Lyrics again - Arlington Way (English version)

Again just because someone asked and I really like doing this when I can...


Arlington Way
Arlington Way whose idea was it anyway to stay the night out of sight out of mind?
Once in a lifetime a dream must come true I'd be heading there with you
with a spring in the step and a lightness of being and we'd be walking in the door
Arlington way go down to the place do it if you want to - I don't need to know your business
no plan of attack no turning back nobody did it quite as good as you
  
A coin falls to the dance floor it shines in the bright light
uncertain what I wish for heads, you know that tails, I want you back

Once in a lifetime a dream must come true I'd be standing there with you
with a beat in the heart and a mind on the good times and you'd be holding out for more

Nobody said it would be easy nobody said it couldn't come true
nobody said it could feel so natural I don't need to know your business
no plan of attack no turning back nobody did it quite as good as you

You came, you saw you offered me more than I could take  oh I've changed
I won't make the same mistake again but this ain't time for the heavy..


For the Welsh lyric to this song, and the rest of the album, see here:
Paid Edrych Y Lawr

Cover Versions 2010: Jolene

I have mentioned a number of cover versions, both heard live and recorded, that have impressed me in 2010.  Thank you to whoever asked about this one just a couple of hours ago for it falls into that category. It is a cover of 'Jolene', written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton, performed live by Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons at Cecil Sharp House for BBC Radio 1 in November 2010.

Here is the lyric specific to that performance:

Jolene (Mumford & Sons with Laura Marling)

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

He talks about you in his sleep
There's nothing I can do to keep
From crying when he calls your name, Jolene
And I can easily understand
How you could easily take my man
But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him just because you can

You could have your choice of men
But I could never love again
He's the only one for me, Jolene

I had to have this talk with you
My happiness depends on you
And whatever you decide to do, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him even though you can

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him just because you can
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man

One thing that I cannot do, however, is supply a translation in Spanish!

New Music 2011 - Part 6 - Rhosyn

Huw Stephens has just played Rhosyn on BBC Radio 1 this evening.  Result!

Welcome to new music and, as one act that I have mentioned before, this is an early welcome to 2011. I'm not planning to apologize for doing so; it is just too good for that.

Previous posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1  ---  Esben and The Witch

Part 2  ---  Yuck

Part 3  ---  Duke Spirit

Part 4  ---  Low Anthem
Part 5  ---  Go!Team

Part 7  ---  Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo
Part 8  ---  Those Dancing Days
Part 9  ---  Some things I am looking forward to.
Part 10  ---  More things I am looking forward to.
Part 11  ---  New Heads On Old Shoulders?
Part 12  ---  Snowglobe - Jesca Hoop
Part 13  ---  Queen of the Minor Key

New Music - Part 5 - The Go!Team - Rolling Blackouts

I bought the first album 'Thunder, Lightning, Strike' out of curiosity and was not in the least disappointed. Then, after the release of their second album 'Proof Of Youth' in late 2007, I saw them live at Latitude 2008.

There were many, even then, that marvelled at their longevity and indeed their virtuosity. The doubters are indeed wrong for, in early 2011, Go!Team are back with their third full length album - Rolling Blackouts.

The first song to be released from it is "Buy Nothing Day" and, to say the least, they have teamed up with one of the artists of 2010 indie for this: the vocals are provided by Bethany Cosentino of 'Best Coast' - so it is where and when South Coast (UK) meets West Coast (US) - and it works far beyond any reasonable expectation.

I'd love to see 'The Go!Team' live once again; I'd love to see 'Best Coast' live for the first time...  so  add both to my 2011 festival 'wish list'.

"Buy Nothing Day" is released on 24 January, by Memphis Industries, and will be available on 7" vinyl too.

Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1  ---  Esben and The Witch
Part 2  ---  Yuck
Part 3  ---  Duke Spirit

Part 4  ---  Low Anthem
Part 6  ---  Rhosyn

Part 7  ---  Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo

Part 8  ---  Those Dancing Days

Part 9  ---  Some things I am looking forward to.

Part 10  ---  More things I am looking forward to.
Part 11  ---  New Heads On Old Shoulders?
Part 12  ---  Snowglobe - Jesca Hoop
Part 13  ---  Queen of the Minor Key

Live and Local - Ben Waller & The Telltale Signs

Yesterday evening was the Christmas 2010 edition of Acoustic+, which I have mentioned in posts before.  It was a cornucopia of local acts and artists, each performing just a very few songs.  It was all interesting but, for me at least, one act stood out and here it is.

Ben Waller & The Telltale Signs, live in Frome, December 17.

They performed three songs of which this was the first - and it really was acoustic in this case.  It was one of those revelations that ranks amongst the best of those that I experienced at festivals during the summer.  They could have been on one of the stages at EOTR 2010 and would not have been remotely out of place and neither would the instruments.  Five-string banjo, fiddle and a rather wonderful Hohner 26-key (two octave) piano accordion and one of some vintage I suspect. 

While 2010 seems to have become the year in which banjo finally became acceptable once again on this side of the Atlantic, for it never went away in US country music, at the very least any band with a piano accordion will catch my attention.

You might think three tracks could offer little variation - but that is not so.
 

On the second song that piano accordion had been put back in its case to be replaced by this - a very new-looking autoharp; the first that I have seen at Acoustic+ and only the second that I have seen live - First Aid Kit at EOTR 2009 being responsible for the only other.

On the final song of their set Tina didn't play anything but did a tap dance routine to the song instead - something that The Unthanks also do - and now you can see why this was the most compelling set of the evening.

No lyric, no track list, no future?

This apparently rather depressing resumé of the 2009 trilogy by James Leyland Kirby should not put you off the 3-CD set (or indeed the 12 sides of 12" vinyl if you can find it). There are no lyrics at all and, what perhaps I did not mention before, there is no track list either.

In fact it is not obvious what the three instalments are called...  certainly not on the CD version from which the above artwork is taken.  They are, however, thus:

• When We Parted My Heart Wanted To Die
• Sadly The Future Is No Longer What It Was
• Memories Live Longer Than Dreams

Thanks to whosoever asked about this just now.  I don't actually find this at all depressing and it opened my ears and consciousness to a whole genre of music that hitherto I would most probably have simply ignored. What was the catalyst? I don't really know, just curiosity I suppose.

It is not easy music for sharing but, given the luxury of two-and-a-half  hours of uninterrupted listening, it is magnificent in its entirety. It looks like being a cold, cold weekend and the thought of curling up in front of a coal fire and doing exactly this seems very appealing indeed. Music matters.

2010 in Music - EPs & mini-albums

Last year I started with this category, deeming it the easiest to solve.  This year, as will be noticeable, the inter-relation between items in all these lists and artists that I have seen live at one time or another has become much more apparent.  I find that an interesting paradigm but it does make keeping the lists distinct, let alone self-contained, much more difficult.  An extension of this, that I mentioned in my previous post, is that it is also interwoven with my thoughts on new music in 2011.
  
Ask Simon Cowell and Nick Clegg about why your votes don't always count like you thought they should have, if you will. This is not a list, nor is it a manifesto commitment; it is an exposition and therefore the rules governing lists and voting do not apply to it.
It is in reverse-date order and thus starts with the band with which I finished yesterday's post.

It is a bit of a triple-whammy, for it relates to three CD EPs by the same act:

• Lungs Quicken (not in the image above)
• The Starlight EP
• Misfortunes and Minor Victories EP

These three EPs comprise eleven tracks in total and amount to about forty minutes of music and  Lanterns On The Lake is to be filed under New Music 2011 even before the release of their first album...

...and just before the power failure during the opening chords of 'I Love You, Sleepyhead'.

The next, Esben and The Witch, has featured here before and is now also included in the fifteen-strong long-list of acts nominated for BBC 'Sound of 2011'.

This is the the 12" vinyl EP 'Marching Song'. The album is 'Violet Cries' (January 2011).

The next one is no great surprise I suppose, given my lists of  2010 albums already posted, but perhaps the most controversial.
 

She is not really enamoured with this, her first release, and when you listen to 'Own Side Now' it is perhaps possible to understand why.  I still rate it highly, which is why it is here, and I believe that I will eventually be forgiven. 

End Of The Road Festival 2011

With my tickets  for Latitude 2011 and End Of The Road 2011 already booked, only yesterday was I thinking which artists I currently anticipate (or would like to see) populating the stages at them. In due course I will post my thoughts...
In the case of EOTR 2011 I can go a bit further than that for today the first tranche of confirmed acts was announced and here it is:

• Bo Ningen 
• Bob Log III
• The Deadly Syndrome 
• Doug Paisley 
• Dry The River
• The Fall
• Gordon Gano and the Ryans
• John Grant
• Jolie Holland
• Josh T Pearson
• La Sera
• Lanterns on The Lake
• Lightning Dust
• Micah P Hinson
• Midlake
• Mountain Man
• Treefight for Sunlight
• Twin Shadow
• Wild Beasts
• Woods
• Young Man
• The Walkmen
• Willy Mason

Tickets are on sale from www.endoftheroadfestival.com/tickets and if you purchase before the end of 2010 you save £5 due to the impending increase in VAT.

It is too soon to really digest the above list, let alone expound even my first thoughts on it, but two that would have been on my 'want to see in 2011 list' without a doubt are these.
 'Lightning Dust'I have never seen but shares Amber Webber and Joshua Wells with 'Black Mountain', which I saw at both Latitude and EOTR in 2010.
The return of 'Lanterns on the Lake' is fantastically well deserved and verges on or into New Music 2011 territory in any case. One of my revelations of EOTR was this six-piece, in the Tipi Tent on Saturday evening: it was more than a misfortune when their final song of the set, the wonderful 'I Love You, Sleepyhead', was cut short after only seconds by a total power failure.  Not only are they returning to EOTR the band announced yesterday, on its website, that it is now signed to Bella Union Records.  Regular readers will know that is a huge thumbs-up in my book.

2010 in Music - Albums - Part 2

***[In progress  ---  further links and comment to follow in the next few days]***

Following on from what I wrote yesterday this is the second instalment of my lists of 2010.  I decided to tackle the albums in two tranches, for the reasons I outlined earlier.

These are not necessarily any less worthwhile (and this is of course subjective) than those that will appeared  in '2010 in Music - Albums - Part 1', which is one reason I did not choose this format in 2009...

To imagine that compiling this list must be in some way easier than doing so for the former would be a major misunderstanding.  It is shorter than the previous part but had I gone beyond ten, and I tried, it became a matter of simply sticking pins in an, admittedly rather pleasant,  map of music. The problem I had was that there was so much worth choosing...

• Anaïs Mitchell - Hadestown [link1]
• Beach House - Teen Dream
• Best Coast - Crazy For You
• Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
• Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This
• First Aid Kit - The Big Black and The Blue
• Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me [link1]
• Lauren Pritchard - Wasted In Jackson
• Nicole Fermie - Babel In Three [link1]
• Trash Kit - Trash Kit [link1]

There is also an honorary inclusion:

•  Jessica Lea Mayfield - With Blasphemy So Heartfelt [link1]

This is actually a 2009 release but, in the UK at least, might as well not have existed until 2010. It could equally well have been included in my first list for that matter.  It is an album that illustrates very well an issue to which I will return soon.

Some will, can and should question why there are what many would see as blindingly obvious omissions in my listings. That is how it should be but, equally, I don't think I want a list that is just the same as any or every other.  If that were the case then it would be more than a bit boring.

Please feel free to comment, argue and suggest additions/deletions by comment or e-mail. I will add links and further comments as and when I get the time through December.

Artists highlighted in green are those that I have seen live in 2010 or, if in orange, those from before but also mentioned in 2010. Items/artists highlighted in red are those on which I have commented in 2010.

Now over to you and please feel free to comment.  I'm not scary, I'm merely curious to know what you think!

Without further comment... Latitude 2011

See you there?

www.seetickets.com

2010 in Music - Albums - Part 1

***[In progress  ---  further links and comment to follow in the next few days]***

Following on from what I wrote yesterday this is the first instalment of my lists of 2010.  I decided to tackle the albums in two tranches, for the reasons I outlined.

These are not necessarily any better (and this is of course subjective) than those that will appear in '2010 in Music - Albums - Part 2, which is one reason I did not choose this format in 2009...

• Arcade Fire - Suburbs
• Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo [link1]
• Besnard Lakes - Are The Roaring Night
• Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now [link1] [link 2] [link 3]
• Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea
• Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II 
• Ellie Goulding - Lights
• Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can [link 1]
• Lissie - Catching A Tiger
• School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire [link 1]
• Smoke Fairies - Through Low Light and Trees [link 1] [link 2] [link 3]
• Warpaint - The Fool [link1] [link2]

The above however define the contours that have sculpted my musical landscape in 2010.  I could easily exchange several items between this list and the forthcoming one but ultimately I had to make a final decision. Albums released in December 2010 are clearly eligible for addition too, as are a few that I have recently acquired but have not, as yet, listened to sufficiently to form a stable opinion.

There are no images in this post because I don't want to prejudice anything. On the other hand I have already mentioned many of these artists in 2010... if you want to see what I wrote then please use the search facility in the side-bar.

Please feel free to comment, argue and suggest additions/deletions by comment or e-mail. I will add links and further comments as and when I get the time through December.

Artists highlighted in green are those that I have seen live in 2010 or, if in orange, those from before but also mentioned in 2010. Items/artists highlighted in red are those on which I have commented in 2010.

Now over to you!

2010 in Music: Thoughts of a Willing Victim

Now it is December I think it is no longer premature to publish my own versions of 'Best of 2010 in Music' lists.  This post is not one of them but that is not to say that I have not been thinking about them for a long while now!  I plan to roll the project out between now (Wednesday evening) and the end of the coming weekend and I might well add content to some of the posts (and particularly links within them) after first posting them so please bear with me if a post seems a little threadbare when you first see it.
On the other hand I have made the decision to launch with the list of albums this time around by I may revert to my 2008 format of doing so in two sections. I am as yet still undecided but there are two reasons in favour of this.

• About ten days ago and out of the blue, as the result of a comment on their part about a certain album that I mentioned was one of my favourites, a stranger asked me what my others might be. This was a face-to-face chat, in a real record store, so I had to decide on the hoof.  I surprised myself, and also my interlocutor, with the result.  I can't remember exactly how many I reeled off, another eight or so, but I can pretty much remember what they were as I wrote most of them down when I got home.  This was a far better outcome than trying to self-consciously compare each contender with every other and generally over-think the whole process. It makes sense too, as music is very much a subconscious thing: It is sometimes immediate, while sometimes things take time to grow on me, but this encounter made me realise just which albums inveigled me in 2010.
• The second reason became obvious at an early stage of my consideration. My choices are influenced by the music and artists that I have heard live, whether in 2010 or not, like never before.  That is, in part, just a reflection of the fact that I have now heard so much more live music than I had when I wrote my first such list in 2007. 

I will continue with the policy of listing items in any list alphabetically. I can't rank them as that would change daily depending on my mood. I can change my mind for other reasons too...  This post was, until just now, going to have a rather prosaic title:

Thoughts on 2010 - in lists, albums, live, songs, singles, &c.
  
The one it now has is a more honest and accurate reflection of the way I feel about music.