You never were going to change your mind, were you, Emily?
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
20.10.23 : Emily's D+Evolution - Esperanza Spalding (2016)
Not something I was aware of and I had no expectations at all going in. And whilst it's not really my sort of thing, it's certainly not something that's been thrown together in 5 minutes - there's a lot of musical gymnastics going on there. I'd say it's a combination of Joni Mitchell and Jacob Collier - a lot of skill involved making a sound that I have a feeling I don't understand enough to appreciate. "Ebony And Ivy" certainly has a start I can't even begin to describe or understand! With albums like this with only one artist named, it's always interesting to see how many other people are involved - quite a few in this case, with Esperanza "only" singing, writing and playing bass (and piano on a couple of tracks). It was interesting to see it was produced by Tony Visconti, but not nearly as "interesting" as the cover of the Veruca Salt song from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.
The channel generally liked this - a couple of thumbs up and positive comments, although apparently it's different from her other stuff. Wikipedia tells me it's different because it's sung by her alter-ego Emily who "is a spirit, or a being, or an aspect who I met, or became aware of. I recognize that my job...is to be her arms and ears and voice and body" - so I hope that's cleared it all up for everyone (I'm quite surprised I missed it first time around, tbh). Apart from that, it tells us that it was critically well received and that's it.
"Customers also listened to" a load of very sassy ladies, it appears - but whether they can out-sass Esperanza, whose very name (and it's her real name) gives her a head start over everyone is unclear. For me, I enjoyed parts of this album but listening to the whole thing was all a bit too much like hard work!
20.10.24 : Apex - Unleash The Archers (2017)
Again not something I was aware of, but the artist name was definitely giving me heavy vibes. And one look at the album cover suggested I wasn't a million miles off. And yes, it's very not much my thing nowadays, but I would have enjoyed once upon a time - it reminded me of early Gary Moore stuff which I liked back in the dim and distant past. Except when they do that low, growly shouty thing, of course but they don't do it too much so I'll let them off.
The channel pretty much ignored this one - not even any thumbs up (sad face!). Wikipedia has a bit more to say, but not a lot - "Apex is the fourth studio album by Canadian heavy metal band Unleash the Archers. It was released on June 2, 2017, through Napalm Records".
"Customers also listened to" a load of other people who've had their album covers designed by the metal album cover generator (so many swords, dragons and other monsters!). I can't say I hated this but it all tends to blur together for me, I'm afraid.
20.10.25 : Magpie - Stephen Fretwell (2004)
One I'd both heard of and listened to - I seemed to recall I liked one of the singles and listened to the album and was a bit "meh" about it on first listen, therefore never revisited it - so I was interested to do so after a "slight" break. And it's an interesting one - I didn't mind it now, but my suspicion is that I wouldn't have liked it back then because it's very Dylan-esque at times. But I've undergone a bit of a transformation as a result of the 8!!! albums I had to endure through the Rolling Stone exercise and this means I don't now immediately dismiss everything that sounds like Mr Zimmerman as awful. And by this I mean I now listen to it for at least 10 seconds before dismissing it - and some songs manage to sneak past the quality filter in that time.
I actively liked "Run" and "Emily" (which was pleasing because that's the name of my eldest and I'm not aware of any good Emily songs, whereas my youngest has "Isobel" by Bjork and "The Adventures of Isabel" by Natalie Merchant, both of which are cracking songs). The other artists that spring to mind listening to this are David Gray and Damian Rice, both of whom have produced some decent stuff in his time. It's a very busy album cover though, isn't it?
The channel had one thumbs up and a couple of positive comments, but it seems like people had work to do or something! Wikipedia has nothing on the album, but does include this statement about the man - "He was described by Q as "Scunthorpe's finest export... ever". Fretwell described this as flattering but not something he actively encouraged". It also tells me he has just released an album after 13 years away - at first listen it sounds OK, but a further Google reveals that it cost him his marriage because his wife went "You're doing WHAT this year?!?". Oh dear - hope it all works out for the lad in the end.
"Customers also listened to" I Am Kloot (who I particularly like), Get Cape Wear Cape Fly (ditto), Turin Brakes and Ed Harcourt. And if those names don't take you back to a certain kind of act from the early 2000s, then nothing will! But I was pleased to be forced to listen to this again and re-evaluate it - cheers.
Esperanza probably has the most impressive effort here, but I like an easy life so I'm going for a simple bloke and his guitar - well done, Steve!
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