Music for free and the death of the album

I recently got two new albums for (next t0) nothing - In Rainbows by Radiohead and Ray Davies' new album Working Man's Cafe. They're both very good in different ways. But the way I've acquired the albums makes them seem inessential, and I haven't revisited them much.

This time ten years ago it took me a few weeks to save up the money to buy the album Urban Hymns by The Verve. Back in those days(!) you bought the single(s) first and then waited for the album to follow. It was all very exciting. I can still remember heading round to Music World in Newtownards straight after school (parting with £13.99!!) to buy it - getting the last copy he had in stock.

Due to more disposable income I've bought a heck of a lot of albums since then, nearly half of them online, and any new stuffI can download in advance of the release date to hear what they're like before I buy. Only now its just not as exciting. The expectation of waiting for a new piece of music has been watered down by convenience. Radiohead's album was news for a few days now it's dropped off the radar.

New albums have been released this year by some of my favourite bands - Wilco, Crowded House, Bruce Springsteen, to name a few. But I'm bombarded by so much music all the time that I don't get to appreciate new music properly. At times I'm a victim of my own greed for possessing the latest album. I've started selling off some albums I bought simply because I could - what a waste.

I can remember queuing for tickets to concerts as well - the nervous excitement, the bleary-eyed album track discussions with fellow early-morning queuers as the time crawled by out in the cold. Now the die-hards are overtaken by casual fans with high speed internet bandwidths. Queuing is a waste of time. Buying tickets is like booking a flight, or ordering your shopping. Maybe I'm being over-sentimental - but everytime I queued for a ticket I always got one.

I re-lived the Monday release day experience in July when the new Crowded House album came out. I deliberately didn't order it online - and I have actually listened to it more than a lot of other albums I've bought since. This could be coincidence.

Thirst for Romance

Thirst for Romance by Cherry Ghost is a brilliant wee album that I picked up recently. North of England alt-country that pulls no punches lyrically. The title track is a poignant story of an elderly (possibly dying) man's plea to be shown some dignity by those around him as he recounts snap-shots of his life. It's one of the most moving songs I've heard in a long time.


Here's the first verse:

Remember me with a smile on my face.
replace the tears in your memory with
two heroic arms that twisted lids from jars
and dragged you home after drinking in the park.

Lesser known Dylan pt. 1 - Nashville Skyline

As another Bob Dylan compilation hits the shelves I started to dig out some of his old albums that I started collecting a few years ago. Sure everyone should own Highway 61, Blood on the tracks blah blah blah according to rock critics. But I think some of his lesser known and less critically acclaimed work has its merits. Nashville Skyline is one of them.

How long should an album be?I used to think it should be on average forty four minutes. Or is it based on number of tracks? Love Over Gold by Dire Straits only has five songs but one of those is fifteen minutes and the other four 7 minutes each.

This is a short album clocking in at just over twenty-seven minutes. I think it got a bit of a mauling at the time of release in 1969 for being a bit too insubstantial time-wise and lyrically, plus he veered straight into unfashionable country and western territory. Bob's delivery is pretty odd as well, adopting a strange nasal drawl. I think it works. it's a fun album that doesn't overstay it's welcome in a way unlike an album like Blonde on Blonde that drags on a bit to be honest.

Me, Rick and Gaston listened to it in the car three times in a row one Saturday in June 2006 while stuck behind a herd of cows in Kilkenny. We were on our way to see Bob Dylan play in Kilkenny town with the Flaming Lips and Ray Lamontagne also on the bill. The whole album made sense sitting there in a way I can't explain! The drunken duet with Johnny Cash on Girl from the north country, Nashville Skyline Rag's instrumental shuffle contrasted nicely with our lack of movement, and Tell me that It isn't true mirrored our frustration at arriving late for Ray Lamontagne's set.

There were rumours that Michael Jackson was in town with his kids, having flown in specially to see Bob. It was an odd day - Flaming Lips were a blast - everything that's good about music. As for Mr Zimmerman, it was a curious performance. Strange listening to the crowd singing songs word by word perfectly, only for Bob to sing over them however the heck he liked. Great to say I'd seen him play. At least I think it was him. His on-stage movemenst were a bit "Weekend at Bernie's" at times.

Good lyric from Zimmerman

A lyric jumped out at me yesterday while listening to John Wesley Harding, probably my favourite Bob Dylan album.

From 'I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine:'

"Now go your way accordingly and know you're not alone.."

Simple, being given the independence to go your own way - yet safe knowing it's not a solitary journey.

NI music - where are all the girls?

Bit of a random one this..

I was lucky to be invited to the launch of the Oh Yeah project - a recording facility in the cathedral quarter of Belfast aimed at supporting young up and coming musicians to get their foot on the ladder of the music business.

Talented local musicians and Snow Patrol were there to give support and it looks like a great idea. Local journalist Stuart Bailie arranged a display of his own Northern Irish music memorabilia as well which was very impressive.

One thing struck me - where are all the female artists? Not one to be found among the memorabilia - nor in any of the acts performing at the launch.

The only female artist from here that I can think of with any recognition is Juliet Turner.

ipod therefore i am

My world has ground to a halt...

The ipod, which has never been more than a few metres from my person since I first got it, has packed in...

It's a gadget that's enabled me to listen to my huge range of CDs with the click of a wheel. Forget downloading - just being able to hear so much of my own music conveniently is just brilliant.

I would liken it to when people moved from manually changing channels on their TVs to using a remote control instead.

Apple are sending me out special packaging for me to return it to them. Thankfully it's under warranty.

Don't be too long!!

The Proclaimers, a Shared Future, and some mountains

I read an article in the paper last week on the new musical "Sunshine on Leith" featuring the music of the Proclaimers, which is taking Scotland by storm. Their album of the same name sold 25,000 copies in the UK LAST YEAR!!

Coincidently later that dayI went for a walk with the dog and "Letter from America" was the first song that started playing on shuffle on my ipod. It was one of the songs that always seemed to be around when I was a boy, and dad liked it too so anytime we were in the car he would turn it up if it came on the radio. I love their music - funny, honest, delightfully out-of-kilter with musical trends, and unashamedly sentimental.

There's something very comforting about their music - their greatest hits should be in everyone's collection. No they're definitely not cool but there's a unifying, generation-spanning attraction to their music. Lisa used to tell me of going clubbing in Glasgow during her student days when, at the end of each night the DJ would put on "5oo miles" and the crowd would split into two, singing the song to each other. I've worked with Scots about my age who love their music as well. I remember very vividly a conversation with a drunken Glaswegian woman in a chip shop off Sauchiehall Street one night a few years back- she was coming out of a (sold-out) concert of theirs across the road and told me they were the greatest band on the earth.

Maybe I've been over-exposed to NI recently, but sometimes (just sometimes) I long to be Scottish. My family are of Ulster-Scots stock, and a recent expedition to the summit of Ben Nevis last Winter showed me how stunning the country is, and brought a lump to my throat. The BBC's "Mountain" programme focussed on the Cairngorms this week and it was absoutely breathtaking.

I love it that, despite sectarian divisions - there is a common music that the Scottish people can laugh, dance and sing to together. In the north everything is still so polarised - our culture - music, sport, leisure activities - not too mention many streets in Belfast still divided by "peace" walls. A government strategy called "A Shared future" has set out to try and tackle this but has shown little sign of being implemented. Our politicians are happy to get on with "bread and butter" issues in the new devolved government but have forgotten about the daily bread of our people just getting on with each other.

That's a mountain to climb.

Mezzamorphis by Delirious - blast from the past

After getting Derek Webb's album a few weeks ago I decided to dig out this old classic Mezzamorphis by the Christian band Delirious? released back in 1999.

Never mind the terrible, terrible cover. Mezzamorphis was the best album Delirious? have ever made - and will probably never come close to it again.

King of Fools, an album of praise and worship-based rock songs released in 1997, was a massive hit, made a dent in the UK charts - and along with the Cutting Edge tapes revolutionised modern church music (initially for the better - but have now led to the James-Blunting of worship that is blighting our churches, see my earlier post) when they were released in the USA.

In between King of Fools and going to the States though, they released this gem. It's a total contrast from King of Fools: dark, full of doubt, poetic, and sonically adventurous. The title was a made-up word - emphasising the feeling of being in-between worlds, in between where you were and where you want to be. These are songs about the journey of faith. I didn't really appreciate the album at the time as I was so caught-up in the hype of the charismatic worship scene that Delirious? very much played a part in. It's the one Delirious? album that I now revisit the most.

Sadly the album is now neglected for the most part - I've seen them live quite a few times and songs from it are rarely revisited. The band now tour the church worship scene in America and the world over - repeating themselves and falling into the genre they created that, with Mezzamorphis, they looked to be moving on from. Sadly this was not to be.

Mezzamorphis even made a dent on the charts, and a few single releases went top 40. It still sounds great, most Delirious? albums are really well-produced anyway. About half the songs on 2003's World Service came close, but this 1999 album was Delirious? at their peak.

The National play Belfast

I'm really excited that The National from the USA are playing Spring and Airbrake in October. I've been following them for the last few years and their most recent album Boxer is great.

Very interesting lyrically - a sort of urban-themed regret and loneliness/longing for community, with some original terms of phrase. These lyrics are from Looking for Astronauts on their last album

Take all your reasons and take them away To the middle of nowhere,

and on your way home Throw from your window your record collection

They all run together and never make sense

But that's how we like it, and that's all we want

Something to cry for, and something to hunt

The singer sounds a bit like the guy from the Tindersticks and musically they sound is somewhere between early Strokes and Willard Grant Conspiracy.

The crowds at Spring and Airbrake have begun to annoy me recently- either the place has been full of people too cool to listen to the music and just want to be seen, or full of Stella-ed up culchies /spides singing about Buckfast. Hopefully this one will be OK.

The (James) Blunt-ing of worship

American Worship artist Chris Tomlin is to play the Odyssey arena here in Belfast this week.

I think this has been the latest in a line of recent worship "concerts" in the Odyssey over the last few years.

It makes me a bit uneasy that events like this are more and more common - exalting the role of worship leader to that of a popular entertainer and then "God shows up" (I hate this term - it reduces the almighty to some sort of genie-figure that is summoned by whoever's leading the proceedings)

Don't get me wrong, if people want Christian entertainment - by all means folks are entitled to it - when it starts overlapping with worship of God is when it starts to worry me.

Worship has been commodified into a product that's in danger of taking our focus away from the Creator God and unto creator man instead.

As worship events become increasingly slick, and the accompanying CDs more and more smooth, bland, and unadventurous, I worry about how this style of worship in our churches reflects on how we see the world around us and vice-versa.

The prophet Amos' words to Israel from God about the noise of their songs and improvising away on their instruments while neglecting those around them made sense to me when I was thinking about this. It seems that the Lord wasn't annoyed about their musical ability but because they carried no credibility with the world outside.

I was involved on the music side of things in the church for a while and this really set alarm bells ringing for me and my involvement, attitude, and motivation.

Derek Webb - The Ringing Bell

If like me you've lost faith in artists from the Christian music scene having anything worthwhile to say then you might like Derek Webb.


I downloaded his last album "Mockingbird" for free from his website last year and it was one of the lyrically hardest-hitting and musically beautiful country rock records I'd ever heard. He used to be in the Christian band Caedmon's Call and now has released his fourth proper album "The Ringing Bell."

Lyrically - Think Freewheeling-era Bob Dylan meets pre-senile Larry Norman who then go and ask Martyn Joseph out to play.

Musically - The Beatles' Revolver and Teenage Fanclub. Like Mockingbird this is lovingly produced and is a joy to listen to.

Although not as hard-hitting as Mockingbird it still packs some punches. Here are the lyrics to
"This too shall be made right:"

people love you the most for the things you hate
and hate you for loving the things that you cannot keep straight
people judge you on a curve
and tell you you’re getting what you deserve
this too shall be made right

children cannot learn when children cannot eat
stack them like lumber when children cannot sleep
children dream of wishing wells
whose waters quench all the fires of Hell
this too shall be made right

the earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
we say we’re just trying to stay alive
but it looks so much more like a way to die
this too shall be made right

there’s a time for peace and there is a time for war
a time to forgive and a time to settle the score
a time for babies to lose their lives
a time for hunger and genocide
this too shall be made right

I don’t know the suffering of people outside my front door
I join the oppressors of those who i choose to ignore
I’m trading comfort for human life
and that’s not just murder it’s suicide
this too shall be made right

His music's quite hard to find in the shops so check out amazon or www.derekwebb.com

Snore Patrol zzzzz.......

So Snow Patrol have sold out Ward Park in Bangor for yet another "homecoming" next month..

Snow Patrol sold out a long time before that.

it's a sad indication of the music scene in NI that these boys are so massive in the UK and USA.

That friggin Chasing Cars song is everywhere - all of their songs follow that repetitive 4/4 beat, and what about those lyrics...hands open, eyes open, opening eyes, running, lighting up, holding on. They make Oasis' lyrics profound in comparison

Surely popular music has moved on??

I'm not even sure if they were all that good before they hit the big time. maybe they were in the right place at the right time?

Don't get me wrong it's not just them. This sort of spineless stuff is flavour of the month at the moment - and is as "indie" as The Kooks, Hard-Fi, or even McFly.

Watching a documentary about Ulster music the other night highlighed just how average Snow Patrol are compared to Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, Neil Hannon,even Ash. Bands like Duke Special are far more innovative and still have mass potential.

They're just an OK band - let's leave it at that.

The music of Christopher Gaston

My friend Chris Gaston writes songs.
They're really really good.

Listen to them at www.myspace.com/gastonssongs

New Crowded House album!!

I never thought it would happen - probably the most melodically gifted band since the fab four have reformed and released a blinder of comeback album.

It's easy to be cynical. Neil Finn's solo career hasn't exactly set the cash tills ringing for Parlophone - and resurrecting the band moniker may well have just saved his record deal. But who cares when the songs are this good!

NeilFinn's songs always take a while to seep into the consciousness, making repeated listenings even more rewarding. The album kicks off with "Nobody Wants To" - a real spine tingler of an opener. Uplifting but filled with yearning at the same time - a trick that Finn constantly pulls off with ease. The other songs are beginning to grow on me! If it was on vinyl I'd have worn it out already.

This has been a year of comeback tours - The Police, Happy Mondays, James, Genesis, Dodgy(!), and the Verve to name a few. But few have actually released any new material - seemingly content to release repackaged greatest hits albums. CH have definitely bucked the trend with Time On Earth.

They're playing the Waterfront Hall in November - what a night that's going to be!