ANTICIPATION by CARLY SIMON (1971, Elektra)

ANTICIPATION was Carly Simon's second album and followed hot on the heels of her debut, also released in 1971. It's pre-dates Simon's huge success with You're So Vain

The title track 'Anticipation' was a big hit in the US. It's relates to Simon's state of mind as she waited to go on a date with then boyfriend Cat Stevens. There's anticipation of the evening, but also of how the relationship will play out over time. Whether it will it last or not she resolves to: "...i'll try and see into your eyes right now / and stay right here, 'cause these are the good old days".

It's a bitter sweet radio-friendly '70 pop. I'm amazed Magic don't play it more often. The relationship, by the way, was short lived, although it must have ended amicably as Cat Steven's wrote his lovely 'Sweet Scarlett' about her, "wild like the wind, the gypsy with a grin".

There's also several tracks about singer and future husband James Taylor whom she had known since they were children. The best of these is 'Legend In Your Own Time'. Other than the title track there's little here as memorable as Simon's big songs like '...Vain' or her brilliant Bond theme. A lot of the album is really stripped back. Tracks like 'Our First Day Together' and 'Summer's' Coming Around Again' sound like classic Blue-era Joni Mitchell, just vocals, guitar and piano.

ANTICIPATION is a sweet soulful pop record but also a little unremarkable. Guess there was bigger things to come...

'ANTICIPATION'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NwP3wes4M8

'LEGEND IN YOUR OWN TIME'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSSt96CrMfI

ROOTS & ECHOES by THE CORAL (2007, Sony Music)

By the time The Coral's 5th album, ROOTS & ECHOES had came out interest in the band seemed to have largely waned. It's a big shame as it is an absolute belter of an album, possibly their best.

The Coral are the latest (last?) in a long line of Liverpool bands with that distinctive Merseybeat sound. Led by clean jangling guitars with simple bass, backbeat drums and classic vocal harmonies they follow there a long list of ascendents: The Beatles, The Searchers, Gerry & The Pacemakers, through to The La's, Shack and up to The Zutons. All have that classic Mersey sound that is rooted in a hybrid of skiffle, rhythm and blues and rock n roll.

As you might have guess from the album's title everything about ROOTS & ECHOES harks back to the genre's glory days of the early '60: The monotone album shot, the typography and of course the songs. 


At the heart of The Coral is great classic British songwriting, that's not to say these are swaggering Britpop anthems. These are sweet and melodic beat-songs, very similar to The La's first and only album. The sound is resolutely old fashioned. On tracks like 'Remember Me' and 'She's Got a Reason' if you were to strip out singer James Skelly's scouse vocal you could be listening to the early Shadows.


Skelly's song-writing has matured and and the album is altogether slower-paced than it's predecessors with the exception two heavier tunes, 'In The Rain' and 'She's Got a Reason'. The latter builds into a vaguely psychy-rock out with hammond organ and fuzzed guitar solos. Even here though, the timeless melody is everything. 

Standout tracks though are the gentle numbers: 'Put The Sun Back', 'Jacqueline', 'Cobwebs' and the breathtakingly 'Not So Lonely', a slow ballad that Scott Walker should have sung.


ROOTS & ECHOES is a classic '60s album, released 40 years too late. 




'PUT THE SUN BACK'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqlKZDZpmkI

'NOT SO LONELY'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS8Pn2RkxKo

'COBWEBS'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VjR_r_FIDs

RAPPROCHER by CLASS ACTRESS (2011, Car Park Records)

Brooklyn based trio Class Actress are purveyors of silky smooth synth pop. 

Layers of tightly woven keyboards and electro drum beats overlaid with singer Elizabeth Harper's breathy female vocals. She has a detached, cool but ever-so seductive air, it's kind of like one of the Stepford Wives has joined The Human League.

RAPPROCHER is their first full album and there are some standout moments, 'Weekend' and 'Love Me Like You Used Too' in particular are classy, crystalline perfectly-produced pop. Over the course of a whole album though it becomes a little one-note and towards the end it begins to feel derivative. If you really like the new wave of electro / synth pop bands like Hurts or Grimes you'll probably love it, if your more casual like me, it will drag. 

A better introduction would be their excellent Journal of Ardency EP from 2010 which still feels fresher and more exciting, being less in the thrall of their lead singer and standard songs structures. On this E.P. Class Actress suggest a willingness break tracks down into full-on electro dancefloor numbers in a similar way to vintage New Order, check out the track 'Someone Real'. Disappointingly though there's none of that on RAPPROCHER. Bit of a shame really. Next time they just need to be less cool, have a bit more fun, and we will too.

'WEEKEND'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XdTr23ABQk

'LOVE ME LIKE YOU USED TO'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDCLrtv8n3k

'SOMEONE REAL'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pENaktBFvQY

THE BOATMAN'S CALL by NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS (1997, Mute)

"I don't believe in an interventionist God, but I know darling that you do". As opening lines go, it's not going to appeal to everyone. So begins Nick Cave's miserablist masterpiece THE BOATMAN'S CALL. This is his 'Blood On The Tracks', an outpouring of remorse at his doomed courtship with one Polly Jean Harvey. 

There's no attempt at hiding the identity of his muse and at times you do wonder how PJ felt when Cave sung so freely about embracing "her palpitations" as he does on 'West Country Girl', or on the following song 'Black Hair' where he reminiscences about playing with her "beautiful, beautiful black hair" like a lovesick teenager. 

Unlike his previous albums this is a sparse, minimalist record, entirely piano led with the barest of support, there's none of the explosive garage blues and punk of the Bad Seeds or Birthday Present. Musically it's closest to the soundtracks Cave wrote with fellow Bad Seed Warren Ellis for the period Westerns, 'The Proposition' and 'The Assassination of Jesse James'. Both excellent by the way. 

When Cave's quasi-biblical language and dour delivery is set against such traditional arrangements, it gives him the air of a sad, aloof parson from a rural-set 19th Century novel. The mournful whine of folky violin evokes images of him trudging over wild moors, scowling heavily as he does on the cover. With the words of 'There Is A Kingdom' or 'People They Ain't No Good' and the frequent use of a church organ it's not hard to imagine Cave intoning warnings to his devout, rapt congregation. 

'Are You The One I've Been Waiting For' and 'Into Your Arms' were the singles, both mournful and performed with an achingly heavy heart. The latter being the song Cave played for his friend Michael Hutchence, at his funeral.

Unrelentingly gloomy, these 12 mournful laments may leave you low. But sometimes there is beauty to be found in sadness.

'INTO MY ARMS'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnHoqHscTKE

'ARE YOU THE ONE I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR?'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd51SEljBU0

FEEL THE STEEL by STEEL PANTHER (2009, Universal Republic)

Big tunes, huge hair, enormous sexual appetite! Steel Panther are LAs finest '80s poodle rockers. Sporting spandex, litres of hairspray and epic stadium metal tunes that Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard would rip their greying perms out for!

Their skin tight lycra barely contains their massive throbbing riffs and fist-pumping anthems. They make The Darkness look demure, Spinal Tap seem sedate. Opening track 'Death To All But Metal' sets the agenda: 

"Fuck the Goo Goo Dolls, they can suck my balls, 

They look like the dogs who hang out at the mall.

Eminem can suck it, so can Dr. Dre,

They can suck each other, just because they're gay.

They can suck a dick, they can lick a sack, 

Everybody shout, heavy metals back!

DEATH TO ALL BUT METAL!"

Subtle it ain't, rocking it is.

They're sexiest certainly, but also sexy as hell. Every song on the album is about the bands notorious love-making prowess. They love all types of ladies whether they be, ahem, groupies, strippers or hookers. Steel Panther don't discriminate. 

It's not all about male gratification though, the Panther always ensure their lady-folk are satisfied as they go to great lengths to explain on 'The Shocker' and 'Eatin' Ain't Cheatin''. I'm not sure I need to elaborate further. 

Despite their ball-swinging bravado they do have a more tender side. 'Girl From Oklahoma' is sweet acoustic tribute to a teenage groupie with braces. Its cut from the same cloth as Mr Big's 'To Be With You'. 'Community Property' is a straight soft rock ballad that channels Aerosmith 'Don't want to Miss a thing". Lead singer Michael Starr croons:

"I would give you the stars in the sky but they're too far away,

If you were a hooker, you know, I'd be happy to pay,

If suddenly you were a guy, I'd be suddenly gay,

'cause my heart belongs to you,

My love is pure and true, 

My heart belongs to you,

But my c*ck is community property"

Steel Panther are a brilliant pastiche band with their tongues lodged firmly in cheeks (and in other intimate places). But the knowingly offensive smut is inventive in ways you can't imagine, plus they're backed up by brilliantly catchy hooks and perfectly constructed soft rock stadium anthems.

Forget 11, these guys go up to 12!

'DEATH TO ALL BUT METAL'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfB7vF7nCdA

'FAT GIRL (THAR SHE BLOWS)'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x67jtMPfdTw

'COMMUNITY PROPERTY'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzUPG8olnO0

IRON (E.P.) by WOODKID (2011, Green United Music)

Okay I'm cheating for the second day in a row. This is another EP not a full album, what can I say, it's been a busy week!

While we wait expectantly for his debut album it's worth checking out last years excellent IRON E.P. by Woodkid

Woodkid is the non de plume of French musician, graphic designer and director Yoann Lemoine. Amongst his better known work are the promos for Lana Del Ray's 'Born To Die', Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' as well as winning major awards at the Cannes for his smart AIDS awareness campaign, 'Graffiti'. He's also a seriously talented musician. Doesn't it just make you sick.

The lead track Iron is remarkable. 

It opens to trumpets blasts that seem to herald the coming of the apocalypse. Gloomy beats fused with warlike tribal drums thunder behind Lemoine's gently atmospheric vocals. The lyrics appear to be told from the perspective of a soldier who's survived a great battle and is now alone surviving in a snowy wilderness awaiting his fate, the abyss before him. It would make the perfect accompaniment to an episode of Game of Thrones. In fact the track was used last year as the trailer music for the videogame Asssasin's Creed.

The tone changes completely on second track 'Brooklyn', an acoustic guitar and piano-led love letter to his favourite of NY's five boroughs. It's has an autumnal melancholy feel. Listening to it, its impossible not to imagine dusk's golden light hitting the red brick walls that line the streets of Williamsburg or the faded amusement park of Coney Island. 

'Baltimore's Fireflies' is similarly haunting. In comparison the track 'Wasteland' is almost jaunty whilst still retaining the EP sadly nostalgic tone, its the kind of beautiful melancholia Rufus Wainwright does so well.

IRON E.P. is rounded off with two remixes of the title track. The first by The Warm Jets gives the track beefed up electronic sound, especially when the bass kicks in at 3 minutes. Get that volume turned right up for it! It kind of steals the thunder of the second mix by Gucci Vump which sets the track to a  deep house beat. Its a bit "meh!"

'IRON'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSkb0kDacjs

'BROOKLYN'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YGEZbcJ9pI

THE WAR ROOM by PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING (2012, Test Card Recordings)

Do excuse my excitement chaps, but this I think this little EP might just be record of the year!

Public Service Broadcasting are London duo J. Willgoose Esq and Wrigglesworth - not their real names we can assume. Two decent fellows who through the use of guitar, keyboards, drums, electronic instruments, banjos (yes, banjos!!) and some spiffing samples from old Public Service recordings (courtesy of the gentlefolk at the BFI) have created an EP of five instrumentals that do Blighty mighty proud. 

A mini-concept album, THE WAR ROOM takes us back 70 years to depths of the Second World War for five wartime vignettes titled 'If War Should Come', 'London Can Take It', 'Spitfire'. 'Dig For Victory' and 'Waltz for George'.

PSB take samples from these old pubic service films and propaganda material and they aim to "teach the lessons of the past through the music of the future". Musically the band sit somewhere between Lemon Jelly's quintessentially British folk-tronica and the dark psychedelic instrumentals from Primal Scream's Vanishing Point or Death In Vegas' Contino Sessions.

The music is great, but it's the smart use of these old samples expertly weaved into the tracks that elevate them to total brilliance, particularly on their tribute to the resilient capital 'London Can Take It" and their ode to "a bird that breaths fire and spits out death and destruction" - 'Spitfire'. It's heroic spine-tingling stuff.

I've include the words from 'London Can Take It' below, originally a report filed by from American correspondent Quentin Reynolds and shown to audiences in the USA in order to shore up support for Britain and her allies. They're inspirational and spine-tingling.

At the moment, this EP is only £2.49 on iTunes UK store. Seriously do yourself a favour.
It's epic!

LONDON CAN TAKE IT

Now it's eight o' clock, Gerry's a little bit late tonight

The dusk is deepening. Soon the nightly battle of London will be on.

This has been a quiet day for us but it won't be a quiet night.

The searchlights are in position. The guns are ready.

The people's army of volunteers are ready. 

They are the ones who are really fighting this war.

Brokers, clerks, pedlars, merchants by day. They are heroes by night.

These are not Hollywood sounds effects. 

This is the music they play every night in London.

The symphony of war.

London can take it.

London raises her head, shakes the debris of the night from her hair 

and takes stock of the damage done.

The sign of a great fighter in the ring is, 

can he get up from the floor after being knocked down.

London does this every morning.

There is no panic, no fear, no despair in London town. 

London can take it.

The night is long, but sooner or later the dawn will come.

'LONDON CAN TAKE IT'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu4Rr07bgVQ&feature=relmfu

'SPITFIRE'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u4Md_aXVJE