iainjclark: Dave McKean Sandman image (Sandman)
2008-03-18 10:05 pm

Musical ramblings

Having purchased an iPod recently I'm feeling a renewed interest in all things musical and have invested in a few albums of varying quality. Inevitably therefore comes the rambling post about a shedload of music.  I've put up a few tracks to download here and there. Tracks removed as they were killing my bandwidth allowance. :-)

Josh Ritter - The Animal Years )



Roddy Woomble - My Secret is My Silence )

Crowded House - Time on Earth )

Suzanne Vega - Beauty and Crime )

Matt Nathanson - Some Mad Hope )

Newton Faulkner - Hand Built By Robots )

Hue and Cry - Seduced and Abandoned )

Deacon Blue - Raintown / When the World Knows Your Name )

EDIT: My wife demands your sympathy for having been subjected to my 80s nostalgia.

Coming up in the next few weeks are the new Counting Crows and R.E.M. albums, which (on early evidence) could tentatively represent a return to form for both bands.

iainjclark: Dave McKean Sandman image (Default)
2007-03-09 08:57 pm
Entry tags:

Idlewild Again

Idlewild - Make Another World

I have to say I'm loving this Idlewild album. It's entirely rekindled my enthusiasm for the band after their oddly lacklustre last effort (which I did enjoy in parts, but which was so turgid at times that it didn't really feel like an Idlewild album). I posted the first track last time, so here's the second track: Everything (As it Moves). The rest of the album is relentlessly up-tempo but blending from rock to pop (and even an unusually anthemic dance-tinged sound on 'No Emotion', which seems to be the first single) resulting in an album that feels energetic without sounding one note. It pulls off the tricky feat of seeming both familiar and fresh. The exuberance of the music is offset, as ever, by the solemn, overly-introspective lyrics; for some these might feel a tad pretentious but for me this is just about the perfect combination of cheery music and smart language. It all seems effortless. If you like the band and you haven't already bought Make Another World you should rush out immediately1.

1 And buy it. Not just rush outside. Look, at least put some shoes on first.

iainjclark: Dave McKean Sandman image (Sandman)
2007-03-05 02:11 pm

Music

We are now the proud possessors of tickets to see Tom McRae in May. The tickets seem to be exclusively available to fans for the first couple of days, so it's worth registering on the website if you want to grab tickets early.

Idlewild - Make Another World )

Ray LaMontagne - Trouble )

Joe Purdy - Only Four Seasons )

Tim Finn - Imaginary Kingdom )

Grant-Lee Phillips, Counting Crows, Crowded House... )

From all of this you may suspect that my musical tastes are irredeemably middle-aged. It's true *sob*.