MY MOST LOVED ALBUMS - 2nd Honeymoon by Deaf School - 1976

 

August 1976, and 2nd Honeymoon, Deaf School's debut album is released. The music press was impressed and hailed them as the next big thing. The album was launched and a tour was lined up. Deaf School were six musicians and three lead singers, so they were quite a large band to take on tour. But live was where to see them at their best, so we were told. I did just that when they turned up near me, and indeed they were one of the best live performances by a band I've seen. Holly Johnson credits them with the single handed revival of the Liverpool music scene, and what an effect that had upon the bands, like Frankie Goes To Hollywood, who came next. 

Each band member played a character with their own 'nom de plume'. As though they were performing in a long running play - Enrico Cadillac Jnr, Betty Bright, The Rev Max Ripple, Cliff Hanger. This all adds to a playful evocation of period on 2nd Honeymoon. Composed as a suite of cabaret style pop songs, it conjured a feeling for 1930's Hollywood, as performed in your local village hall. 2nd Honeymoon was a homage to those classic musicals, with its deftly written storytelling songs that captured a distinct mood through their lyrical dialogues. Across its twelve songs you'd get an episodic glimpse into the lives of a couple who take a weekend away to hopefully rekindle their fading love for each other. As Enrico Cadillac sings on the track 2nd Honeymoon - '

'But isn't this a scene from some old movie, a pretty but a useless escapade, and sometimes its alright, and its alright sometimes, but when its not you know, it will be won't it though?'

Which gives you a sense for how the use of dialogue, internal and between characters is one essential element in the Deaf School songwriting magic. Having three lead singers did gift them a dynamic dramatic quality through this type of exchange within songs, and even more so live.

Deaf School were all former Liverpool Art School students and staff, so the attention to visual and presentation detail you'd sort of expect. Deaf School's misfortune was that within six months of their debut album being released, punk exploded onto the UK music scene and what they were trying to do became instantly viewed as boring and old hat. They fought on through two more albums then packed it in. Band member Clive Langer went on to produce Madness and Dexy's Midnight Runners, and knowing that, you can see how the idea of a band visually embodying character and an ethos filters through from Deaf School. And there are times on 2nd Honeymoon when musical arrangements find their echoes in those future bands. Deaf School still occasionally reform to record or do a short tour or a one off anniversary show.

The band itself being so overlooked was a real loss, because 2nd Honeymoon is a fabulous debut album. Well written songs, superb musical arrangements, good production, with an eccentric mix of styles and often playfulness, that can suddenly break out into a Grieg reference played brashly on a saxophone. Every time I revisit this after a year or so away, it surprises me again how fresh and original, how lively and full of pzazz it still is. What a delight it remains from the start with What A Way To End It All through to its melancholic finishing song - Final Act..

BEST BEFORE DATE - 1987 - Age Of Chance - Kiss

 

I left Art School 1980 and ended up, as a graduate in graphic design working in London. Seven years later I'd forsaken design work and found work in Art Shop retailing to make ends meet. I continued to keep an enthusiasts interested eye on the music scene. When this band Age of Chance came up on my radar, I recognised the drummer, Jan Perry who was at Art College in Leeds the same time as me. Her personal image at that time had been like your classic Hilda Ogden charlady, paisley wrap around pinny and her hair held up under a headband scarf. So I was intrigued by this pivot into music .

The band was already beginning to make a name for themselves with a really hard hitting crunch of a sound. They recorded their version of Prince's Kiss, even though Prince's original had only recently charted. Age of Chance's reinterpretation of Kiss is like being hit with a sledgehammer at close quarters. The guitars sound like it could pulverise holes through concrete floors. This is pop but passed through an heavy Industrial filter. It is one of those very rare occasions when a Prince cover matches the original version, and without slavishly copying its style, makes it all their own. The grunge of this is all Age of Chance, with not a whiff of the minimalist funky Prince here. 

Though Age of Chance were music biz journalist favourites for a while, their version of Kiss only reached no 50. They never had a major hit in the UK. Changes in lead singer, eventually left Jan Perry on vocals,  until the band finally called it a day in 1990. Age of Chance had a very strong sense of its own music aesthetic - part punk part disco. Equally matched with a sharp stylistic appearance - All pure colours, American style college jackets. skinny jeans. But with two former art students in the band, what did you expect.

VEINS OF INFLUENCE - A Certain Ratio

Nothing ever comes unpredictably out of nowhere. In popular music I enjoy seeing if you can detect traces of where a bands influences came from, and by turn see where that band also had an influence on what was to follow. For the purposes of this demonstration I've chosen a starting point of  A Certain Ratio. Click on the links to hear the influences.

Essentially their origins kicked off in Post Punk, but let us not overlook musicians who preceded that. One name in particular springs to mind. In the context of A Certain Ratio's eventual musical trajectory I don't think the influence of Bowie's Blue Eyed Soul Funk period on them can be underestimated. From Young Americans 1974, and even through to the 'Berlin Trilogy of Low 1979 you can see a multiplicity of musical cross overs into A Certain Ratio's future of ethereal salsa inflected funk..  

A Certain Ratio named themselves after a line from Brian Eno's 1974 album Taking Tiger By Mountain By Strategy. This album is Eno at his most playful, lyrically it is associative surreal nonsense and musically eccentric mixes of waltz and reggae rhythms, as on Back In Judy's Jungle. One track, Third Uncle was even at the time seen as something of a precursor for punk. But its the track The True Wheel  where we find the line - 'Looking for a certain ratio, someone must have left it underneath the carpet'. Though starting off with a plodding Roxy Music like key board rhythm, it goes through dramatic musical transitions, Portsmouth Symphonia strings played forwards over backwards and ends on a drumming gallop that reminded me of earlier tracks by A Certain Ratio.  

Eno collaborations with Bowie are well known, both were heavily influenced by The Velvet Underground. With the long grinding urban grooves like on Sister Ray, informing the direction of many a future post punk band. For it wasn't until post punk arrived that bands truly picked up the VU mantel of arty noise experimentation. The late 70's Manchester punk scene, as folk lore tells us, burst into life after the performance of The Sex Pistols at Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1976. A Certain Ratio arose out of that, forming in 1977. The Pop Group from Bristol share a similar timeline to ACR also coming together in 1977. It is in them that you can best see where ACR's arty jagged jerky guitar sound morphed from. The Pop Group, Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle all sound very much like ARC's rather more anarchic blood brother contemporaries.

Joy Division and A Certain Ratio were both signed by Tony Wilson to his fledgling record label Factory. Though ACR were first off the block in getting a single released, once Joy Divisions debut album Unknown Pleasures was out in 1979 ACR seemed increasingly to be forgotten and overshadowed by their stablemates burgeoning fame. They themselves blamed their producer Martin Hannett for making them sound like pale imitators of Ian Curtis. But the style of vocal delivery at this time does often veer into the same dour sounding territory, of urban morose.

Whilst Joy Division turned out to be the more famous of the two bands, hugely amplified by the tragic early death of Curtis. There was something about the sound world of Joy Division that was unrepeatable, nor to be borrowed from, it was all too inimitable. So it is ACR who I'd say have turned out to be the more influential of the two bands. Their official debut album To Each in 1981 appears to have had an difficult gestation period. By which time their punk origins had already matured into what could be described as hallucinogenic industrial post punk funk. The best example of which is the albums concluding twelve minute plus opus Winter Hill.  This was an early signpost for what was to become Post Rock. Its a shame that ACR never followed up the experimental potential of this.

In 1979 ACR were the support act on a US tour with Talking Heads headlining. You could see why they'd be a good fit together, sharing a similar musical counter point of jerky odd unpredictability. Legend says touring with ACR is what prompted Bynre and Co to consider taking their own journey into funk, tentatively beginning on Fear of Music in 1979 and fully blossoming on Remain In Light in 1980. Interestingly House In Motion was later covered by ACR. By the time To Each finally came out in 1981 it was ACR who looked like they were following a trend, rather than being the trend setters they really were.

ACR took an increasing interest in world music rhythms, Caribbean and Brazilian in particular. And this set the scene for a short lived movement for salsa and jazz lite influenced bands in the mid 80's such as Blue Rondo A La Turk.  ACR have over the decades turned themselves into a slick musically more conventional band, shedding most of the hallucinogenic industrial side of their earlier work. Yet it is to this earlier period in their career that they owe their most enduring influence. You saw it early on in the London collective 23 Skidoo and Sheffield's Chakk, then later in Test Department, and I'd say that you could at a stretch include Post Rock, with bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor in their use of found voices and the painting of vast slabs of soundscape.

LISTENING TO - Catch These Fists by Wet Leg

I, like many, listened with great glee to the addictive ironic mischief of Wet Leg's big hit Chaise Longue. It went internationally viral, though it bore all the hallmarks of the novelty one hit wonder. Follow that if you can. And the album which did follow was a fine offering, but little could match the magic trick of that one hit song.

Lyrically Chaise Longue was quietly subversive and pokey, and that appears to be one of Wet Leg's enduring and distinctive features. They have moved on considerably and are much more knowing about what their strengths and band identity are. A second album Moisturiser is due shortly. On the first track released Catch These Fists, they appear to be channeling the urban New York swagger of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's through the rustic vibes of the Isle of Wight. To great effect I must add. This hits hard and has got real ball breaking potential.

Once they ran along roads dressed in Laura Ashley dresses and straw hats. Now they run along roads dressed in flannel underwear embroidered with words like Holy Spirit on the crotch. And the tongue in cheek insouciance has got a whole deal more stroppy. Though they continue to have an idiosyncratic way with a catchy guitar lick. Catch These Fists has a beautifully off kilter riff that tumbles around behind the song propelling it unstably onward. Whilst Rhian Teasdale deadpan half talks the lyrics.

Can you catch a medicine ball?
Can you catch yourself when you fall?
You should be careful, do you catch my drift?
'Cause what I really want to know is can you catch these fists?

Man down
Level up!
I know all too well just what you're like
I don't want your love, I just wanna fight

We're on our way to the club
Stupid is, stupid does
Limousine, racking up
Ketamine, giddy up

Man down
Level up!
I know all too well just what you're like
I don't want your love, I just wanna fight

He don't get puss, he get the boot
I saw him sipping on dark fruit
This always happens late at night
Some guy comes up, says I'm his type
I just threw up in my mouth
When he just tried to ask me out
Yeah, don't approach me
I just wanna dance with my friends

Man down
Level up!
I know all too well just what you're like
I don't want your love, I just wanna fight
I know all too well just what you're like

I don't want your love, I just wanna fight

Fight, fight, fight, fight
Fight, fight
Man down

Written by Wet Leg

THE BEST BEFORE DATE - 2017 - Slip Away by Perfume Genius

Always seemingly existing and thriving on the arty fringes of the pop world. Perfume Genius slowly matured as an artist and songwriter until with the album No Shape where he got the nearest he has so far got to writing a hit album, its possibly his most mainstream and accessible creation. His experimental itch forces him to push at his own musical boundaries. So subsequent albums have pared back instrumentation to focus on vocal style and strength of songwriting or have been written entirely with choreography in mind.  

I have been re-listening to it lately and this track Slip Away is still such a joyful eruption of optimistic creative energy. Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius has such a frail sounding voice, yet he twists and forces it into areas its probably never made for. So the tracks opens with this slow background aboriginal sounding rhythm, into which comes the light sweet tone of his solo voice, which gains harmonic company, then suddenly this thundering bass pattern hoists the track into a whole other magnificent stratosphere. I find this completely addictive. Another joy of Perfume Genius's releases are the videos, always a bit off kilter but extremely creative and memorably unique, and the one for Slip Away is no exception. 

LISTENING TO - Abracadabra by Lady Gaga

 After many years of Gaga going off and extending her performing range into jazz and film acting, she returns to her bread and butter. Recent recorded output has been good to patchy. This song, however, is an instant four carat classic, in that it gives a fresh twist to what is really old style Gaga. A heavy club thump of a rhythm, with enough catchy musical phrases to fill four average songs. But here we have just the composite. The video is set up as though it were a competitive themed ball from the 1990's - here the catagory is 'dance or die'. As with all Gaga's best work it operates somewhere just to the left of conventional dance music. Its not just the costumes and dance routines, its in those musical rave breaks where something distinctly more edgy resides. Her affinity for her gay/trans fan base seems undiminished by any of the sort of spineless Trumpian conformity going on at the moment. This song is blissfully confrontational and decadent.

RECORD REVIEW - Endless Rain by One True Pairing

Tom Fleming, was once a co-vocalist with Wild Beasts for several years. This is his second solo album under the moniker of One True Pairing. On this he has reconnected with the sonic adventurousness  and subject matter that made his former band such a captivating joy.

Post the demise of the Wild Beasts, Fleming has had to face a few personal demons. His very fine first album garnered a few critical plaudits, but didn't get much airplay nor wider attention. The crisis of confidence in himself as a musician that followed threatened to end his solo career before it had even begun. Thankfully he's stuck it out.

This experience has fed into songs on this album, which have a strong confessional edge to them. It was a good move on his record companies part to team him up with John 'Spud' Murphy. The music production auteur of the moment. Standout tracks of this album have a distinctive fizz in their soundscape as a result.  

As Fast As I Can Go, is hard to beat as an album opener. The kinetic movement powering this song along, is somewhere between a horse drawn carriage and a motorway. It's quickly turned into my favourite track of the year. Along with Doubt, Tunnelling, Endless Rain and Prince of Darkness it possess an expansive, cinematic quality of painting a mood or picture. Into which Fleming's rich resonant vocals flicker. On the other hand tracks like Landlords Death, Be Strong, Mid Life Crisis can somehow feel too heavily weighted down by the lumpen earnestness of their subject matter. Whilst Frozen Food Centre stands alone as one beaut of a song, about a mother trapped in straightened circumstances. The stronger semi-autobiographical nature of it making this all the more deeply affecting.

Fleming is not your typical singer songwriter, which must make his record label unsure how best to promote him. There are the soul bearing songs, but there's also the desire to musically push beyond the starkness of just his beautiful voice and a guitar standing alone. There are a broad range of production approaches on show here, of the many ways to embellish a song. Perhaps too many. If I were to have any criticism of the album, it's that it falls short of creating a completely cohesive overall soundscape. Instead it eclectically and energetically dashes all over the territory available, which does give it its own enervating, if slightly uneven, quality. As it stands three quarters of this album remains an absolute corker.

CARROT REVIEW - 6/8

LISTENING TO - As Fast As I Can Go by One True Pairing

Its a rare release that captures your imagination as much as this one has done mine. Tom Fleming aka One True Pairing has, it must be said had a bit of a personal struggle going on in recent years. That he has filtered and processed through his music. Still in possession of that beautiful silky husk of a deep toned voice that made him so compelling to listen to when he was in the Wild Beasts.

As soon as I heard this track As Fast As I Can Go, I was won over. Produced by John'Spud'Murphy who has garnered many accolades, producing in recent years Lankum, Oxn and Black Midi. So he has a pedigree amongst cutting edge folk and indie, and its a brilliant one. Plus Tom Fleming has a talented range of musicians working with him such as members of Lankum.and Percolator. The opening of the song is all banging sticks and struck bits of metal and bells, that then builds to a propulsive drum rhythm, which I for one find completely intoxicating and a thrill to listen to. Who would have guessed so near to the end of 2024 I'd find one of my favouite tracks of the year. 

ALBUM REVIEW - What Happened to the Heart?

This recording perfectly captures the eccentric acoustic and uniquely loveable character of Aurora in music. Here on this album all her many facets and qualities are fully evident. The propensity for beauty and thoughtful rumination on the status of the heart in our culture. At the same time it is coquetish, playful, mischievous, isn't afraid to go into darker, weirder, those more edgy sensuous areas of the psyche. She appears to be off beat by nature, kooky and ever so slightly mad in a distinct Scandinavian manner. So much so that the poignant beauty and unpredictability of her music constantly takes you ravishingly by surprise.

 

The opening six tracks of What Happened to the Heart as a sequence of perfectly crafted pop songs - is a tour de force. Each one delighting in enchanting the ear and heart. Then there is a distinct pause for quieter more sparely orchestrated songs, before she adopts a more abrasive, disquieting tone for much of the remainder of the album. 

If I have a criticism of the album, it's that sixteen tracks and just over an hours running time cannot fail to lose momentum, and so on occasion it does. It's what the term Less is More was invented to deter. A sleeker and perhaps more judiciously pruned version of this record would have been an absolute stonker, start to finish. As it is this is really really close, but falls short of a full eight carrot commendation.

On previous albums there have been momentary glimpses of What Happened to the Heart delivers fully resolved. Here the quality and consistent invention of her songwriting and production is what remains impressive. Why she's not better known and appreciated is harder to understand. This album is great and grand in its ambitions. It ought to be the mainstream breakthrough moment, for her brand of folk tinged pop. And if it isn't, then I'd really have to wonder what it is people want these days.

CARROT REVIEW  - 7/8

LISTENING TO - Everything Matters by Aurora & Pomme

 This song is just so delightfully enchanting, I listen to it pretty much every day since I found it.

LISTENING TO - Starvation by Aurora

I make no apologies here for featuring a second track from Aurora's recent album- What Happened To The Heart. For it too is a slow burner and I have the sense that Aurora is one of those artists that slowly grows on you.

Once again, here is the live version from this year's Glastonbury, where you definitely get the feeling she was quietly captivating her, largely unknowing, audience. For Starvation starts as a frank revelatory song that turns into a spaced out rave headbanger, almost by accident. Aurora, one gets the impression, likes to wrong foot and surprise her audience, by coming at her music from an eccentric angle.

LISTENING TO - When The Dark Dresses Lightly by Aurora

 

When The Dark Dresses Lightly is the stand out track from Aurora's current album What Happened To The Heart. As the video above demonstrates she is quite a presence when live on stage too. Aurora comes from a long line of Scandinavian female pop artists who mine darkly edged, folky tinged pop, which owe, as ever, a huge debt to our own Kate Bush. Aurora Asknes is a Norwegian singer-song writer and producer, who can turn her hand to writing a fabulously appealing pop tune whilst at the same time being entirely herself, with all the wacky bits on show. The song is apparently about two people in love working out how to find productive way of staying together whilst they work through difficulties that arise.

LISTENING TO - Arooj Aftab

Thank goodness I took my smart phone with me into hospital. Because, it enabled me to watch truly trashy movies, and to get to know Arooj Aftab's music via her set at this years Glastonbury Festival. And what a discovery that is, sparse spacious music, but far from minimal, effortlessly cool whilst also gently passionate. Her's is a music and a voice of such soft and subtle beauty, its actually quite hard to pin down. It crosses so many genres, it's not folk music, nor jazz, nor world music, nor pop, whilst it draws on all those threads with delicacy and intricate detailing in their arrangements. 

She joked at Glastonbury she'd just made a new album of night music, and here she was performing it to an audience in the blazing hot sunshine of a July afternoon. Nonetheless it is a captivating set. Very little of it is danceable, this is laid back intimate music, probably best seen performed in a small club. I Currently love this woman's work to bits. Night Reigns is a lovely successor to 2021's Vulture Prince, further extending the sound scape of her laid back style.

LISTENING TO - All The Same by Fat Dog

Having watched this band on Jools Holland's Later, I'm in the stage of repeatedly viewing it. Its driving electronic rythym is a classic one. But then electro almost out of instinct, has lent itself to travelling associations from Kraftwerk and Moroder onwards. So once it kicks in, this moves along at an unrelenting pace. That pushing moment of the chugging opening up, in a club you'd instantly be up and dancing, spontaneously. Fat Dog have recently released their debut album WOOF. I've listened to a few tracks and so far All The Same, has the feel of being a complete one off.

Lyrically the song is vague to the point of ellipticism. What is it about? I'd take a shot at some sort of abuse. But don"t quote me on that. The sax and guitar break bring in a chord sequence suggestive of eastern exoticism. So when the rythym returns its embellished with a still deeper countering grind. 

Its structure is simple, a couple of verse chorus repeats with an instrumental rythym break and then its done. So this track, gladly does not overstay its welcome. Three minutes seven seconds, the exact length to leave you wanting for more.  If you do want more, then good god there are plenty remixes already out there. 

Enjoy the addiction for a fleeting moment. And then.....something else will come along. That's what pop music was made for.

LISTENING TO - Arab Strap - I'm totally fine with it 👍don't give a fuck anymore👍

If ever an album opener told you what to expect from the rest of it - Allatonceness does it in spades. The guitars set a blaring declamatory raunch, the drums hard edged as bullets, whilst Aidan Moffat intones over it all with his recognisable drawl, about the many types of characters who inhabit the internet these days. Reprehensible and otherwise. These have all got our attention.

They've got your attention, the fat and the furious, and your atrophied legs can't run.

They've got your attention, the juvenile jilted, derailing all discourse for fun.

They've got your attention, the slapstick insurgents, with giggles and shits and grenades.

And so he goes on, about the ones who've 

'all done their own research' 'whilst Nazis and rapists sell merch' 

but concludes he has to admit 

'they've got my attention' 'And I think I love it'

I'm totally fine with it👍don't give a fuck anymore👍continues in this analytical vein, exploring the pros and cons of our online presence, and its associated neuroses. The increasing isolation described on Bliss. Where a woman's only way to be herself in the city, is to hide behind an aural defence barrier, whilst out walking wearing ear buds. Bliss has this electronic insistent beat of alarm behind it, with a guitar phrase entering in like a notification alert. 

Arab Strap's recent renaissance, after a sixteen year album hiatus, with 2016's  As Days Get Dark. Is showing no sign of being a one off. I'm totally fine with it👍 don't give a fuck anymore👍 is an excellent follow up. Building on the style As Days Get Dark introduced, whilst remaining close to the urban vampire vibe of its videos on Strawberry Moon.

What makes Arab Strap distinctive.primarily centres around Moffats impressively eviserating eloquence with words. But one must nevrr forget Malcolm Middleton, and the music he generates, the bleak settings and carefully composed contexts in which those poetic visionary nightmares are taking place. These are resolutely urban landscapes created for them to inhabit. There is something of the confessional dark night of the soul about them. What goes on in cemeteries, in the nightclubs in cellars, in the underpasses and subways between two worlds, of one chasing the other? It all takes place neath sulphurous street lights.

The character of some online realms is their discreet non relational nature. They exist outside of the norm, and refuse to come in to be a part of our real tangible world. To keep in touch with terra firma. So the darker and more nefarious impulses thrive there, like fungi growing in the darkened dank places hidden underneath the floorboards. Everything about the work Arab Strap are currently doing digs deeper into this fetid self concealing realm. It's both discomforting and yet all too familiar.

CARROT REVIEW  - 6/8

THE BEST BEFORE DATE - 1998 - Abdul & Cleopatra by Jonathan Richman

Its easy to underestimate Jonathan Richman, he can be so whimsical and playfully to appear like a naif man/child. And certainly at the height of his popularity with Egyptian Reggae it did look like rock n roll went to the local play school. I saw him live at least a couple of times and it was live that you experienced how he could take over the hearts of an audience and say look lets play for a while. Yes, there is bucket loads of sentimentality, but it nevertheless has real heart, and this moves you. So you listen with delight to a song called I'm A little Dinosaur, and come away from a concert with all your cynicism momentarily removed. But then there are songs like Lonely Financial Zone which beautifully capture the soulessness of a financial district when everything is closed for the weekend. I guess what I'm saying is the guy had charm and the talent to back it up.

What I appreciate about Abdul & Cleopatra is how firmly tongue in cheek it is, the lyrics on occasion delightfully forced into their rhymes.

'Adbul's not seen Cleopatra, It's been almost now a year, And how I wonder where she's at-ra, As I wander through this world.'

This is classic Jonathan Richman, great sense of rock n roll at its most pure direct and punchy, allied to a silliness that is wonderful to hear unfold. 

'Well, Cleopatra take my patience and test it. Test it, Cleopatra take your time as you may. My time has been well spent. I dun cleaned up my tent. You'll like it when you see it someday.'

LISTENING TO - Prelude to Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party

Oh the hype, its so in your face everywhere. Touted as the next big thing, that they become the next big thing, like a divine prophecy being fulfilled right before your eyes. The Last Dinner Party's image, now much refined in the videos accompanying the release of this album, has them cavorting around in burlesque basques. And as Ronald Firbank might've described it, lots of unnecessary ribbons signifying nothing. 

Evoking the doomed epoch of The Bright Young Things, of aristo's partying before they die either of boredom or war, appears to be their basic shtick here. There is, however, no real sense of irony, hardly a glimmer of arche knowingness. This ought to be stridently camp, but it comes across as well brought up public school g1irls dressing up as tarts and pouting to camera.

Hype is just promotion, and I'm not against promotion if there is something astoundingly good on offer, to feast your ears on. However, I have tested my patience whilst listening to this album. Awaiting the moment when I either get what they are about, or am blown off my socks by one song, or one astonishingly good vocal. Well, they are not here on Prelude to Ecstasy. Nothing orgasmic. What normally comes before a climax, is a lot of foreplay. And that is what this album is, a lot of foreplay. Maybe the second album will produce something so utterly gorgeous I'll be eating these words for breakfast.

Florence Welch loves them, but it's always flattering to see pale imitations of yourself do well. The lyrics are, on ocassions, provocative and gender assertive. There are a lot of dramatic changes in musical time signatures mid song, that brings a certain underlying operatic/music hall vibe. One reviewer likened their songwriting to Sparks, which should have got me salivating in high expectation. And whilst I can detect stylistic whisps of the Mael brothers, they have a way to go before they reach their songwriting heights. There is a sense there maybe a thematic song cycle here. So - indebted - they are.

The first single to drop, Nothing Matters, is quietly captivating. Mainly because it repeats the line, "and I will fuck you like nothing matters' - ad nauseam. The one track I thought proffered a bon bon of something musically vital was My Lady of Mercy, when it lurches into a metal breakout. The one moment when the band metaphorically rip their corsets off. 

A lot of its underwhelming nature maybe due to a low key production. Its quite cautious and perfunctory, even genteel. One wonders if in more creative hands, considerably greater dynamism might have emerged. The lead guitar frequently sounds like a tinny twang, when it could have had a rougher, raw, characterful and more raucous resonance. Live, apparently, The Last Dinner Party, cut quite a different and more entrancing stride, that this album must have entirely failed to capture. A promising but overrated debut. Whatever their target market is, is unclear. Its not me, obviously. 

CARROT REVIEW - 3/8

THINGS THAT CHEERED ME UP IN 2023

Goodness have we needed to find some solace somewhere, this year of all years. Here are a handful of music and accompanying videos, that have amused or provided joy to the soul, with ocassional dashes of hope and gleefilled optimism.

From its opening through to its ending this video is a gift, that just keeps on giving. Olya Polyakov, once the camera is placed upon her, as the stage fan starts wildly blowing her hair, is well and truly on. Preening at you, with 'come hither' alluring eye contact, and a shameless deploying of flirty stage charisma. Dressing like she's escaped from a low budget Sci Fi epic, she is heavily buttressed. When allowed full reign, her operatic timbre completely inhabits her. She looks for all the world like she's having an explosive orgasm right in front of you. 

The TV presenter grooving in the bright blue armchair can't help but oggle every morsel of her performance. As The Army of Lovers mouth Liberte, Egalite, Maternite without a hint of irony. Its a song that is sheer nonsense on stilts, built out of a sequence of words that rhyme yet mean nothing - But - I Love it - bliss, sheer bliss. I begin every day by watching this.

Now I was never much of a Spice Girls fan. In a sense they were not designed for me, but for pubescent teenage girls. As a social phenomena they signified much more than the music, which is fortunate because the music was pretty consistently dreck. Apart from this one beam of delight, taken by the Whoniverse and handed over to Neil Patrick Harris to camp up for a Dr Who special. One of the TV highlights of the year. Both sinister and scintillating - enjoy.

It has to be said this has been Kylie's year. The breakout summer hit of 2023, Padam Padam had classic dance floor filler written over its numerous song hooks. And once they get their highly polished red nails into you, well there is no rescuing you. Yet another career renaissance, how many more can this woman have?

This was the first warm up track for a soon to be released album, but way back in mid summer. The album, we are still waiting for, but one gets the sense from what they have released so far, that Yard Act and their record company know they've come up with a goodun. The Trenchcoat Museum is full of the usual Yard Act mischievous satire and broad range of characters, with a truly addictive groove going on for good measure. Worth eight minutes of anyone's time.

One might have been tempted to write James Blake off many times in his career. His recent albums having been patchy, with only a few great tracks amongst a lot of thin gruel. But with the album Playing Robots Into Heaven he produced one of his best. Loaded is just one highlight, a melancholic song that is yearning for some form of transcendent love but - where are my wings? They're loading. Beautifully wrought, with a ticking clock like rhythm beneath it, the fateful fall of a discordant descending glissando of synths, brings it all to a crashing end. Classic.

FAVE RAVE - Army of Lovers - Love is Blue

 Just discovered this recent gem of Army of Lovers on You Tube. Performing in an apparently very tiny TV Studio, the song Love is Blue. Quite apart from the usual suspects camping it up like there is no tomorrow, there is a man in an armchair so close to the stage one might be tempted to think he is part of the performance - featuring the man who enthusiastically nods and taps along in time to the beat. 

If you can bear to cringe and watch it, there is a bit at the end where they try to explain the meaning of the song, really badly. The song is undoubtedly catchy, but lyrically it makes no sense whatsoever, it is drivel that rhymes. But, oh, is this five star stuff.

THE BEST BEFORE DATE - 1978 - I Can't Stand Myself - James Chance & The Contortions

James Chance & The Contortions emerged from the late 70's No Wave scene in New York, the US version of post punk. Out of it came some interesting hybrids - The Swans, Lydia Lunch, The Lounge Lizards, DNA, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Theoretical Girls to name a few of note. Brian Eno was brought in to produce a compilation album in 1978 to capture the nascent flowers of this moment, before they succumbed to the short livedness of their own trash aesthetic. For most of these bands operated on a fatal cutting edge. An art infused wallowing in the primal joy of dissonance and screaming into a microphone as a vocal style.

And so that brings us to Mr James Chance, channelling a mutated form of James Brown, with a voice ravaged by too much coarse cut hand rolled nicotine. He was never going to be a poster boy in a teenagers bedroom. Because this was a musical career that had car crash written all over it. To say I Can't Stand Myself is edgy punk funk would be to understate what is really going on here. This man is audibly on self destruct, pushing himself right over a wall topped with inserts of cut glass. Then picking his bloody form off the floor gives you the most blistering siren of a saxophone solo. As if imitating the death wail of a goose being strangled.  The sound captured here has intensity and excitement in every disheveled groove. With a virus of tawdry sex running through it. Its punk mixed with jazz cocktail, lethally exploding in the gutter.

James Chance, despite all the opportunities he's no doubt given himself to abuse his body to death, is alive and still working at the age of 70. Most of his output from the 1970's onwards has been live albums. These perhaps best capture the febrile nervy wired beast that is him. A man quite happy to be forgotten on the fringes of popular music, because that is where he's been able to do what the hell he liked, to the hilt.