The Album Review Club - Christmas Break Until 8th January

[Gremlin]

Vocally fine but doesn't really test herself bar Glory box.

I think she's on record herself as saying her vocals would have been better had she not been chain-smoking all the way through it! Having said which, I think she does a great job, considering that.

 

[RobMCFC]

Dummy – Portishead

I quite like the overall sound, which manages to mix elements of jazz into what are essentially laid-back soundscapes with vocals. However, like Beck at his worst, Portishead (or the producers?) seem intent on disturbing the flow with the odd sound effect here and there. Thankfully, they are not too distracting for the most part, but I don’t think those record scratches on “Wandering Star”, “Pedestal” and “Biscuit” for example, add anything positive. “Wandering Star” also has a sound that suggests Sweep (as in Sooty and Sweep), is struggling to breathe.

The best tracks are those that sound organic: “It’s A Fire”, “Roads” and “Glory Box”. “Roads” is built up nicely in layers, from the piano at the start to the wah-wah sound of the guitar.

And then we get into what everybody claims when it’s not a genre they listen to or understand: a lot of it sounds the same and you’d be happy taking a few tracks for a playlist and not listening to the whole album again. Whilst there’s nothing that I outright don’t like, as each track appears and passes by, it all has the ring of one long, strange hypnotic song, which is maybe the point of the album?

Overall, a fairly pleasant listening experience, but nothing that will have me rushing to put it on again. 6/10

 

[GornikDaze]

I really liked this weeks selection from my first listen. Unfortunately however the third and fourth (yes I know that’s more than necessary!) I almost started to get annoyed with it.
The best way I can describe my annoyance is there are times when it all just feels a bit ‘busy’ with little scratches and effects thrown in. Sometimes I wish it would just flow a little more naturally. The opening couple of tracks Mysteron and Sour Times (which I did recognise) are decent enough, but then it gets a bit samey. I love her voice it’s edgy and floaty at the same time, but after I while I want something different. Different does come at the end with Glory Box which everyone else seems to highlight. It’s an epic track. I love the guitar, and as much as it’s a belting tune, I feel a bit cheated that there’s nothing really similar on the rest of the album.
Overall it’s a decent listen, but apart from a couple of tracks I wouldn’t revisit. 6/10 for me

 

[Out on blue 6]

When this was nominated I proclaimed my like of Portishead and this is their best album so think it warrants a 9 out of 10.

Beth Gibbons debut has been mentioned a few times but I would also point people in the direction of Geoff Barrows other band Beak. 5 albums in now including a new one a few months ago. A world away from Dummy but if anyone has the time or inclination well worth a listen

 

[Coatigan]

BBC Two - Rip It Up, Series 1, Blazing a Trail

The biggest names in Scotland's early pop story tell their own unique tales.

www.bbc.co.uk

Recommended this to threespires initially, but actually worth others here watching it, particularly maybe benny and journo given some of their nominations. 3-part documentary, the third probably the best.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

So records I love end up having one of two characteristics – either a groove or a sound I really liked repeated with small variations, consistently, or a lot of tonal variety song-to-song which you keeps me off balance and interested in what comes next. “Dummy” doesn’t have either of these – the groove is late night lounge singer, albeit a mournful one with a fair degree of soul, backed by rhythms so slow and subtle they sound like they’re being played by a band five towns away from the recording studio and therefore delayed by a few seconds. That said, I appreciate the innovation – it’s a unique combination, this trip hop of theirs, and new as it was at the time when I first heard it eons ago, it never really moved me – it was just another take on ambient. I’m not a fan of beautiful voices anyhow as a rule – I think of vocalists as accompaniment to music and not vice versa, and no good lounge singer is ever going to be upstaged by the band. That’s the case here, but the novelty of the beats and scratches is at least intellectually interesting, even if the music/record doesn’t speak to me. Among the tunes, they largely pass me by save for the one I know well (Sour Times) and Wandering Star, my favo(u)rite, where the background overcomes the singer for a while. Glory Box is kind of like this too but I've always found it a little underwhelming. One wouldn't even know the band had a full-time guitarist til that track actually if you didn't know (and I didn't - I looked it up). A few of you brought up Sade, and I might also bring up Ivy, but in both cases the music connects much better with me despite a quite talented female singer. So this is another sit-and-listen record, and while I’m pretty sure Beth Gibbons' feelings are real, I’m also pretty sure they’re one-note. I wouldn’t mind digging deeper to figure it out, but we’d still be left with music that is intriguing mentally but flat-footed and, let’s face it, a bit dull . . . or, more likely, so subtle that I can’t tell the difference. 5/10, mostly for uniqueness.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I have listened to very little Portishead in the past but do recognise a number of tracks on this Album. I have listened to it three times and hear the similarities others do, Sade on one track, Elbow on the second track (so this is where you got some of your ideas from Guy (and he always blamed Genesis) Ha.). I don't feel ready to mark it yet but the needle has definitely moved to the right (positive). The instrumentation is interesting and her voice has a pure melancholy which I'm always a sucker for. I can take or leave some of the sampling although it does make for a richer soundscape. I haven't yet got the emotional connection that some have mentioned. Maybe a bottle of red will do the trick.

As others have noted, it was a pretty good year for albums. I had a brief flirtation with Britpop, REM released Monster which I still have a liking for having seen them play it live, I was also listening to Nirvana, Hootie and the Blowfish, Manic Street Preachers, Nirvana and Pink Floyd new releases all of which were fine albums. I think Filed Under: Easy Listening was also released that year. A very fine album that I grew to appreciate hugely. Not as good as Copper Blue but good nonetheless.

Wish I had listened to Dummy more though. I can see me continue to play it long after this round finishes.

I've said before that if I take the songs I love from Copper Blue and those I love from FUEL and mash them together, it's a top 10 lifetime record for me. The left-them-off ones are still pretty good, but the best ones are straight up top-of-the-heap in terms of melding punk and pop effectively perfectly. And the lyrics are nasty, ironic, open-hearted and clever.

Bob Mould is a fucking genius. I picked "If I Can't Change Your Mind" on that "perfect song" thread we had a while back. When he sings "If I can't change your mind / Then no one will" . . . is he just sad? Or is that a threat to kill the lover that jilted him? Such a great tune.

 

[journolud]

BBC Two - Rip It Up, Series 1, Blazing a Trail

The biggest names in Scotland's early pop story tell their own unique tales.

www.bbc.co.uk

Recommended this to threespires initially, but actually worth others here watching it, particularly maybe benny and journo given some of their nominations. 3-part documentary, the third probably the best.

Will try and find the time to give this a watch. 10 days left on iplayer

 

[Coatigan]

Will try and find the time to give this a watch. 10 days left on iplayer

They go through decades, with the final episode being the late 80s and 90s, which is more relatable. Mogwai, Arab Strap, Teenage Fan Club etc all feature.

 

[RobMCFC]

I’m not a fan of beautiful voices anyhow as a rule – I think of vocalists as accompaniment to music and not vice versa

Nicely put. Not specifically relating to this album, but that's exactly how I feel about music. This should be number #2 or #3 in my "Ten Commandments of Music" ...... and yet some voices are so irritating that they put you off the music (probably rule #4).