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Content by russell clarke
Reviewer Rank: 15
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Reviews Written by
russell clarke "stipesdoppleganger" (halifax, west yorks)
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The Moody Blues move ever nearer the middle of that road., 20 Nov 2009
The Moody Blues were never going to be as good once quasi - mystic mellotron noodler Mike Pinder left the band. For a start they lost one of their strongest song writers and replaced him with bouffant topped knob twiddler Patrick Moraz who contributed...well lots of knob twiddling I suppose. Still the Present is by no means a bad album . Its just not up there with the bands best.
Released in 1983 it's the second album to feature Moraz after errr the other one Long Distance Voyager, and the album see's the band embrace many of the significant aspects of the times with the lush synth textures, plump bass lines and shiny production courtesy of Pip Williams . Lest this terrify any fans of the Moody Blues earlier work not familiar with this album there are still lots of crystal clear chords wonderful vocals and terrific songs .
"Blue World " with it's wavering keyboard lines and squelchy electronic bass spine may have ,at the time signalled a brave step into the future ( or the present !) for the band but the plea from Justin Hayward ( in fine voice as ever ) for a world in which everyone cares more for their fellow man ( or woman ) is a classic Moody's theme . Indeed the first four tracks of this album are great. "Sitting At The Wheel " is John Lodge in typical rocker mode and goes with a real swing led by a zesty keyboard melody and Graeme Edges "Going Nowhere " once again signifies him as an under-rated contributor to the bands cannon of songs. Best of all Is "Meet Me Halfway " a Hayward /Lodge collaboration with wonderful vocal interplay and that irresistible aching lamenting quality of all the best Moody Blue tracks
The Hayward ballads "Cold Outside Of Your Heart " and "Running Water " are typically lovely , the more rudimentary pop of "Under My Feet " is thoroughly enjoyable and the Ray Thomas ballad "Sorry " is cheesy MOR but classy cheesy MOR. The military percussion led "Hole In The World " is just odd and "I Am" is the obligatory Thomas track that makes you wonder how it ever got on the album .
The Present like Long Distance Voyager before it is an album that starts very strongly and then tails off towards the end . Like another reviewer points out it's pure MOR but it's no where near as bad that reviewer makes out. Like any genre of music , some is good ,some bad ,some hovering in-between .This is mostly quality MOR. Like a huge comfortable pillow smelling very faintly of some exotic herb. The loss of Mike Pinder certainly robs the band of his contemplative moody mellotron tones but the sound while more contemporary than what has gone before still has that reassuring richness and effulgence of melody without being too trite or toe curling .Well....for the most part anyway.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
All bracing notes and brooding menace but a darkly humane album., 18 Nov 2009
It starts with a deceptively simple three note piano motif on "The Cairns " . Then the vocal harmonies slink in like mist broiling round a mountaintop. I knew then that I would love Nancy Elizabeth's Wrought Iron. The cover which in it's sepia toned artiness reminded me of the Pixies brilliant Come on Pilgrim was already a considered signifier of quality. You can tell a lot by an albums cover. The cover and more importantly the music within did not let me down.
The music is sparse often just ivory spine , a touch of percussion or bass, a sprinkling of glockenspiel an urging of brass or a quiver of harmonica.. The most striking instrument on this album are the vocals of Nancy Elizabeth herself , a curiously direct thing of intimate beauty , it moves from a right in your ear whisper on "Ruins " to a keening yearn on "Canopy " to a having an playful but faintly chilly bent on "Lay Low ". On " The Act " the real crisp power of her vocal chords comes peeling out the speakers. You could strip Artex off the walls with her voice on this one.
Sparsely arranged as it is, Wrought Iron's is something of a paradox even its open spaces are heavily pregnant with mounting tension and the tease of release. There is incipient drama in this music that reminds me of more celebrated acts . "The Act " starts out like prime Shearwater before inputting some Spirit of Eden Talk Talk atmospherics .This is a folk album , but one with inflections of jazz ( just listen to "Bring On The Hurricane " ) "Feet Of Courage " is an audacious fusing of labyrinthine bass and playful harmonies. "Tow The Line " is a torch song but a torch song given an organic frisson. Less about dark clubs , more about dark woods. It is quite brilliant.
It ends on the spectral secluded notes and wintry vocals of "Winter Baby " aptly enough. Wrought Iron feels like a winter album. All bracing notes and brooding menace yet is also a darkly humane album and one that gives English folk, like her fellow Mancunian , the wonderful Kathryn Edwards, a subtle authoritative twist.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Taking a scythe to the British political system ., 16 Nov 2009
If you thought your faith in politics and by proxy politicians could get not get any lower be prepared to be disabused of that notion by reading Peter Oborne,s The Triumph of the Political Class.
The theory which dominates The Triumph of the Political Class is that the age of mass, participatory democracy rooted in political parties has decayed, like the oligarchy which preceded it. In its place has emerged a small cadre of professional politicians and their collaborators, a cheery self absorbed bunch .Greedy, cynical and out-of-touch with vast swathes of the population the Political Class runs this country much as the Whig elite did in the 18th century, chiefly in pursuit of self-enrichment and the retention of office. Party political divisions are merely an illusion as in fact the whole is a corrupt cabal interested only in maintaining their vested interest and preserving the status quo. If the duck ponds and flipping got your gander up then wait till you read this.
He is hugely scathing of New Labour laying into Gordon Brown for his stuffy dress sense ( apparently this is a preserve of the political class ) John Prescott ( his affair with his secretary caused much consternation in the upper echelons of big business as they couldn't understand how he wasn't sacked for cavorting with an employee in work time )and most obviously the Blair's with Mrs Blair getting as good a kicking as her warmongering husband. A woman , already very well paid ,who would use her husbands power and position to get discounts on things like football shirts deserves nothing less.
Oborne exposes the political class as destroying the House of Commons as an arena for political debate, colluding with the media ( New Labours toadying to Murdoch is especially repellent) , emasculating the civil service, it's "Profound hostility to individual freedom and the rule of law " and most worryingly of all the fact that most of our votes have ceased to matter and only 2% of voters in key marginal's are targeted ( taken from an American system called "Voter Vault " and first used by the Tories ) and that the political class has become an homogenised slurry of opinions and policies , disenfranchising voters and evaporating class politics .
Oborne however does undermine his own argument at times. He acknowledges that the rise of the political class began under Margaret Thatcher but pays very little attention to her tenure at Downing St , or indeed that of John Mayor. The party political divides are still clearly in play where he is concerned .His defence of the free market and the city is laughable given recent events and smacks of standing up for vested interests.Oborne notes that not one of Gordon Brown's Cabinet "possessed significant business experience" as if business experience is the be all and end all of judging competence. Surely a cross section of life & work experience would be more beneficial rather than some narrow corporate perspective? It's this mercantile obsession as much as what Oborne calls "Manipulative populism " that has hindered social reform and blurred the political divide.
Putting that gripe aside ,there is no doubt that our political system is in urgent need of a radical overhaul. Huge sections of the population are no longer properly represented at the ballot box which is a severe undermining of the democracy we all assume we have. Indeed Oborne calls our current system of government a "calamity for British Democracy "and he also wonders if David Cameron would lead an insurgency against the political class? Or will he become as Oborne puts it "another manifestation of its alluring ,corrupt and anti-democratic methodology ?" .I know which one my money is on.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Reality bites....very , very gently ., 13 Nov 2009
Hush Arbors is Keith Wood, a Virginian with a lamenting falsetto, and he is accompanied here with his usual guitarist Leon Dufficy and unusually by Dinosaur JR front man J. Mascis who produces and provides occasional guitar , drums and mellotron. Yankee Reality is Hush Arbors' second album for Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label.
Anyone expecting Mascis presence to give the album a jolt of electricity via howling chords and wired feedback is going to be disappointed with this album. Despite also the use of tuba, vox, Wurlitzer, Vibraphone and piano the music rarely raises itself above a courteous stroll .It's polite folk -rock that at its most avant garde gets a little poppy . No envelopes are being pushed or even being nudged civilly here.
Yankee Reality is always graciously pleasant but also drifts into soporific terrain a tad too eagerly on occasion . When it perks up a bit like on the blissful jangles of "For While You Slept " or the elegant sliver of nostalgic, psychedelic Americana of "Take It Easy " it becomes more interesting . The hurly burly tumble of "Devil Made You High " ends the album on a tempestuous note and " Lisbon " sort of bookends it with its twanging chords and tumbling percussion.
The albums middle section sometimes ambles around in search of inspiration and a memorable tune but essentially becomes an extended fugue of slyly strummed guitars and incipient atmospherics. Not disagreeable but nothing to get too excited about either for the most part . Before that the albums strongest track has all the aforementioned but injects squalls of squirming guitar which disrupts the songs hypnotic reverie most pleasingly. "So They Say " starts like Bon Iver covering the Field Mice and has a plaintive air and amenable longing quality .And I love the mellotron on "Coming Home " , a loose cosmic hoedown.
Yankee Reality has a back to basics quality ( akin to Bon Ivers For Emma Forever ) and a tinge of the rustic and that is maybe the Yankee Reality the albums title alludes to. It's not going to give anyone a sonic uppercut , more like pat the listener affably with woolly mittens if the truth be told but even if it does drift aimlessly about some of the time it does have a distinctive serene ambience that render it enervated appeal. I might be damming it with faint praise but praise it I am. After all what else could we expect from a band called Hush Arbors?
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
"It kicks like a sleep twitch "., 12 Nov 2009
Well fair play to Editors , after their last two magnificent albumsThe Back Room & An End Has a Start for not resting on their sepulchral laurels. The bands much mooted transition to electronic music is not the disaster it might have been. It's not a chest bursting triumph either but all funereal shiny synths considered I would say that I This Light And On This Evening is a worthy addition to Editors canon. Some may view the focus of electronic instruments as a minor betrayal , robbing the songs of their bones & gristle honesty and the authenticity of their earlier work. In reality the songs feel empirical and stylistically it's not that great a departure either.
So instead of moody stentorian sounding guitars we have moody stentorian keyboards .And that's about the top bottom and sides off it all. It all sounds tremendously serious , earnest and dramatic with singer Tom Smith still in fine booming theatrical form . But that is what Editors do so very well .This album is no different in that regard either.
The first half of the album ( if the album had been on vinyl you could have separated the two sides and had side one as the up-tempo side ) is superior to the more downbeat second half and it may have been better to mix up the tempo of the tracks a tad more but taking into account the track listing was probably a conscious artistic decision by the band then who am I to argue ( except I just have ).Anyway there are a plethora of magnificent tracks on the album .
From the measured portentous build up of the title track to the luminous notes and curious free wheeling backing cadence of "Bricks And Mortar" then onto the Kraftwerk synths and Blue Monday choral effects of "Papillon " this album swishes in with bravura confidence and no little style . To filch a line from the aforementioned song "It kicks like a sleep twitch ".
Add to this the glorious elliptical keyboards and susceptible harmonies of "You Don't Know Love " ( there may even be some treated guitar in this song ) and the way "The Big Exit " kicks off like a Young Gods tour de force before subsuming into a heartfelt exhortation for forgotten love and the churning ambience and keening counterpoints of "The Boxer" and you have two thirds of a classic album.
The final third though becomes a touch somnambulant and less dynamic. Even if "Like Treasure " has some out of the ordinary textural additions it is still a rote ballad built around a paradigm bass line and bog standard ascending keyboards. "Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool " could certainly never be accused of being rote, well apart from it's average middle eight , but it's bouncing backing and chart show chorus somehow jar against the rest of the album. "Walk The Fleet Road " is meant to give the album it's big emotional swell of a finish but instead of ending with a crescendo of passionate fervour the album drifts lamely out of view like flotsam on a canal surface.
I never criticise bands for taking a new direction ( unless it's something absurd like Big Band in this case and as I have mentioned previously it's not that massive a leap anyway ) and even if this new proclivity for keyboards had been a calamity I would have applauded them for doing it. As it is Editors have produced an album that will , like their others, nestle comfortably in my albums of the year list. Not as highly as before you understand but its there none the less......kicking like a sleep twitch.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Like God Speed You Black Emperor have suddenly acquired a love for Abba., 10 Nov 2009
Hidden Cameras, front man Joel Gibb recently announced that " naivety is kind of worn, I would say." Which portends I would speculate that this is new album is a step towards a more mature earnest direction which when you consider that their last album was titled Awoo and book ended by two songs about water sports ( that's water sports in the adult specialist web-site sense lest you are confused )would not take much doing .
Mind you looking at the song break down on the insert notes there is still plenty that to signify that the trademark HC sound will be still be pulsing out of the speakers given that there are violins, horns, viola's French Horns double bass and even choirs. It might be serious stuff about.... well whatever it's about -alienation love and longing ( the tile track asks "Who in the world put me here to be all on my own ?) but surely it will be still set to serotonin pulsing capricious tunes with hooks so big they could land a Jurassic sea dweller?
Except that isn't the case either. .The music is still capable of being playful -"Underage " has ridiculous harmonies, scratchy funk guitar and the lyrics "I'll pretend you're seven , You'll pretend I'm eight " but mostly Origin Orphan see's the music morph into something more elegant, reflective and almost classical in composition at times.
"Ratify The New " ushers the album in on menacing droning keyboards. It sounds more like God Speed You Black Emperor than the merry pop deviants we are so familiar with. It's bit of a shock , like finding out Anthea Turner loves death metal , but once the vocals and high tension strings kick in things adjust to business as normal .....except again they don't entirely with screeches of feedback , jarring tympani and hammering percussion. GSYBE have suddenly acquired a love for Abba was the thought that sprung into my head.
Even if "In The Na " and "He Falls To Me " are more like the band of old with it's catchy insistent refrain and melodic sleight of hand songs like "Colour Of A Man," "Do I Belong" and "Kingdom Come" and the beautifully moderated ballad "Silence is A Headline " underscore a manifest shift in the bands approach. This is made even more evident by tracks like the surly magnificent "Walk On " which takes quasi -mystical meta- pop and gives it a glossy gothic twist and the title track takes inner pain and welds it to a bond theme. The daffy , undeniably enjoyable ditty , "A Little Bit " sounds woefully out of place in amongst this existential scree . It should be on one of their other albums or more conveniently left for future release. .
I would never criticise a band for taking their music in a different direction. I might criticise the end results but this album works because the Hidden Cameras have taken their irresistible ear for melody and overwrought arrangements and given it a dark judicious atonal twist. They have examined the wreckage of emotional carnage and bolted the detritus to the carapace of their songs without wholly putting aside what made them so terrific in the first place.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Footballer in interesting , honourable ,honest and erudite shock!, 6 Nov 2009
It's interesting that I have chosen to read the autobiography of Jamie ( James is the name his family know him by ) just as his worth to Liverpool is being questioned by some Liverpool fans after their slightly shaky start to the season. Now if I didn't know it already from watching him play so consistently (well ...up to this point anyway ) I would have said that if anyone represented consummate professionalism and commitment to the cause of L.F.C. it was Jamie Carragher and that if anyone deserved the patience and support of the fans through a rare out of form spell it was JC again. Reading this book has further cemented that believe for not only is a genuinely fascinating, entertaining , honest and revealing autobiography it is also one of the more erudite .
Carragher , initially an Everton fan discusses his changing relationship with his boyhood club , a relationship that has deteriorated to such a degree ( he blames bitter Everton fans as much as anything ) he now values a win over them more than one over Manchester United. He discusses the impact ex-managers like Gerard Houllier ( who many will be surprised to hear he is invariably very complimentary about and includes a brilliant anecdote with reference to Paul Ince ) and Rafa Benitez have made on his career and the fact that playing for Liverpool meant more to him than playing for England which may be sacrilege to some .
Mostly though its the tone and structure of the book that mark it out as different from the standard footballers autobiography . There is none of the rote: then we went to such and such and won 2-1 with goals from Bing & Bong before beating so and so at home with Jay Jay scoring a brace. Carragher tackles ( no pun intended ) managers and pivotal events -Istanbul , the Gerrard cup final - chapter by chapter, though the narrative still sticks to chronology . He is scathing of numerous ex- colleagues who he feels were not up to the standard required for Premiership football. Salif Diao , El Hadj Dioff , Bruno Cheyrou to name a few lambastes others -Stan Collymore ,Sander Westerveld - for their attitude while at the club. Others, like Didi Hamann , Danny Murphy ( who never wanted to leave Liverpool in the first place) he has nothing but praise for.
With reference to leaving Liverpool Carragher is also extremely understanding and supportive of former teams mates Michael Owen ( or MO as he calls him ) and Steve McMannaman for heading out in search in pastures new. That is not for him though .Carragher is Liverpool through and through and in this book he comes across as decent , honourable and likable and how many top flight footballers can you say that about ?
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
No thawing of the brain ice here., 3 Nov 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Graham Greene once said that all authors should have splinters of ice in their brain .It is clear that Chelsea Cain possesses this ....chilly cerebellum as her books are always extremely nasty , rigidly unsentimental and errr evil at heart I suppose. There are so many books with their focus on serial killer or general murdering nut-jobs around that it is extremely difficult to come at them from a different angle.
Yet with the creation of beautiful torturing mass murderer Gretchen Lowell and her nemesis/muse detective Archie Sheridan Chelsea Cain has succeeded superficially at least in creating a thrilling and distinctive take on the genre. However the more I read of her three books featuring the "beauty killer " ( she ,s beautiful and like a killer .....geddit ? ) the more the resemblance to Hannibal Lecktor became palpable. Hyper intelligence mixed with a paradoxical desire for murder , mutilation , mind games and general mayhem. And she posed as a psychiatrist too. She has a thing for spleens rather than liver but still .
So it's not as wholly original as it may first appear. Yet for all that I found the first bookHeartsick a terrific palm moistening read. The sequel Sweetheart though was a rushed ( or felt like it) poorly plotted rather indolent attempt to cash in on the characters. Happily Evil At Heart is a vast improvement with a nice twist in the hunt for gorgeous/gruesome Gretchen . To say more would give too much away but despite the fact that the central premise is pushing incredulity close to snapping I read the book in a rush wanting to find out what transpired really rather quickly.
I'm not sure if there is anymore to be had from this series now but if Evil At Heart is the final instalment of the Gretchen /Archie saga then it is a pulse inducing thoroughly satisfying way to go out. It, s as nasty as they come as well. No thawing of the brain ice here.
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Exploding Head
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
More skull cracking guitar heaven ., 2 Nov 2009
In lieu of My Bloody Valentine actually ever making another album A Place To Bury Strangers are actually a pretty decent substitute. Their eponymous debut album A Place to Bury Strangersoriginally released in 2007 ( and re-released in 2008 which is when I picked up on it ) was a wonderfully diverse collection of scabrous guitar dominated rock songs which showcased that the bad were not merely reliant on velocity and volume but were sussed enough to know that variation of texture and pace were just as important.
Lest the My Bloody Valentine comparison make you think this band are mere copyists of said band let me tell you they aren't. While they share many of the blurry edged textures of MBV circa Isn't Anything they also incorporate elements of Ministry, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Mudhoney and probably most pertinently Suicide whose ability to lock in a decimating groove they share. Not so much shoe gaze as shoe dead eyed stare.
Oliver Ackermann, front man of Brooklyn three-piece A Place to Bury Strangers: Under his catch-all company name Death by Audio (it's also a music venue, recording studio, and collective), custom-builds and designs his own hand-wired pedals, which are used by everyone from Lightning Bolt and Serena Maneesh to Wilco, Spoon, and TV on the Radio. He was previously a member of defunct Fredericksburg, Va., dream-pop revivalists Skywave, whose records who even more closely recalled MBV and JAMC. After their break up Ackermann moved to New York where he hooked up with drummer Jay Space and bassist Jono Mofo, and cranked up the vox of Tim Gregorio and formed A Place To Bury Strangers.
Exploding Head lacks the visceral quaquaversal splendour of their debut but that is possibly because we now know what to expect of them but is still a thrilling clash of jagged chords , ruptured riffs and splenetic fury. "Deadbeat " is a powerhouse of flechette guitars and macerating percussion "It Is Nothing " opens the album with carrion wave fury of feverish arpeggio that seems to be sucking all light into it's maw like some sonic black hole. The gradual fade into the fuzz overload and congealed groove of "Ego Death", the bass surge and guitar shrapnel of the title track and the premeditated crawl and hyped up furrows of "Lost Feeling " alert the fact that this while album doesn't vary the pace as much as their debut the band are still acutely aware that if everything goes 1000mph it all blurs into one seamless whole.
Occasionally Exploding Head does sound a touch rote ."Smile When You Smile " is blurry chords by numbers but the albums central theme of total self-disintegration ,of the perpetual slipping away of things and remaining forever cloaked in shadow is craftily signified by the flaying fragments of sound and the miasmic fuzz obscurity of the songs. To cheekily riff ( no pun intended )on the obvious reference point of MBV ...they made me realise.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
"A past so recent it blurs into nowness "., 30 Oct 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
It could be argued that with it still being 2009 and all that it is too early to be publishing an overview of the decade we are still living through - the one given the silly sounding moniker the noughties. ( though I ,m jiggered if I could come up with a better phrase) For as the author puts it "This book is about the past albeit( as I write) a past so recent that the edges blur imperceptibly into nowness without us being able to distinguish the difference ".
Ignoring that though and judging the book on it's written merits I thoroughly enjoyed Tim Footman's book .which covers the massively imperative with the more flippant and trivial ( or so it would seem) but treats all subjects with wit, erudition and due consideration. So he flips from the millennium bug to the dome ( a vast polyester tent ") 9/11 to the war on terror ( of which he asks "how can you wage war on an abstract concept ?") environmental concerns, the democratisation brought about by the internet, the credit crunch , surveillance erosion of privacy and civil liberties , shopping and consumerism as placebo , the rise of China as a global super power, reality TV and by dint of that Susan Boyle and Jade Goody .
It is also a useful pointer for books and films relevant to the subjects covered .He even covers his five "Records " that summarize the decade. "Hallelujah "Hallelujah by Alexandra Burke is one which at first seems odd but then makes perfect sense and I'm with him 100% about John Cales version being the best. It may seem ridiculous to discuss 9/11( he raises the point that America needs enemies and after the thawing of the cold war 9/11 gave "The American Superman a few Lex Luthers to take the blame ") in the same book as Jade Goody ("Her special quality was her own her own exceptional mediocrity ") but both figured hugely in the decade , though one could wish fervently neither had.
The book is fairly concise , less than 200 pages , and some might wish for a more in-depth analysis like the book about Britain in the seventiesWhen the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies .But as it is Tom Footman does a good job in defining the decade where styles stood still ( He makes a point about comparing fashions at either end of decades and it's true. The 60,s/70,s 80,s even the 90,s saw immense transformations ..but not the noughties. Is it because we now live a more introverted lifestyle on our computers/ game boys / I -pods etc? ....hmmmm) He is a bit sniffy, snobbish even, about Amazon reviews "The reviews on Amazon are as powerful an argument against democracy as you could find "(He is quoting someone else here actually but it's rather ironic given that this book has been encouraged to receive reviews) His conclusion that the two defining themes of this decade are technology and fear are hard to discount but it is also the fact we have so much information so readily available but are we making the most of it ? It would seem many questions about the noughties remain to be answered and the definitive book on the decade therefore remains to be written ..
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