feeling. For me every track to this point is building up to this moment that is so full of sound it's almost empty. It feels like a strong statement of being trapped, and is a very impressive moment here.

And the final track here is Little Mouth, it feels like a very traditional style of Swans almost reaching back to their White Light or Love of Life days. Gira's voice being the main centre piece here as he guides this track along.

Let It Die is a confident album, it’s filled with work that the artist knows works. It’s this confidence and commitment that really makes this album a delight of sorts. Let It Die makes it way through a heartbreak of sorts, the title track itself depiticng the moments when you have to let go of a love. Behind the syrupy proudction there are some heavy universal themese at play here. But this album is a journey that travels through that dark tunnel and eventually captures the light of making it through to the other side. Mushaboom is a track that really sounds like it could have helped inspired Sufjan Stevens during his Illinois days. One Evening is an incredibly sexy track, the R&B influenced arrangement compliments Feists sultry vocals as she works her way through this track.

Feist performing in New York 2017

Lonely Lonely is one of my favourite tracks here, it’s the stark contrast between the gorgeous production the rest of the album holds and the very stripped back Lonely. It’s a song which just explodes vocally, into a cathartic release of sorts. It’s a very striking piece. A real highlight. But my favourite track, Secret Heart is absolutely gorgeous. It captures all the great aspects about this music, ties it up into a sweet bop and just releases itself in front of you. It has the rich production, the gentle guitar strokes, beautiful vocals. This is the song to catch off this record that keeps you strapped in for the journey. This album falls short for me to a point, in the way that it seems to fall into a comfort zone of such. Fortunately this comfort zone is elevated quite highly with great compositions, a delightful singing voice, and the pure confidence within this work. Why shouldn’t the work here be presented in a confident manner? These songs are very melodious and strong.

The Age of Adz is the electronic Sufjan album. It’s very beautiful, and quite emotive though a little more abstract than what I am use to from Sufjan. It does pay off though. There’s a real pursuit of journey here, and it’s a real pleasure to listen to. This is the musical equivalent to being trapped in a coffin during an ice age with a warm blanket and hot water bottle to keep you warm, and all you have at your disposal is a drum machine and the music you can create in your head, and that’s your only key to freedom. This is the output, it’s brilliant, haunting, kinda crazy, sporadic and erratic, longing for beauty and freedom and is overall rather excellent. The first track Futile Devices is a fan favourite for good reason, it’s just a shame that when compared to the live recordings of this song the electronically fuelled version doesn’t feel as strong. Though it’s still a great song and a real highlight, it’s just a shame when you’ve heard it done better by the artist on subsequent renditions. Too Much is one of my favourites on here, it’s a strong rhythmic little experiment of a song. It’s brilliant, and really gets you into a care free like zone. I also love how the ending of Too Much reminds me of the sample Radiohead used on Idioteque and how it just guides the song along to this sound collage of experiments quite nicely. Age of Adz is rather explosive and really theatrical in style and production and actually reminds me a little of some of the music on Sufjan’s Christmas albums. I love how warped and dystopian fuelled Sufjan’s lyrical delivery here is also, this track has menacing undertones but is overall very beautiful and feels like a real pursuit of art in the electronic field Sufjan has harvested for himself resulting in “eternal living” within the Age of Adz itself. I Walked, is very emotive lyrically and I think is about leaving a lover physically as they have walked away emotionally. Even though you still love them “I ran through the night/with the knife in my chest/ with the lust of your loveless life” the song is masked behind these fizzy electronics within the production the main touch to ground being a choir and Sufjan. It’s a great track with a sad meaning behind it. Now That I’m Older is a track that starts off with a real ambience surrounding it, glittery pianos and ghostly choirs guiding it along for the first minute and a half before we get Sufjan sweeping in with his dystopian like vocals, it’s an icy track and one I like quite a bit. Get Real Get Right has some great vocal effects utilising echoes and pitch shift, it’s weird. It’s good weird though, and some of the breakdowns in the music is brilliant. It’s erratic in personality this trap, but it doesn’t leave the listener bored, each section working nicely. Bad Communication is arguably the weakest track on offer here. Though it slots nicely into the narrative that’s being offered to us. It’s filled with “bloops” and “blips” and relies more so on Sufjans vocals which usually stand up to the test. It’s just a little sparse and feels more so easy as opposed to a true creative effort like the majority of this feels. Vesuvius is an absolute monster of a track! It has this slow build up and such a grandiose collapse, it’s truly brilliant. This utilises the electronics on offer in such an organic way, the way the vocals just build up are brilliant. “The murdering ghost that you cannot ignore!” It’s these haunting lyrics over this absolutely gorgeous instrumentation before it opens up “Vesuvius fire of fire follow me now as I favour the ghost/host!” This track refuses to be ignored, a true 10/10 for me. All for Myself is in the same vain as Bad Communication, it’s by no means a bad song but just falls a little short compared to the other tracks on here that have so much more to offer. I Want To Be Well, is filled with whimsical fantasy and a driving drum rhythm. It’s a very strong tune and really drives us home to the final track. It’s fast pace with very little time to slow down. I love how unafraid Sufjan is to just switch up the production on these tracks and I Want To Be Well is a prime example having everything stripped eventually to just a driving guitar “I want to be well” Sufjan just repeats over a very minimalistic style that has vague synthetic tones creeping in before they fully take over. Then we hear Sufjan in the most brilliant voice whaling “I'm not fucking around/ I'm not, I'm not, I'm not fucking around” it’s almost exhilarating!

Sufjan performing the track Too Much on Jimmy Fallon to help promote The Age of Adz

Physical Release

Feist - Let It Die

Vinyl Me Please is a subscription based service which lets you have access to their “exclusive store”. After realising that they had the essential pressing of Weezers Pinkerton and a few other cool releases I decided to get a yearly subscription to their service. The main pulling factor being their record of the month, each month you get a record shipped to your doorstep which is an exclusive pressing of an album that they hype up to you on why you “must” own this. Sometimes the choice is a little lack lustre which is when the trading option comes into play. You essentially swap your record of the month for a previous release they have done, I have done this several times I traded Moby’s 1999 release Play for that coveted Pinkerton I was referring to earlier as well as a few other records this year that haven’t quite hit my taste buds.

This month was a month when they got it right for me. This month was the month for Feist’s 15 year anniversary of "Let It Die”. An album which I thought was an excellent choice. I love the music on this record, it’s whimsical and really travels through idea of a broken heart and trying to move past it. It’s a fantastic little piece of music. Unfortunately I have never been able to obtain a physical copy of this on vinyl, the pricing just ridiculously high on sites like Discogs, the 2012 pressing being the copy to own for the best sound quality when compared to prior releases, unfortunately this has a starting price at an unjustly £67. I’m about supporting an artist, I am not about supporting scalping to that sort of level. Fortunately the team at Vinyl Me Please have stepped in and made their own version, and rest assured they pulled out all the stops. If anyone is on the fence about getting this thing, I’d highly recomend it.

They pressed this on a “seafoam green”, on a very nice and thick 180g vinyl. It’s a really nice piece to handle and sounds great.

Below is the artwork print they have placed in this packaging by Santiago Carrasquilla

The back cover has a great design on it, and follows suit with this beautiful packaging.

The Dream Pop powehouse, left Victoria Legrand, right Alex Scally

When people say Beach House have a sound, I think that this is their most Beach House sounding album if that’s possible. And that isn’t a bad thing at all, I love the waved out fog of colours that burst through the music, with Victoria Legrands absolutely gorgeous vocals being our only touch down to humanity. Levitation is a very solid opener, the sparse drums are really clear sounding. All the synths separate enough to be individual but coming together beautifully, the mixing on this track is very solid. Sparks has this beautiful guitar riff that sounds almost ethereal. Sparks honestly sounds like My Bloody Valentine meets Beach House. It’s fuzzy, warm and rather gorgeously textured. Space Song sounds like a B side from Teen Dream, and I mean that in the best way possible. Even with the way the drums fade in, and slowly opens up the driving lead this really leaves Beach House grounded in their musical talent. “It was late at night, you held on tight, from an empty seat, a flash of light” Victoria sings in that gorgeous voice of hers as these beautiful synthetic like lead guides the musical passages of this song. Beyond Love gives me strong images of red smoke circulating in a cool atmosphere. It’s very dense sounding, even when the atmosphere lightens up it still has a heavy feeling to it. It’s a really nice song, but is the beginning of a series of tracks that are a slight downgrade from Sparks and Space Song two back to back essentials in the Beach House discography. Beyond Love is by no means a bad cut, it just isn’t something I’d call stellar like the prior mentioned songs. 10:37 is another perfectly fine track, the strong drums guiding this track along with a gorgeous ambience about it, Victoria’s vocals being the fragile cornerstone of this track. It’s another strong track, PPP follows suit in quality. PPP is a Beach House song which falls into that Beach House sound people know all so well, it’s hard not to like it. Wildflower falls into a very pop oriented structure and actually avoids that abstract sort of sound Beach House are known for, it’s a change of pace and not necessarily a bad one. The duo really know how to use their sounds to their advantage. Bluebird is one of the standout tracks here for me, it’s just very strong with character and coming out as an individual. The music is rather dramatic, and really slots in nicely with the vocals yet again. It’s a greatly arranged track that feels important in the track listing. Days of Candy ends this entire journey on a very airy and whimsical moment. It is a beautiful track, and really leaves a strong impression to end on. It’s fragile but strong, all I see is the universe ready to break if one swirl in the lights above us break but it won’t, it’ll forever be together just allowing itself to become one.

Another Charming Picture of the duo

I'm a sucker for this type of thing, quiet tender vocals, a very strong folk driven atmosphere and carefully done production that isn't too polished but is purposeful in its ways. This is an album I really wanted to love going into it, even the album artwork was giving me vibes that this is an album I'll enjoy. As soon as I first played Tender I got a funny feeling in my chest like "shit this album is going to really grab me", before Imagining My Man comes on and I'm there. Im really there...well for the first few moments of the song. I'm there, I'm invested and hanging off of every word, "this isn't an album from a lady two full albums in this voice carries a feeling of age and experience" I think to myself. Unfortunately after those first few moments of lusting over this song it manages to lose a whole bunch of points with me due to the sound bite of the children saying "hey!" it just kills the atmosphere the rest of this track provides, Aldous really pushes her voice to an impressive place without it feeling forced which is something I really like here which makes that sound bite hurt just that it more. Whenever I listen to that song now I almost get a feeling of dread knowing my attachment to this song is about to be crushed. Living the classics simply isn't a track for me, the drawn out delivery style of each ending word really doesn't sit well with me, it's like someone trying to force a melody through a hole as opposed to creating something that fits nicely into place. This is the low point of the entire album for me and it's a pretty deep low. One of my main issues with this album is, she has such a strong voice. And yet some of these songs are very disappointingly organised, almost to the point of them feeling sloppy and almost taking shortcuts because they "sort of work". Party is an example of this, it feels like it's placed together because that's the sort of track she should be making. On the other hand you end up with tracks like The World Is Looking For You, which really holds its own. An entire atmospheric driven piece, guided by this gorgeous voice and very stripped back and raw guitar it's a complete contrast in quality and is almost surprising it's the same artist.

Aldous Harding performing the track party