Random Track of the Day

[Trollheart]

Missed out yesterday (these things happen) so here are two for today. First up:

Title: "City of Grey"
Artist: Mesozoic
Format: Band
Year 2014
Genre: Post-rock
Nationality: Australian
Taken from: 2nd album Welcome, Girl. Our Second Sun Shines for You
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album: Zero
Familiarity with track: Anyone?
Comments: What a very hippy-sounding album title! And the cover looks like the artist may have had the odd shot of peota out in the desert too. Hmm. I do like my post-rock though. Not too easy to get track listings on this, never mind information. I assume it's a band. Nice piano-driven melancholy little piece, with attendant almost drone synth and very little if any percussion. I like it.

Rating:

Title: "Go Ahead and Rain"
Artist: J.D. Souther
Format: Solo artist
Year Unknown
Genre: Country/Pop rock
Nationality: American
Taken from: Compilation album, um, 100 Greatest Soft Rock Anthems - Ever! Right.
Familiarity with artist: I know of him only through his work with the Eagles
Familiarity with album: None
Familiarity with track: None
Comments: Ah, J.D., the oft-ignored Eagle. Glenn and Don get so much of the limelight, poor old Souther is forgotten, yet you can hear his voice on Eagles songs such as, um, none of them. And he only wrote literally a handful of songs, and only with the help of the others. And he was gone by the time their seminal Hotel California came around, so maybe there's a reason why he's the forgotten Eagle. But is that just because he never got a chance to fly, that Henley and Frey crowded him out of the eyrie?

Alright, enough avian metaphors. This is his own song and as you might expect it sounds like it belongs on one of his parent band's albums. It's okay but nothing special.

Rating:

[Trollheart]

D'oh! Did it again! Two more, then, for ya.


Title: "Sober"
Artist: Chic
Format: Band
Year 2018
Genre: R&B/Disco
Nationality: American
Taken from: 9th album It's About Time
Familiarity with artist: Everyone knows their hits. I said HITS! Honestly!
Familiarity with album: Zero
Familiarity with track: Zero
Comments: To be perfectly honest, I thought Chic were children of the 70s, maybe had pushed into the 80s, but after that had gone the way of all disco. It seems, however, that there are twenty years plus between this album and the previous, its release having been delayed by the untimely deaths of Prince and Bowie. I'm not entirely sure what bearing that had on Nile Rodgers (maybe he couldn't write, or wanted to change the direction of the album to pay tribute to them?) but that's what it says. So does this sound like a song, album and band out of time? Well, Rodgers is known for being able to adapt, so I wouldn't really expect it to sound like "Le Freak" or "I Want Your Love" or whatever but, well, it kind of does. Craig David guests on vocals, but it still seems something of a throwback to me. It's all right I guess. Worth waiting twenty-six years for? Meh.

Rating:

Title: "Light Up the Dark"
Artist: China
Format: Band
Year 2010
Genre: Hard rock
Nationality: Swiss
Taken from: 5th album Light Up the Dark
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album: Zero
Familiarity with track: Zero
Comments: What is this obsession rock bands have with calling themselves after countries or cities they're not in? Asia were English, Berlin are American, so are Algiers, and now here we have a Swiss band calling themselves China. Ah, maybe they just like delicate teacups, who knows? What I do know is that this pretty bog-standard melodic/hard rock, China trying very hard to be American and cool, and failing on just about every level. Pass. As an aside, how weird is it that two random tracks follow each other whose name both starts with CHI? Zen, man!

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[Trollheart]

Title: "Yesterday and Today"
Artist: Yes
Format: Band
Year 1969
Genre: Progressive Rock
Nationality: English
Taken from: Debut self-titled album
Familiarity with artist: Very; have been trying to get into their 70s material without much success. Love their 80s work though.
Familiarity with album: Listened to it twice I think
Familiarity with track: Very little
Comments: Although this is from Yes's first album, and in general it didn't really impress me, luckily for me the gods of random choice and shuffle have chosen for me a really lovely little ballad, soft and gentle and only added to by Jon Anderson's angelic voice. Now if only all their early stuff had been like this.

Rating:

[Trollheart]

Title: "Death Came a-Knockin'"
Artist: Ruthie Foster
Format: Solo artist
Year 2004
Genre: Blues
Nationality: American
Taken from: 4th alum Stages
Familiarity with artist: I've heard one of her albums and loved it
Familiarity with album: Zero
Familiarity with track: Zero
Comments: A great a capella vocal with just the hollowest of drumming until the guitar cuts in shows how well Foster can sing without benefit of any accompaniment. Definitely a strong sense of gospel in this, but more in the lyrical department than the music itself, which is more rooted in Chicago blues. Cool.

Rating:

[Trollheart]

Title: "Blive Derude"
Artist: Dalton
Format: Band
Year 2010
Genre: Pop/Folk/World Music/Country
Nationality: Danish
Taken from: 2nd album (1st live) Var Her
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album:
Familiarity with track:
Comments: In future I'm not going to bother filling in the other two categories if the first is zero. After all, if I know nothing about the artist I can hardly be familiar with any of their music, now can I? And don't they look like total washed-up has-beens trying to eke out the last of their vanished popularity on the cover? Apparently, Dalton were, ahem, big in Denmark, an actual supergroup, but I know nothing about any of them. How this even got on my hard disk is a mystery, and increases my suspicion that there is a download pixie living in my house, who comes out at night and maliciously downloads things randomly onto my computer. That would certainly explain all the porn on it. Yes, yes it would. It must be him. Only explanation.  I've set traps for him, but so far nothing. Well, I've caught two underwear gnomes and what I think - but I'm no expert - may be a sock elf, but that bugger is tricky and even my "Napster is back!" signs haven't fooled him. I'll get him, don't worry. He'll get his. Fucking Air Supply discography! He's got a lot to answer for, let me tell you!

What? Oh yeah, the music. Well, it's not shite. Not completely. Apparently the song is written by Richard Thompson, so may be a cover, but as I know precisely none of his music I can't say. Doesn't help that it's in Danish. Listen, the only Danish thing I like is their drama and their pastries. Mmmm! Danish. And Vikings of course. Come think of it, them Danes is all right.

Rating:

[Trollheart]

Title: "Black Xmas"
Artist: Venom
Format: Band
Year 1987
Genre: Heavy Metal
Nationality: English
Taken from: 5th album Calm Before the Storm
Familiarity with artist: Some; I did a feature on them for my NWOBHM* article years ago
Familiarity with album: Not sure
Familiarity with track: Pretty sure I don't know this one though
Comments: Ah you've got to love Venom! Three guys who accidentally created a whole subgenre of heavy metal, named after their second album. Did nobody get the joke? Black metal has become one of the most poe-faced subgenres, with everything from real devil worshippers such as Watain to those who tread the line between it and speed metal, like Emperor and Immortal. But when Venom set out to play music, they were three lads from Newcastle who probably spent more time in the local than in the studio and could not, in the beginning, be accused of being able to play.

Anyhoo, if you want to read more check out that thread, but you'll have to go "back to Hell", as it were, since I never bothered to port it over from Music Banter - not enough hardcore metal heads here, I think, for it to be worth it. But you can't help but smile at a song called "Black Xmas", especially when, against all odds, it comes out of a random playlist a week before the big event. At War with Satan? Possibly, but no fans of Jesus either!

As for the song? Ah well, you know how it is: Venom is as Venom does. It's a mess, but a glorious one. Put it this way: I think I'd rather listen to a Venom album than an Air Supply one. Come to think of it, I'd rather listen to anything than an Air Supply album.

Rating:

*New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, if you have to be told. 

[Trollheart]

Title: "Bouree"
Artist: George Friedrich Handel
Format: Composer
Year 1717
Genre: Classical
Nationality: German/British
Taken from: Water Music - Suite in F Major
Familiarity with artist: Duh
Familiarity with album: N/A
Familiarity with track: One of Handel's best-known and loved pieces
Comments: And from, almost literally, the ridiculous to the sublime. Travelling back over three hundred years, to the heyday of classical music, and a suite composed by the great Handel. Only part of it, of course; this is called "Bouree", which apparently is a dance similar to the gavotte, and if you think that's a little hammer a judge bangs on his desk or a weapon used to strangle people, maybe you should not be here.

It's actually a sprightly little piece, happy and exuberant, and you can certainly imagine courtiers and gentlemen wearing more frills and flounces than the ladies they dance with bowing to those aforementioned ladies and taking their arms, leading them around in the dance, perhaps waving silk handkerchiefs as they did. That's the kind of thing they often got up to in the 18th century.

And if you think Bruce Springsteen gives long performances, get this. The Water Music was, as most people know, composed by Handel to honour King George I and give him something to listen to as he tooled on up the Thames. Since his ipod was in the shop, the whole orchestra assembled on the banks of the river and played as his barge drifted upstream. And back down again. I suppose you could, with some justification, call this the first instance of portable music, as the orchestra were also in a boat following the king (not much point being on the shore, as His Majesty would soon drift out of earshot). Also the first instance of "and the band played on"? In fact, the orchestra played, it is said, with one break, for four hours, 8pm till midnight. Wonder how they managed to still see to play, given that this was all out in the open? Ah, a musician's lot in the 18th century!

Honestly, I have to give it the top rating as it's a pure classic and to do otherwise would be pointless, but as pieces of classical music go, it's a little light and lilting for me. I prefer big string sections and pianos. This is all a little, um, flutey for me.

Rating:

[Trollheart]

Title: "Baby I'm Not a Baby Anymore (Beatrice Theme)"
Artist: Tom Waits
Format: Solo artist
Year 1992
Genre: Soundtrack/Jazz/Blues
Nationality: American
Taken from: 11th album, 2nd soundtrack album Night on Earth OST
Familiarity with artist: Totally. One of my favourite artists.
Familiarity with album: Yeah I like this one a lot.
Familiarity with track: Much of the album is instrumental, so I can't say I'm totally familiar with it, but I'm sure I know it.
Comments: Jim Jarmusch's movie Night on Earth is not one I've ever seen, nor have any great desire to see, but Waits wrote the soundtrack for it, and if the music reflects the movie (or vice versa) it must be a pretty dour, dark, film noir kind of thing. Just looking at some of the titles on this album - "New York Theme (Hey, You Can Have That Heart Attack Outside Buddy)", "Los Angeles Theme (Another Private Dick)" and my favourite, "Dragging a Dead Priest" - gives you an idea of the kind of things you might expect to see in the movie.

Of course, it may not be anything like that, but I can't see any reason Waits would have written that sort of music for a bouncy, happy rom-com or a movie about giant robots pursuing terrified Asians down Tokyo streets. This piece is another instrumental (the album is not entirely so; there are perhaps one or two vocal pieces on it, but this is not one of them) and is a sleazy, slow jazz/blues piece led by hollow slow percussion and sultry horn, definitely like something out of a fifties gangster movie.

Rating:

[innerspaceboy]

Thanks for bringing my attention to a forgotten Waits release! I have original pressings of his complete discography a collector bought new for 40 years, played each once to dub to cassette, and then poly bagged and shelved. All near mint. However as this is more of a soundtrack than a studio album proper I don't actually have this one on wax.

And I'm excited to see you're familiar with CBL! I love all their key albums. Quality ambient.

You have excellent (and varied!) taste.

[Trollheart]

AH yeah it's a great album all right. You have One From the Heart, I presume? Waits and Crystal, together. Superb. Very very underrated. Awful movie, great album. Yes I like CBL, and any other ambient artists as long as they're not too experimental. I got slightly into drone via Solar Fields, which originally I hated but now quite enjoy.

[Trollheart]

Title: "I Have Been Wishing You Winter Now For What Seems Like Forever, Part II"
Artist: East of the Wall
Format: Band
Year 2006
Genre: Post-rock/Sludge Metal
Nationality: American
Taken from: Debut Self-titled EP
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album:
Familiarity with track:
Comments: With a title like that, there's really only one or two genres this is going to fit into, isn't there? The only other ones who write such long titles are usually your black metal bands and the odd prog rock ones, but when it comes to long titles post-rock has everyone beaten. Just look at some of the titles Godspeed You! Black Emperor have come up with. Interesting point nobody cares about: I used to live in a place called East Wall, which is pretty close to this band's name. Also, I wondered if they had anything to do with "The" Wall, but then, Game of Thrones was well after this, even if the books were published before it.

Whether or which, as my ma used to say, that's neither here nor there. What's the music like? Well it's kind of like I suppose a strain of atmospheric black metal really when it opens, quite experimental with a lot of harsh noise and the odd bit of music coming through sporadically until the guitar rises through the fog and takes control. Nice little busy bass line and it starts to take shape, but you know how it is: post-rock is as post-rock does, and to some degree if you've heard one piece of music from the genre you can guess what to expect. You wouldn't be disappointed, and whether that's a good or bad thing depends I guess on your view of this genre. I must admit I found it quite formulaic, tedious and way way too long at almost ten minutes. There are far better post-rock bands around.

Rating:

(No video available)

[Trollheart]

Title: The Rains Came"
Artist: The Long Ryders
Format: Band
Year 2016
Genre: Country
Nationality: American
Taken from: 4th compilation album Final Live Songs
Familiarity with artist: I've heard the odd song
Familiarity with album: None
Familiarity with track: None
Comments: What I know about this band can probably be confused with that movie about the James Gang. I'm pretty sure I've heard their music though. This is a pretty short track, just short of a minute and a half, and quite honestly it's nothing special. I'm sure they have better. I sure hope so.

Rating:

[Trollheart]

Title: "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis"
Artist: Tom Waits
Format: Solo artist
Year 1978
Genre: Blues
Nationality: American
Taken from: 6th album Blue Valentine
Familiarity with artist: Totally: one of my all-time favourite artists
Familiarity with album: Love this album; one of my favourites of his
Familiarity with track: Absolutely love this song
Comments: A Christmas carol for the realist, this fits perfectly into Waits' world, where Santas on street corners are more likely to hit you over the head and steal your presents than wish you good cheer, or jam a gun in your ribs and force you into a dark alley, and where the only snow in the yuletide season that matters to his characters is the type they shove up their noses. All that comes down their chimneys is soot (and maybe a hidden .38 Special if the tape comes loose) and as he growls himself in "Wrong Side of the Road", on the same album his advice: "Strangle all the Christmas carollers, scratch out all their prayers. Tie 'em up with barbed wire and push 'em down the stairs." Indeed. I've often felt that way.

The song is played entirely on a deceptively upbeat piano, framing the sad, dime-a-dozen story of a hooker who ostensibly writes to tell her ex-lover how great her life is, how well she's doing now. To make her point, this is written inside a (no doubt cheap) Christmas card. But at the end, she realises she can't go through with the lies she's been telling him, and comes clean as it becomes evident that all she's doing is trying to hit him up for bail, lawyer's fees, and anything else she can squeeze out of him. A sad tale, but you get the impression Waits' character just shrugs, crumples up the card and throws it in the fire.

Rating:

[Trollheart]

Title: "Teenage Wildlife"
Artist: David Bowie
Format: Solo artist
Year 1980
Genre: Art rock
Nationality: English
Taken from: 14th album Scary Monsters
Familiarity with artist: Duh
Familiarity with album: I know it well
Familiarity with track: I know it
Comments: Referred to later as "his last great album", this could be seen as Bowie's comeback album. After critically acclaimed but commercial flops in the Berlin trilogy of albums prior to this (Low, Lodger and Heroes) Bowie reminded the pop world he was still a force to be reckoned with. Scary Monsters returned him to the top of the album charts, and also gave him a number one hit single in "Ashes to Ashes".

This is perhaps not the greatest song on it, elements of the melody nodding back to the title track on Heroes, but come on: when has anything Bowie wrote ever been less than great? He's at full operatic voice here on this one, a slower, kind of mid-paced song, said to be a deeply personal song for the Thin White Duke, whichever of many interpretations put on it you choose to accept.

Rating:

[Trollheart]

Title: "Start Talking Love"
Artist: Magnum
Format: Band
Year 1988
Genre: Progressive Rock
Nationality: English
Taken from: 7th album Wings of Heaven
Familiarity with artist: Some; I've heard a few albums
Familiarity with album: Not this one, I don't think
Familiarity with track: I believe I have heard this as it was a single.
Comments: I have to admit, the title sounds like something the cops would say if they were interviewing a female suspect doesn't it? You certainly wouldn't mistake Bob Catley's grating, gruff voice for that of any other singer. It's pretty typical of the thing they put out, almost a mix of prog rock, pomp rock and AOR, very catchy but somewhat generic. As I say, if it wasn't for the distinctive voice of Catley this could really be any band operating in any of those three spheres. Decent song though.

That's it for 2024. See you in the new year!

Rating: