The Album Review Club - Week #191 (page 1286) - Harlequin Dream - Boy & Bear

mrbelfry said:
So it's Nitrogen and Copper? Which makes air or oxygen? So it could be Air Supply by Air Supply?
Click to expand...

Air Supply? How very dare you. You're very close, if someone can work out the second pic (not copper) and take into account the state they are in then they'll get the tap in from the rebound.
 
threespires said:
Air Supply? How very dare you. You're very close, if someone can work out the second pic (not copper) and take into account the state they are in then they'll get the tap in from the rebound.
Click to expand...

Despite the inaccurate chemistry, you're there apart from taking into account their altered state.
 
Additional clue. The title track was written for/about an artist who was recently nominated on this thread.
 
Deducting points for this being a long 30 minutes! Adding points back on for it being an NHS 30 minutes!! Hope the patient is doing well.

Great pick. One of my first gigs was to see John Martyn but it’s been a while since I listened to him, so it will be nice to get reacquainted.
 
Apologies for the delay.

Solid Air - John Martyn

This was on my list to put up at some unspecified point, but then in the same week we had Nick Drake (for whom the title track was written) it became apparent that my eldest, after asking for random bits of old kit from the garage, had slipped into that dark place on the internet, the DIY echoplex builder community. I took both to be a sign and then when we lost Danny Thompson a short while back it was definitely time to offer this one up.

As this thread has illustrated many times, it’s typically the music of our youth that occupies the greatest place in our hearts but that youthful zeal for a particular genre or set of bands can also blind us to other pleasures. For this pick I’ve gone for something I dismissed as a callow youth but came to subsequently love.

I bought this album a long time ago because it was on a list of albums you 'should have'. However, this was also around the time I was pretty much following New Order round the country, and I was convinced that Morrisey and Marr were better than Lennon and McCartney. I’m not sure I even got through the album, why would I want to listen to some folky type from the 70s when I had this vibrant music of my own? I thought it too ‘simplistic’ (lol) because it wasn’t full of arch lyrics and cleverness, ‘I don’t wanna know about evil, I only wanna about love” sounded like hippy bollocks to younger me. It resurfaced a while later when I was organising boxes of music moving house and I tried it again but nope, still not getting why it’s so ‘great’.

Fast forward over a decade and a lot of life and a lot of music had passed under the bridge. After another house move, I put it on and was completely confused. It’s a statement of fact that I had more brain cells the first time I ever listened to this, but they must have been having a kip because how had it not registered?

I think the simple answer was, I wasn’t ready to listen to it then but now I was.

Maybe it was because I was no longer running around like a blue arsed fly as you tend to in your younger years and could slow down enough to listen properly. Maybe it was the other music I’d listened to in the interim that made me appreciate the genre blending and bending style. Maybe events had smoothed me out enough to be receptive to its feel and lyrics? Whatever it was, how could I have missed something that sounds simultaneously quite laid back and trippy and yet incredibly intense?

It was created in the space of just over a week through a jam type approach. Martyn would play and the others would just join in with Martyn smiling his approval at various moments. Add in some overdubs and Bob’s your uncle. Sounds simple enough but it probably helped to have musicians the calibre of the aforementioned Thompson, whose double bass lines manage to both solidly underpin proceedings but sound languid and spacey when required. Technically this is a solo album, but in reality, it’s an ensemble piece; an ensemble that nearly never was. The lore is that Martyn spent most of his time and budget initially working with ‘starry’ musicians and when he didn’t like the results the team of less famous but more sympatico players were drafted in to pull something together with what was left of the budget. The degree to which this is true I have no idea.

I know there are other people already intimately familiar with this album, and would do a better job of analysing Martyn’s fantastic guitar work than me and I suspect most will be able to hear something that illustrates why this has influenced so many artists since. So, other than the one listening note below, I’m going to leave you to it.

It’s an album neither classifiable by genre nor is it tied to a particular era. It was Martyn’s sixth album and by this point he had absorbed several styles and influences which he melded into something very much of its own character. ‘Timeless’ is an overused word but I think it applies here. The older I get the better and more quietly profound it seems to me. I’m not sure I’ve ever grown up properly but I take my eventually getting this album to have been a sign of some personal development.

This week I’m on the cusp of a new decade, being 30, 40 and 50 never really bothered me; but this one is bothering me, quite a lot. However, I take some consolation that, maybe now and again, older really is wiser. I have no intention of not raging against the dying of the light but it’s good to be able to stop long enough to smell the flowers and I’m glad I eventually was able to here.

Finally, I wouldn’t normally be cheeky enough to offer up a listening note, but for anyone who hasn’t heard it before and wonders why Martyn has gone a bit Vic Reeves club singer on the title track, I hope you can think about the context of the song (Martyn was a close friend of Drake who was in a bad place by this point and Martyn was struggling with not being able to help him) and recognise the intentionality.
 
Last edited:
threespires said:
Finally, I wouldn’t normally be cheeky enough to offer up a listening note, but for anyone who hasn’t heard it before and wonders why Martyn has gone a bit Vic Reeves club singer on the title track, I hope you can think about the context of the song (Martyn was a close friend of Drake who was in a bad place by this point and Martyn was struggling with not being able to help him) and recognise the intentionality.
Click to expand...
I didn't realise how ridiculous it was until the second song kicked in. Then I convinced myself I must have misheard and would circle back later. I'm glad you provided the note
 
threespires said:
Apologies for the delay.

Solid Air - John Martyn

This was on my list to put up at some unspecified point, but then in the same week we had Nick Drake (for whom the title track was written) it became apparent that my eldest, after asking for random bits of old kit from the garage, had slipped into that dark place on the internet, the DIY echoplex builder community. I took both to be a sign and then when we lost Danny Thompson a short while back it was definitely time to offer this one up.

As this thread has illustrated many times, it’s typically the music of our youth that occupies the greatest place in our hearts but that youthful zeal for a particular genre or set of bands can also blind us to other pleasures. For this pick I’ve gone for something I dismissed as a callow youth but came to subsequently love.

I bought this album a long time ago because it was on a list of albums you 'should have'. However, this was also around the time I was pretty much following New Order round the country, and I was convinced that Morrisey and Marr were better than Lennon and McCartney. I’m not sure I even got through the album, why would I want to listen to some folky type from the 70s when I had this vibrant music of my own? I thought it too ‘simplistic’ (lol) because it wasn’t full of arch lyrics and cleverness, ‘I don’t wanna know about evil, I only wanna about love” sounded like hippy bollocks to younger me. It resurfaced a while later when I was organising boxes of music moving house and I tried it again but nope, still not getting why it’s so ‘great’.

Fast forward over a decade and a lot of life and a lot of music had passed under the bridge. After another house move, I put it on and was completely confused. It’s a statement of fact that I had more brain cells the first time I ever listened to this, but they must have been having a kip because how had it not registered?

I think the simple answer was, I wasn’t ready to listen to it then but now I was.

Maybe it was because I was no longer running around like a blue arsed fly as you tend to in your younger years and could slow down enough to listen properly. Maybe it was the other music I’d listened to in the interim that made me appreciate the genre blending and bending style. Maybe events had smoothed me out enough to be receptive to its feel and lyrics? Whatever it was, how could I have missed something that sounds simultaneously quite laid back and trippy and yet incredibly intense?

It was created in the space of just over a week through a jam type approach. Martyn would play and the others would just join in with Martyn smiling his approval at various moments. Add in some overdubs and Bob’s your uncle. Sounds simple enough but it probably helped to have musicians the calibre of the aforementioned Thompson, whose double bass lines manage to both solidly underpin proceedings but sound languid and spacey when required. Technically this is a solo album, but in reality, it’s an ensemble piece; an ensemble that nearly never was. The lore is that Martyn spend most of his time and budget initial working with ‘starry’ musicians and when he didn’t like the results the team of less famous but more sympatico players were drafted in to pull something together with what was left of the budget. The degree to which this is true I have no idea.

I know there are other people already intimately familiar with this album, and would do a better job of analysing Martyn’s fantastic guitar work than me and I suspect most will be able to hear something that illustrates why this has influenced so many artists since. So, other than the one listening note below, I’m going to leave you to it.

It’s an album neither classifiable by genre nor is it tied to a particular era. It was Martyn’s sixth album and by this point he had absorbed several styles and influences which he melded into something very much of its own character. ‘Timeless’ is an overused word but I think it applies here. The older I get the better and more quietly profound it seems to me. I’m not sure I’ve ever grown up properly but I take my eventually getting this album to have been a sign of some personal development.

This week I’m on the cusp of a new decade, being 30, 40 and 50 never really bothered me; but this one is bothering me, quite a lot. However, I take some consolation that, maybe now and again, older really is wiser. I have no intention of not raging against the dying of the light but it’s good to be able to stop long enough to smell the flowers and I’m glad I eventually was able to here.

Finally, I wouldn’t normally be cheeky enough to offer up a listening note, but for anyone who hasn’t heard it before and wonders why Martyn has gone a bit Vic Reeves club singer on the title track, I hope you can think about the context of the song (Martyn was a close friend of Drake who was in a bad place by this point and Martyn was struggling with not being able to help him) and recognise the intentionality.
Click to expand...
Nice write-up. I really enjoyed the Nick Drake album the other week so hopefully this will hit a similar spot.

Happy birthday for whenever it is. Don’t worry about a new year or a new decade. It’s a lot better than the alternative. This is something that I have said many times over the years, accompanied by much eye-rolling from my wife, but the last 18 months or so have brought home how true it is.
 
Gonna enjoy this.
Like threespires I couldn’t stand Martyn when he was au courant but over the years I have come to appreciate his guitar playing and song writing.
And now I have Spotify lossless to appreciate it even more.
 
Apologies, hectic week, didn't manage a single listen or to even read a comment tbh. Shame, but will stick it on the list to come back to, deep purple are a band I like.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top