Borne the arboretic truth you kept posing
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
20.10.20 : Remedy Lane - Pain Of Salvation (2002)
I can't say I was entirely convinced I was going to enjoy anyone called Pain Of Salvation and that was before I noticed it had been selected by Mr Emerson, who takes great delight in informing me exactly how much I'm REALLY not going to like his selections - although he let himself down badly last time in that I was only mildly puzzled by it. So let's see if he's exceeded his expectations this time, shall we?
Hmmm, well it's too long so I've obviously got to mention that, but apart from that I didn't really mind it. I didn't know quite how to describe it, so checked up on Wikipedia which suggested it was quite "Jesus Christ Superstar" and that's not too far away - "progressive metal" is another suggestion and I can see where it's coming from there. I can't see me rushing back to it, but it was certainly an interesting listen.
The channel had two thumbs up, no comments at all but two new joiners to make up for that (although one of the new joiners announced that someone had died and then immediately left again - talk about bringing the mood down). Wikipedia suggests the album might be slightly up itself - "Gildenlöw has said that the inspiration for Remedy Lane was an era of his life in which he wished to understand the nature of freedom". Don't we all mate, don't we all? And that's pretty much all it has to say apart from noting the existence of a reissued version consisting of a remixed and a live album - and my suspicion is that it's quite an impressive listen live (but I wasn't suspicious enough to actually check it out).
"Customers also listened to" Leprous, Anathema, Opeth and Caligula's Horse - all charming lads I'm sure but I don't feel the need to listen to any of them, I'm afraid. I can't say I'm lining up to join the Pain Of Salvation fan-club either, but it was an interesting listen.
20.10.21 : Bon Iver - Bon Iver (2011)
I listened to For Emma, Forever Ago when it came out, strongly expecting to like it but it just didn't push any buttons for me. I then had to revisit it for Rolling Stone and discovered I was an idiot and it was indeed a very fine album (and the other albums in that round are also very fine as well) - so I had high hopes for this one. And yeah, it doesn't seem a million miles off - he's bigged it all up a bit (or a lot) and at times his voice can be a bit annoying, but they're well crafted songs that I generally enjoyed listening to.
The channel really liked this with seven thumbs up, one heart, loads of positive comments (particularly about his concerts), some video links and a new joiner - the full set! Wikipedia contains several stories that suggest this album is also somewhat up itself - we're in the "tortured artist" section of the list obviously. It was well received both critically and commercially - #4 in the UK and #2 in the US (kept off the top by Jill Scott, but disappointing I thought it was Justin Bieber for a minute, which made me laugh).
"Customers also listened to" Sufjan Stevens, Ryan Adams and James Blake - all very much in the same area. I'm not sure I'll ever listen to this again, but I enjoyed it at the time (and it did make me want to listen to FEFA again).
20.10.22 : Sing To The Moon - Laura Mvula (2013)
I remember listening to this and being initially charmed by her lovely voice and then thoroughly bored by it - I wonder if my memory is accurate? And yeah, I fear it is - the tracks are well constructed but a bit too "nice to hear on Jools but I don't need a full album thank you very much" for me. See also Katie Melua, Gregory Porter and countless others that he finds somewhere. And when I say "he" I mean his team of underpaid researchers who do all the work whilst he gurns at the piano and eats pies.
The channel had one thumbs up and one "EXCELLENT choice" comment. Wikipedia has a few sentences on this, but very little of interest other than noting it had a positive critical reception (including a Mercury nomination) and did OK commercially (#9 in the UK). Something that did interest me is the orchestral version which she released in 2014 which I suspect I'd like, but there's only the title track on Amazon, which is a bit rubbish (not the track - that's fine - but the fact that it doesn't have the album)
"Customers also listened to" Solange, Celeste and Lianne La Havas - yeah, none of them are a million miles away. Except that I found them all slightly less annoying that Laura, I'm afraid,
So although I tolerated Pain Of Salvation a lot more than I was expecting from their name, the round has to go to Bon Iver methinks.
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