Record Review – Blitzen Trapper 'American Goldwing'

BLITZEN TRAPPER

American Goldwing

Sub Pop 

www.subpop.com

The transformation of Portland, Oregon's finest Blitzen Trapper from purveyors of alternative-rock to cosmic american roots-rockers is finally complete on this, their fourth studio album for Sub Pop

From the country funkin'chug of opener 'You Might Find It Cheap' to the riffola stomp of 'Your Crying Eyes' it's clear that those on the lookout for the early ’70s spirit of cosmic americana will be well satisfied. Whilst some of the clever alt-pop twists of their previous albums have been eschewed to make way for good time vibes and twilight campfire contemplations (check out beautiful closer 'Stranger In a Strange Land' and the classic nashville-isms of 'Taking It Easy Too Long'), lead singer and principal songsmith Eric Earley shows that he's fully mastered the art of the classic American songwriters and the influence of Dylan, Tweedy & Robertson rings loud across these 13 tracks, most notably on the albums mellower moments.

However the band still show occasional flashes of their alt-rock roots (the riff heavy groove of 'Street Fighting Son' has echoes of 2007's Wild Mountain Nation album) which keep them on the right side of retro. Sure, some listeners may be left wondering if it's 1971 rather than 2011, but who really cares when it's done as well as this.

Paul Osbourne

Record Review – Mark Wirtz 'Lost Pets 2'

MARK WIRTZ

Lost Pets 2

PoppyDisc

www.poppydisc.com

The legendary singer/composer/producer/author and now stand-up comedian, Wirtz’ nearly 40-year career continues as he finally completes the project he abandoned in 1979 to raise his daughter (although there’s no indication if any of these tracks were recovered from the old tapes). Following a cinematically swelling, orchestral “welcome”, Wirtz begins with the title track which suggests that, among all his other accomplishments; he may also have been a prime inspiration behind Jeff Lynne’s production style, as this certainly sounds like a hodgepodge of everything from The Idle Race and The Move to ELO and those Wilbury characters! The charming innocence of ‘Sailors Sail, Children Play’ returns to Wirtz’ beloved Teenage Opera days as the king of Toytown Pop (Keith West’s ‘Excerpt from’ was recently selected as the Best Toytown song of all time), while ‘Retrolusion’ is a gorgeous Beatlesque ballad (a la ‘Julia’) that segues into a trippy, synth pop ditty.

Wirtz co-wrote the dreamy, treacle-toffee sweet love song ‘I Need To Fall In Love’ with Bob Lind and it’s an instant Valentine’s Day treat for lovers everywhere and you’ll be kicking up your heels and hitting the dance floors to fist pump along to the heart-pounding glam rocker ‘Sindee’. Gary Glitter…  the Rollers… Mud… The Sweet… they’ve got nothing on dear ol’ Wirtzie!

Not everything works – ‘Hey Lover’ and ‘For Just You’ are just too saccharine for even this old romantic, and ‘Body To Body,  Mind To Mind’ is a brain-pounding, percussive headache, but ‘When I Needed You’ is a catchy-as-hell, bubblegum winner (with a shuffling, disco backbeat that returns on ‘Party Nite’), and the loungy instro, ‘Teatime With Bamford’ will appeal to Mark’s Mood Mosaic fans (despite borrowing a little snippet from Clint Holme’s ‘Playground In My Mind’ to keep the ball rolling). So if you’re familiar with any phase of Wirtz’ illustrious career, Lost Pets 2 should satisfy, being as it incorporates elements of all of them.

Jeff Penczak

Record Review – Cliffie Swan 'Memories Come True'

CLIFFIE SWAN

Memories Come True

Drag City 

www.dragcity.com

Debut album from female quintet formerly known as Lights (new moniker is an attempt to distance themselves from Canadian artist Valerie Poxleitner’s project, although who or what a Cliffie Swan is remains a mystery). ‘Dream Chain’ suggests we’re in for an Olivia Newton-John country album, but ‘Soft And Mean’ about-faces into some interesting guitar and electronic effects to accompany the treacly-sweet harmonies. You’ll also find some grungy girl-group cooing (‘Yes I Love You’), a dreamy title track with some nice flute flourishes and omnipresent harmonies, an interesting a capella tribal chant (‘Home’), and, best of all, a killer, wah-wah infected, swaying arms akimbo closer, ‘Climb on Top’, whose lyrics thankfully avoid the sexual innuendos implicit in the title.

‘Full of Pain’ tries on some fancy guitar pyrotechnics before settling into a rather nifty Savoy Brown groove (think ‘Hellbound Train’), and ‘California Baby’ appropriates a familiar Grateful Dead riff for a suitably spacey effect. 

It’s all rather agreeable, but may be a tad too twee(n) for some, like an ephemeral, muslin gauze kite floating through a lavender-scented summer breeze, occasionally redirected by an icy updraft. Lights fans (and anyone with the entire Sarah catalogue in their collection) will probably love it. For others, it’s more syrupy, girl-next-door Bangles than slutty, party-loving Go Go’s; Fanny is also a good signpost (or the Millington sister’s subsequent Ladies Of The Stage release), but singer Sophia Knapp (whose solo single Drag City also recently released) really does remind me mostly of Olivia trying to rock out. Not necessarily a bad thing, just don’t come to the party expecting to spend a lot of time on the dancefloor. (And despite what you may have read elsewhere, they sound nothing like Buckingham-Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac!)

Jeff Penczak

Record Review – H. Hawkline 'The Strange Uses Of Ox Gall'

H. HAWKLINE

The Strange Uses Of Ox Gall 

Shape Records

http://hhawkline.bandcamp.com/

Huw Evans’ second LP, a follow-up to 2010’s equally endearingly lo-fi debut, A Cup Of Salt, is a wholly charming affair from start to finish. And if that doesn’t sound like a compliment then it should. Charming is good. Very good. Unlike its predecessor, this record provides a more song-based sojourn and it is in this respect that it represents, if not a leap ahead, then certainly a confident foot forward. The childlike almost opener, 'Ballast' rides on a wave of sing-song melodies and fairground folk-pop and paves the way for much of what is to come – songs that are simple but never simplistic filtered through snatches of field recordings that somehow manage to make everything seem incredibly personal and affecting. There are, of course, influences at work here, 'Funny Bones' starts off with a nod to Super Furry Animals and ends up swathed in echoes of latter-era Beta Band but, crucially, it never falls into lazy pastiche. It might be because it’s artfully done, it might be because it’s clever, it could even be because it stands as an equal in such company. In fact, such is the quality of this album It’s hard to pick out highlights but, you know, needs must and all that, so here goes… 'You Say You Love Me' is an absolute ear worm of a tune, and one that sounds so heartfelt that it could well have been recorded inside a ribcage. Meanwhile, 'Surf Pound' ebbs and flows with washes of emotion and a gently drifting melody so completely right that listening to it feels like welcoming back an old friend. The vinyl, limited to 150 copies, comes with a free download in the format of your choice and a rather lovely lino-cut print to boot. 

Chuck in a free EP for the first 75 orders and this is looking like an absolute steal. A huge recommendation. Go buy. 

Barney Harsent

Record Review – The Peryls 'A Man He Was To All The Country Dear' The Country Dear'

THE PERYLS

A Man He Was to All the Country Dear

Golden Hoof Records

www.theperyls.com

In 2009, the surprise nomination of then unknowns The Leisure Society for an Ivor Novello Award was a big enough story to be featured on BBC TV news. It was a heartening case of a minnows rubbing shoulders with multi-platinum selling megaliths, albeit briefly (Elbow eventually trampled over all the competition). Now we have Crystal Palace’s The Peryls, whose pastoral pop is often reminiscent of Leisure Society… sometimes even the wonderful Neil Hannon… ready to step out from the wings.

They’ve been around since 2007 and have released a couple of EPs, but their debut album has clearly had time spent on it.

Although the overall mood is autumnal and melancholic, the arrangements – a careful balance of folky acoustic guitars, strings, brass, keyboards, jazzy brushes etc – ooze so much class and prettiness they become strangely uplifting. It feels wrong when this is essentially an album of bleak love songs, cunningly disguised as tales "about murderers, lunatics, experiments, accidents and ghost"’. 'Black Waltz' is a tune that Ray Davies might be proud to call his own, whilst poppier moments such as 'Suffer In Silence', 'Those Lonely Eyes', 'Parliament Of Owls' and 'The One That Knows Your Name' are gems waiting to be discovered.

Buy now and listen on repeat in an empty churchyard somewhere.

Chris Twomey

Record Review – Thee Spivs 'Black And White Memories'

THEE SPIVS

Black And White Memories

Damaged Goods

www.damgedgoods.co.uk

London garage punk trio Thee Spivs have always displayed the spirit of ’77 in their sound since appearing on the scene a few years back, and with their second album nothing much has changed. The songs are still two-minute energy spikes, the choruses are still instantly memorable, the powerhouse guitars demanding you jump round the room with abandon.  City life, girlfriends, work, school, boredom, and escapism are all themes for frontman Ben Edge and his effusive self-deprecating humour. If you want original music look elsewhere, but if you want 14 punk nuggets played with Billy Childish-like passion then sign up here.

Phil Istine

Record Review – Meg Baird 'Seasons On Earth'

MEG BAIRD

Seasons on Earth

Drag City 

www.dragcity.com

New Jersey native Baird is a member of the fertile Philadelphia acid folk scene that includes Sharron Kraus, Helena Espvall, Greg Weeks, Fursaxa, and Fern Knight (she recorded an album with the first two and is in Espers with Espvall and Weeks). Seasons On Earth (not to be confused with Shindig! writer Jeanette Leech’s bible on acid and psychedelic folk, Seasons They Change) is Baird’s follow-up to her 2007 debut solo album, Dear Companion, although this time she wrote most of the material herself. ‘Babylon’ opens in a warm, acoustic setting, like a strolling minstrel singing love songs under your window at night. With the false start and off-mic remark at the beginning of ‘Stars Climb Up The Vine’ it’s clear that we’re in for a very relaxed listening session. The songs unravel slowly – half the tracks top six minutes – allowing Baird the opportunity to let her fingers and mind wander aimlessly, pausing here and there for a stray lyric or a subtle chord change.

The recordings are so close you feel like you are sitting in the living room a few feet away from Baird as she whisper-sings her tender folk ballads. The rolling slide guitar on ‘Share’ and ‘The Finder’ is straight out of Sweethearts Of The Rodeo, but this is not Ronstadt or Emmylou tripping the light fantastic by attempting to add their voices to the acid-folk canon. Baird’s vocals float effortlessly around the room, with the occasional harmony thickening the sound – like molasses slowly enveloping the listener.

True, some of the songs sound alike, such that the transition from one to the next is indiscernible (the Nick Drake-ish ‘Even Rain’ beautifully segues into ‘Friends’ such that the two songs almost become one), so Baird wisely tosses in a few covers to break up the (mono)tone. And what selections they are: in addition to the aforementioned ‘Friends’ from Mark-Almond’s second album, there’s an unrecognisably intimate reading of House Of Love’s ‘Beatles And The Stones’ that uncovers new meanings in Guy Chadwick’s lyrics, particularly as sung from a woman’s standpoint. Baird makes the song her own, and one can imagine the impact these disparate groups had on her decision to become a musician.

Like the passing of the seasons that inspired the title, the album flows by slowly and you may find your own mind wandering through your musical library, hearing Baird’s inspirations for these songs – from the gentle folk of Drake, Jansch, and Jackson C. Brown through to the more traditional British folk efforts of Trees, Pentangle, and Fairport. And if you close your eyes and imagine you’re hearing a long, lost tale from Celia, Jacqui, or Sandy floating on the wind, then you’ll agree that this is one of the best “female” folk albums you’ve experienced in a long time.

Jeff Penczak