No Bad News
I've been listening to Will Oldham's latest album under the Bonnie "Prince" Billy guise a fair bit this week. The Letting Go is interesting as it perhaps Oldham's most commercial album to date. It is the most obviously produced with female backing vocals and soaring strings and that sort of business. It is like a smoother, fuller version of Master And Everyone (an album you could only really experience on headphones.) At times it almost dips into the David Grey singer-songwriter middlebrow but is saved by its layed complexity. In this respect lead single Cursed Sleep can be taken as a sort of statement of intent. (The fact the album even has a lead single is comment worthy.) It is a rich, swelling piece of Jeff Buckley-esque folk rock.
Another album that sees an artist move towards the commercial, albeit in a very different way, is DJ Shadow's The Outsider. In a radical departure several of the tracks on this are the sort of hip hop you might actually here in a club rather than a chinstrokers convention. Don't get me wrong I like th esample based turntablism but I like the harder stuff too. Seein Things with its Katrina-inspired rap from David Banner is the best of these .
In another respect though this is a deeply uncommercial record because it deliberately seeks to alienate his fan base. More than this it is a total mess, even more so than Private Press. The reviews have been poor and at their most charitable have suggested that the album's eclecticism is a reflection of Shadow's own collectors taste. Doesn't make it any more palattable for the listener though. Download Seein Things but for God's sake steer clear of the opening track. And the one involving members of Kasabian.
The Slaughtered Lamb is one of my regular haunts but as a pub rather than a venue. I went to see Leafcutter John there last night. As with others of this ilk I wish he would just throw away his laptop and contact mikes. I thinking my avant garde/titting about threshold is getting lower and lower. When it is just his voice, his guitar and his two backing singers it is a much more pleasurable experience. All three have excellent and surprising voices that combine into wonderful harmonies.
I've never been inside the Royal Albert Hall. This will change tonight when I go to see Mogwai for the tenth time. I suspect it will be a slightly different experience to seeing them at the ICA.
Edit: MetaFilter thread about The Outsider.
Another album that sees an artist move towards the commercial, albeit in a very different way, is DJ Shadow's The Outsider. In a radical departure several of the tracks on this are the sort of hip hop you might actually here in a club rather than a chinstrokers convention. Don't get me wrong I like th esample based turntablism but I like the harder stuff too. Seein Things with its Katrina-inspired rap from David Banner is the best of these .
In another respect though this is a deeply uncommercial record because it deliberately seeks to alienate his fan base. More than this it is a total mess, even more so than Private Press. The reviews have been poor and at their most charitable have suggested that the album's eclecticism is a reflection of Shadow's own collectors taste. Doesn't make it any more palattable for the listener though. Download Seein Things but for God's sake steer clear of the opening track. And the one involving members of Kasabian.
The Slaughtered Lamb is one of my regular haunts but as a pub rather than a venue. I went to see Leafcutter John there last night. As with others of this ilk I wish he would just throw away his laptop and contact mikes. I thinking my avant garde/titting about threshold is getting lower and lower. When it is just his voice, his guitar and his two backing singers it is a much more pleasurable experience. All three have excellent and surprising voices that combine into wonderful harmonies.
I've never been inside the Royal Albert Hall. This will change tonight when I go to see Mogwai for the tenth time. I suspect it will be a slightly different experience to seeing them at the ICA.
Edit: MetaFilter thread about The Outsider.