Jem - Down To Earth - lyrics

So many lyrics but so little time! Thanks to those who have asked and at least I have made a start!

Down To Earth

Friends I have to tell you
They sent me on a mission
Down to earth
To watch and observe life
And gather information 'bout
Your birth

But what I mostly see is misery
And it makes me sad

So capable of love yet,
Too scared to open up and
Just wanna be accepted,
But can't show that you care.
Creating problems daily,
No wonder some go crazy
So special and so gifted,
But most don't know, it's there

Friends I have to ask you
Surrounded by the beauty
of this place
Why do you make it so hard
For all the things you want
To come your way

Well I don't think you see
Your destiny
And it makes me sad

So capable of love yet,
Too scared to open up and
Just wanna be accepted,
But can't show that you care.
Creating problems daily,
No wonder some go crazy
So special and so gifted,
But most don't know, it's there

Do it, just let it all out
Express emotion
Say how you're feeling
It's liberating
Nothing can hurt you
You can be happy
But you must believe it
[Believe it]

Well I don't think you see
Your destiny
And it makes me sad

So capable of love yet,
Too scared to open up and
Just wanna be accepted,
But can't show that you care.
Creating problems daily,
No wonder some go crazy
So special and so gifted,
But most don't know, it's there
So capable of love yet,
Too scared to open up and
Just wanna be accepted,
But can't show that you care.
Creating problems daily,
No wonder some go crazy
So special and so gifted,
But most don't know, it's there

Won't you let me take you
Down to earth?


Crazy
Take your aftershave
take your rings.
Take your clothes just take
all of your things.
Move your flash car it's
Wasting my space.
Now take yourself and
get outta my place.

You think I'm crazy,
Well hell I may be
Boy you are not welcome here
But if I'm crazy you made
me crazy so
Boy you're not welcome here

Don't like problems
I don't like stress
Don't like to argue like
tears even less
Ya' think it is clever to play
all these games.
Well say goodbye 'cause the
rules have just changed.

You think I'm crazy,
Well hell I may be
Boy you are not welcome here
But if I'm crazy you made
me crazy so
Boy you're not welcome here

[Bo dom bom bom banna bom] x 4

I've got brains an' a
hot body too
I'm not stupid I leave
that to you
Don't think you counted
on me being strong
Well I'm calling time now
you just run along

Not too perceptive,
not too perceptive
Boy I'm not that kind of girl
Go find another, sleep
with another
Boy I'm not that kind of girl

And if I'm crazy
you made me crazy so
Boy you're not welcome here.


I Want You To...

Maria, salimos esta noche?
- Ay, no se.
Maria, igual encuentras un chico guapo.
- No se, estoy cansada.
Sabes que? Que vas a salir y
será una gran noche.

Spinning round
And I touch the ground
An' I let go of my mind
Let the music take
Over my body
An' I start to unwind
Feel the heat as I rock the beat
An' I see your sexy smile
Intense attraction,
Bodies like magnets
My thoughts start to run wild.

De arriba nace el amor

I want you to love me
I want you to touch me
I want you to know me
I want you to show me
I want you to love me
I want you to touch me
I want you to know me
I want you to...

Moving forward and
Arching back
With that hot look in your eye
Up so close I can feel
You touching me
No time to be shy
Head to head no I
Won't be lead.
Well I, I'll put up a fight
Feel the bass, now my
Pulse is racing
And I'm flying tonight.

De arriba nace el amor

I want you to love me
I want you to touch me
I want you to know me
I want you to show me
I want you to love me
I want you to touch me
I want you to know me
I want you to...

I want you to love me
I want you to touch me
I want you to know me
I want you to show me
I want you to love me
I want you to touch me
I want you to know me
(De arriba nace el amor)
I want you to show me
I want you to love me
I want you to touch me
I want you to know me
(De arriba nace el amor)
I want you to...


It's Amazing

Do it, now, you
know who you are
You feel it in your heart and
you're burning with ambition.
But first, wait, won't get it
On a plate.You're gonna have to work for
it harder and harder.

And I know, 'cause I've
been there before
Knocking on the doors
with rejection
(rejection)
And you'll see, 'cause if
it's meant to be
Nothing can compare to
deserving your dreams.

It's amazing, it's amazing
All that you can do
It's amazing, makes
my heart sing
Now it's up to you.

Patience now, frustration's
in the air
And people who don't care
well it's gonna get you down
And you'll fall, yes,, you
will hit a wall
But get back on your feet an'
you'll be smarter and stronger.

And I know, 'cause I've
been there before
Knocking down the doors
won't take no for an answer
And you'll see, 'cause if
it's meant to be
Nothing can compare to
deserving your dreams.

It's amazing, it's amazing
All that you can do
It's amazing, makes
my heart sing
Now it's up to you.

Don't be embarrassed
Don't be afraid
Don't let your dreams slip away
It's determination and
using your gift
Never give up
Never believe the hype
Trust your instincts and
most importantly
You've got nothing to lose
So just go for it.

It's amazing, it's amazing
All that you can do
It's amazing, makes
my heart sing
Now it's up to you.


Keep On Waiting

The world's got so dark I need
some guidance to see
'cause this pain in my heart is
taking everything from me.

It is true that love makes the
world go round
Please give some love to me
'cause I'm feeling so alone
right now, it's suffocating me.

God give me strength
to keep on walking
God give me strength
to keep on, keep on
God give me strength
to keep on walking
God give me strength
to keep on, keep on

The air's got so thick I find
it hard to breathe
And before have
I felt so desperately in need

I know that I must start listening
to the voice inside of me.
The truth is that when I speak to
you, I hope to speak to me.

God give me strength,
to keep on walking
God give me strength,
to keep on, keep on
God give me strength,
to keep on walking
God give me strength,
to keep on, keep on

Oooh, oooh, my darling
God is you
God is you

God give me strength,
to keep on walking
God give me strength,
to keep on, keep on

God give me strength,
to keep on walking
God give me strength,
to keep on, keep on

God give me strength,
to keep on walking
[God, keep on, keep on giving
me strength]
God give me strength
to keep on, keep on.

God, keep on, keep on giving
me strength. Repeat.


You Will Make It

Go to bed everything's alright
Don't know the whole
world's changing
As you sleep through the night
Wake up slowly and it's a
different world.

Hear the news and the
floods begin
Screams so loud but only
felt within
Heart is shattered
The pieces can't be found

I feel your pain, I wrote this
song for you, for you
You will make it, you will
make it through
I promise you, he would
want you to.

Months go by, still living
in a daze
Don't know what you've done
With the last seven days
Soul is numb and and life
is like a dream

Helping hand but you
push them away
How could they understand
Don't wanna share you pain
Afraid to heal, 'cause that
would mean goodbye

I feel your pain, I wrote this
song for you, for you
You will make it,. you will
make it through
I promise you, she would
want you to.

One day sunlight hits
a photograph
And it makes you smile
The memories dance
around you now
And they make you smile.
You're not alone
You'll never be
Just like the stars
They oversee
And they whisper to you
You're still, you're still
you're still, you're still alive.

I feel your pain, I wrote this
song for you, for you
You will make it,. you will
make it through
I promise you, they would
want you to.

Do not stand at my
grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds
that blow
I am the diamond glints
on snow.
I am the sun on ripened grain
I am the gentle autumn rain
When you awaken in the
morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight
I am the soft stars that
shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave
and cry.
I am not there; I did not die.


I Always Knew

I always knew I would
one day be here
But I couldn't be a
puppet on a string
I've had my fights often
I've been KO'd
But I've got back up
No. I won't give in.

And now I know how it works
If you're too nice, you lose

I'm gonna make it to the
top well let me show you
And if I've got to toughen
up then that is what I'll do
But don't make me a monster
baby you'd be crazy
that's for sure
Becoming a bit is not
what I got into music for

Remember back to a bench
in Wales
Where two young boys
started mocking me
I looked at them, thought
I'll show you one day
But I didn't fight or stand
up for me

And that young girl's learnt
the hard way
If you're too nice you loose

I'm gonna make it to the top
well let me show you
And if I've got to toughen
up then that is what I'll do
But don't make me a monster
baby you'd be crazy
that's for sure
Becoming a bit is not
what I got into music for

I'll make it crystal clear
I'm not going anywhere
As long as there is music
I'll be here. here

I'm gonna make it to the top
well let me show you
And if I've got to toughen
up then that is what I'll do
But don't make me a monster
baby you'd be crazy
that's for sure
Becoming a bit is not
what I got into music for

I'm gonna make it to the top
well let me show you
And if I've got to toughen
up then that is what I'll do
I've sold you a million baby
not just maybe that's for sure
Given the chance I'll show you
I can sell a zillion more


Got It Good

If I had one wish, if I
had one wish
It would be to be free
of this fighting all around
@Cause it is so wrong
and it could be so right.
In my heart I know we're
here to grow
To love, to give, to learn.
to live together

And I believe in miracles
open up you eyes

Got a soul, got a mind got
a heart that beats in time.
You've got a smile, got a voice
got the gift of love
You've got it good, don't
forget how lucky you are
Darling, darling
Use it to connect with everyone

Don't you know we're golden,
covered up with mud
One day you'll see the truth
that we all share the
same blood
Supposed to love thy neighbour,
together we should stand
Whatever colour, race or creed
come on and hold my hand

'Cause I don't differentiate
we're all the same to me
Got a soul, got a mind, got
a heart that beats in time.
You've got a smile, got a voice
got the gift of love
You've got it good, don't
forget how lucky you are
Darling, darling
Use it to connect with everyone

And it's getting so serious
Crush my heart in pieces
But I know I'm not alone in
wanting peace. No, ooh
And if you feel what I feel,
raise your hands with me

Got a soul, got a mind got
a heart that beats in time.
You've got a smile, got a voice
got the gift of love
You've got it good, don't
forget how lucky you are
Darling (darling) darling
(darling)
Use it to connect with everyone
Got a soul, got a mind got a
heart that beats in time
You've got a smile, got a voice
got the gift of love
You've got it good, don't
forget how lucky you are
Darling (darling) darling
(darling)
Thank you for the moments
that we have

Aciid!

Move to the left,
move to the right
Up, down, round now,
hands to the side
Shake it to the left,
shake it to the right
Let me see you move girl,
dance all night
Clack all the men they
stop and star
Watch you move you body
girl you dance on air
Do you want, yeah
my style is flash
If you don't like it you can
kiss my ass

That's right
Get ready
A get ready
ACIID!

[Japanese interlude]

Jump to the left,
jump to the right
Up, down, round now,
head to the side
Circle to the left,
circle to the right
Lose your inhibitions girl,
dance all night
Dance like a pro,
like a millionaire

Rich in your body coz
you dare to dare
We're all unique, yeah
my style is flash
If you don't like it you can
* my ass

That's right
Get ready
A get ready
ACIID!

[Japanese interlude]


Shake it to the left,
shake it to the right
Shake it to the left,
shake it to the right

Aciid, aciid, aciid


How Would You Like It

Put on your clothes
I know what's underneath
You think you're separate from#everyone, but it's just
from yourself
Without all the colours in the
world, there'd be no picture
We are interwoven more than
you'll ever know

So I say

Please stop talking to me
I don't agree
How would you like it
Just 'cause the colour of my
skin's the same no you
don't know me
How would you like it if
Please stop, stop right there
with your hipocisy
Don't wanna hear it
You don't realize if you take
away any one of us
We all fall down now

I wanted to write this a
long time ago
But I thought someone would
say who are you to
speak of this
Well I've got eyes and ears
and a heart and I can feel it
And it pains me more than you
will ever know

And I Say

Please stop talking to me
I don't agree
How would you like it
Just 'cause the colour of my
skin's the same well you
don't know me
How would you like it if
Please stop, stop right there
with your hipocrisy
Don't wanna hear it
You don't realize if you take
away any one of us
We all fall down now

So sad, so sad
It's said we wouldn't know
love without hate
I'd really rather just have
the love
I'm tired of our history
repeating enough is enough
Please stop talking

Please stop talking to me
I don't agree
How would you like it
Just 'cause the colour of my
skin's the same well you
don't know me
How would you like it if
Please stop, stop right there
with your hipocrisy
Don't wanna hear it
You don't realize if you take
away any one of us
We all fall down now

In the end life'll go on and on
But I for one are clear
we're all brothers and sisters

And So I Pray

Storm is brewing in the
air tonight
So many pressures on my mind
Want to escape just
wanna run away
But it's not an option
I have to stay

And so I pray
I wish that all these things
would go away
To disappear if only for a day
Know I can't go but I don't
wanna stay

Can't believe the irony
The thing I wanted is killing me
All the happy smiles I miss
Didn't think it would be like this

And so I pray
I wish that all these things
would go away
To disappear if only for a day
Know I can't go but I don't
wanna stay

Storm is brewing in the
air tonight
So many pressures on my mind
Want to escape just
wanna run away
But it's not an option
I have to stay

And so I pray
I wish that all these things
would go away
To disappear if only for a day
Know I can't go but
I don't wanna stay
To be left alone if only
for a day
I wish that all these things
would go away
(pray to you I hope it will
be alright)
To be someone else
if only for a day
(and over soon, I feel it)
Know I can't go but I don't
wanna stay
(hope that you hear me)


On Top Of The World

Too much information
Need to calm down, let go
Breathe in peace
Worry and anxious feelings
Need to close your eyes, let go
Breathe and release

All of a sudden the people,
the talking, the telephone,
all fades away
You visit a place in a timeless
dimension where all of your
fears are at bay

You can fly away
fly like a bird
Across the sky
Above the clouds so high
Moon and the stars
Light up the sky

Presence fights illusion
It's not all as serious as
your mind
Wants you to think it is
Unsure of your future
Need to focus on,
what you want
And something will come
your way

You can fly away
fly like a bird
Across the sky
Above the clouds so high
Moon and the stars
Light up the sky

Sun sets low across the bay
A beautiful light
Closes the day
You can visit anytime
It's always there
Just close your eyes
(repeat)

(You know, you know,you
know, you know, you know
If you wanna be, home free,
just breathe
You know, you know, you know,
you know, you know
if you wanna be be, home free,
just breathe
You know all you need, all you
need, all you need. all you
need, is to feel connected
You know all you need, all you
need, all you need. all you
need, is to feel connected
Slow down, slow down,
what you rushing for?)

I finally finished but I will have made mistakes! Please let me know but , in the meantime, just enjoy the album simply for what it is!


These for track 9 (Aciiid) I will never be able to complete... but wonderful nevertheless.



It is early days but, if any one track brings her first album, Finally Woken, to mind then it is 'Keep On Walking' (track 5).

From Eden, Home and in Between - Time well spent?

I'd rather bet that it is!

There have been so many things that have influenced my music listening in the last couple of years and the 10" EP, From Eden, Home and in Between, released on Yesternow in 2006, was very certainly one of them. Not only did it open new listening horizons for me (new folk, alt-folk and any other categories that fit in that mould whatever they are called) it alerted me to the possibility that there were others as yet unknown. There were - and even more than I could have then imagined. I have mentioned (link to earlier blog post) the aforementioned Shoreline (link to their MySpace) at least once before in this blog.

Time Well Spent, their first full album, seems however to have been rumoured for ages but now it is due to be released on Monday, 22 September on the Wilkommenen label. If it is anywhere near as good as the EP then it will have, indeed, been well worth the wait!

Jem - Down To Earth - UK availability.

Several people have asked about this and the best answer I can currently give is 'no but yes'! You probably won't yet find Jem - Down To Earth in your local supermarket, HMV store and the like. If you do it will, more likely than not, cost extra as it is nominally available only on import (and I don't mean from Wales) only! Amazon.co.uk list it, at £12.49 on CD, with a delivery time of 2 - 3 weeks.

Here are two totally legal, and as far as I have found through regular use reliable (although I can't guarantee it) options you might try:

http://caimanzone.co.uk/details.cfm?ASIN=B001CR49IE
It is currently on sale there at £7.94 + £1.24 delivery (in the UK) and, if my recent experience is representative, it will arrive by Royal Mail in 2-3 working days after the one on which you order it.
If you already deal with amazon.co.uk, and would prefer not to use your card with Caiman directly, then you can also get it from caimanzone.co.uk using amazon.co.uk 'Marketplace Sellers' and might not cost you much, if any, more.

I hope this helps...

Why is it that... ?

I can't believe that it is only me that seems to find it that, when I can find a load of new or forthcoming albums that I really want, it then suddenly becomes far easier to find a load more much older ones, often seemingly ones quite unrelated to the desired new releases and each other, that I had either not heard of or had simply chosen to disregard before?
I know that it is not a one-off event because it has happened several times in the last few years. Typically in the late summer and early autumn, when the new releases are a mixture of those by acts I already know well and those by altogether new ones, the pattern is familiar but also quite inexplicable.
It is not a problem because it works out well and the albums that I discover as a result of this phenomenon tend to remain amongst my favourites, even if atypical in overall terms. They probably therefore have a disproportionate - but to me indefinable - influence on the music I might consider in the following six months or so. This apparently annoying contradiction is actually the very best thing about the situation - it is because I can't explain, and not for want of trying, what it means and why I suddenly like this or that music that it is actually so important! For much of last September I only really liked one album and that was I Wish I Could Have Loved You More - Candie Payne. Any reasonable conclusion would be that, at the very least, I am now rather bored of it - but I'm not and neither does it have the negative connotation that might be expected! It is not yet understood why, but music and the human brain are somehow inextricably linked and to understand either would certainly be a huge step on the way to understanding the other.
As I'm unable to do that here are a few albums that, given this tendency, I've recently acquired...

Flying Away - Smoke City (1999)

Often classed as trip-hop, and there certainly is that in it, but it has suffered not a bit for the fact that is now almost a decade old, nor does it bear much resemblance to the original, and often rather exquisitly downbeat, Bristol trip-hop vision. If dance music really is going to make a mark in 2010, then this would probably be a very good place to start. Digital bleeps, analogue electronica, Brazilian influences, disco-pop sensibility and fantastic vocals by Nina Miranda (sometimes sung in French) and... for goodness sake, acoustic guitar. It all seems perfectly 2009 to me.
That makes more sense than it seems, the acoustic guitar providing a link with another influence that has become prominent in the last couple of years. The rise and rise of folk, folk-related and folk-influenced music continues unabated and, while it is easy to find a dozen and more acts of this kind that have featured in this blog in the last nine months, this is an older album that I've finally got around to buying.

Blues For A Honey - Barefoot Contessa (1998)

Not cheerful perhaps, but certainly acoustic and modern - nu-folk almost a decade ahead of its time - and this album really should be better known. However an easier place to start is perhaps the 2006 album Routines. The singer is Helene Dineen (vocals, lyrics) who did the same in Barefoot Contessa, which also included Graham Gargiulo (guitars, keyboards) and when it comes to the crunch few songs can hold a candle to 'Superanything'


She limped to the door
She was kicked into touch
She would've run out yesterday
But it all had got too much
There are worse things in the world
Couldn'a happened to a nicer girl
I felt sorry but I had
Other things on my mind - too bad!

There's a light-hearted feel
To things these days
It's superanything

There's a light-hearted feel
To things these days -
Will it carry mine away?
And all those achy-fakey
Steel-hearted bitch-tunes.
All in the spirit
Of everyone having their say.
I called the bad-taste brigade
I had them all arraigned.
I said it so it must be true
I am here to bring
Wisdom and courage to you
Ha!

There's a light-hearted feel
To things these days
Oh superanything.

Trust to your family to fit you up
Watched the way mine fucked things up
Cut myself on some grit from the pan
Opened me up just enough...
To let in another bad man.

There's a light-hearted feel
To things these days
Oh superany... thing.

To finish this particular trio here is another, from 2001, that perhaps serves as some kind of link between the forgoing, between the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie and acts such as Stephanie Dosen and Fleet Foxes now signed to Bella Union Records in the UK.

Roulette - Violet Indiana (2001)

Coming Soon - new music 2008 (Part 5)

Autumn is always a time for new releases by established artists and in 2008 Safe Journey Home (released 3 November 2008 in the UK), the third album from Dido and the first since Life For Rent in 2003, is an obvious one to mention. I'll readily admit that two albums, and over twenty million sales of them, have not made me any less curious about this new one.

So it is about the second album by Jem, Down To Earth released in the US on 16 September, and which I'm told that it is jaw-droppingly good. I sincerely hope so too but I am, as yet, unfortunately unable to comment definitively.

The strangest thing is that it is not necessary to orbit the planet to find things musically wonderful - and I may well be mad but it is nothing new - because France will do nicely instead!

Yes, there are a lot of them in New Grids. Yes, 'Coming Soon' doesn't sound French, but it is certainly not British for that matter, but it is nevertheless their début album and yet the word genre is one quite lost on their music. They are all French too - just how good is that?

Sticking with things French, Soko (Stephanie Sokolinski) is currently in Seattle putting the finishing touches to her début album, which should be released in early 2009, at Bear Creek studio. I'd want to hear this album anyway but, having already seen her perform live, it is simply a must-have.

Soko live at Latitude in July 2008.

To whoever just asked about 'Slow Club' lyrics.

Are you sure that you can live with your conscience?

If you have the EP on CD then surely you would not be asking this question. If you have a legal download, and it does not include such information, then surely it is time that representations were made to ensure that, at least in future, such releases do!

Click images to expand but also just make sure you now go see them live...

Bona fide signed copies could be obtained, and for quite literally just a few pennies more than the standard article on amazon.co.uk, if you keep an ear open!

They have no reason at all to forgive you if you just rip them off!

Ingénus only? Not this time!

An oft-heard criticism of the Mercury Music prize is that it favours new artists, and maybe that is true, but that doesn't mean that they always prevail and certainly not in 2008...

Manchester's Elbow have been around for about a decade, very impressive without the acclaim that should go with it, but finally their fourth album 'The Seldom Seen Kid' has done them proud and it has, rather against the popular odds, won them the 2008 Mercury Music Prize. It is not deserved on tenacious effort alone, though they certainly have that, and not on sales but simply on its own merit.
While it is special it seems effortlessly so - not only is it the album that so many bands would die to write, they are a band that can also play live as naturally, and I was lucky enough to catch them live earlier this summer.

Elbow live @ Latitude 2008.

No Escape

Maybe you have the measure of me now - I like all sorts of stuff! That I like much mainstream music does not bother me one bit more than that I like much that is perhaps unfashionable; I like folk, French pop, acoustic, music from here, there and anywhere and, as regards language foreign ones are fine by me.
Such issues have all featured prominently before but rarely do they occur together as a 7" single...

Houlette is all of these things and more, yet it is the creation of Felicity Cripps who hails from Melbourne (VIC) Australia. An EP is promised soon so listen out!

Spark the fire...

My summer 2008 project has taken yet another turn! It all started mostly by accident as, while my curiosity had been aroused by music from, inter alia, Sara Bareilles (the album 'Little Voice', which I imported from America on vinyl) it was my niece that really moved this from curiosity status to quest status. I want to acknowledge her for that; it was a very good call indeed and way ahead of its time in the UK.
It has already surpassed all expectations but to receive two wonderful albums, both very different except for the fact that they are both largely unknown in the UK, on successive days is truly remarkable! Some reviewers have said that it sounds like Evanescence. I like Evanescence and have both their studio albums but that is a lazy comparison. The start (in particular) of track 2, Bloom, does however explain why some might have garnered that idea and it is true that Kira Fontana is, like Amy Lee, a pianist first and foremost. There is nothing wrong with the song, nor indeed the others that don't sound remotely like Evanescence. It is fair comment and sensible to say that 'The Inner Revolution' is certainly not the most immediately accessible album that I will tell you about this year; four listens and now I think I like it very much but I'm still really only just getting the measure of it.

On the other hand the US is also now doing catchy electro-pop like we thought it had forgotten all about long ago! Whilst it is in some ways faintly provocative and memorable, neither is it challenging nor entirely vapid, and that is just what pop should be.

This was never the way I planned,
Not my intention
I got so brave, drink in hand
Lost my discretion

Katy Perry tops the charts in the US and the UK with "I Kissed A Girl".

It is not Perry's fault at all but I can only imagine that this fills Stefy Rae with frustration and regret, and justifiably so, as 2007 single "Chelsea" was in much the same vein but went nowhere by comparison. It will be interesting to see if 'One Of The Boys' (Katy Perry's album, as yet unreleased in the UK) fares better than 'The Orange Album' by Stefy.

The jury is out and the voting may well be too close to call.

Let's Fall Back In Love

It is that time of year, unless of course you are south of the equator, when the days get shorter and the nights longer. If you have had a rubbish week at work so far, or are suffering any other similar situation, then I hope that it is some consolation that I share your lack of enthusiasm.

Two cheering thoughts: a good autumn (still a possibility) could well be better than a crappy summer (already confirmed) and more time to find and listen to music, new or old; more releases too and more time to read and write about them. The strange thing is, and this is nothing new, the more gloomy I feel in general the more eclectic and wide-ranging my taste in music becomes but seemingly not to the detriment of what I might regard as my 'core themes'.

Infinite Night
Drug lords, crooked cops, and thieves
Preying on the poor and on the weak
Boys with rifles in their hands
Far too young to understand.

[Chorus]
When it's more than you can bear
Let the silence fill the air.
You get a glimpse of the holy light
Well the sun is just a star
It reminds us of where we are
Just a little part of the infinite night.

Rich hold on to what they've got
Keep them far away from those who have not
Oceans rise and the fires rage on
Too much lost and nothing won.

[Chorus]

Oh looking down from up above
How we live and how we love
And how many days are yet to come... oh...

That track ain't even the half of it and this only confirms my view that, come the end of 2008, my selection of 'best albums' is likely to challenge that of last year in its variety and it would not greatly surprise me if this album [She Ain't Me - Carrie Rodriguez] features in it.

Let Me In
Make me understand
What it is to be a troubled man
And why you think that I'm the leaving kind
What else it is that ails your mind.

Oh let me in, I swear... I'll stay there.

I'm so tired of bailing out when push comes to shove.
Six long years to figure out all I need is your love.

Take me to your cave
I promise you that I won't behave
But I will give you all of my love
And a body sent from heaven above.

Oh let me in, I swear... I'll stay there.
Let me in , I swear... I'll stay there.

Back on planet GB there is no shortage of new music either and Slow Club are an act that I have seen live twice, at Latitude 2007 and Latitude 2008. They are wonderful and this (five-track CD) EP was released on Monday, 1 September by Moshi Moshi (MOMO66) and is an antidote to the rubbish summer weather. You might also find half of Slow Club, Rebecca, moonlighting-live with Noah and The Whale!

1. Let's Fall Back
2 Come On Youth
3. Dance To The Morning Light
4. Summer Shakedown
5. Trick Question

Slow Club on The Lake Stage @ Latitude 2007.

They are certainly unconventional but unquestionably good and, quite frankly, what's not to love?

Unholy Majesty

Continuing with the subject of Bristol-based acts another, and again one given to collaborations (notably including Jeremy Smoking Jacket, with SJ Esau), Rose Kemp follows up her 2007 album A Hand Full of Hurricanes with Unholy Majesty that is released, again by One Little Indian Records, on September 1, 2008.

Never one to stick with convention and - for older readers she is the daughter of Rick Kemp and Maddie Prior of Steeleye Span - this is unlikely to be an album that will find universal favour but could well be all the better for it. After her 2003 début Glance she laid her acoustic guitar aside in favour of one electric and, on this album, takes the progression well beyond that already evident on A Hand Full Of Hurricanes. There are folk influences on it, occasionally, but there are certainly plenty of others too; if you can handle hints of folk combined with hard and heavy riffs and experimental rock themes this is probably for you and me. She is touring the UK, mostly with the band, in September.
It is wise to remember that this label, while it is not perhaps a household name, is certainly no stranger to someone who is. If there is a unconventional chanteuse, vicariously known to millions not only for her musical boundary-pushing, that is surely 'One Little Indian' recording artist Björk!

You have been warned.

Phantom Limb

Spending much of Sunday afternoon in the pub is pretty decadent, and something I very rarely do, but I have to say that The Griffin is in my opinion the best pub in Frome, which has quite a few to choose from, and not least because it has its own on-site brewery. In this instance it was simply the music that clinched it!
This Bristol-based six-piece have been stirring up favourable comment since SXSW 2008, and thus a Glastonbury booking on the Jazz/World Stage, where their largely acoustic southern soul/blues caused quite a stir. It also resulted in a record deal with Irish label Naim Edge. The really impressive thing is their innate virtuosity. Their début album comprises only original compositions, recorded and mastered in Bristol and Monmouth, and was released on August 25, 2008. The vinyl release, also mastered and cut in Bristol, is to follow on September 15, 2008.

The Griffin was far too crowded to take any worthwhile photos, given that it is not huge and Phantom Limb are a six-piece band so that takes up space, but the music was quite amazing. Lead vocalist Yolanda Quarty also provides about half the vocals on the forthcoming Massive Attack album, and has toured worldwide with the same, but trip-hop this is not and they could well lose her to this project, for which she also writes the majority of the lyrics, simply because her voice and the musicians suit the material so well.

The band is something approaching a Bristol 'super-group' and it seems oddly fitting that one of Bristol's premier music venues is a pub called The Louisiana. Check out the album:

1. Don't Say A Word
2. Withering Bones
3. I'll Never Be The Same
4. My Love Has Gone
5. Playing With Death
6. Run
7. Good Fortune
8. We Will Carry
9. Spring Flowers
10. The Hard Way

This is the track list but I couldn't tell you which ones that I like most as I simply haven't decided yet, and when I do I'll probably change my mind.

Sammy is a soldier now...

As we are now in a period of global political and economic uncertainty, and one certainly afflicted by rising energy and commodity prices coupled with falling property values, surely there has to be something to look forward to?
That, I would contest, is music as it seems to have flourished during other similar episodes of uncertainty.

Sammy sleeps alone at night.
She says the world owes her a life.
When she was only five years old
She wouldn't do what she was told
But, when she got to ten
She learned to rein it in.

She knew she'd done something wrong.
She'd never do it again.

But it is so hard to keep the promises you make
And it's so hard to love when all you feel is hate.
Sammy lives in magazines,
She's searching for the perfect jeans.
She'd like to be clean as the sky
Outside and inside; no-one to depend on.

No family or foes, no-one to tell her
What she already knows.

She always says who needs that stuff anyhow?
She once was weak but she's a soldier now.

Major label release?

Definitely not, but that is not to say that Routines - Helene isn't a fine album for the here and now, despite the fact that it was released (Series 8, as SER 001 CD) in 2006, and if the track 'Sammy Is A Soldier Now' was the only good track on it that would still be quite something.
Luckily it isn't, far from it in fact, and not least because 'This Is All We Have To Know' is another very special song, again about growing up, yet cast in a very different light.

The whole album is really good and you should still be able to find it at a reasonable price. If you like it then the previous album, Postcard, and her earlier work with the band 'Barefoot Contessa' might also be of interest.
You might regard it all as slightly gloomy but I would hold that as suitable, given the current mood, because it is not overly depressing either. I could suggest a few other recent contenders in this category too, but so can you...

Please let me know!

Jem is Down To Earth again...

Who made up all the rules?
We follow them like fools!
Believe them to be true
Don't care to think them through.

I'm sorry, so sorry
I'm sorry it's like this.
I'm sorry, so sorry
I'm sorry we do this.

Part of the lyric of They (2004).

Some time ago I wrote a post, Asleep Again?, wondering what had happened to the artist Jem. It is now confirmed that her second album will be released by ATO Records, initially in the US, on September 16.

Down To Earth, not to be confused with the 1979 Rainbow album of the same name, is already on order based both on my continued liking for her 2004 début album Finally Woken, which was one of the first handful of albums I ever reviewed and I stand by what I wrote then, and the fact that Lester Mendez (Shakira Dónde Están Los Ladrones and others) has been involved in the production of this album. Stranger still is that, perhaps because Jem is now resident in California, some in the US are portraying her as their new best export to us here in the UK.

It will certainly be a good trick if she can do it, not least because she was brought up in Penarth (Glamorgan) and the other UK female solo artist currently making headway in the US is Duffy, with her album Rockferry, and she comes from Nefyn, a small town on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd. While their music is very different indeed what we have here is two singers, from almost opposite corners of Wales, neither of whose music is noticeably inspired by traditional Welsh music. It is not that Wales is a vast land but neither is it crowded; at 8022 sq. miles it is about 10% smaller in area but has only 30% of the population of New Jersey.

Dog days, please smile down upon us...

This follows from a post I added last year, Soothing Music for Days That Bode Ill, which apparently still has resonance with others judging from the number of times that post has been visited in the last couple of weeks. It is no secret that I often still feel the same way too and, while I can recommend those albums no less a year later, the world has not stayed the same.
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan have since released Sunday at Devil Dirt and the remainder of the lyrics are here. As one of 'The Gutter Twins' Mark Lanegan has also released an album with Greg Dulli, which is another that I would like to hear but either the music, or merely my appreciation of it, has expanded again.

Empty dish is still sitting where I'm gonna leave it.
This lamp hasn't been lit in quite a long while,
The wick doesn't reach what's left of the oil.
And the rain is coming and I'm overcome.

These bad newspapers they pile up unread
Dogs gaze out the windows, I know how they feel.
Adventure! adventure! Or sit by the door?
Open, open sesame! I'm overcome.

Figurines, dripping faucets, laundry and dust,
I hate to leave this a mess but I must....

Keepsakes can be anchors and anvils and such.
Like pianos and pets and the people we love.
I can't change the world from this place on MySpace
Spiders tag walls with their names in this place.

Figurines, dripping faucets, laundry and dust,
I hate to leave this a mess but I must...

Oh its never a clean break when you're trying to leave
But song birds need homes in live oak trees.

Maybe I've just not got the right idea about what I think they might be but I can't yet figure out the lyrics for the two lines that follow:
I hate to leave this a mess but I must...

Can anyone help? The song remains however, despite the time I've spent trying to figure those lyrics, one of my favourite album tracks of 2008 and it is 'Overcome' from the album Anchors and Anvils by Amy LaVere.

Leaving that topic aside for a moment, here is another album that rather appealed when I read about it. Some might say that it is slightly twee folksy Americana and had I simply invented that which follows, just to amuse myself this evening, I know that you would not have believed me.

The thing is that I didn't tell fibs - indie label Static Caravan released it - and it is VAN161.

It is of the most improbable heritage. The two acts that combined to produce this met on MySpace. Neither of them come from America and, at least at the time of its release, never the twain had met!
One of them, Phelan Sheppard, is a Londoner signed to Leeds-based The Leaf Label best known in this blog as the home of Parisienne Colleen (Cécile Schott) and her beguiling ambient/electronica, while the other half of the equation is moomLooo in Tokyo.

The End of Summer?

Most in Britain might reasonably tell you that 2008 was the summer that didn't happen. The weather was fairly rubbish, the credit crunch suddenly seemed more real than anyone realised, and then there would be that disappointment that comes around only every fourth year...
The first two came to pass but Team GB in the Olympics, something that we tend to regard as an affirmation of our poor record in sport, proved anything but that and a launch pad for London 2012. Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, accepted the Olympic flag and he is possibly the only recipient who, had he felt inclined to do so, could have quite easily made his acceptance speech in classical Greek!
You might well ask why I mention this here and also 'What does that have to do with music?' It has a lot in common - music has for years usually been regarded as a team GB thing, regardless of where the artists come from or their ethnic background and now sport has, apparently quite suddenly, become seen in much the same light. That the Olympians were played off-stage in Beijing by Leona Lewis, only for her to arrive back in her home city in the midst of the Notting Hill Carnival - the world's largest Carribean festival - is something of which both London, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in general, can be justifiably proud.

The thing is that, despite all the global uncertainties, Britain seems more comfortable with its place in the world. I don't think that music is going to let us down between now and 2012 - innovate, adopt, adapt and export will probably accelerate the recent trends, but I suspect that we will also become more receptive to those from overseas.
The main festivals have now come to an end, with Leeds/Reading this weekend, but the pre-sales for 2009 are now on offer, except for those for which the limited allocation has already sold out, and that is most of them.
If one thing is certain, despite several summers of poor weather, Britons remain in thrall to outdoor live music and now there are some out-of-season indoor festivals too. I''m planning to go to Sŵn 2008.

It is the music that matters...

A week away from my blog seems a long time. I have returned from a few days away but, unlike last year, I am back home when I intended and fully functional. This evening a different problem presented; I returned home from work, intent on adding some new blog material, only to discover that my street had no electricity and even vinyl won't play without that!

While my recent meanderings were limited to nowhere exotic, rather the comforting familiarity of North Yorkshire in good company, that doesn't mean that I have spent the last week entirely isolated from the world of new music and, also importantly, music that is merely new to me.
It does possibly mean that such music has no obvious connection, and this is an album and artist that I have never heard before, but it appears to make sense to buy it so it is now on order!

Alternative/indie music from North America is currently on fine form and this is just one album amongst many that holds promise. It is certainly not a new phenomenon but it is also true that music and politics share a lot in common. They know what they are up against - European music - and although this might seem a rather strange comment they are rising, vainglorious, to the challenge and that is exactly what is needed right now.

It is, like politics, a situation far more complicated than it might seem and this is why music has spawned a rash of sub-genres that, while we might disagree about the names we give them, share certain common values. To anyone reading this without some prior knowledge the term "anti-folk" is about as helpful as toothache and, in any case, it is also near impossible to define as it can present as different things in different cases. Given that there are too many sub-genres this is a particularly unhelpful situation that merely hinders communication but it is one quite unsurprising.
While I'm on this topic and, as I forgot to mention that Kira Fontana is from California, I might also mention Carrie Rodriguez.

She is from New York and as well as playing her, rather more folk-influenced, songs she also plays a mean fiddle! This, her second solo album, was released in the US on 5th August 2008 by Manhattan Records but, as of now, seems to have no full release in the UK or Europe.

It is just the music that matters!

An eponymous anagram...

Yesterday I mentioned the album 'Speak For Yourself', the second by UK singer/songwriter Imogen Heap. I have now discovered that her début solo album I Megaphone (1998) - for long hard to find or, if you did do so, very costly - can be found again at a reasonable price even though it might have to ship from the US.

It is now on my wanted list and is available for £5.75 (US $ 12), including delivery to the UK.

No excuses...

If you think that I mostly like old, or new but less well known, albums then while is it true that I might mention them more often here that is not the whole story.
On my way home from work tomorrow I'm going to go to the nearest store and buy a copy of this album:

I can't pretend I don't want it and I'm not remotely ashamed about that. I'm soon going to be in places that might bring back mixed emotions and I'm going to take it with me. White on Blonde is excellent, more imaginative and surprising even, but it was not the one that I then wanted to listen to!
Late last August the album I really wished I had, but wasn't with me, was 'The Hush' by Texas and I'll take it with me this time.

This is another fine, but criminally under-rated, artist/album that is also well and truly on my current play list. I've had this since it was released in 2006 and it never fails to impress me more with every listen!

The music is truly special of course, but then so is the 'digipack' (MEGACD001). It consists of four illustrated sections that fold in on each other and also a lavishly illustrated full-colour booklet that contains all the lyrics.

Goodbye and Go, c/w Speeding Cars, on clear vinyl 7".

If I had made a list of 'My Top Ten Singles' in 2006 then this would certainly have been included...

Living With Ghosts

I mentioned this single, the first released by Smoke Fairies, not long ago and today my copy arrived in the post. I have listened to it several times this evening and, while I had rather high hopes for it, I am quite disappointed...

Disappointed with myself that is; Living With Ghosts is far better than I even dared hope that it could be and the b-side Troubles is equally good. I can't wait for the release of their début album and, although this is a very limited 7" vinyl release, I can hardly imagine that both these tracks will not make the cut but one can never tell.
This single may prove hard to get unless you act very quickly but something I can add, and this pleases me greatly, is the lyrics for both tracks on it. They are included in "hand-writing" on the cover accompanying it and while the occasional phrase is hard to read I hope that, with the single to listen to, I've mostly got them correct!

Living With Ghosts:
You to me are only a memory, got a flame still burning where I know it shouldn't be, but it gets hold when the one you're thinking of is no longer. I am haunted, you'll hound me for all my days and I know that somewhere things still go on the same, but it gets hard when the time you are thinking of is now passed. In my mind we still live there. All this time feels like I've gone nowhere. It can get lonely living with ghosts.
You're in my head until I die. So I ran to the mountains. Ran as far as I could. Got to find a new life. Wouldn't do me any good. 'Cause it gets hard when the one you're thinking of is no longer. You're in my mind like an old ugly scar. I'll spend my life trying to hide. Days will go by and I'll still think of you as if you were here by my side.

Troubles:
Out of the northern sky, over the land where the ice fields lie, came a winter it came so cold. I drew my demons out to the snow. Into the night we flew, scoring the sky with the paths we drew. Drawn together like moths to night never believing we'd burn so bright. When troubles keep expanding tie me a long rope 'cause its you that keeps me standing, it's you that I need more.
Over and over we leave, scarring our minds with the things that we've seen never sure what we're looking for, always returning with something more.

More rock goddesses? One More Won't Kill Us!

Girlschool also come to mind in this respect - being both of that era and another band that I saw live (at the Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall, no less) - but here is a band that I've seen live a couple of times much more recently.

If you haven't yet heard Glasgow four-piece The Hedrons live then you should do so at the first opportunity - and you must leave any preconceptions you might have at home. This applies even if you have the album!
It was preceded by several singles released, inter alia, on 7" vinyl; 'Be My Friend' was one and 'I Need You' was the next.

Rock Goddess

I had little enthusiasm while on my way to work today, not least because almost everyone else is on holiday. I worried about that needlessly, as it happened, and while I was busy everyone I had to deal with seemed to be understanding. When I got home things continued to improve up to a point; yesterday my ISP was sulking but today it was now fully functional again.
Then came a problem and an e-mail I really didn't need! Someone (who will for their own sake remain anonymous) telling me in no uncertain terms that there have never been any all female heavy-rock bands, an assertion that is clearly ridiculous.
In addition he (and I'm making an brazen assumption here as, quite cowardly in the circumstances, there was no name provided) my correspondent also told me that, aged 25, "it" was in a position to know!
At the age of 43 I'm no longer inclined to rage, as once I might have been, and in any case this says it all...

Rock Goddess - Rock Goddess (AMLH 68554, 1983).

At the time this was released "it" was a gurgling infant and I was eighteen years old. I saw them live touring the following album, Hell Hath No Fury, which was released in 1984. They were not the first all-female heavy-rock band (although the two albums mentioned above were both released on A&M, which is a major label imprint) and in the quarter century since plenty more have followed that path, albeit with contemporary differences in both style and content.

To listen to in 2008 - Part 4

This is quite difficult to write. I've seen so much live music recently, which is very good but tends to colour ones perceptions in a perhaps disproportionate way, and I've discovered so many new artists across a wide range of genres. I'm glad of that too but it makes deciding what to wish for next very difficult indeed.

If there is any connection then it is the ascendancy of - and probably the connection between - new-folk in the UK and Americana. What they do not share in tradition is more than made up in their connection via live-musicianship and what, just a year ago, seemed exciting in the UK is now happening on both sides of the Atlantic. That is not to say it wasn't happening in the US last year, because it was, but the joining of dots is what matters. Openly referencing trans-Atlantic influences is now not only acceptable but also distinctly fashionable, on both sides, for the first time in well over a decade. Not everyone on either side will embrace the new party but in the year that Sub-Pop turns twenty, and the world is changing faster than at any time since, it somehow seems very fitting that there is something of a return to traditional music; in values if not always in execution for nothing remains the same.

Two albums/artists I want to hear are these:

I saw Noah and The Whale live at Latitude 2008 and this is their début album.
This band also has close links with Laura Marling, who appears on some tracks of this recording.

Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down - Noah & The Whale (2008).

To mention another, here is a duo that at least on first listen is quintessentially English.

Smoke Fairies met at school in Brighton and later, when it did not seem to be the Deep South that they imagined, decamped to New Orleans for a year and, as that wasn't quite it either, this was followed by some time in... Vancouver!
They are now in London and concentrating on finishing their first album, which should appear soon, and as likely as not it will be another release in a genre that has risen from nowhere in a matter of a few years. In the meantime Smoke Fairies, like many others, are making headlines with their awesome live performances. Whatever else might be wrong in the UK right now live music isn't it!

Smoke Fairies are Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire.
It seems unlikely the album will be without influences resulting from their time in New Orleans and who could wish otherwise?

Smoke Fairies release their first single Living With Ghosts on 11 August. It is available for download and there is also a physical version too - 500 copies, all hand numbered, on 7" vinyl.

Live by proxy - the rise and fall of the live album:

I have been thinking about this for a while, more particularly in the last few weeks during which I have had the pleasure to see almost forty bands truly live. I rather suspect that, on reflection, the decade 1975 -1985 was the zenith of the live album. These were almost always double albums and released on vinyl (but also on cassette and some in later cases, not to mention reissues, on CD).
While some were fairly genuinely live recordings of a single gig and some very much edited compilations from several sets, others were even extensively remixed but whatever their status some were genuinely worthwhile.
I have, in this regard, mentioned Live and Dangerous - Thin Lizzy (1978) already. This evening I was thumbing through the archives because we had, for some Friday afternoon reason, ended up discussing Tina Turner at work and in particular the track 'Nutbush City Limits'. Don't even think about asking how we got to this point but, as a result, and when I was browsing this evening I came across Live Bullet - Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band (1976) that you can fortunately still buy for a song, digitally remastered, on a sparkling new CD.
I'm even luckier still in that I don't have to wait for it to arrive, nor do I even have to download it. I can't remember when I last listened to it, probably late last century, but I am lucky enough to be able to enjoy the legal alternative again this evening and, as I paid pennies for it second-hand so long ago, to all intents and purposes do so for free. The opening track is, of course, a cover of Nutbush City Limits...

Live Bullet - Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.

This album was recorded over two performances at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, Seger's home city, on the 4th and 5th September 1975 and released in 1976. The cover may be scuffed but the LPs inside are fine and to be able to listen to the original double vinyl set (EMI/Capitol E-STS161 & E-STS162) makes it even better and maybe, in 2008, it would seem that way to me regardless of any other considerations.
It now seems all the more so however, to me at least, because of the recent revival in all kinds of American music - not least Americana - and which, by seamlessly fusing genres from the last half-century, is quite remarkable on many levels.

To whoever searched 'I'm A Fly' - thank you!

In the last week or so someone ended up here while looking for the lyrics to the song 'I'm A Fly' by Laura Marling and that made me realise that it was not a song with which I was already familiar. Things got even better when I discovered that it is the b-side to the 7" single release of 'Cross Your Fingers', which had also passed me by. (How careless was that?)

Cut to the chase and I have it now. The lyric for 'I'm A Fly' is below:

I'm A Fly

I'm a fly; I'll die tomorrow
So give me all you've got.
I so believe, I so believe.

I'm a fly; I'll die tomorrow
So give me all you've got.
And now here in this foreign place
I have let you down
I've fallen for a foreign place
Not fallen to the ground.
I've gone in blinding, scorching sun
And fallen to my knees.

And I've forgotten what I believe
I so believe, I so believe
I so believe, I so believe.

This is the best I can do at the moment but if you have any corrections or alternatives please let me know.
It is, however, a song I really like and it seems to me as if it is a foray into musically more "traditional" folk territory but perhaps without the customary historical lyrical preoccupations. If this is so then we could be in for even greater surprises in the not too distant future.