The Album Review Club - Christmas Break Until 8th January

[RobMCFC]

Alright back to the boards after a long week of catching up work-wise. Now to elaborate on my score.

Ever have a road trip and had a soundtrack to such that you know will last with you forever?

Well, thanks to @threespires, this album selection was certainly the soundtrack to our eclipse trip. This selection was nominated the day we left for Nashville, and it received heavy rotational play as described here in prior posts. It even had an extended life by the time we hit southern Illinois for the total eclipse on Monday, and our traveling friends wanted to know what gold we were listening to Sunday night while playing cards. That's where the extra 0.5 scoring comes in when an album here not only reaches us, but when presented to others, is in high demand. Bravo.

When I first heard the selection "was going to Nashville", I'm glad it was more Americana than Country. As @journolud and @RobMCFC pointed out, there are differences, and this to me fell into the first category, and the songs really started out strong as many others had noticed.

The first 4 songs were all just really good, different, and had enough variations to really define an album. I was not familiar with Kenny Greenberg prior, but I see he's been a part of many session recordings, and his guitars clearly carry this album. Add in that he is known for bringing a rock-and-roll sensibility to Nashville recording sessions, and I'd say he more than captures that on this album. Allison's vocals too, just really shines, and is the 2nd differentiator on this album. I too wanted more "Thunderstorm / Hurricane", but I sure as heck was happy with what we got at the standout song for me on the album. I'd be remiss if I didn't give a strong nod to "I Lost My Crystal Ball" as my 2nd favo(u)rite and just how the one two punch of guitars and vocals really hit here. Amazing beginning to an album that was nearly raising the bar higher with each track.

"If I Were Stronger" picks things up again with a slow start into a strong ending. "Blood" too is such an amazing song lyrically, given her past it just really hits hard, while being such a softly delivered song vocally. "Mama Let The Wolf In" reminded me just a bit of Brandi Carlile's "Mama Werewolf", but that was released after this album. "I'm Doing Fine" again is a testament to Allison's resilience, and adding in Kenny's guitars here, it succeeds quite well. "Back of My Mind" again starts out well with a mandolin led track, and Kenny's guitar playing compliments it well towards the end.

The thing that stood out to me on Fogerty's "HYESTR" was the vocals, and how they didn't try too hard to mimic Fogerty's growling and bellowing version of the refrain. In that way, Allison makes this song unique to her. The music for the most part follows the same CCR sound, but it's the vocals here that really stood out to me in being unique to her.

The closer with "Gonna Get It Wrong" really ends things well as a soft sung and beautiful ballad that encompasses the honesty touched on throughout the album, and sums things up well.

This selection will be one I come back to for the memories of the past week or so, and I'll be sure to catch the other albums that tp and others have touched on here that they really like.

A lot of albums presented here deal with strong memories from the past, so it’s good that we have a relatively recent album that is now tied up in a current event that will provide nostalgic memories at some point in the future.

 

[threespires]

Alright back to the boards after a long week of catching up work-wise. Now to elaborate on my score.

Ever have a road trip and had a soundtrack to such that you know will last with you forever?

Well, thanks to @threespires, this album selection was certainly the soundtrack to our eclipse trip. This selection was nominated the day we left for Nashville, and it received heavy rotational play as described here in prior posts. It even had an extended life by the time we hit southern Illinois for the total eclipse on Monday, and our traveling friends wanted to know what gold we were listening to Sunday night while playing cards. That's where the extra 0.5 scoring comes in when an album here not only reaches us, but when presented to others, is in high demand. Bravo.

When I first heard the selection "was going to Nashville", I'm glad it was more Americana than Country. As @journolud and @RobMCFC pointed out, there are differences, and this to me fell into the first category, and the songs really started out strong as many others had noticed.

The first 4 songs were all just really good, different, and had enough variations to really define an album. I was not familiar with Kenny Greenberg prior, but I see he's been a part of many session recordings, and his guitars clearly carry this album. Add in that he is known for bringing a rock-and-roll sensibility to Nashville recording sessions, and I'd say he more than captures that on this album. Allison's vocals too, just really shines, and is the 2nd differentiator on this album. I too wanted more "Thunderstorm / Hurricane", but I sure as heck was happy with what we got at the standout song for me on the album. I'd be remiss if I didn't give a strong nod to "I Lost My Crystal Ball" as my 2nd favo(u)rite and just how the one two punch of guitars and vocals really hit here. Amazing beginning to an album that was nearly raising the bar higher with each track.

"If I Were Stronger" picks things up again with a slow start into a strong ending. "Blood" too is such an amazing song lyrically, given her past it just really hits hard, while being such a softly delivered song vocally. "Mama Let The Wolf In" reminded me just a bit of Brandi Carlile's "Mama Werewolf", but that was released after this album. "I'm Doing Fine" again is a testament to Allison's resilience, and adding in Kenny's guitars here, it succeeds quite well. "Back of My Mind" again starts out well with a mandolin led track, and Kenny's guitar playing compliments it well towards the end.

The thing that stood out to me on Fogerty's "HYESTR" was the vocals, and how they didn't try too hard to mimic Fogerty's growling and bellowing version of the refrain. In that way, Allison makes this song unique to her. The music for the most part follows the same CCR sound, but it's the vocals here that really stood out to me in being unique to her.

The closer with "Gonna Get It Wrong" really ends things well as a soft sung and beautiful ballad that encompasses the honesty touched on throughout the album, and sums things up well.

This selection will be one I come back to for the memories of the past week
or so, and I'll be sure to catch the other albums that tp and others have touched on here that they really like.

I'm quite chuffed to hear that this is now part of your episodic memories.

I suspect like many others on here, I remember many journeys and holidays via the soundtrack to them. When the kids were little this left us with a greater knowledge of Fireman Sam and Bob The Builder songs than I really need but in later years it meant that Aretha Franklin and Otis and Carla conjure up the kids introduction to them in rural France. Every time I hear older sons band play either Here Comes Your Man or Debaser it reminds me of barrelling down the autobahn with Doolittle on when, thanks to Gornik's pick, the kids discovered they liked Pixies.

As we hadn't heard from you for a few days after the eclipse I did wonder if you'd had some profound totality moment and had run off with a doomsday cult or just downshifted to a pumpkin farming commune or something! I take it was a good trip/experience?

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

I'm quite chuffed to hear that this is now part of your episodic memories.

It might have been a close call between Allison Moorer and BM Slide on Over from the playlist, but having a complete offering here certainly helped! ;-)

I did get the full Slide playlist by the drive home, but there was also a UCL match vs. Real Madrid that had my attention during the drive on that day too.

I suspect like many others on here, I remember many journeys and holidays via the soundtrack to them. When the kids were little this left us with a greater knowledge of Fireman Sam and Bob The Builder songs than I really need but in later years it meant that Aretha Franklin and Otis and Carla conjure up the kids introduction to them in rural France. Every time I hear older sons band play either Here Comes Your Man or Debaser it reminds me of barrelling down the autobahn with Doolittle on when, thanks to Gornik's pick, the kids discovered they liked Pixies.

Indeed, funny how the playlist changes over time. No more Baby Einstein or Barney songs to ramble down the road to. Both happy and sad about that at the same time.

As we hadn't heard from you for a few days after the eclipse I did wonder if you'd had some profound totality moment and had run off with a doomsday cult or just downshifted to a pumpkin farming commune or something!

LOL, yes been pretty hectic after coming back to 7 days of tapping out of work completely. I highly recommend it, though there's always a price to pay once it's over.

Despite the allure of what you described above, I decided since I was not equipped to have a proper red hat to stay where I was, it was time to come home. I'm also not a big fan of kool-aid or pills that the cults seem to fancy, though I did bring some fantastic malty beverages home that I could only find in grocery stores in that area.

"Guess it comes down to staying or leaving, and whether we will or we won't..."

I take it was a good trip/experience?

Yes, it was an amazing experience, one we had vowed to do in 2017 in getting about 90% for that eclipse. The coldness and the 360 ring of sunlight was simply amazing around where we were during totality, and it was something I had not experienced and was very surreal.

Here's a shot of totality (no fancy cameras, sorry)...

and a time lapse of the open field (formerly a golf course) of where we were in the campground. There was no "Total Eclipse of the Heart" or other music playing, just the sounds of nature and the wonder of it all. If you did a 360 turn, you'd see that same ring of sunlight all around. Very cool!


The pictures don't do it justice, but it was so inspiring that we're thinking of Spain in Aug 2026 if we can work out a plan for that. 20 years for the next one in the US is too long to wait for after that.

 

[RobMCFC]

It might have been a close call between Allison Moorer and BM Slide on Over from the playlist, but having a complete offering here certainly helped! ;-)

I did get the full Slide playlist by the drive home, but there was also a UCL match vs. Real Madrid that had my attention during the drive on that day too.

Indeed, funny how the playlist changes over time. No more Baby Einstein or Barney songs to ramble down the road to. Both happy and sad about that at the same time.


LOL, yes been pretty hectic after coming back to 7 days of tapping out of work completely. I highly recommend it, though there's always a price to pay once it's over.

Despite the allure of what you described above, I decided since I was not equipped to have a proper red hat to stay where I was, it was time to come home. I'm also not a big fan of kool-aid or pills that the cults seem to fancy, though I did bring some fantastic malty beverages home that I could only find in grocery stores in that area.

"Guess it comes down to staying or leaving, and whether we will or we won't..."


Yes, it was an amazing experience, one we had vowed to do in 2017 in getting about 90% for that eclipse. The coldness and the 360 ring of sunlight was simply amazing around where we were during totality, and it was something I had not experienced and was very surreal.

Here's a shot of totality (no fancy cameras, sorry)...
View attachment 114000
and a time lapse of the open field (formerly a golf course) of where we were in the campground. There was no "Total Eclipse of the Heart" or other music playing, just the sounds of nature and the wonder of it all. If you did a 360 turn, you'd see that same ring of sunlight all around. Very cool!
View attachment 114001View attachment 114002View attachment 114003

The pictures don't do it justice, but it was so inspiring that we're thinking of Spain in Aug 2026 if we can work out a plan for that. 20 years for the next one in the US is too long to wait for after that.

We’ve been to a few of the places in Spain where the eclipse will occur. Zaragoza was great when we visited at Christmas but I wouldn’t fancy being inland in August when it could be over 40 deg C. Bilbao or Barcelona would be better bets.

 

[BlueHammer85]

The first 30 seconds may knock the scoring here!

 

[RobMCFC]

Pacific Street – The Pale Fountains

This was a pleasant listen. From the cover image, I was expecting some combative indie rock, but it was more in keeping with melodic jangle-pop of the music that followed in the early 90s.

The fact that trumpet was one of the lead instruments gave the music a different feel. Opener “Reach” mixed the jangly guitars and trumpets to good effect and whilst “Something on My Mind” starts with an acoustic, takes a while to get going, and features a nice trumpet solo. “Unless” is very 80s with a nice melody. “Southbound Excursion” starts with the promise of something more upbeat and robust, but quickly becomes whimsical with its backing vocals and flute. I liked “Natural” with its spiky guitars and even better was “Faithful Pillow (Part 1)”, its Spanish guitar sound reminding me of Calexico’s evocate instrumentals, especially when the trumpet comes in.

“You’ll Start A War” is another upbeat, enjoyable number, and the solo trumpet that starts “Beyond Friday’s Field” reminds me a bit of “Meeting Across The River” from Springsteen’s Born to Run album.

From “Abergele next Time” onwards, it’s mostly downhill – pleasant enough pop music that doesn’t really hook me.

Ultimately, there’s not really any truly strong or memorable songs here. More than anything, it’s an album of nice moments. There are some little instrumental parts that are obviously crafted with care and a love of music. However, I can understand why @LGWIO feels nostalgic listening to this all those years later. For at least half the running time, it certainly stands out as being a little different to the prevailing music of its contemporaries, and I’ll give it a 6/10.

 

[shackattack]

Influenced heavily by his love for Arthur Lee it's a decent album for it's time.
Fast forward 10 years and listen to Waterpistol by Shack then do the same period again and listen to Magical World of The Strands by Mick.
A thing of sheer beauty

 

[threespires]

There was an absolute glut of bands from Liverpool in this era. This sounds a bit weaker than I remember it and to some degree I can see why they never quite made it, but then equally why did a band like say China Crisis do better than them, maybe a bit more hooky but also more formulaic too?

However, it does have multiple redeeming features the primary one being that, unlike some of their contemporaries, they make an effort to do something interesting and though it sometimes skates close to being a bit sixth form pretentious it doesn’t smack of deliberately being all style and no substance. You’re making yourself a bit of a hostage to fortune by citing Love and Burt Bacharach as your influences and though it falls short of those very high bars you can hear what they’re trying to do and fair play to them for trying.

I think Rob nailed it by saying there’s lots of good moments without ever coming together in a really compelling set of songs. “Unless” is probably emblematic of this to me in that it has lots of these very nice moments without quite nailing it completely as a song. I think that impression comes because they are trying to pack in too many thoughts or moments into the songs without necessarily yet having the song writing ability/experience to edit them down or piece them together well enough; Abergele Next Time being another example. Similarly, the pans that open Crazier smacks a bit of ‘we haven’t had steel pans’ yet and the lyric sort of support its so…

It’s frustrating because when they do edit their ideas down even slightly like on songs such as Faithful Pillow Parts1/ 2 it works very well. You can imagine the slightly younger Stuart Staples hearing that and tucking it away for future reference with Tindersticks. You’ll Start a War is another example, write a catchy song and then just add in a few brass embellishments and you get one of the better tracks.

Though not musically similar, it reminded me a bit of their fellow scouser Thomas Lang in that it might be a bit gauche but it’s not simply posturing and whether it managed to fully deliver or not it’s praiseworthy for the trying and probably deserved a bit better than it did (though unlike Pale Fountains, the 80's parody production on Lang's music is borderline unforgiveable).

I'm not familiar with Mick Head's subsequent work, but reading shackattack's post I might have a listen because it needs to be borne in mind this was a first album and you can see how a less is more approach that comes with more experience might mean things could turn out nicely.

After the excellent results this weekend, they would have got a benevolent 7/10 but BH posted that video so it’s going to be a more realistic 6.5/10 and an acknowledgement that far worse than them managed to get bigger careers.

 

[LGWIO]

As ever "thank you" (pun intended) to @RobMCFC & @threespires for their detailed reviews, far more thought and insight than I can ever muster.
It was nice to return to this album after so long and I did thoroughly enjoy it. The comments also did make appreciate that there was perhaps a bit of the kitchen sink being thrown at some of the tracks, Ideas being thrown onto them to make them seem more interesting and different from what else was out there.
Also nice that we tempted in @shackattack to comment and perhaps vote and review future offerings?

 

[shackattack]

As ever "thank you" (pun intended) to @RobMCFC & @threespires for their detailed reviews, far more thought and insight than I can ever muster.
It was nice to return to this album after so long and I did thoroughly enjoy it. The comments also did make appreciate that there was perhaps a bit of the kitchen sink being thrown at some of the tracks, Ideas being thrown onto them to make them seem more interesting and different from what else was out there.
Also nice that we tempted in @shackattack to comment and perhaps vote and review future offerings?

I had to look twice and check it was the Pale Fountains. I love my music ( more than my footy at the moment). There are already some great reviewers of music on the thread. If The Coral ever get mentioned I could be tempted !
I think often with music we don't actually appreciate it till some time after.