Album of the Day

[black bart]

Just put a brief review of your album of the day...if you can be bothered.

Caravan: For girls who grow plump in the night.



OK it's very dated prog rock and I think 'In the Land of the Grey and Pink' is an even better album with Robert Wyatt on vocals, but this still deserves a listen. It reminds me of when I was in school and I love the combination of rock guitars, pounding bass and violin.

Stand out tracks: Memory Lain, Hugh/Headloss and The Dog, The Dog, he's at it Again.

As far as I know had absolutely no influence on any other music but I don't give a monkey's.

[black bart]

I see this thread is going like a rocket.

I was hoping to get some good tips for my music collekshun.

[Roy Hunter]

"Boots Met My Face", Admiral Fallow.



Celtic-tinged folk-pop, with eclectic instrumentation like oboes, flutes and harmoniums. It is dark and bitter, but not in an 'open bleeding wound' way like, say, Glasvegas. More like Belle & Sebastian meet Spike-era Elvis Costello, and get really drunk and maudlin on gin.

It was recorded and produced by a former member of The Delgados, a group I remember from the days I was flirting with punk (The Delgados, The Ranters and The Usual Suspects were a standard Glasgow west-end pub Saturday night line-up back in about 1995 or so. They went on to critical acclaim. We went on to "didn't you used to be in a band?").

Stand out track for me is "Bomb Through The Town". It's got loud, it's got quiet, it's got decent lyrics, and it's sung in the singer's own accent, which is always a plus in my book.

[Roy Hunter]

Ron Sexsmith, by... er... Ron Sexsmith.



I learned a lot about shutting the up by listening to this album. It is full of gaps, quiet places, implied notes, melodies and harmonies. Play less, and the audience will hear more (and the more they hear will come from their own imagination, so they will like it better).

Ron (I get to call him Ron - I've got drunk with him and sung "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman") writes an awful lot of his own material, but there is a great Leonard Cohen cover "A Heart With No Companion" on this album, he is a serious performer as well as a writer.

This album, in common with a lot of his work, looks back to the fifties, sixties and seventies with a fond and familiar eye, but there are dark undertones - alienation, abuse, drug references and so on - hidden just under the surface. The rose-tinted glasses are not as rosy as you'd like to think.

Standout track(s) is/are "There's A Rhythm" - there are two versions, one at the beginning, one at the end. It's like the bread in a sandwich: you'd be OK with one, but it's great with both.

Ron Sexsmith sounds like a sensitive little singer songwriter who was bullied at school, but in fact he wouldn't be out of place as a rugby or American football forward: he's about an inch shorter than me, but twice as wide. ET will be pleased to hear Ron's favourite sport is in fact ice hockey. "A man's game", he said...

[DavidH]

Not the most fashionable performance, maybe no longer the best, but this is the old standard to judge the others by.

[Roy Hunter]

EDIT - yes, OK it's late Saturday night and I'm drunk, but this album is essential listening. Bart, I hope you do a better job of keeping it away from your daughter than my Dad did of keeping 'Derek & Clive Live' away from me. 'Fucking': such a terrible word. Whatever would the children think of us using such language in front them, the products of our...? What's the word...?

[black bart]

Wow!