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

Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Sorry for my delay, but a sincere happy milestone Bday and just remember not to play that #1 single from Mr. Dodd, as that was way beyond your control!

As LBJ would certainly remind me, some of us are close behind you, so it's just a number, and it's how you feel on the inside that counts.

I'm finally getting to listen to this tonight, and I can happily note this is the first time I've ever heard John Martyn, and I'm glad it has taken this long to listen, because I'm not sure any version of me less than 10 years prior give or take would have appreciated this.

More to come, but I'm really liking "Don't Want To Know" as it plays in my hotel room tonight as I chill after a long day. Homeward bound tomorrow, so between this and the synth heavy 1982, I'm looking forward to the music to get me home. I'm enjoying that psychedelia and folk sound.
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Thanks. Hope you've had a good journey home.

My bit of existential angst has subsided so rather than Doddy's Tears for Souvenirs, I'll be playing another of his big hits: Happiness...
"I've got no silver, I've got no gold,
but I've got happiness in my soul"

Turned out in Doddy's case that first bit wasn't exactly true as he got prosecuted for tax evasion in the 80s (he won the case) and in the trial it came out he kept nearly £350K in cash stuffed in various hiding places round the house. He married his long term partner 2 days before his death presumably to stop a significant chunk of his near £30 mill fortune going to the taxman.

There's definitely a bit of psychedelia isn't there. Once I eventually got into this I kept hearing all sorts of things things that reminded me of other stuff but typically things that came after.
 
Any of you got any experience of Austin, Texas? It's a longish story that I might expand on but I will be there on the 14th November to see the Oh Hellos and a few days either side.
 
Yeah I was there about twenty years ago, fantastic music city which i actually preferred to Nashville.I remember seeing a different band every night in different venues such as Stubbs BBQ,The Continental and the Saxon pub.It was just a normal few days not SBSW, I came back with my suitcase full of CDs .
Good Mexican food too, being a university city it had a nice laid back vibe, not sure what it’s like nowadays as a lot of US cities have changed for the worst.
 
Solid Air by John Martyn has given me thoughts that I will find hard to articulate. On the surface this is an easy 9. It's dark and rich and effortlessly effortlessly cool. This album is wearing shades and recovering from a hangover on a Tuesday. If your favourite band said it was their favourite album you wouldn't be surprised - Johnny Greenwood has definitely at least heard the last 3 minutes of I'd Rather Be The Devil which is probably the finest part of the album. Your favourite heavy band is definitely trying to recreate the sweetness of May You Never on their hidden tracks at the end of an album. John Martyn also knows how to use his voice to create different sounds and feelings. It has a strong sense of itself which if I was feeling critical might lead to me concluding the album feels samey but there is enough in his voice and the bands subtle dynamics to keep things interesting if you care to listen closely enough. But as much as I want to love this album i have the strong sense that it does not love me in return.

When I was a younger man I volunteered in a charity shop in Chorlton. Every charity shop as a cast of regulars. We had Bernadette a fragile hippy scared of her own shadow; Kimono Man who came in every day asking for kimono's which we never had; and The Greatest Living Artist in Chorlton. The Greatest Living Artist in Chorlton (GLAC) was Brian Blessed big. He'd come in a couple of times a month. He'd almost rip the door of its hinges before loudly declaring himself the Greatest Living Artist in Chorlton, spend a few minutes in the shop introducing himself to the patrons and then exiting with the same declaration leaving behind some glamour and the haze of alcohol. As a 17 year old who had just dropped out of college and looking for purpose the GLAC was my inspiration. I'd spend shifts hoping he'd come in and brighten the day and hope that we could bond and connect. I imagined myself as his apprentice - not in art but in life. He had an easy breezy charm and charisma for days. I couldn't imagine a time when he'd ever be bored or not partying with models and musicians. He was what I aspired to be. His coolness and confidence was heavy and dense and generated within him a gravity that we all spun around. He was a black hole and I was caught in his pull. Except I never saw his art or knew his name and he was barely coherent in his absinthe. He didn't want friendship he wanted an audience - a set of eyes and ears to whom he could declare his greatness but it could never be reciprocated. If you stuck a pair of googly eyes on a lamppost he would see no difference between that and you. He was not a black hole of greatness but an entirely different kind of hole.

So i hate that i want to like this album so much. In many ways I see it as an attempted substitute for my vanilla existence - I'm interesting because I like this album. I dislike that I want to tell people about it and explore it because like the GLAC it has absolutely no regard for me. This is album is a 9 but I am merely a 2 hoping to catch some if's light. I'm convinced that one day my kids will sit down with their kids and they'll be asked "daddy. what can you tell us about grandad?" my kids will turn to their "well kiddo. your grandad was a great man. he once met the Greatest Living Artist in Chorlton"

So there are two scores. One in the hope that this album will love me back but the other because it has no regard for me. A 9 for when I'm listening but a 6 because when I'm not listening I don't think of it. Let's settle for a 7
 
Solid Air – John Martyn

Even without the title track’s link to Nick Drake, this is certainly an album in the same ballpark. Or since the term might not have been in use in the early 70s, let’s say that it’s in the same bedsit.

This is an easy and engaging listen, heightened by the little flourishes that Richard Thompson (mandolin on “Over the Hill”) and John Bundrick (piano, organ and especially clavinet, on many of the tracks) bring to the party.

“I’d Rather Be The Devil” is a cover version, not that I know the original, so I was going to say that there’s the obligatory point off, but I enjoyed the arrangement and instrumental part so much that I’ll let it pass.

The first four songs on side two represent the highpoint of the album. “Go Down Easy” is nice, with its acoustic and slinky bass. With the opening of “Dreams By The Sea”, I expected to see Huggy Bear walking around the corner knocking the dustbins over with his flares. On “May You Never”, Martyn and his guitar sound a lot like Chris Whitley on the latter’s stripped-down releases. “The Man in the Station” continues to meld the laid-back acoustic vibe with a bit of funkiness.

Congratulations to @threespires for this inspired choice, and another big win for this thread. I really enjoyed listening to yet another artist that I’d heard of but never heard before. 8/10.
 
Short but sweet. I have listened to this every night on headphones before I go to sleep. Sometimes I make it all the way through, sometimes I'm off before the end of track two. I knew it a little from back in the day but hadn't listened in probably 40 years or so. It still reminds me by vibe of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. The looseness, the subtlety, the amazing instrumentation. I liked "Solid Air and 'Go down easy' very much but its more the sound of the album as a whole. I still haunt this thread just on the off chance of gems like this. Well done @threespires a great choice in a pretty shitty week.


oh. 9/10
 
Always liked the vibe of artists such as Nick Drake and John Martyn and sadly only ever got to see him once few years before he passed away ( Fairfield Halls in Croydon supported by Ian Mcnabb). Was a gig i always remember due to the affection of the crowd. Am no expert on arrangement and composition of music but have always enjoyed listening to this album and for me it's an easy 9/10
 
mrbelfry said:
Solid Air by John Martyn has given me thoughts that I will find hard to articulate. On the surface this is an easy 9. It's dark and rich and effortlessly effortlessly cool. This album is wearing shades and recovering from a hangover on a Tuesday. If your favourite band said it was their favourite album you wouldn't be surprised - Johnny Greenwood has definitely at least heard the last 3 minutes of I'd Rather Be The Devil which is probably the finest part of the album. Your favourite heavy band is definitely trying to recreate the sweetness of May You Never on their hidden tracks at the end of an album. John Martyn also knows how to use his voice to create different sounds and feelings. It has a strong sense of itself which if I was feeling critical might lead to me concluding the album feels samey but there is enough in his voice and the bands subtle dynamics to keep things interesting if you care to listen closely enough. But as much as I want to love this album i have the strong sense that it does not love me in return.

When I was a younger man I volunteered in a charity shop in Chorlton. Every charity shop as a cast of regulars. We had Bernadette a fragile hippy scared of her own shadow; Kimono Man who came in every day asking for kimono's which we never had; and The Greatest Living Artist in Chorlton. The Greatest Living Artist in Chorlton (GLAC) was Brian Blessed big. He'd come in a couple of times a month. He'd almost rip the door of its hinges before loudly declaring himself the Greatest Living Artist in Chorlton, spend a few minutes in the shop introducing himself to the patrons and then exiting with the same declaration leaving behind some glamour and the haze of alcohol. As a 17 year old who had just dropped out of college and looking for purpose the GLAC was my inspiration. I'd spend shifts hoping he'd come in and brighten the day and hope that we could bond and connect. I imagined myself as his apprentice - not in art but in life. He had an easy breezy charm and charisma for days. I couldn't imagine a time when he'd ever be bored or not partying with models and musicians. He was what I aspired to be. His coolness and confidence was heavy and dense and generated within him a gravity that we all spun around. He was a black hole and I was caught in his pull. Except I never saw his art or knew his name and he was barely coherent in his absinthe. He didn't want friendship he wanted an audience - a set of eyes and ears to whom he could declare his greatness but it could never be reciprocated. If you stuck a pair of googly eyes on a lamppost he would see no difference between that and you. He was not a black hole of greatness but an entirely different kind of hole.

So i hate that i want to like this album so much. In many ways I see it as an attempted substitute for my vanilla existence - I'm interesting because I like this album. I dislike that I want to tell people about it and explore it because like the GLAC it has absolutely no regard for me. This is album is a 9 but I am merely a 2 hoping to catch some if's light. I'm convinced that one day my kids will sit down with their kids and they'll be asked "daddy. what can you tell us about grandad?" my kids will turn to their "well kiddo. your grandad was a great man. he once met the Greatest Living Artist in Chorlton"

So there are two scores. One in the hope that this album will love me back but the other because it has no regard for me. A 9 for when I'm listening but a 6 because when I'm not listening I don't think of it. Let's settle for a 7
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Tell me more please about the music loving you back, I'm intrigued what that means for you.
 
The word I can't get out of my mind with this album, is craft.. it is a really well crafted album. Well balanced, rich, interwoven, and not at all overdone. Lovely blend of folk, blues, jazz, and general musicianship. Similar to the Nick Drake album, but more complex, refined and taken up a notch. Hides a bit of a dark side too maybe. Pleasant voice, we deliveres. Intimate moments. Bit of anger and intensity in places. Excellent.

I am not quite getting the full emotional reaction or connection with it that I think I should or might. Maybe that's due to its complexity needing time to digest. Maybe it is where I am this week, who knows. But I think that will come. An easy 8 in the meantime. Favourite songs Dream by the Sea and Man at the Station.
 
threespires said:
Tell me more please about the music loving you back, I'm intrigued what that means for you.
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I said it was difficult to articulate ;) I tried to use the analogy with the greatest living artist in chorlton. I admired him but he would have found me dull and insipid. Or if you dated a woman who was clearly out of your league. She's a 9 but I'm a 2. I would be acting up to try and justify her liking me.

I once got punched in the face in the Ritz because I was annoying a guy being too sycophantic. He was right to punch me. I think this is an interesting album but I'm pretty uninteresting. If I go loving it up it's an album that's going to hit me in the face. A song like The Easy Blues has a rich history that will make me look stupid gushing about and Martyn would think I'm a muppet.

I'm probably making no sense

It's like having an edgy opinion because you think it makes you interesting. Really you're just annoying and no one cares what you have to say. I live on an estate where people are just trying to get through their day and watch celebrity traitors in peace.

Liking this would make me feel edgy and interesting but I'm probably just going to listen to the birdy song again because that's more my lane
 
I
mrbelfry said:
I said it was difficult to articulate ;) I tried to use the analogy with the greatest living artist in chorlton. I admired him but he would have found me dull and insipid. Or if you dated a woman who was clearly out of your league. She's a 9 but I'm a 2. I would be acting up to try and justify her liking me.

I once got punched in the face in the Ritz because I was annoying a guy being too sycophantic. He was right to punch me. I think this is an interesting album but I'm pretty uninteresting. If I go loving it up it's an album that's going to hit me in the face. A song like The Easy Blues has a rich history that will make me look stupid gushing about and Martyn would think I'm a muppet.

I'm probably making no sense

It's like having an edgy opinion because you think it makes you interesting. Really you're just annoying and no one cares what you have to say. I live on an estate where people are just trying to get through their day and watch celebrity traitors in peace.

Liking this would make me feel edgy and interesting but I'm probably just going to listen to the birdy song again because that's more my lane
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but do you like the music on this album? If you do score it accordingly. We are hardly a edgy and right-on bunch when bloody Rod Stewart heads the charts :-)
 
mrbelfry said:
I said it was difficult to articulate ;) I tried to use the analogy with the greatest living artist in chorlton. I admired him but he would have found me dull and insipid. Or if you dated a woman who was clearly out of your league. She's a 9 but I'm a 2. I would be acting up to try and justify her liking me.

I once got punched in the face in the Ritz because I was annoying a guy being too sycophantic. He was right to punch me. I think this is an interesting album but I'm pretty uninteresting. If I go loving it up it's an album that's going to hit me in the face. A song like The Easy Blues has a rich history that will make me look stupid gushing about and Martyn would think I'm a muppet.

I'm probably making no sense

It's like having an edgy opinion because you think it makes you interesting. Really you're just annoying and no one cares what you have to say. I live on an estate where people are just trying to get through their day and watch celebrity traitors in peace.

Liking this would make me feel edgy and interesting but I'm probably just going to listen to the birdy song again because that's more my lane
Click to expand...

Though not quite the same thing, this reminds me of when someone much wiser than me gently admonished me with something to the effect of "If God is prepared to give you a break don't you think you should maybe be less hard on yourself too? Or do you think it’s for you to decide how much love you deserve, rather than Him?"

If the best art is a club that you have to be 'worthy' to get into then most of us are stood outside in the cold because our names are not on the list. But I don't think that's how it is or at least should be. Better to view it as a gift. Sure some artists may want to offer their gift with strings attached but the beauty is that once it's left their hands they don't get to make that call. If the recipient just wants to receive it gratefully and with grace then there needs to be no more to it.

If you're simply saying the album is fit but it knows it, then that's a slightly different point I would say.
 
Coatigan said:
I am not quite getting the full emotional reaction or connection with it that I think I should or might. Maybe that's due to its complexity needing time to digest. Maybe it is where I am this week, who knows. But I think that will come. An easy 8 in the meantime. Favourite songs Dream by the Sea and Man at the Station.
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I was thinking this might take some time to grow on you, but glad to see you are already on board as admittedly more a "greater appreciation over time and listens" of an album making a strong impression.

I need another listen tomorrow to still see where I fully am on this. I'm already upset with myself for not being the first person to mention parts reminded me of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, but that's what I get for being on planes again today on my way up to Vermont for the week and a long weekend.
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
I'm already upset with myself for not being the first person to mention parts reminded me of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks
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In that case then somebody's going to have to come up with an analysis of why Astral Weeks ended up with an average of 5.64 and this week's offering will likely score far higher.

I don't think there's much overlap at all. This one moves and grooves more in less time.
 
RobMCFC said:
In that case then somebody's going to have to come up with an analysis of why Astral Weeks ended up with an average of 5.64 and this week's offering will likely score far higher.

I don't think there's much overlap at all. This one moves and grooves more in less time.
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The execution, rather than the concept, probably. And the voice perhaps.
 
RobMCFC said:
In that case then somebody's going to have to come up with an analysis of why Astral Weeks ended up with an average of 5.64 and this week's offering will likely score far higher.

I don't think there's much overlap at all. This one moves and grooves more in less time.
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Or maybe Astral Weeks suffered from following the amazing nomination that was The Budos Band, and was a let down in comparison ;).

Looked back at my own review for a laugh, picked out this bit.

'His karaoke singing. And by that I mean almost all songs sound like he is just singing his own thing, over an otherwise well crafted and performed backing track!

There's that word again, crafted, that I used for this album. Which I can't remember using often tbh. So on some level, subconsciously, the parallels others point out maybe are there.
 
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