Spring Has Sprung...

...and I've managed to take a photograph that's worth posting! 

In my humble opinion anyway.

The spring flowers generally provide a happy hunting ground for my photography. Over the years I've made any of number of images of these purple crocuses. And this is certainly one of them. Given the colours in this image I couldn't bring myself to desaturate it, so here it is in all its glory.

The Sinking Ship

It's amazing how fortunes can change in the music business. A few years ago, Sigur Ros had the world at their feet. A track taken from their fourth album “Takk…” and used in a high profile BBC wildlife documentary brought them widespread public attention, which they capitalised on with a series of releases that welded Jonsi Brigardson's choirboy-on-helium vocals to an increasingly pop-folk oriented backing, eschewing the epic post rock of previous outings.

They went global, despite a general lack of any obvious rock star charisma and without any apparent concessions in their musical approach – they even continued to sing in Icelandic. They had, by all appearances, squared the circle of being successful on their own terms.

Then it all went horribly wrong. The past couple of years have seen plenty of product – live albums, re-recordings of older material, concert DVDs, etc. – but little new music. This seems to have been the outcome of intra-band strife and creative inertia resulting from that “we've conquered the world, so what’s next?” point in a global rock band's career. Jonsi released a solo album, and another record as part of the Jonsi and Alex duo.

Sigur Ros looked over, making the title of their last album (2008's “With a Buzzing in Our Ears, We Play Endlessly”) seem rather ironic.

Now, apparently against the odds, we have “Valtari”.

The sticker on the packaging announces this as “The new studio album…”. The truth is that it’s been pieced together from recordings made over the four years since “With a Buzzing..” was released. Bearing this in mind, the album is surprisingly coherent, perhaps too much so. There are eight tracks, none of which are shorter than five minutes or longer than eight and all proceed at roughly the same mid-tempo.

The whole things clocks in at around fifty-five minutes, which is probably a touch on the long side. By the time that you get to the final track, which is a something-and-nothing piano instrumental stretched wafer-thin across eight minutes, there is a feeling of exhaustion in the air, a sense that the band collapsed over the finishing line, having only just made it before their metaphorical legs gave way.

All that said, I like this record. I like it more, in fact, than “With a Buzzing..”, but I like it as a whole. None of the tracks here stand out– there is no “Festival” for example. But as an album it manages to conjure up a certain sense of something-or-other which is very attractive if you’re in the right frame of mind.

So, what if this was to be the last Sigur Ros album? I think it would be seen as a bit of a footnote, a gathering together of unreleased material – which it is in any case – and something of an anti-climax.

And if it isn't? Then, it's a stop gap, a pause whilst the band regroups.

From the band's website: “There are rumblings from within the band of a “hard left turn” in terms of what these changes might constitute. Suffice to say, for now it's set to be a compelling "watch this space" scenario.”

Quite.

Either way, “Valtari” doesn’t represent a brave new beginning for Sigur Ros. That is what the next album needs to be, if there is one.

The Hit Factory

Do we really need another Tindersticks album?

Twenty years ago, the band's first two albums – confusingly, both eponymous – were big, bold grab bags, full of ideas and tunes jostling for attention. The production values improved on the second (“II”, we'll call it), with what sounds like a full orchestra present on most tracks. The third, “Curtains” was shorter and more focused with the formula from “II” honed to a sharp point that should have brought them commercial success along with the critical plaudits.

It didn't. The follow-up “Simple Pleasure” and its companion piece “Can Our Love…?” adopted a back-to-basics approach, employing a band setup playing live in the studio. These albums, nine and eight tracks respectively, barely made the forty minute mark and included the odd cover version. There was a sense that the band was in retreat, their creative energy expended and the commitment to their distinctive dramatic, cinematic sound gone.

But it was with “Waiting for the Moon” that the quality control really slipped. Good tunes were fewer and further between and lyrically there were no new ideas, with themes from previous releases being rehashed. Key members left. Vocalist Stuart Staples moved to France and released a solo record. A “Best Of” collection came out. By 2005, Tindersticks was over.

Then, in 2008, “The Hungry Saw” appeared, made by Stuart and a few friends at his “Lucky Dog” studio in France. And it wasn't half bad, but was it a Tindersticks album? Despite the presence of a couple of the old ‘sticks players, what we had was essentially a Stuart Staples solo record in terms of its musical and lyrical vision.

But, when you have a fan-base to exploit, why not do so?

“Falling Down a Mountain” followed in 2010, with much the same setup. Now, in 2012 we have “The Something Rain”. There appears to be a pattern emerging…

Okay, so much for the background and the baggage, what about the record itself?

Well its business as usual, really. The opener, “Chocolate” is a spoken word piece, detailing a romantic encounter with a not-all-that-surprising twist at the end – it would like to be “My Sister” or “Ballard of Tindersticks” but just isn't. Elsewhere, the usual kitchen sink dramas unfold against a tasteful backdrop of guitar, piano, sax and organ with discrete strings and brass on some cuts. Nine tracks, fifty minutes and see you again in 2014.

There are a couple of standout tracks which are, for some reason, hidden away in the second half of the album. “Slippin' Shoes” and “Medicine” provide a welcome one-two, just when you're about to give the whole thing up as a dead loss. The final track is a pretty but inconsequential instrumental number. Elsewhere, weak melodies are hidden under layers of instrumentation (“A Night So Still”) or enhanced with perky backing vocals (“Show Me Everything”).

Having said all that, the trend here is a downward one. When “The Hungry Saw” was released, it represented a welcome return and there was a sense that the record operated as a whole, and may in fact have been intended as a concept album. There were even some good tunes. With its lack of hooks and lyrical invention there is a general sense that “The Something Rain” is a placeholder, a product of people turning the handles and cranking out another unit from the production line.

So, to answer the initial question: No, in 2012, we don’t need another Tindersticks album. Or, more accurately, we don't need this Tindersticks album.

Albums of the Year 2012

Its been a while since I've bothered to post anything. That's because I've had a bit of a fallow period photography wise and I've been preoccupied with other stuff. So, to ease myself back into it, I thought that I'd post something about music.

I'd always intended to write about music and my interest in it. Unfortunately, I have no talent for it, so I'm a fan rather than a performer. But I hope that, after thirty-odd years of listening to various types of - mostly popular - music, I have a reasonably well honed ear.

To give you an idea of my tastes, I'm going to post my list of favourite albums from the year just gone. There are a couple of them for which I've written full reviews and I'll post those over the coming days. And at some point I'll get back to posting about photography.

So, here's my list. I've provided links to the stuff that's (legally) free to download. Of the two here, the Plaistow album is a cracker which I would have been happy to pay good money for. I have netlabelism.com to thank for guiding me through the plethora of free-to-download music that's out there. In particular, I've downloaded a lot of music from Bunkai Kei records which is a bonkers Japanese netlabel, whose stuff is fun, but never going to light up the world.

But more of that in another post. For now, here are "Dave's Faves". Enjoy. 

Best Remix Album

Battles - "Dross Glop"; 

Joseph Nothing Orchestra -  "Super Earth Remixes";

Best Piano Jazz Album

The Bad Plus - "Made Possible";

EST - "301"; 

Tord Gustavson Quartet - "The Well";

Phronesis - "Walking Dark"; 

Plaistow - "Lacrimosa"; 

Best Post Rock Album

Efterklang - "Piramida"; 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "Don't Bend, Ascend"; 

Sigur Ros - "Valtari";

Best Singer Songwriter Album

Mark Eitzel - "Don’t Be a Stranger"; 

Sun Kil Moon - "Among The Leaves"; 

Susanna - "Wild Dog";

Best Doomy Gothic Album

Dead Belgian - "Love & Death"; 

Dead Can Dance - "Anastasis"; 

Tindersticks - "The Something Rain";

Best Electronica Album

Monolake - "Ghosts"; 

Moritz Von Oswald Trio - "Fetch";

Best Pop Album

Saint Etienne - "Words & Music";

Best Reissue

My Bloody Valentine - "EPs 1988 – 1991".