I loved Garfield's Birthday's 2010 album, Tea And Sympathy, it's great feel good pop of the Dodgy, Bluetones, Posies variety. In fact I've slapped myself around the head a few times, for not owning more of their stuff and I will remedy that rapidly.
GB's main man, Simon Felton, has a new album out and it's really really good. In his liner notes, Simon describes the album as erratic, which is really unfair and a bit self depreciating, because this variation is largely a good thing.
There is a fair bit of introspection, but the instrumentation and arrangements offer every slower number something different. Whether Piano or Guitar led, the tempo changes are enchanting at times.
This is his fourth solo offering and the fact that you can pick this up with his three previous albums for less than £12 seems the greatest bargain in the shop today.
It's fair to say that there isn't the volume of jaunty stuff that makes up a Garfield's Birthday album, but that's what makes this album special. Fear not there is enough up tempo stuff present.
(It Must Be A) Nightmare could almost be Al Stewart. Indeed, there are plenty of comparisons to some of the better 70's Singer Songwriters present. Falling To Pieces provides more content listening with it's Supertramp like keyboard.
Waiting reminds me of prime time Eric Stewart and Missing Action is great melodic pop, probably the best song on the album.
The variation and melody on the album is admirable. Simon Felton may be bearing his soul at times, but I, for one, am certainly happy that he has.
You can buy this for a five pound note here, but as I mentioned earlier, getting the other three albums for an extra £7 seems the sensible purchase. You can listen to all before you buy. CD Lovers can buy Return To Euston Square for £6.
I'm hoping for a full length album from the excellent Mike Daly And The Planets. The Ex Lead Singer of New Jersey Power Poppers, Every Damn Day has followed up the splendid EP, The Cosmic Adventures Of ManBoy with a new single.
Never Too Late was originally written for the CBS Comedy Drama, That's Life.
It's poptastic and here;s hoping the full length album appears soon.
You can listen to Never Too Latehereand buy it from Amazon, iTunes and all the usual digital emporiums. You can also listen to six other songs from Mike herewith links to buy. His website is here.
Beaulieu Porch - One Last Summer
The Psych Pop delight that is Simon Berry's Beaulieu Porch have a new album out. Sarum Sounds will have a much bigger write up in days to come. In the meantime, the lead single is Giant Superman and it's as good as you'd expect.
B Sided with Thursday Sound Revival, both songs are available for a pound. They are also on Sarum Sounds. Three albums in and I don't think I've been as excited about a Psych Pop band since Orgone Box.
You can buy the single and Sarum Sounds here. You can also pre-order the album on CD.
The Stoplight Roses - Starlight / A Bomb Goes Off
Atlanta's The Stoplight Roses take their name from the Nick Lowe song and it shows. Although, you can see the connection in their sound, probably more to Brinsley Schwarz, they have a sort of TFC riff groove. It's a great laid back listen.
The double A Sided single is out now and you can buy it here as a Name Your Price.
Merries - Travel To Sun
I'm personally gobsmacked at how much great Pop is coming out of Finland at the moment. Merries are another example. Power Pop of the highest order.
Although Travel To The Sun has been released as a single and can be downloaded separately, I'm recommending the whole mini album.
It's the sort of heads down Power Pop that many of us love, but there's also plenty hints of Psych Pop, particularly on the likes of I'm Sorry Ace.
You can listen to and then buy the self titled album for 5 Euros here.
Cherry Red's Esoteric Imprint have reissued the first three Move albums plus the extended Something Else Marquee Live EP.
I've mentioned before that The Move started this musical obsession of mine and they remain dear to my heart. I play these albums regularly, still enthralled at how good they are and they also provide a Nostalgia Trip. I still remember excitedly buying that Move Compilation as an eleven year old, indeed the cover is framed on the wall.
I now have these first three albums four times, vinyl, original CD reissue, 2008 and now this. Not only that, but the complete albums are on The Movements Box Set and the songs probably make up a sixth copy across various compilations. The Move are released to death. There's also the Anthology Box Set which brought bits of all four albums together for the only time across four unreasonably short discs.
Esoteric have also released The Move and Shazam as single disc and Deluxe Editions. The Shazam split is a bit strange as it's only an extra pound for the two disc version. I'll cover all four releases in the ensuing days / weeks, but I start with Looking On. It's my favourite Move album, it's not the best, that's Shazam, but it means most to me and is The Move album I play most often.
Message In The Country isn't reissued, it was on Harvest. I have to admit though that has always been the runt of the litter for me. Half a great album. Three albums were being recorded at the same time and ELO 1 and Roy Wood's Boulders were far finer things.
The Move at this stage were down to Roy Wood and Bev Bevan as original members. Ace Kefford had been thrown out much earlier, Carl Wayne had left for cabaret and Trevor Burton didn't like the band's direction. In came Jeff Lynne from Idle Race and Rick Price on Bass. Incidentally, I've always felt Wood's songs always sounded better with Rick Price in the band, be that The Move or Wizzard.
The main difference on this 2016 release is the remaster. The sound is superb, a splendid effort. There are some strange omissions. Alternate Takes of Looking On and Feel Too Good that were on the 2008 Edition aren't here.
But what you finally get are the 1970 BBC Sessions. They've been available on bootleg for years in really ropey sound, these sound great here and are worth the admission alone. If only the same could be done with the Idle Race BBC Sessions.
The Move had completely distanced themselves from the pop glory of that debut album. It had started with Shazam, splendid though it was and ended with Looking On. The band had moved to the Fly Label and due to it's finances, promotion was minimal and the album sunk without a trace, speeding up the end of the band.
It was the ELO album that Wood and Lynne really wanted and The Message In The Country album was only recorded, so that they could release ELO 1.So concentrating on that original 7 Track album what do you get?
Feel Too Good is magnificent, my favourite Move song, it's Flower Power in a box. A joy from start to finish. Wood's other lengthy song is the title track. a heavy first half morphs into a sort of Jazz Rock that he would take up further, years later in the Wizzo Band.
Jeff Lynne wrote two songs, What, which hinted at what was to come with ELO and a gripping song with some great Bass playing from Price. The other was the psychedelic, Open Up Said The World, an extension of what Lynne had been doing in Idle Race.
Bev Bevan wrote a song, yes honestly and Turkish Tram Conductor Blues is surprisingly good. Wood in shouty mode and him and Jeff Lynne playing every guitar they could get their hands on.
This leaves the two remaining Wood songs. Brontosaurus was the final Regal Zonophone single (it's B Side Lightning Never Strikes Twice is also added). When Alice Comes Back To The Farm is simply wonderful. Here's a live version from Beat Club :
The BBC stuff is largely Looking On material, there are two covers of The Beatles' She's A Woman and at last an appearance of Falling Forever. The package itself shows that time has been spent on it. The original artwork is restored and there are splendid Liner Notes, done with admirable humour, by Mark Paytress.
This is the version of Looking On to have, if only I hadn't had to buy all the others. The lack of some of the alternate takes that were on the 2008 Edition is disappointing, but I suppose most Move fans will already have that release.
Hopefully this edition will bring new fans to the band. I love Music, I know how people credit my knowledge of Sparks, XTC and Power Pop. But the first band to ever move (sic) me were The Move. They still do and they are still my favourite band in the whole wide world.
I know reviewers who are desperate to be the first at everything, sit counting how many likes a "competitor" gets on Facebook and reciprocates them by sticking pins in a doll. It's not like that in the Power Pop world. We all just want to bring Power Pop to the masses and every little bit helps. It may be a pipe dream, but it's our pipe dream.
I have every admiration for what Wayne does at Icecreamman Powerpop And More Records. His releases open up the Power Pop world to all.
I'm delighted to report that Wayne has released the Merry Widows reunion EP, Password. If ever a band deserved some acknowledgement it's Merry Widows.
To only have the Waltz EP to their name before this is criminal. Wollongong's finest were looked upon as the new Go-Betweens and their brand of Folk Pop made that a fair assessment. Indeed, David Beniuk went on to an impressive solo Folk career, whilst brother Johnno played in the likes of The Stems.
Triple J loved the band and loads of decent support slots amazingly didn't break the band. Well their back and this 5 track EP is just fantastic jingly harmonic pop. It's pop with a capital P.
The band always had more in common with the UK than Australia, something that could also be argued about for The Go-Betweens. Perhaps that's why they never broke Oz. Password is pure UK Pop, fitting in with The likes of The La's, Cast, Northern Uproar and the part of Madchester that wasn't sorted and E'd up. Railway Children springs to mind.
Sky And The Sea is pure La's, White Pointer could be Roddy Frame. The Trumpet on Another Also Ran reminds me of Dodgy when they used Brass. All five songs stand up beautifully, but the gem is the closer, My Beautiful Girl Harbour, a jangly Go-Between of a tune.
An outstanding return.I was absolutely delighted to hear that they were back. Some reunions don't work and leave a lingering sadness, not this one. It's a splendid EP and I can't recommend it enough.
Seth Swirsky is a talented guy, he puts most of us to shame. Author, Artist, Film Maker, Baseball Expert and that's before we even get to the music and there's plenty more there.
He was a staff songwriter for Warner-Chappell and wrote songs for many, most notably, Taylor Dayne's Tell It To My Heart. He's also written for Rufus Wainwright, Al Green and many more too numerous to mention. You can find details of his songwriting adventures here. Visiting that pagegives you the added bonus of listening to the songs in demo form.
His Power Pop chops are also spot on, collaborating with the likes of Eric Carmen, Marshall Crenshaw and Jim Ellison. He's also in the jingle jangle joy that is The Red Button with Mike Ruekberg. Their two albums are highly recommended.
It's not often that you are so far into an article before you get to the point, that being Seth's solo career. he writes and plays wonderful Pop Rock of a 60's and 70's vintage. It is reminiscent of early McCartney, The Monkees, Nilsson, 10cc and The Beach Boys.
His debut solo album from 2005, Instant Pleasure, is a corker and features a rare guest appearance by Andy Sturmer.
The follow up from 2010, Watercolor Day, remains one of my favourite albums ever, it's just such a beautiful melodic soundscape as demonstrated by the title track.
2016 brings us solo album number three and it doesn't disappoint from start to finish. The opener starts all Beach Boys and then halfway through becomes prime time 10CC. It's an absolute cracker of a tune. The title track could be Pilot, Old Letter and Far Away are early McCartney like, when he was trying to prove he didn't need Lennon.
From the soft shoe shuffle of I Loved Last Night to the campfire clap along of Let's Go To Spain, the album is wall to wall quality. The thing that is different about a Seth Swirsky album is the variance. It's great pop but not verse verse chorus verse chorus guitar solo.
He's such a multi instrumentalist, that simple acoustic numbers branch out with orchestration and unexpected break outs. Certainly, no one does laid back better.
Sonic Ferris Wheel and Table could easily appear on The Orgone Box's debut album. Circles and Squares is a fine fine album. The overriding impression that I get from the acoustic led songs is one of Nilsson. It is an album to put on after making a cuppa or grabbing something stronger. then letting the world wash away for 40 odd minutes.
An Absolute Gem!
You can buy the album from the likes of Amazon and Kool Kat on CD and it is available for download at Amazon, iTunes etc.
A really interesting piece from Mick on Yes. Mick and I are both Yes fans and certainly don't agree on everything. I look upon Going For The One as the last great Yes album, I'm not sure anyone needs any Yes after this point. I do like Drama, but I look at it as The Buggles Go Prog. The one thing we do disagree on is that I consider Tales Of Topographic Ocean to be the biggest waste of Electricity ever. Mick's tried to change my mind many times, but every time I go back to it, I like it even less.
When Going For The One was released in the summer of 1977 I was a teenager at the height of my love affair with Yes. It had begun a few years before after my brother Todd first got me into music. I had a great fondness for the first two albums, but it was Steve Howe joining for The Yes Album that turned them into the classic Yes I loved. It made them my favourite band for the next few years.
Topographic Oceans was the first album that came out when I was actually into them and to me it was exactly where I wanted the band to go after Close To The Edge. Topographic was a totally natural progression in my eyes and though others struggled with its epic complexity I adore it. Wakeman had departed to concentrate on his increasing silly epic concept albums. Moraz entered the picture and brought an interesting but colder edge to the band sound on the wonderful Relayer. Then, ominously, each member went off to do a solo album and when they returned for Going For The One you could hear the separation that had resulted.
Wakeman was back and Going For The One, housed in a horrible Hypnosis cover (Going For The Bum), felt like they were just taking a breather. It was as though they were easing Wakeman gently back into the band before they continued on their true path of musical exploration once more. But instead we got Tormato and that album was the end of the era of classic Yes. Though I do rate Going For The One, the beginnings of that end are all over it.
First off I will say I have no problem with Awaken in the slightest, it is classic progressive Yes in every way, their last masterpiece. But then it’s the rest of the album where the cracks are starting to show. The title track itself is stunning but the gimmicky production resulted in it being the first Yes track they couldn’t play properly live. The song really was a far lesser entity live and it also marks the start of the band abandoning the unique and oblique lyrical style of their classic period.
Lyrics became for more straight forward and I would judge, dumbed down and commercial. To me the lyrics of Going For The One sound clumsy and the vocal melody is hampered by having to follow them. Imagine the song just played and sung on an acoustic guitar and it’s really not much of a song.
Turn of the Century is a lovely track, but there's something about the arrangement and individual rather than gestalt playing that stops it short of being equal to say And You and I or Heart Of The Sunrise. Because of the separation that I mentioned earlier, this sounds like five solo musicians playing rather than what it should be which is Yes playing it.
Talking of separation, I really like Fish Out Of Water, Squires’ solo album and Parallels which closes side one of Going For The One could be lifted straight up and plonked down on Squires album as a perfect fit. It is not a Yes track but a Squire track. But it’s the shimmering melodic sweetmeat of Wondrous Stories that has the fatal shadow of their destruction hanging over it. An Anderson song, where Yes basically serve as his backing band that went on to be a minor hit.
By Tormato, Anderson had lost all interest in Yes as a musical entity. During the aborted recording for the next album (a concept album about Richard the Lionheart!) in Paris he made it clear that the other members should serve as his backing band. When they refused, he absented himself from the recording sessions and then quit the band and assembled his own willing backing band of faceless session musicians.
That was the end of Yes as a creative musical force. An end where the seeds were sown on Going For The One, but were masked by the glory that is Awaken. It grew even more apparent on the Awakenless Tormato, where nobody could deny that something was sorely amiss.
By then Yes were no longer a grown up band, but more a Disney version. This new lyrical direction was to hit the lows of Circus of Heaven, Arriving UFO and Don’t Kill The Whale. Obviously, in reality, what was actually happening was Yes, like many bands, had run out of the creative magic that had fuelled them and the brotherhood that had made them work together as a band.
Drama isn’t Yes, but taken as that it a pretty good go at a modern prog sounding band with members of Yes involved, Anderson’s melodic skills lasted through a couple of solo albums and some Jon and Vangelis pop stuff. Rabin period Yes isn’t Yes at all. but Cinema with Anderson tacked on as a money making after thought.
By the time Yes reconvened as Anderson Wakeman Bruford and Howe it was clear that the song writing well had run dry. The melodies were weak, the plodding lyrics bland and often inspirational new age nonsense. Even the riffage was salvaged from Howe’s early band Bodast. Upgraded musicianship and technical excellence had destroyed the masterful fire and passion of the Seventies. The results were impressively boring to my ears. And it’s been downhill all the way since then.
