random tunes on a sunny thursday

First up "Sue (or In A Season Of Crime)" (I love the silly pretentious title BTW) from David Bowie. This isn't the shortened, more intense Blackstar version, but the longer weirder single that was issued at the end of 2014. It's decidedly odd, that's for certain, but it's perhaps not quite as bonkers as it first appeared, with some oddly catchy melodies werning their way throughout the song. Bowie's vocals are wonderful, soaring, very stagey, almost acted out. Best of all though was the fact that Bowie used it as the opening song on his Nothing Has Changed best of compilation. For anyone expecting something like "Life On Mars?" this was quite a shock!

 

"Jane 12" from Harold Budd's album Jane 12-21 (the follow up album to Jane 1-11 as if you hadn't guessed...). These are all pieces played for Jane Maru, an artist friend of Harold's. Unsurprisingly, the music is quiet and gentle, fluttering by as if blown by a summer's breeze, and it's all extremely pretty. So, business as usual for HB. What's slightly more unusual is that these tracks are all improvisations - Budd set himself the task recording at least one piece per day, and once recorded he didn't revisit the pieces or embellish them in any way.

 

"Evening Star" from Fripp and Eno's concert in Paris, 28 May 1975. This gig has been bootlegged since 1975 but a few years ago it was finally available to buy officially. I first heard this concert in the mid 1980s when I got the bootleg on cassette from a cracking stall on Chelmsford market. Yet, despite listening to this gig SO many times during the past 30ish years, it still sounds fresh and exciting and reveals new depths and sounds to me every time I hear it - how is this possible?  

 

"Reap The Wild Wind" from Ultravox's Quartet. A fine track, continuing Ultravox's run of early 80s hits, but to me it lacks something. I think part of the problem is Sir George Martin's production. On previous albums Ultravox had collaborated with Conny Plank and both Rage In Eden and Vienna nicely mix German influenced synth rock with chilly cold war soundscapes. Conny really brought out the best in Ultravox. But just a year after Rage, with the exact same band, same instrumentation, same style of songs, Quartet sounds surprisingly dated and staid and oddly static. George Martin was the wrong man for the job - "Reap The Wild Wind" is a good song, but Sir George's production makes it somehow sound like an Ultravox pastiche. 

 

This one crops up quite a lot, and I don't know why, but I love hearing it - especially on headphones... "I Heard Her Call My Name" from the Velvet Undergound's White Light / White Heat. Noise, distortion, really horrid sounds, brain piercingly nasty guitars, instruments literally giving up the ghost whilst they were actually being recorded, it's all here. The album basically tries to melt your brain from the inside out and this track, with it's horrendously shrill guitar, is the ringleader. Objectively this is a horrible noise, but I absolutely love it!

 

"Lovers Of Today" - The Pretenders first album is often more remembered for the vaguely punky songs, stuff like "Precious" for example, or the swaggering attitude of "Brass In Pocket". But there's a surprising number of very tender songs on this album. For a start, "Kid" is just delightful. What a perfect little pop song. And this one, the rather epic "Lovers Of Today" is fantastic, with some soaring guitarwork, and Chrissie Hynde crooning a lovely vocal. Must play this album again soon.

 

U2's recentish album, Songs Of Innocence, struck me as a return to form, though I've really not played it very much. It's not up there with Achtung Baby or The Unforgettable Fire, but there's a lot more solid songwriting on this album than we've had recently. It feels like a proper album too, it's not too long, and the production is clean and simple, rather than the bloated overproduced pudding-y sound of the last couple of U2 albums. On shuffle today "Every Breaking Wave" came across like a really classic U2 track, with a charmingly old school feel and Bono delivering a genuinely emotional and affecting vocal.

 

"Lighthouse" from no-man's live album Love And Endings, recorded on their short 2012 tour in the rock'n'roll capital of the UK, um, Leamington Spa…

This is a superb album though, really brilliant performances on every track, with the stunning "Lighthouse" being my absolute favourite. Darkly emotional stuff, rising from a gentle opening to a sharply arpegiated mid section to some crashing chords and squalling guitars underpinning a new couple of verses specially added for this performance. It's beautiful and breath-taking and epic and intimate and I wish, so badly, that no-man would record and perform some more.

 

Finally it was the burbling weirdness and ultra mournful cellos of "Birth Of Liquid Plejades" from Tangerine Dream. It's the opening track of the double album Zeit from 1972 and it's one of my favourite tracks ever, by anyone. It's absolutely magical. 

The opening part is all droning cellos, sad but resolute. But about halfway through the side long track it changes into something spacey, like being beamed through a wormhole into another dimension, as an organ takes centre stage while bizarre synths bubble away alongside. I've obviously never been to Space, but somehow this is exactly what I'd imagine being in Space would sound like. And if it doesn't sound like this, then it really ought to! This music is so genuinely otherworldly that it's rather disappointing to learn that it was merely recorded in a cheap studio in Cologne during the summer of 1972, and not on Alpha Centauri, light years in the future. However, despite being nearly 45 years old it still sounds music from somewhere beyond time.