Black Ships is everything I could ever want from an album. Unusual styles. Big names collaborating with lesser known artists. Weird lyrics. Concept album.
I like to listen to this album when I’m feeling poorly or low. Meditative, the album reaches into the dark recesses of one’s psyche and stirs up visualisations of terrifying times. This makes me think of the classic woodcut from 16th Century Basle which depicts the aerial battle between black spheres and white spheres.
Of course it has nothing to do with that event, that is just me. The actual album has some manic tracks that invoke panic and fear interwoven with artists like Marc Almond, Bonnie Prince Billy and Anthony (of Johnsons fame) singing versions of the 1763 Methodist hymn “Idumæa” by Charles Wesley.
If you want your music to make you feel unusual, this album will do it for you. I suggest that you avoid consuming anything too psychotropic when you’re listening to it though. Some of the tracks and lyrics can be too stressful.
More haunting ethereal songs, this time from the Scottish masters of the genre – Cocteau Twins.
During the height of the ethereal genre and 4AD’s dominance of new wave music, the Cocteau Twins were the band that was synonymous with the genre. Liz Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie seeded the 1990s with their unique sound and, quite often, featured on television and film soundtracks.
Of course I wasn’t much of a fan. I’m still not. But having heard them not only on the Uncut: 4AD compilation and the soundtrack for the film Lost Highway I was intregued to find out more. So I did my usual thing of downloading all their back catalogue. Over time I’ve deleted many of the albums I had, purely because their works are too similar. Those that remain feature only the songs that I like. Black Sessions is a live recording of the band when the were featured on the French radio station France Inter. I kept this in hope that I might become more enamoured with the band. I didn’t.
The soundtrack to my favourite childhood film as composed and performed by John Barry.
This is a strange piece of work. It’s very militaristic in many respects. All trumpets and snare drums. But it works well alone or with the film in its original setting.
The first track, the overture, is a bit cringe making but once that’s out of the way you’ve got the music from the film in its orchestral splendour.
What I loved about the nineties and the noughties was how I’d rediscover old bands that had been around for ages but I hadn’t heard of them. Like Greenslade. Or Renaissance.
Neu was one such band. My dear friend Jamie downloaded this one rainy evening. I’d gone round to visit, possibly to talk computers or swap software or something. He played the album to me and I was immediately besotted with it. Simple yet out of their time melodies. No singing. Just electronic music. Think Kraftwerk without weirdness.
Of course it later became harder for me to source music like this without someone to bounce CDs off. When Jamie moved away from Liverpool and returned to Preston, new music like this in my life also started to dry up. I became too stuck on one genre.
Still, this is good stuff. The kind of music I’d like to listen to high on morphine while flying through the skies in the air ambulance. Or on a rocket. Or UFO.
This is where Depeche Mode tries to turn synth pop into some dark S&M fetish club. And it works. Later albums do it even better but this is possibly the first in their catalogue that does it. It is Depeche Mode’s fifth studio album. It succeeds in being dark by ripping the band from their poppy beginnings, like some Vince Clarke exorcism has taken place and summoned some sort of sexy winged pain mistress through a doorway to hell. To feast on your soul.
This album is delicious. It’s like licking dark chocolate off the boots of Lilith Silver. Because she tells you to. A great album to begin a teenager’s journey into gothdom.
I first came across Bel Canto on the Heavenly Voices compilation. Or at least I think I did.
There has always been something familiar – Hauntingly familiar – about this album. As if I’ve always known it. As if at some point I’ve blanked the album from my memory only to have it resurface some years later and it appear fresh and exciting to me. No. That’s not it. It’s very difficult for me to put it into words. Perhaps this then. No other album inspires deja vu the way this album does with me.
Anyway, this is an example of music from the ethereal genre popular in the early to late 90s. Spooky haunting vocals over placid lake like compositions. This is the only Bel Canto album I have and it is their second. I understand they’ve had many other releases but this, I have been told, is the definitive. The perfect one. It’s hard not to disagree. It flows like liquid. Chilled. Into your mind. Through your ears.
D’Ave is an artist I’ve found very little information about. I first came across D’Ave on a compilation I was sent by the now defunct music label Peoplesound. I liked his work so much I sent off for his album and this is that album.
Peoplesound will feature quite a few times through the duration of this project. Years ahead of its time, the site encouraged unsigned bands to record demos and albums which the site would then promote to music listeners and allow them to download samples or buy whole albums. The site lasted for several years and kept me in new music for just as long.
Of course few bands from the Peoplesound label actually made it big. Which is a shame as many were bloody good. Maybe some have changed their name and gone on to big things or maybe they’ve given up and got sensible jobs now. There is no way to find out really.
Anyway, as I said, D’Ave was a Peoplesound artist. I liked him. I bought his album. I can’t find anything about him other than the information I put on Last.fm.
There simply was no end to Geoff’s talents. Not only does he dominate easy listening but his use of the word BIG for all his albums just shows how massive he was in the genre. If anyone tells you that Mantovani or James Last were better. Burn them as heretics. Geoff is where it is at.
This album is a prime example as to why. As with Big Terror Movie ThemesLove uses his talents to craft a singular work of outstanding beauty by utilising the whole orchestra and adding an electric guitar. Sure, this is what he did in Big Terror Movie Themes and would go on to do in later albums but the mix here is perfect.
I’d even be as bold to say Love takes Morricone, Bernstein and Tiomkin, shoves them into a cupboard and shows them how it should be done. This album is a work of art and it is good to see that the majority of the MFP albums are now available for download from the usual music locations.
There was a time when movies were exciting. Not like today where everything is predictable and only watchable once. In the 1970s big movie stars were thrown together in situations that could affect any of us, air crash, earthquake or building on fire. Indeed, terror was much better handled in those days. These days, I think because we’re all subjected to terror 24/365 through our news channels, terror movies don’t have the same impact. Furthermore, I think most movie studios are living in a perpetual state of terror worried that somebody might sue their disaster film for causing offence to victims of real disasters.
Anyway, here is good old Geoff again. This time with theme tunes from disaster and terror movies. Films given the Geoff Love treatment include: Jaws, Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno, Psycho and the Exorcist.
Big Lebowski (Original Soundtrack) – Various Artists
The Big Lebowski is a film dear to me. If you’ve never seen it, it tells the story of a relaxed gentleman who has a problem with a rug that really sets off his room.
The stunning visuals and gripping script is only enhanced by the magic of the carefully put together soundtrack. Standing alone, the soundtrack is powerful in itself but you really need to see the film to feel how it is all significant.
The soundtrack features artists like Bob Dylan (meh), Captain Beefheart, Kenny Rogers and Gipsy Kings. If you’ve not seen the film, see it.
When this album came out in 1987, I was so excited. Here I was, a teenager, about to hear music from a band that had formed a few years before I was born. New music that was hopefully going to be a lot like 90125.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Instead I recorded the album onto a cassette and listened to the tape until I was bored. I still love this album. It shows the direction Yes continued to follow for the next few years. Of course by the time House of Blues came out, I was already getting a bit bored of Yes. Especially as it seemed (at the time) that getting to see them play live was going to be purely a dream. Of course I’ve since seen them several times.
Still, the majority of my favorite songs by Yes are on this album. A lot of longer term fans hate it. I don’t. Fab stuff.
I am pleased to say that I am a hipster (which automatically dismisses me as a hipster). I am pleased to say I knew of First Aid Kit long before the popular music press of the UK had even considered what music two Swedish girls might make together.
No, I got there first. Nerrrr. 😛
Anyway, besides all that, I’m not keen on this album. By this stage I had already grown tired of the EPs and the snippets I had managed to “obtain”. So when they released this, their first album, I was already weary. This makes me a hipster.
I will now grow a stupid moustache, a soul patch, wear a beret and start smoking Gaulois.
Geoff Love was the king of easy listening. Forget Mantovani. Forget James Last. Love was Royalty.
Over several years under the MFP (Music for Pleasure) label, Geoff Love released several LPs featuring orchestrated theme tunes from film and television. Some good. Some bloody awful. Big Big Movie Themes is a kind of “Best of” but actually features some reworkings of some of Love’s best arrangements. Still good stuff though.
It now appears that these golden greats from the 1970s have been rereleased as CDs and are also available on iTunes so hopefully a whole new generation can experience Easy Listening to the full.
This album features:
The James Bond Theme
The Big Country
Somewhere My Love (Dr Zhivago)
Jaws
The Way We Were
A Man and a Woman
Lawrence of Arabia
The Magnificent Seven
Goldfinger
What’ll I do (The Great Gatsby)
A Summer Place
Colonel Bogey
Love Story
Warsaw Concerto (Dangerous Moonlight)
I wasn’t impressed by Mr Isaak when this was released. Albums like this only show the creativity of the original artist and not the one covering the songs.
If you’re not familiar with Beyond the Sun, Isaak released this in 2011 to much publicity. The album features Isaak covering classic songs from the Sun record label of the 1950s/1960s. Isaak channels Presley, Cash and others. Sings and plays just like the originals.
But then you think, why did I spend my hard earned cash on this when I could have just fumbled about in that dusty box of 45s in the loft or paid some guy at a car boot 40p for the originals.
Not sure what happened with Athlete. Their first album was full of promise. They commanded a really good gig when I went to see them live in Liverpool. Their second album was…ok…not terrible. But by the time we’d been Wires to death by incessant documentary usage, the magic had faded.
And so had they.
I came across this album by accident. I’d almost forgotten Athlete. Having listened to this I wish I’d kept them forgotten. Perhaps it was coming out as being a bit Jesusy that did for them (unfounded rumour). Perhaps it was just running out of steam. Or perhaps the pressures of rockstardom was too much. Either way, this is their forgettable third album. I don’t even care if they’ve got a fourth.
Expect to see them supporting Toploader at a community centre near you soon.
More from the Euro Metal band with it’s own choir. Only this album is before the choir.
Death growls, grunting and incoherent bollocks. Why do people like this stuff? Do they give themselves sore throats singing along? Or do they sound like they’re having some sort of fit when they’re singing to themselves?
Hipster friends are always telling me I should like Lamb. I usually retort with some predictable comment about enjoying dinners on a Sunday with mint sauce or kebabs from the chip shop on the way home.
This album was an attempt to “like” Lamb. I tried. I gave them a go. Really. When I mentioned that I had tried Lamb in the form of Between Darkness and Wonder, predictably the Hipster said “Yeah but it’s not their best album”.
At last, our journey through the “best of” has come to an end and the first album we arrive at is Bête Noire by Byran Ferry.
This is Ferry’s seventh solo studio album dating back to 1987. Ferry is still doing his lounge lizard thing but this time he’s seasoning with dark juju. French Afro-Carribean influences percolate through the album like well ground coffee.
Surprisingly, I’ve not listened much to this album. I was bitten by the Ferry bug a few years after this album was released and missed its passing in the shops. In fact it was not until I was making a Ferry compilation for the car that I realised I’d heard many of the tracks before. It’s funny when that happens. Since then, the album has had a bit more playtime on my iTunes.
The Bestiality of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band – Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
Madness. This is a compilation of an eccentric British nonsensical band. The band that invented Steampunk. The band that invented Hipsterism. The band that sits down with a nice cup of tea and tidy waxed moustache in the middle of a battlefield.
If you are unfamiliar with Bonzo Dog you should be. Deliciously silly. Scrumptiously British. With a nice tang of the absurd and a rich saucy aftertaste of the chaotic.
I had the good fortune to see B3DB a few years ago, sans Viv Stanshall of course, but it was a memorable show and still timeless.
The Best Prog Rock Album in the World…Ever – Various Artists
This is one of the last CDs I bought. A wicked compilation showcasing a massive range of prog bands covering Canterbury scene, Zappa and even the first sprouts of New Romanticism.
I remember Ian Vickery saying to me that U2 were the best thing to come out of Ireland and that failure to like U2 meant unworthiness. Then some years later the same boy said that U2 were old hat and that the Waterboys were where it was at.
I seem to recall someone else telling me that to like U2 meant you supported the IRA. Personally, I just thought they were rubbish. Possibly because they were as prog as Spandau Ballet.
Things were messed up in the 80s.
This compilation has all the popular songs used as background music in gritty dramas about “the troubles” or films where there would be lots of Irish youth being all gritty and hard done to. They just make me think of dark nights travelling down Hillfoot Avenue in the back of my dad’s Ford Orion.
Thing with bands like The Doors, their entire catalogue is seen as next to perfect and it’s not like any new stuff is likely to emerge.
Long term followers of this project will recall that I’ve already covered a “best of” compilation for The Doors – A Collection. That compilation had all the same songs on as well. So in the interests of blog writing, I suggest you go and have a look at the entry.
Simple Minds are another band from my youth. Every song from their other “Best of”, Glittering Prize, recalls memories of me walking through post-Thatcher Sheffield on my way to University lectures.
Thing is, after 1995 I appear to have lost all taste for them. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Simple Minds, I just don’t like them in the same way I did in the 1990s perhaps it is purely because my tastes have matured. Or perhaps Scottish rock music was blown away by Belle & Sebastian. I can’t put my finger on it. Still, this is ok as far as “Best of”s go. I still hold Glittering Prize in higher regard but most of the songs on there appear here too. The additional songs are a bit “meh”.
Old Bill’s sister has been about for some time. But what we must not forget is that Shakespear’s Sister, despite recent televisual evidence to the contrary, is as goth as Bucks Fizz.
Shakespear’s Sister (SS) was one of those bands that I secretly liked when I was a teenager. With echos of Strawberry Switchblade, SS was dark glam with hints of what was to later become Dark Cabaret. Vampish costumery coupled with heavy makeup and songs to cheer. Think Kiss mixed with Bananarama and you’re not far off.
Indeed, Siobhan Fahey was once a member of Bananarama. But not Kiss. Which would have made an interesting statement. This best of covers the majority of their hits between 1988 and 1992. Many of which have me remembering times crashing on Sarah Melia’s living room floor while her parents were away. Wild times. Wild music.
Black Ships Ate the Sky – Current 93
Black Sessions – Cocteau Twins 
Black Forest Gateau – Neu!
Black Celebration – Depeche Mode
Big Lebowski (Original Soundtrack) – Various Artists
The Big Black & The Blue – First Aid Kit 
Big Big Movie Themes – Geoff Love & His Orchestra
Beyond Sanctorum – Therion
Bête Noire – Byran Ferry
Stegzy's Music Project 