New Music 2013 - Part 6 - Forbidden Fruit

Not so long ago I wrote a post about the resurgence of the live album. One that I mentioned then was by a Finnish blues artist, Erja Lyytinen, and I mentioned that she was touring in Spring 2013 and that, hopefully, this also presaged a new studio album. Here it is.

This is the track list:

1. Joyful Misery
2. Hold On Together
3. At Least We Still Fight
4. Forbidden Fruit
5. Death Letter
6. Change Of Season
7. Jealousy
8. Press My Button
9. Things About Coming My Way

The penultimate track might seem to have a title that suggests 'girl power'. It is indeed a cover version, and one with lyrics that might have made the promoters of 1990's 'girl power' think twice before releasing it.

Press My Button (Ring My Bell) was written by Lil Johnson and recorded, with herself doing duty on vocals, early in 1936. Chicago was quite the place back then. It probably still is.

The album is released by Ruf Records on January 28, 2013.

The lure of the 'Live LP' returns...

The season of 'lists of 2012' is almost upon us but, before I get into that gambit, here is something that I've been getting increasingly excited about for a couple of years now.
Back-in-the-day plenty of live LPs were released (often but not always on double-vinyl) that were recorded during at most a couple of public tour gigs and were not then messed with too much (in the sense of over-dubs and such like).

They largely disappeared with the advent of the slick-as-film 'live' DVD offerings. Now the tide is just starting to turn and, at least in my opinion, very much for the better.
I'm going to mention just three for now and the first was recorded in England in 2011. It is also the only one of the three not to be recorded anywhere near the artist's home patch (Rock City, IL) but at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, London.

Ever since the time of her 2009 EP 'Why You Running' Lissie had been touring the UK, starting in really dive venues. By the time of the release of her début LP 'Catching A Tiger' in 2010 she was playing small stages at some well regarded UK festivals. The album made the top ten of The Official UK album chart. She put in the hard work and the affection was mutual. This live album is testament to that and is a 2-disc set: CD and also full concert DVD. Lissie is expecting to release her second studio LP in 2013 (late Spring?).

That 2-disc CD/DVD format applies to the next artist too. This 2012 release was recorded at the Savoy Theatre in her home city of Helsinki.

In this case the DVD is more extensive than the CD, as it contains several extra tracks, but as long as you can play the audio through a decent system there is nothing to complain about there. Erja Lyytinen is touring the UK in the first half of 2013 and I'd like to think that a new studio album might be the reason. Neither of the above are currently available, or known to become available, on vinyl --- unless you know otherwise.
I have not seen either of these artists live as yet. On the other hand you will soon see that my 'Best of 2012' lists are heavily influenced by those that I have.

There is a slight problem with the third item in this list. It is another 2012 'live LP'. I could have it in a minute or two (as legal mp3), on Wednesday morning on CD (if I wished to pay for express delivery) but I'm not doing either. It is already on its way to me but, as there is no known UK release date for it on vinyl it is, as I write, making its way to me from the US on 2 x 12" vinyl.
I'm expecting it any time in the next ten days or so - when Christmas will come a little bit early. As well as being the only one of the three available on vinyl as of the present it is also one by a male artist (and band).

Eurovision Rubbish 2007

The title is actually a little harsh because it actually only refers to the six shortlisted UK entrants revealed publicly today.

The competition itself, while hardly a trend-setter in the wider world, goes from strength to strength and a record forty-two nations have registered to take part in 2007 (the 52nd time the Eurovision Song Contest has been staged) and twenty-four of them will contest the final in Helsinki's Hartwall Areena, more usually used for ice-hockey, on 12 May 2007. The Eurovision Song Contest can throw up the odd surprise, as Lordi proved in 2006, but I'd rather bet on any entry than those shortlisted as the UK hopefuls.

My accusation is that they are the flotsam and jetsam of the UK pop world.
The artists themselves are however only part of the problem because the song choices are almost unimaginably dire. It is, perhaps not coincidentally, the same kind of music that the French in particular still think we like - as I discovered when on holiday recently. We generally (but certainly not this blogger) think that French music has never had anything to offer and in return they unsurprisingly retaliated by playing the likes of Boney M's Rasputin.

At least as far as Eurovision entries are concerned this is actually a good thing because, to be quite honest, the would-be UK entries are firmly rooted in late 1970s and early 1980s music. That would possibly be fine if only they had anything new or truly original about them and had not simply focussed on all the most dated aspects of that time, which was however the era when the UK last enjoyed Eurovision success. Even the forthcoming TV voting show - that will determine which of the six will go forward to Helsinki (assuming the UK makes through to the final twenty-four as there is now a pre-contest) - carries the theme; it is called 'Making Your Mind Up', the title of the the song by UK act Bucks Fizz, that won the contest in 1981.

In 2003 the UK entry Jemini, with the song Cry Baby, plumbed the depths and came last out of the twenty-six entrants with, you guessed it, nul points. It seems that the lesson has not been heeded! My verdict is that we will get what we deserve in 2007 and nul points would actually be quite a good result.