Cover versions and the potential dangers thereof...

Cover versions and the dangers thereof... This is something that I have thought long and hard about for some time. I'm sure that we can all suggest some that would have been better left alone, either because the original was uninspiring (though that is not of necessity a disaster) or that the cover was in itself a travesty of the original. Not so long ago I thought that one or other of these scenarios was the normal outcome but now I'm not so sure... The resurgence of live music has made me think this for several reasons but only sporadically have I mentioned it because it has mainly occurred to me when I have seen live bands...

It is in effect off-record, should it not work out as planned, although very often it does, and the more well known the original the greater the danger. That difficult second album then, so why not? I can think of many who will not like this, some on a matter of principle, but it is very sound indeed and I like it. My opinion is not to be bought whatever anyone, and the likes of NME, might like to believe.

On the other hand this is brave beyond belief. She got away with it too methinks.

A Curious Thing - New Music 2010, part 5

I've been quiet for a while, that is true, but I've still been listening and reading. With three new albums by artists I've already mentioned in this respect released tomorrow it is time to move on.

Here are another few that are well and truly on my wants list and they are all by returning artists...

Few might actually recall her 2007 début, This Is the Life, because it was a slow burner but it finally reached #1 in the UK album charts a year after release, while then selling over 3 million copies worldwide (to date). I've heard a couple of the new tracks and 'A Curious Thing' would seem to be well worth the wait. Is it slightly 'rockier' than the first album? Yes, well maybe, but not in a radical way. I can't currently find the album artwork so this will have to do for now.

The same, given what I have heard and including the first single, can be said of the fifth album from Goldfrapp. In this case it would seem to be rather more electro-influenced than 'Seventh Tree' and none the worst for that. Alison's vocals are as good as ever they were but perhaps Will Gregory has twiddled a few more buttons than on their last recording. If summer 2010 sounds like these albums it will be one to remember. I should know the title of this album, due to be released in late Spring 2010, is but it has slipped my mind for the moment.

Jill Jackson is another artist who has promised a second album soon...

This image is from her myspace but what it relates to is only my guess.

Can I think of more? Well yes I can.

Lyrics, Lyrics, Lyrics

I have many friends that would have me believe that song lyrics really don't matter much. If the whole thing is rubbish then I'd have sympathy with that but I've long suspected, in truth, that I wasn't the only one who regards the lyric as an integral part of the song. They don't have to be deep and incisive, and it is sometimes better that they are not, but they matter nonetheless.
I am heartened that I am not alone in this belief as - for about nearly a fortnight now - I have been able to see the search-engine enquiries that resulted in visits to this blog and one of the most frequent is a search for song lyrics.
There are a number of sites that do this as a matter of purpose but take care - they do have a tendency to invite you to click links that may be dubious! Less seriously the lyrics are not always too reliable either as I found this evening when I checked out one such site <http://www.lyricsmode.com> to see what it came up with as the lyrics for the for Amy Macdonald - Let's Start A Band, as someone had looked for them today. I can't really recommend this site as the lyric posted was wrong in many rather obvious ways. Here is my version of it done from the CD:

Let's Start A Band
Put a ribbon round my neck and call me a libertine.
I will sing you songs of dreams I used to dream.
I will sail away on seas of silver and gold
Until I reach my home.

Give me a guitar and I’ll be a troubadour,
Your strolling minstrel, twelfth century, door to door.
I don’t know anymore if that feeling is past.
Will it last? Oh how can you be sure?

And how do I know if you’re feeling the same as me?
And how do I know if that’s the only place you want to be?

Give me a stage and I’ll be a rock and roll queen,
Your twentieth century cover of a magazine.
Rolling Stone here I come, watch out everyone
I’m singing; I’m singing my song.

Give me a festival and I’ll be a Glastonbury star.
The lights are shining, everyone knows who you are,
Singing songs about dreams, about hopes, about schemes.
Oooh --- they just came true.

And how do I know if you’re feeling the same as me?
And how do I know if that’s the only place you want to be?
And how do I know if you’re feeling the same as me?
And how do I know if that’s the only place you want to be?

And if you want it too then there’s nothing left to do…
Let’s start a band.
Let’s start a band.
Let’s start a band.
Let’s start a band.
(Repeat three times)

If you want it too then there’s nothing left to do.

That said I could simply have copied it from the inlay card of the CD in which, my dubious punctuation aside, it is almost identical. If legal downloads don't come with the same information, such as lyrics, that the equivalent CDs do then that is a matter that the labels should address, and pretty smartly too, as it is hardly rocket science.

Let's Start A Band...

Forget, just for a moment, the music coming out of Wales, Canada and London for here are two more of my favourite albums released in 2007. Both are by artists from Scotland and it seems that there are going to be plenty more to look forward to in 2008...
Firstly one I mentioned last summer but, due to my inadvertent sabbatical, I now realise that it is one which I forgot to review. That is Drastic Fantastic by KT Tunstall (raised in St. Andrews, this is her second studio album), which is happily now also available on 12". I only got the album belatedly and very recently really listened to it properly and now I have I think I'll add it to my list of 'Favourite albums of 2007' for it has impressed me more with every listening. It is better, if not obviously so, than her first not only for its virtuosity and live potential.

It is, however, not to be my only addition and the next is a début album by another female artist who hails from Bishopbriggs, East Dumbartonshire, and plays acoustic as opposed to electric guitar and, just for a change, this is not the cover of the album but that of LA., the third single taken from it.
I had it in mind, last week, to make a prediction and it was certainly not a wise prediction or one that was made by any others that I'm aware of. This was that This Is The Life, the début album by singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald that was first released on 30th July 2007 and has never been higher than ~#6 in the UK album charts in five months of release, would be a bit of a "sleeper success" in 2008.

The title track, This Is The Life, is the fourth single and it vies as a contender for the best but the whole exercise now seems pretty futile.

Oh, The wind whistles down
The cold dark street tonight
And the people they were dancing
to the music vibe...

I was so totally wrong - and so totally right - in a very strange way! This Is The Life was actually the biggest selling album in the UK last week and so much so that amazon.co.uk can't supply a copy for 7 - 11 days even though it is distributed by Universal. If it wasn't a solid album, and if it had only the odd good track on it, that surely wouldn't tempt people to do more than download those; quite clearly it isn't, it doesn't and I have an original copy already.

The genre is almost indefinable; it is maybe folk-rock influenced by pop (or perhaps either other way around). The fact that Macdonald sings without hiding her soft, but definite, accent is rather special. She also plays acoustic guitar in a way that few others do and it does her reputation no harm at all.

The title track This Is The Life is the current single, the fourth taken from the album and the title track, but this is the album that is now making waves and the tracks Let's Start A Band (track 6) [see lyrics] and Barrowland Ballroom (track 7) are arguably better than any single apart from This Is The Life . Macdonald wrote all the music and lyrics other than for than LA (track 8) , which she co-wrote with Pete Wilkinson.
I'll tell you another thing; these are songs just MADE to be both sung and played live and she is not one likely to be unable, unwilling or left wanting - if you have any doubt about that just pay some more attention to the lyrics!

Her second album 'A Curious Thing' is to be released in early Spring 2010.