Light touched my hands in a dream of golden skans
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
20.12.14 : Home Of The Brave (Deluxe) - PROSE (2016)
Never heard of the album or artist, and whilst I was somewhat suspicious of their use of upper case, I was willing to go with it and not judge them too much. I'm pretty much a perfect human being, aren't I? I'm not entirely sure about the album though - it's kinda "acoustic hip-hop" so it's certainly different from the usual fare. I liked it in medium-sized doses, but the whole album did sorta drag towards the end - it would be interesting to see if a relisten made things better or worse. It's not going to happen though, of course.
The channel gave this no emojis or comments like the previous album - does having opinions stop being a thing in the run up to Xmas? Wikipedia has nothing on the band or the artist - a very brief Google tells me they are from Manchester and this was their debut album. To get any more information than that just feels like I'd have to do some work - sorry lads!
"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of, which doesn't surprise me. For this album, the high points were high, but I'm not sure it all quite clicked for me.
20.12.15 : Myths Of The Near Future - The Klaxons (2007)
This album isn't normally my kinda thang - but I actually really liked it back in the day (and wow - it is really 14 years ago?). But, would I still like it? Oh yes, I'd forgotten how good it was - this was great to be reminded of. "Golden Skans" is a particularly fine track but they all somehow manage to combine some strange noises well - which is odd because other albums that do something very similar just totally miss the spot for me. But I guess if I understood the reason for it I'd be writing music as opposed to writing about music...
The channel gave this nine thumbs up - I suspect stating only positive opinions is the thing for the Xmas run up. Wikipedia reminds me this won the Mercury Prize (one of the better albums to do so imho) and tells me it's named after a JG Ballard collection of short stories. It was well received both critically and commercially - peaking at #2 in the UK, kept off the top spot by Norah Jones third album Not Too Late (and I'll be surprised if anyone remembers that album at all, let alone fondly). I'm slightly surprised it didn't sell well in the US - it's got quite a US-friendly sound to my ears.
"Customers also listened to" Hard Fi, The Futureheads, Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines - all bands I have a reasonable amount of time for their best albums, but there's a lot of not quite so good stuff out there from them as well. As I suspect is also the case for The Klaxons, but I don't think I've ever got beyond this album. I think my favourite entries on this list are albums which I'm reminded of having previously enjoyed and totally forgotten about and I'd have to say this is a particularly fine example of such an album - it was a pleasure to be reminded of its existence.
20.12.16 : Costello Music - The Fratellis (2006)
I didn't mind "Chelsea Dagger", but I didn't see why I'd need any more than that - but a couple of people I know who are musical (like multi-grade-8 musical) who wouldn't usually be into this sort of thing at all really like The Fratellis. So my suspicion has always been that there's more to it than I'm aware of - and have I EVER attempted to try and identify whatever it is? Have I bollocks! Until now...
And was I converted? No, not really - I'd say I liked it and thought it combined the best bits of Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes and a million other bands, but still didn't quite see what makes it all that and it got a bit tiresome towards the end. Having said that, "Chelsea Dagger" is still a great track and I bet it rocks the house played live. I'm also somewhat perplexed by the album cover - is it clever and (very) subtly making a point about something or is it, in fact, just some ladies sitting around in their underwear?
The channel gave this six hearts, one saltire and three thumbs up and a load of positive comments - but it did scare someone off. Wikipedia tells me that most of the critics went "this sounds like a million other bands, but better", except for one who said it was "instantly memorable but thankfully wordless" which is one of those sentences critics churn out that makes you go "hmmm - clever. Oh hang on, it actually doesn't mean anything at all, does it?". The album was a success commercially, getting to #2 in the UK for 3 weeks, kept off the top by Justin Timberlake and Scissor Sisters (one of whom I have more time for than the other).
I was also quite pleased to see that the members of The Fratellis all had the surname Fratelli - until I noticed that one of them was called Mince, which lead me to believe that possibly, just possibly, they weren't their real names (and they're not, which made me very grumpy). I was also amazed that this album was older than the previous one - I'd have said it was at least 5 years later if I'd had to guess. Which just goes to show how little I know - which will surprise no-one.
"Customers also listened to" Franz Ferdinand, The Kooks and Kaiser Chiefs - we're not far from the previous album's territory are we? But it doesn't quite click for me in the way that The Klaxons did - it's better than a lot of stuff it imitates, but something's still not quite there.
And so, overall, the round is an easy win for The Klaxons for me.
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