Revenge and return.

Fefe Dobson is, sine qua non, the artist who has bought more folks to this blog than any other.  Some others have more recently given her a run for the money but they are not even close as yet!

That her first, the self titled Fefe Dobson and to date only released album, pre-dates this blog by almost three years may therefore come as something of a surprise.

Her second album would have been Sunday Love but her label dropped her after it was recorded and just before its release. Things come and they go, sometimes in strange ways.

The track-list for Joy is this. The release date soon, July I believe:

1. I Want You

2. Ghost

3. Watch Me Move

4. You Bitch

5. Thanks For Nothing

6. Can't Breathe

7. Didn't See You Coming

8. Let's Go (Turn It Up)

9. I'm A Lady

10. In Your Touch

11. Set Me Free

12. Joy

Many thanks to 'Angel' for much of the above information and to everyone else who has made this one topic the most sought after over the last three years.

The Penny Has Dropped --- Old imprint, new brand.

Until very recently there was the 'Universal Classics and Jazz' imprint with a name that quite accurately had all the impression of one that, while representing a very broad approach to the palette implied (also true), was chosen as the result of a lack of a better idea.
Well, its changed... not to some clever digital-age acronym but instead to that of an old friend from the strictly analogue age!
"The penny has dropped" is an appropriately old-fashioned analogy and one of certain relevance.

It is I think part of a policy that is actually more widespread in the world of major labels; witness the current major promotion of the 50th anniversary of Island Records, now another Universal imprint. The rôle of the major label as behemoth isn't the panacea the industry once believed it would be and it certainly isn't cool anymore, if it ever was, with a public that more than ever need tempting with incentives to buy music on whatever format rather than just download it illegally.

Portishead 3 again.

Unless what I'm seeing is in some way very wide of the mark this album is going to be one of the big surprises of 2008 and I can't think of another that has a groundswell of opinion in quite the way this album does.

Portishead 3

1. Silence – 4:59
2. Hunter – 3:57
3. Nylon Smile – 3:16
4. The Rip – 4:30
5. Plastic – 3:27
6. We Carry On – 6:27
7. Deep Water – 1:30
8. Machine Gun (Barrow/Gibbons) – 4:43
9. Small – 6:45
10. Magic Doors (Barrow/Gibbons/Baggott) – 3:32
11. Threads – 5:47

Unless indicated otherwise all tracks were written by Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley.
If any other newly released album is going to give Madonna's 'Hard Candy' a run for its money in the UK album chart this week surely this is it!
The single-sided 12" single 'Machine Gun' (14 April 2008) could be worth tracking down too as it is an amazing mix and there aren't that many copies around.

I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker...

While talking of singles, and particularly considering the recent canon of singer-songwriters from Scotland, this was a serious omission. I forgot to mention Sandi Thom, from Banff, who had a #1 single when re-released (in the UK) in 2006 after she was signed to Sony BMG having played live, via the internet, from her basement flat in London. If anything it was even more successful elsewhere and particularly in Australia, where it was at #1 in the singles chart for ten successive weeks and also the biggest selling single of 2006.

Since then she might seem to have vanished but that is not true and new material will appear soon.

When I said re-released I meant it too.
(Click image to see it larger.)

THAT single, 'I Wish I was A Punk Rocker (with flowers in my hair)', was originally a very limited CD single release by Orcadian indie label Viking Legacy (as VIKINGS04) that was the first to spot her potential. The above image is of one of those originals, which also includes Sandi Thom covering 'No More Heroes', written and originally recorded by 'The Stranglers'. This CD single is worth an attempt at finding for this alone but, failing that, Sandi Thom's second album should be released sometime in 2008 and I'll readily admit that, whenever I listen to to the track Sunset Borderline on the first it never really leaves me untouched.

It is still among my favorite songs of its kind and yet I have a problem with it and I don't really understand why.

I'm waiting for the sunset borderline
For every sun's got a separate time
But I'll remember these moments for ever more
As the days when nothing had changed at all.

The second album is to beThe Pink and The Lily.
The scheduled UK release date is 26 May 2008.

My current play list...

I'm soon going to attempt to trial something approaching the title of this post. It is the result of a suggestion from the, much appreciated, input of a reader of this blog. That said I'm not exactly sure what it will turn out to be, or indeed quite how to do it yet, but I've decided that it is certainly worth a try. The one thing I can promise is that it will not incorporate downloads.

If there are functional problems with anything I add please let me know and, should it actually work, I'd be pleased to receive any feedback regarding your thoughts on what I have done. I'm not sure quite how long it might take me to do this either; it may happen tomorrow, next week or sometime. I'm planning to give it a good shot but there may well be some trials, tribulations and outright revisions to the plan along the way - you have been warned!
At least I can tell you exactly what I'm listening to right now and it is what I regard as one of the 'Lost Albums of 2007' - and not just despite the fact that was a major label release (Mercury, Universal).

The album artwork may not be very sophisticated but that is part of the charm of this recording. Electro-pop is just meant to be like this and after a few listens the facts of the band's formation seem slightly less strange; Dan (guitar) and Martina (lead vocals) met by chance at a gig in their home city, Toronto, swiftly abandoned their former musical alliances, got married and moved to London in search of their real musical destiny!

The artwork of the promo CD was spartan in the extreme, as was the promotion of it by the label.

Dragonette - Galore --- the artwork of the promotional CD.

What is the logic of signing a band and then apparently failing to make any obvious effort to promote their début album?

My considered verdict is that this album was criminally under-promoted and also vastly under-rated. The other thing is that it is good music for spring; its often postponed release last year did not help either, as it came out late summer, which was I suspect rather symptomatic of perverse major label priorities.
See them live if you can - it is a really stunning show and the lyrics are often amusingly cheeky too. I Get Around, the first single from the album, was quite the part but did not make its presence felt in the UK chart.

Also Mi Reflejo (Christina Aguilera, 2000) - not least because the Spanish Genio Atrapado still seems much better than Genie In A Bottle to me. I'm sorry but I have already admitted to liking much pop and also music in foreign languages and sometimes both happen at once.

2000 copies and counting...

Universal have now done the decent thing --- they have announced a vinyl release of the album Rockferry (it is currently available on pre-order).
Some albums simply need to be owned on vinyl and this is surely one of them.

There is a downside too - just 2000 copies worldwide - so if you want one of them acting quickly is a real issue. You could try www.reflexcd.co.uk if you are interested but sadly I can offer no guarantee of success. Feedback from SXSW 2008 suggests that she might just stand a chance in America.

Whatever happened to Fefe Dobson?

Well it is now quite a while since I posted the last update so here, at long last, is a new one: Return & Revenge.
It's about the new album, which is entitled Joy.
Fefe who??? Quite! [For the latest that I know see here.]

If you can remember this, her 2003 eponymous début album, then I suspect you do know who...

Yes, it was not huge and that was certainly true here in the UK but I think it was good nonetheless. Good enough indeed that Island (Universal) went ahead with the recording and production of her second album, Sunday Love, only to then terminate her contract and not release the album either. Or at least that is what I gather happened...
A few copies almost certainly do exist but the asking price for those I've seen offered for sale is in excess of £500 (very roughly $1050 & €700). Amazon.co.uk still list it but only as available from third parties at the above ridiculous prices. It would appear that even the cover artwork was completed, which I think only adds to the suspicion that it was shelved at the very last possible moment, and here it is.

I assume that Island/Universal are simply refusing to grant a licence on the copyright of the recording to anyone else willing to release it. So for an artist, stuck in the worst of all worlds and stymied by major label woes, this must seem about as cynical and demoralising as it can get for had they binned her just before the album was recorded she could have touted it elsewhere (subject only to some rather less overwhelming issues).
This is clearly nowhere near the whole story and I'd be fascinated to know more even if it is, like much of the above, only hearsay and speculation.