Last week I was mostly listening to…
November 28th, 2011
It’s not exactly hard to see who dominated my listening last week. Radiohead and Florence & The Machine pretty much ran away with my ears by the looks of the things. The former because hey, sometimes I just have to over indulge in a bit of Radiohead loving. While the latter features so prominently because I finally got my hands on a copy of ‘Ceremonials‘. Not that the high play count should lead you to any solid conclusions about my opinion on it. While I absolutely loved her debut, I’m struggling to really get a handle on this follow up. Not that I think it’s bad, it just seems to be a bit one toned. A tad bombastic. As though the whole thing is right up in your face from start to finish. Where ‘Lungs‘ had loads of variety and lots of light and shade, this record just seems to have latched onto one version of Florence’s sound and turned it all up to 11. There are undoubtedly some good songs in there somewhere, I’m just struggling to find my way through the layers of slick, full on production. A fact only highlighted by the inclusion of some demos and acoustic versions on the second disc. These alternate versions of ‘Shake It Out’ and ‘Heartlines’ amongst others seem to have a lightness that the album proper lacks. Maybe with further listens, the songs subtleties and nuances will start to show through. At least I hope so. I guess the fact that I’m willing to let them at least try says the album is worthy of listening to. It just feels a bit disappointing after such a great debut.
Elsewhere, the only other new album was the new R.E.M. best of which, aside from the slightly unnecessary and below par new tracks, is as good yet frustratingly cheery picked as any other best of. Everything else is pretty much to be expected from my listening habits. Despite my best intentions last week, I’ve made absolutely no headway in the task of picking my favourite records of the year. Still, at the moment there’s plenty of time so no need to panic just yet. In the meantime, here’s a few tracks from some of last weeks most listened to.
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Last week I was mostly listening to…
November 22nd, 2011
I’m a day late with this but as it was my birthday yesterday I’m sure you can forgive my tardiness on this occasion. As you can see from the list above, last week was again dominated by bands who’ve been in my music library for some time. Nothing new to report on. Which I guess is as much a sign of the time of year as much as it is anything else. In fact, thinking about it, I guess I really should start thinking about my end of year list. I probably say this every year but I think it might be a particularly hard choice this year as there seem to have been so many really good albums released. It’ll certainly be interesting to be compare what makes my end of year list compared to what I’ve actually been listening to the most. I wonder if there’ll be any correlation between the two. Only time will tell. In the meantime, here’s a few tracks from the some of the artists that were amongst last weeks most listened to.
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Last week I was mostly listening to…
November 14th, 2011
Once again, last week was a fair mix of recent releases and old favourites. No brand new releases for the second week running, just a familiar few who’ve managed to highjack my ears for a few weeks running now. Most notably, Noel Gallagher ‘s High Flying Birds, Wilco and Ryan Adams. The rest of the list is pretty much just made up of bands and artists that took my fancy for no other reason than I fancied listening to them. Revisiting Warpaint reminded what a fantastic album their debut really was, while listening to the likes of Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Fleet Foxes felt a bit like slipping into a pair of comfortable old slippers. And with that, I’ll leave you with a little selection of bands that feature in that there list.
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I forget that I know
November 14th, 2011
So this morning, I thought I’d share a track from the latest Wilco album with you. For no other reason than I really like this version of ‘Dawned On Me’. In fact, bar one track which I can’t decide on, I really like ‘The Whole Love‘. It’s an album that seems to find the band finding a nice middle ground between the experimentation of their mid period and the crafted songwriting of the last two albums. Bookended by two standout tracks, the album does suffer from a mid section thats seems to drag in comparison to how it starts and ends but in all honesty, that’s a minor quibble on what is a highly enjoyable album. It’s a record that finds Wilco in a comfortable position. While I wouldn’t say they were anywhere near running on auto pilot, you do kind of get the impression that Wilco can knock albums like this out effortlessly. It’s as though they’ve almost become so proficient at what they do that they’ve kind of become a slick songwriting machine.
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Last week I was mostly listening to…
November 7th, 2011
As ever, Monday is list day. Or to be more specific, the day I list what I was listening to last week. No new albums in there as truth be told, I’m trying not to buy any new records at the moment just in case anyone feels generous enough to buy me something for my upcoming birthday. With that in mind, last week was mostly taken up with listening to some older records. Partly because I didn’t want the new records I’ve been enjoying to suffer from overkill and partly because I just fancied listening to some bands that I’ve neglected recently. So Gorillaz, The Beatles, Morrissey, Yo La Tengo and Bat For Lashes all got some much needed loving and I have to say I’d forgotten how good some of them really are. Beyond that, I’ve not really got much more to say today so, as ever, I’ll leave you with a few tracks from some of the bands that were in rotation last week.
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