Adele – 19

What a contrast – in one corner we have queen of the red tops, Amy Winehouse, apparently 3 months from death and certainly 18 months after Back to Black was released. In the other corner, Adele – fresh faced, spread across most of the newspapers ahead of tomorrows release of ’19′, her debut album. The contrast between the two couldn’t be any greater.

And yet, Adele Atkins is constantly compared. ‘The new Amy Winehouse’, or ‘The Next Kate Nash’, it must be quite frustrating to be bracketed with your peers.

But, in true journalistic tradition – these are lazy descriptions – to me, Adele seems to have much more going for her, a great sense of style, superb voice and an awesome collection of songs. This album has enough of its own style and substance to stand without those comparisons.

The opener ‘Daydreamer’ has been all over the radio, alongside previously released material ‘Chasing Pavements’ and ‘Hometown Glory’ (which was previously released on friend  Jamie Ts label). On ‘Cold Shoulder’ a nice shuffling rhythm track allows the big soulful voice to do its stuff – certainly radio friendly, this will be a single in the future. ‘Right as Rain’ is driven along by a nice sound Rhodes, and a sixties style vocal that is one of the closest to the Mark Ronson sound that drives many of her peers.

Make you feel my love is a stunner, piano and strings underpinning a sweet love song and ‘My Same’ is another soulful number that shows off the voice to good effect. ‘Tired’ is a great track with huge strings giving a great contrast to a tick-tock rhythm.

The whole album is excellent – well produced, nicely written and brilliantly sung.

So comparisons will inevitably heaped on her, and most will come and go, but I’d put my money on Adele having more longevity than many of the artists she’s been compared with – she already has more style and grace than most of them.

Highly recommended CD – get into it before it’s everywhere, because I guarantee this album will be absolutely huge in 2008.

I’m glad I went on Monday…

After reading this report – I’m really glad we went to see Morrissey at the start of his tour – appears that his gigs tonight and tomorrow (Saturday and Sunday) have been cancelled as Moz has some kind of illness. Big shame for his fans.

I hope he didn’t catch a cold when he whipped his shirt off at the end of the show.

Morrissey – Camden Roundhouse 21st Jan

Walking towards the Roundhouse in Camden last night there was a real sense of excitement ahead of Morrisseys first live shows in London since his sold out tour of 2006. A real mixed bunch in the audience, but all linked by a certain buzz ahead of the first of 6 sold out nights.

Just before Morrissey there was a great montage of films – Sasha Distel, Brigitte Bardot, some Steptoe and Son and a great clip of wardrobe tests from East of Eden.

Morrissey took to the stage about 9pm, opening with a great version of How soon is now? He ended up on his back on the stage with his legs resting on the drum riser – it was going to be an interesting night. What followed was a blistering run through a real mixture of Morrissey tunes, a few from the new album (so a first hear for me), and some classics & rarities from the back catalogue. A full set list is here.

For me – the musicianship was absolutely excellent, Boz leading the line like a trouper but the whole band (dressed in identical denim suits) delivering a really tight musical set. Morrissey was his usual self, preening, cryptic and every so slightly aloof. I liked the idea of the band being dressed in denim, the clothing of the worker – and Morrissey joining the stage in shirt and tie – the lord of the manor. He soon shed the tie, the shirt was opened to the chest and sweat started to pour, as he sashayed and swaggered around the stage. Typical Morrissey – well played.

The finale to the concert was awesome – a huge version of Irish Blood, English Heart and an encore of ‘The Last of the International Playboys’

My photographs of the night are here.

Click more for some quick words on the support band, the venue and a full set list.

More »

Introducing Soko

I’d like to introduce you to my new friend, she’s called Soko and she is from France  and makes great music – she is also super cute, but that is a different story.

Last year, Soko released an EP called ‘Not Sokute’ and I just had the pleasure of listening to it. Over on Last.FM, they compare her with Kate Nash, Feist and Camille – which are not bad comparisons – I also think she sounds a bit like Robyn, but definitely you should find the ‘No Sokute’ EP and give it a listen and make your own decisions.

There are five songs, with ‘I’ll Kill Her’ and ‘Take my Heart’ being the best of the bunch in my opinion, the lyrics are really funny – like this:

So, of course, you were supposed to call me tonight
you were supposed to call me tonight
we would have gone to the cinema
and, after, to the restaurant, the one you like in your street

we would have slept together, have a nice breakfast together
and then a walk in a park together, how beautiful, and then
you would have said “i love you” in the cutest place on earth
where some butterflies are dancing with the fairies…

Soko – I’ll Kill Her (2007)

Actually – on the screen, that lyric looks really sappy but coupled with her very quirky vocal that sounds almost Scandinavian at times it comes out much better than it reads.

So – if you haven’t already followed one of my links – you should do that now, there is some more stuff over at MySpace – but everyone knows that MySpace sucks but everyone knows that MySpace is not great for downloading music, and you might have better luck looking elsewhere for music from Soko. (Sorry Mum!)

Sometimes they just slip by…

I’d never heard of this fella before today, but Tom Baxter is a British singer-songwriter who has just re- released his second album – titled ‘Skybound’, after a short run release in June 2007.

It opens with ‘A night like this’, which had me thinking of the Jamie Cullums of this world – double-bass driven and slightly jazzy in places, I nearly hit the off button and went back to something else, but there was something in that voice that made me listen on. I’m glad I did.

The following tracks are a different thing all together, the title track is nicely built around a really quick rhythm track – gently picked guitars and subtle strings with a gentle piano building up to a great crescendo. ‘Better’ is definite single material, and ‘Tell her Today’ is full of almost flamenco guitar, which gives it a real urgence. ‘Last Shot’ is excellent with more subtle strings and pianos, and ‘Icarus Wings’ is pretty special too.

It’s a very gentle album – there’s nothing here to set the hip kids alight, but this will find a comfortable slot in a lot of peoples CD collection, well written, relaxing and well crafted.

Best of 2007

I find it really hard to narrow down my listening to a short list to sum up the whole of a year, but as is usual I though I would try and whittle out a list of the best of 2007 for me.

It is absolutely impossible to pick out a ‘best album’ for me – but according to my last.fm stats, the Turin Brakes album has been most listened to – although I would argue that David Ford got played a lot more in the car.

So – not in any order, here are my best of 2007 albums.

More »

Looking Forward

Everyone seems to be looking back at 2007 and trying to make top-ten lists etc (more of that shortly – I’ll work out my top 10 albums of 2007), but I’m already starting to look forward to 2008.

According to Wikipedia there is some great music due to hit our iPods and CD players this year.

New music from Hot Chip, Rammstein, Elbow, The Kooks, Nine inch Nails, The Streets, Dr Dre, Snopp Dogg and loads more – could be fun time!

Live – Ian Brown, Reading Hexagon, 18th October

And so to the wonderful late 70′s edifice that is the Reading Hexagon – ugly as sin and as hexagonal as absolutely possible. On Thursday night it welcomed a ‘Busy Working Class Hero’ in Ian Brown.

Support was from the marvellously named ‘Glasvegas’  – sounding a lot like Arab Strap with a 60′s backing track, interesting stuff – worth checking some studio stuff I think.

Ten past nine, Ian Brown and band wander on to some of the strings from the new album, but the first track is an absolutely storming version of ‘I wanna be adored’ (my favourite Roses tune), from the first note to the last the Reading crowd rose to their feet…there was storming versions of My Star, Longsight M13, Sweet Fantastic and a great sort of live bootleg with Fools Gold and the man singing ‘The World is Yours’ over the top…nice work. The crowd interaction was superb – getting everyone to boo Oxford ("Yous’ are bad muthafuckers"), and as the crowd got crazier there was a hail of beer and plastic cups…I’m not sure the hexagon see’s many crowds go as crazy as this…

The band was absolutely superb, tight as a drum – and the atmosphere in the Hexagon was superb. We managed to get front row seats in the balcony, but stupid jet lag made me forget to take my camera…so no shots of the great man. He encouraged us all to do the shoulder shake (as at Brixton last year) – and I got a v for victory sign at the end as we applauded and told him he was number one.

Once again – an absolutely superb night out, worth flying 5000 miles back from Seattle to be at, jetlag and all.

I *think* the full setlist was something like this:

• I wanna be Adored
• My star
• Corpses
• Dolphins were Monkeys
• Golden Gaze
• Set My Baby Free
• Lovebug
• Longsight M13
• Sweet Fantastic
• Destiny Or Circumstance
• Time is my everything
• Keep What Ya Got
• Goodbye To The Broken
• FEAR
• I am the Resurrection
• Fools Gold/The World is Yours
• Sister Rose
• On Track
• Street Children

David Ford – Songs for the Road

Songs for the Road is the second album from UK singer songwriter David Ford, following up on the 2005 release – ‘I sincerely apologise for all the trouble I’ve caused’.

In between albums, Ford has been busy supporting Ray Lamontagne and Starsailor (although not when I saw them), Elvis Costello, Gomez and Suzanne Vega – some of those influences can be seen in this set of romantic and sometimes melancholy songs.

Opening with ‘Go to Hell’, strings and brass have been added into the mix and the gentle, almost chamber arrangement of the opener offsets the slightly bluesy voice and regretful lyrics.

And so it continues – Decimate, with its slightly more upbeat perspective shows off his south-east of England accent. Later on are the almost impossible dark ‘St Peter’ and ‘Requiem’ with its broody and angry lyrics about the state of today against a really bluesy harmonica arrangement.

Highlights for me are ‘Song for the Road’ and the early mentioned ‘Decimate’ which despite being the most accessible track is still peppered with some dark lyrics:

You decimate my inhibitions, I can’t be sane…
Lets take a walk out on the broken glass.

Its a beautiful album – and although the comparisons with some of the influences above are valid (certainly more valid than the inevitable James Blunt, James Morrison references) – this guy has a unique lyrical quality that sets him apart from the rest of the current crop of singer songwriters.

Great album – well sung and delivered.

Album Review – Radiohead – In Rainbows

There is very little left to say about In Rainbows by Radiohead, a surprise release by one of the biggest bands in the world, with its unusual delivery and pricing methodology. I paid £6 for my download of the 10 track album on the premise that if I like the album, I’d probably be happy to drop the £8 or £10 for the CD package when it finally gets released…personally this seems like a pretty good model – especially if it allows the music to reach the market quicker and stops the inevitable leaks that mean the album ends up being downloaded for free from the pirate sites.

However – there is still an album by Radiohead fresh onto the market – and this significant event for music fans deserves some commentary on the ACTUAL MUSIC.

In Rainbows is a more accessible album than Hail to the Thief, still with the edgy, stripped down feel of its predecessor it manages to pack some actual song structure into the tracks and deliver something that is much closer to OK Computer than anything they’ve done in between.

There are some superb songs on this – some of which have been around as live tracks (and subsequently in poor copies all over the internet), but now we have pristine 160kbps copies to listen to. Stand out tracks for me are Reckoner – with its haunting strings, and ‘All I need’ with its gorgeous piano and glockenspiel sounds, allied with stark vocals from Yorke.

The drums throughout the tracks are outstanding – and the string section bought into build the tracks up has been used well across the album.

Its a Radiohead album – so it is always going to be good – but this is amongst the best they’ve done for many years. As an experiment in changing the economics of music, it probably won;t do much – but as an exercise in demonstrating what raw talent can do in a music studio, this is the real shit.