ALBUM REVIEWS

U2 - SONGS OF SURRENDER

SOS

For twenty five years I have had my own U2 playlist called Chilled. I made it up from non album tracks, CD single b-sides, tracks from compilations, songs from Passengers and the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack. It’s a favourite. If any of these forty Songs Of Surrender had been released on such albums I would have snapped them all up for a revisioning of Chilled.

Yet, I am still not sure about Songs Of Surrender. 

If I go back to November in the Olympia as Bono did his one man show, a mix of theatre, memoir reading and song, I was so excited at the possibility of hearing the songs Bono sang just gently accompanied by Irish musicians Kate Ellis on cello, Gemma Doherty on harp and keys and voice, all orchestrated by Jacknife Lee. 

But… Songs Of Surrender is not that album.  

Instead word broke that we were getting 40 U2 songs, cleverly starting with One and ending with 40, stripped back to what matters, as Covid taught us, and re-fashioned by Edge. I have not been sure what to make of Songs Of Surrender since it was talked about, through a few single releases and even in the days after arrival. It is a lovely packaged thing (I got 4 black vinyl). 

But…

Don’t get me wrong. I am fascinated by it, intrigued by why they did what to what song. 

I am loving Whose Gonna Ride Your White Horses, If God Will Send His Angels and the Edge lead vocal Peace on Earth and a little bowie-like quiver in his voice. The fragile piano intro of Stories For Boys and the looking back rather than forward of Out Of Control. The operatic drama of Sometimes We Can’t Make It On Our Own makes sense.

I am not convinced by the new lyrics, even more they add theological nuance. That’s what I normally love. The newer songs seem the most successful on first listens which might be obvious as even Bono would say that they have learned to write actual songs as they have matured.

So my jury is still out. Indeed, I am not sure what the jury is deciding. 

Maybe I just wanted Songs Of Ascent that we’ve been waiting for for too long instead.

Maybe I preferred the Bono Book Tour versions.

Maybe having heard their BBC Radio 2 Piano Room version of Abba's SOS (get why that song?!?!? - clever!) I thought a Bono & Edge covers record would be more fascinating. Imagine their Life On Mars? 

Maybe 40 re-imagined songs are just too much all at once.

Maybe with months to listen here and there, to let songs marinate, let them contrast and compare, and then go back to what was originally there. Maybe this will be a treasure trove of wonder.

Maybe.  


THE BEATLES - PLEASE PLEASE ME - 60 TODAY!

Please Please me

The Beatles' debut album Please Please Me. 60 years old today.

It is hard to look over our shoulders and see Please Please Me on the day of its release and realise how rebellious, raucous and revolutionary The Beatles’ first LP was. 

When we think of rock n roll we go back maybe 7 years earlier to Elvis and Heartbreak Hotel, Jailhouse Rock and Blue Suede Shoes. For sure that was a beginning. The beginning that influenced The Beatles. 

However, that beginning had taken a great dilution. Elvis joined the army and came out a film star and balladeer, almost part of the establishment.

1962’s big hit was Frank Ifield’s I Remember You and though Elvis was still knocking out hits Good Luck Charm was no All Shook Up, nor was Cliff Richard’s Young Ones exactly Livin Doll.

It is easy to see Please Please Me, that four Liverpool unknowns laid down in just about a day, as a second birth for rock n roll. Just a year later they would play The Ed Sullivan Show in New York and thereafter most of our future rock heroes like Petty, Springsteen, Joel and Hynde cited this night as a changing of the world.

First up on Please Please Me was the strong original I Saw Her Standing There with its driving beat and sensual lyrics blowing out all the early sixties cobwebs. This was a new and fresh wind blowing in from years of rehearsing in Hamburg clubs. Over the next months and short few years it would whip into a storm that changed the entire world.

Please Please Me is a template of what the band would do on their early records. A few Lennon and McCartney songs of their own alongside rock n roll covers they’d worked up in all their gigs over the past 4 years. One of those covers Twist and Shout would become a staple song in the live set, almost made their own.

As I look back, I got the album as a 14 year old in 1976 when I swapped a load of singles for Please Please Me, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale and Help. By then The Beatles were history, history as in over and history as in part of actual modern history. 

As I look back at it now it is amazing that Please Please Me, I Saw Her Standing There and Do You Want To Know A Secret were on that record. Three sure signs of the talented songwriters within. The energy, the positivity as Steve Turner would later call it, was also there in abundance. 

Oh it would not be long until The Beatles had hone the raw musical gifts on show on their debut, would warrant more time in the studio, and would make albums so much better in every way than Please Please Me. 

Today, however, 60 years from its release I look at it very fondly. Looking ahead as it hit the record stores, who knew. Looking back, it seems inevitable. Something had been set free, a black and white world went colour.   


DOUG GAY - ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE

Doug Record 2

For a musical template on his second solo record, Doug Gay has jumped back over his debut, Life After Death, to a sound more in keeping with his days as front man in Calvin’s Dream and Candy Says. Dreamed Of A Man and Storms are driven along with guitars. Q Blues then seems to shift pace before duelling guitars wrestle in the Qoloheth.

The centre of the record shifts, revealing the different textures that Gay can conjure in. The atmospheric That Night the Snow Fell and the heart break ballad Never Thought That You Would Leave. By album’s end, however, we are back in the early 90s with Your Face a song that would have fitted perfectly on Calvin’s Dream’s Fanatical record.

Indeed Your Face maybe best reveals Doug Gay’s uniqueness. Who else would even try to put his two loves, for deep theology and  The Velvet Underground and squeeze it all into 3 minutes. Bono dreams! 

Even thirty years ago, in his days as front man in Glasgow garage band Calvin’s Dream, Doug Gay was talking about his songs as ways to wrestle with his Protestant identity. Growing up in a Plymouth Brethren Church and ending up as a minister in the Church of Scotland, he has much to struggle with. 

This upbringing certainly gives Doug plenty to interrogate both in his own bruised soul as well as in theology and spiritual outworking. On The Old Gospel Hall he takes a nostalgic remembrance and finds the crux:

 

Oh the threat of death – and the gift of life

that you advertise, you advertise

but there is more - more to life than this 

I realise I realise

 

The follow on track When My Ship Comes In might be my personal favourite. Doug and I have a mentor called Andy Thornton and we both love a song of Andy’s called Stone Cold Winter. Had I still a radio show I’d play these two songs together. Songs of the wild open spaces of life in all its fulness:

 

Something wild enough to want

something strong enough to trust

something deep enough to love

something free enough to follow after

 

I have found myself in my car this past week, singing aloud to that chorus, claiming it as my own raison d’etre. The catchiest personal mission statement ever.

Which is where my Surmising concluded. Everyone of these songs are so full of ear candy. Wonderful melodies and choruses. New but familiar. I looked back and realised that I shouldn’t be surprised. If the Candy Says song One Track Heart had been played on the stage of CBGBs in the late 70 and if Calvin’s Dream’s What Kind Of Love had been on any of REM’s early 90s records Doug Gay would be all over our radios.

And I haven’t even mentioned that voice. Huge, warm, emotional, evocative and inviting… perfect for both the pastoral and the prophetic and for songs like these.

 

BUY ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE HERE


INHALER - CUTS & BRUISES

194821-inhaler-cuts-bruises

It is ever impossible to listen to Inhaler without at least a thought about U2. Elijah Hewson is following in the family business, never harder when your dad is the front man for the biggest band on the planet. 

The first thing I am thinking about the comparison is how confident a young rock vocalist Elijah Hewson is. His father was stretching to find his voice, confident that he and his band mates had found a God given vocation and they were on the cusp of destiny. 

Elijah sounds in control with a near Bowie cool. With these guys, it’s not about who they are going to be but about who they are now. 

Inhaler have followed their debut record speedily and with a big dollop of aplomb. It is not a heavy sound but punctuated guitar riffs and bass rolls give Hewson’s songs of love and heart ache and healing and hope.

You can see a crowd swoop to the early drive and pout of Just To Keep You Satisfied and Love Will Get You There but there is swoon too in If You Are Gonna Break My Heart and Perfect Storm. Dublin In Ecstasy will have a home crowd bouncing.

Sam Fender is perhaps closest to what Inhaler are doing out there. Personally I am not sure that Fender has the finesse of Inhaler but he does have a content that has a social resonance and makes his songs more memorable as a result. Young Hewson might learn from his dad in that department.

Apparently Fender has suggested that both acts are alternative pop. You can see why. Nothing experimental or future-esque, just great songs, catchy melodies and a bouncing beat. 

Very good. 


LUKA BLOOM - WAVE UP TO THE SHORE

Luka-Bloom-Wave-cover-800px

Every so often when things come together, often times as if by happenstance, I will break into “You couldn’t have come at a better time… not if you tried…” It seems appropriate.

On occasion I have found myself heading up a high elevator in O’Hare Airport, just off a flight from Dublin and as it ascends I am singing:

 

In the city of  Chicago, 

As the evening shadows fall, 

There are people dreaming 

Of the Hills of Donegal. 

 

Every single time. 

As I sat holding the hand of my dying father, I sensed a change in his breathing. I sat down and started singing:

 

The man is alive

Alive and breathing

It's taken me so long to see

The man is alive

Alive and breathing

The man is alive in me

 

I then read some words from Psalm 73 as he drifted away from us and into the eternal.

Three songs. That I have used as soundtrack songs. Like working songs for my life.

They are all from the same writer. They are all Luka Bloom. Recently I realised that of all my favourite songwriters it might be Luka that I am using most!

Luka Bloom, Irish songwriter, Christy Moore’s brother, and who for my money is the song laureate of the west of Ireland has just released Wave Up To The Shore, 51 songs over 3 CDs. The half century of songs starts with the title track, the first one he ever wrote in 1972 and brings you right through his career; from 16 to 61.

This time the songs are not remixed as so many such packages are. No, everyone of the songs was re-recorded in the summer of 2022. 

I remember in the mid 90s being at a Luka Bloom gig in the Limelight in Belfast and thinking how Bloom made one guitar sound like an entire band. Just one guitar. It rocked. It was loud. One guitar.

Wave Up To The Shore is again Luka with just his guitar but it doesn’t sound as big and brash as that night in 1994. That guitar is given a plethora of sounds again though now it is the sensitivity and dexterity of Luka’s playing that catches me ear, as lyrical in the musical impact as the poetry of Bloom’s brilliant songwriting. 

When Riverside broke Luka to me and the world in 1990 he was an Irishman living in New York City. Since then the mountains, bog lands and sea coast of his native Ireland are most likely to be in the songs. Oh there are other places. Place is important to this artist whether Europe, Australia or America. However, I am most in love with his Irishness. If you want the politics listen to brother Christy. If you want to touch the peat at the heart of our wee island then Luka’s the artist.

Luka has left a few of his best songs out of this collection - another song I used in preaching A Seed is Sown, Sunny Sailor Boy and a funny favourite An Irishman In China Town to name but three - but that is a petty gripe.

Now, already a reader has said that without Luka using streaming outlets you cannot taste, so is it worth it even for tracks already in your collection. My answer was threefold yes because:

  1. These are all new recordings
  2. You get all the songs in the same moment, stripped of production "moments"
  3. We are supporting an artist and £20 for 50 tracks is not outrageous. Try buying a ticket to U2 in Las Vegas!

 

BUY HERE - https://www.lukabloom.com

Luka Bloom is playing Fitzroy on May 18th 2023 - BUY TICKETS HERE


BOB DYLAN - FRAGMENTS; TIME OUT OF MIND SESSIONS (Bootleg Series 17)

Fragments

Like Paul McCartney before him, Bob Dylan wanted justice for an album that he thought was mixed badly. McCartney has had a few chances to heal Let it Be. Let's hope Bob is happy with Fragments.

As with all these new mix projects there is a new vitality and sharper clarity to the instrumentation. You can hear lots of lovely little musical embellishments whether organ, guitar, pedal steel or harmonica previously lost in Lanois’ swampy mix. 

Best of all is Dylan’s vocals. This is Bob Dylan’s voice at its very best. This is where he is not a bad voice but the best voice. This is where it is a stunning instrument, articulate as the poetry of these songs deserved. 

The box is another Bootleg Series extravaganza of goodies. I have returned to being a vinyl buyer but for box sets I am going to always buy the affordable CD to get as many songs as possible. This one is so worth it. Every song is of the sharpest quality.

Yes, perhaps there are fewer different songs to those that made the original Time Out Of Mind but everything here is wonderful. All the alternative takes with their different keys and tempos seem finished and would have been ready to have come off the bench had the final mix selected not been used. 

As well as various versions of songs we get an entire live set of the songs which are recorded with some of Dylan’s best bands over the past 25 years, revealing other hues Dylan wanted to throw across the shades of these words.  

Fragments of treasure. 

My original review:

‘Goodness me!’ is the gold bar in the currency of superlatives that my students use and it aptly describes Bob Dylan's first album of new songs since the tragic Under the Red Sky in 1990. That album was particularly disappointing in the light of the quality of the Daniel Lanois produced Oh Mercy of 1989 and perhaps the omens were already visible when the news broke that that partnership had been reunited. 

This is the long awaited follow up, not a carbon copy by any means more a brother with a different personality but the same genes. It is rougher, bluesier and the most wondrous addition is the tinkle of honky tonk piano in the most beautiful places.

Dylan himself has said that the album is about feel rather than thought and performance rather than lyric. There is certainly a grain of truth in that comment and there is no doubt that this album may be less quoted in the more academic studies of Dylan's cannon. 

However, it seems to me that that kind of comment is relative. The writing of the best literature of the century does bring with it high expectations. Had this been a new Dylan on the block many would have been pretty impressed with the content here. 

Yes, the brooding and bleak music does scream to our emotions in it's gentle moody way but there is much here too for the Dylanophile who studies lyrics in Bible Study ways.

"It's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there" is perhaps the linchpin phrase of the whole affair. Mortality, heartache and disillusionment spills out like blood on the tracks in a way that will recall the 1973 classic album of that name. For sure Dylan is Love Sick - "I'm sick of love/I wish I'd never met you/I'm sick of love/I'm trying to forget you" - and there seems little doubt that his sickness is with the romantic kind but the she here would seem to represent life itself and Dylan seems to have been jilted by all that he once saw as his lover; the poetry and the musical backdrop are of a man at the very end of his tether. And yet it is not dark yet and Dylan still sees glimpses, tiny and all as they are.

There is a lot of looking back and where in the past life was a jet plane that moved too fast here we have a life that is dragging - "Yesterday everything was going too fast/ Today it's moving too slow (Standing In The Doorway)" - and though the Never Ending Tour has kept Dylan travelling it has only been his feet and not his soul - "I know it looks like I'm moving but I'm standing still". Suicidal stuff which sadly seems to be where the best art comes from but there are still inklings of hope and indeed maybe the candle of the Born Again late 70s and early 80s still flickers - I know the mercy of God must be near (Standing In The Doorway)- But I know that God is my shield/ and he won't lead me astray(Til I Fell In Love With You). I do find it fascinating that when he sang a song around lines like those it was deemed sell out to the only religion deemed uncool but he throws in little traces and no review has mentioned them. If faith kicks in as a refuge in times of trouble perhaps this is a more truely Biblical work than saved.

This is not a 56 year old trying to be a 21 year old. Dylan is not competing with the Gallaghers for the teenage minds of the generation. One of our problems is in thinking he should be. Dylan still fits into the culture of Rock'n Roll, even though this is folk and blues which lived way before Presley. Rock N Roll is now forty years old and getting to that stage where those who are still alive are writing songs about old age. This is a new thing, being old. Certainly this is a mature piece of work and perhaps, as Freewheelin was a classic statement about being 22, this is another classic lesson from the book of growing up and old and the issues that lie therein.

Goodness me!

Yes. We thought Bob was old as a 56 year old. I just saw him in November as an 81 year old! Interesting that I am now 5 years older than Dylan was in 1987 and perhaps listening rather differently. 


THE BUSK - IN AID DUBLIN SIMON COMMUNITY

Busk

The Busk has been a Christmas tradition in Ireland for some time. Our favourite Irish singers home for the family season get together on Grafton Street. They sing a few carols and other songs, gather a very chuffed crowd and raise a stack of money for the homeless.

At the heart of it was Glen Hansard, a man who started his career as a busker, starred in Once as a busker and has this ability to make it feel like he is still busking when he is actually in a large venue with a finely tuned band. 

This unique vinyl record is a more compered version of the Busk. For it the artists entered Dublin’s St Patrick’s Cathedral  over two evenings, the 19th & 20th of December 2021.

The set list is a wee treasure trove of rarities. Bono does an emotionally raw version of Running To Stand Still. Liam O’Maonlai is joined by Glen Hansard, Damian Rice and the Busk Choir in a rousing yet hymnal version of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young. The Frames give Fitzcaraldo another lash. Damian Rice puts his arms around Glen Hansard & Rónan O’Snodaigh for Astronaut.

If these are the stars that might tease you to buy then let me encourage you that the new artists are as vital players here. Lisa O’Neill gives us a pre release lullaby on Goodnight World, Big Love give a buskers band feel to Lily and Laura Quirke, half of Lemoncello shows us why she is a natural to collaborate with Belfast’s Joshua Burnside, equally quirky on In The Half Light.

There’s even more. The spoken word adds a lovely tone and a sense of weightiness in both the art and the content. Adam Mohammed and Manchán Magan bring their spoken word power before in the closing meander Tá’n t’Ádh Liom our street poet laureate Stephen James Smith brings us right up to Christmas with a personal, societal and indeed even Biblical reflection, sharp and prophetic.

These must have been great nights. They make for a great record. Beyond that it is not just good but good for something as profits go to the Simon Community!

 

Get the record here https://www.thebuskrecord.com


STOCKI'S TOP 40 FAV RECORDS of 2022

RGH 2

 

40. PAUL BRADY  -  MAYBE SO

Good to see Brady back to his crafted best.

39. DERMOTT KENNEDY - SONDER

The ladies in my life like a bit of Dermott and I was very happy with Dreamer and Better Days bringing us out of Covid.

38. MIKE CAMPBELL & THE KNOBS - EXTERNAL COMBUSTION

It'll never fill the gap his mate Tom Petty left but it still has the quality mark!

37. COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS - LOOSE FUTURE

I should like this woman more.

36. DR JOHN - THINGS HAPPEN THAT WAY

The doctor ends his career with an old time religion gospel sound. Perfect.

35. BLACKIE & THE RODEO KINGS - O GLORY

This Canadian super group always bring us a little country blues swing with food for thought in fine songwriting.

34. RUTH MCGINLEY - AURA

Had the pleasure of interviewing Ruth at 4 Corners Festival 2022 when this album with Neil Martin was in the planning. Irish airs in Ruth's classical style. Of course it is beautiful!

33. WALTER MARTIN - THE BEAR

A discovery this summer. Minimal and most gorgeous. 

32. MIKO MARKS & THE RESURRECTORS - FEEL LIKE GOING HOME

Gary Burnett will want this top 10... and it is a fresh gospel sound for sure.

31. THE DELINES - THE SEA DRIFT

The Delines go all literary.

30. THE LONE BELLOW - LOVE SONGS FOR LOSERS

Discovered late in the year or this might have been higher. Nice shifts of pace in their songwriting and  their harmonies 

29. DARDEN SMITH - WESTERN SKIES

Ricky Ross played this on his Another Country show and I got back into Darden whose album with Boo Hewerdine back in 1989 I fell in love with Janice too.  Turn The Other Cheek was on all my Playlists this year. An accompanying photo book too.

28. MICHAEL MCDERMOTT - ST. PAUL’S BOULEVARD

My mate Gar tipped me off to this new release from a man I'vevbeen following since around 1990 and I got Santa to bring me Michael’s memoir too! 

27. MATT MCGINN - TIME WELL SPENT

The first McGinn record that I really resonated with. The title track with Aoife Scott is up there with my songs of the year. 

26. ANTHONY TONER - THE BOOK OF ABSOLUTION

Sprawling double album about loss of parents, Anthony has the lyricism to dig deep in the bone heart. 

25. JOHN MELLENCAMP - STRICTLY A ONE-EYED JACK

Started the year reading Mellencamp’s biography and listening to this stripped down wisdom of the years.

24. JOAN SHELLEY - THE SPUR

Lovely acoustic songwriting. Hypnotic.

23. LUKE SITAL-SINGH - DRESSING LIKE A STRANGER

He rarely lets you down. 

22. AMERICAN AQUARIUM - CHICOMACOMICO

A little further into country than Isbell but just as catchy. Cathartic on this one.

21. THE WELCOME WAGON - ESTHER

Little quirky Bible meditations in the Sufjan tradition. 


STOCKI'S FAV RECORDS OF 2022 - #10-1

Nutini

10. RICKY ROSS - SHORT STORIES VOL 2

Second volume of his solo, mainly just  vocal and piano, series. Alongside his memoir it was full of family, place and faith.

 

9. MARCUS MUMFORD - self titled

A tough but important listen as Mumford confronts his abuse as a child. It's cathartic but also reaches to forgiveness. Raw.

 

8. BRIAN HOUSTON - BRIAN HOUSTON

For thirty years I have longed for a Houston unplugged record. Here it is at last with a mixture of new songs and some old ones rearranged. 

 

7. R S ROWEN - BATTERIES AND ELECTRICAL

Pelvis frontman from back in the day releases his debut solo record and what a college of sounds and influences it is. Melodic and crafted too!

 

6. ANAIS MITCHELL - ANAIS MITCHELL

She has two records in the top 6 for goodness sake. Mitchell's first new studio record in 8 years, it is an intoxicating set of songs.

 

5. THE HEAD AND THE HEART - EVERY SHADE OF BLUE

I am a big fan and this is the album that touched my tastes most in a while. 

 

4. PAULO NUTINI - LAST NIGHT IN THE BITTERSWEET

An ambitious album from the Scottish boy. I wasn't much of a fan before but this one rocked and bluesed up his songwriting wonderfully.

 

3. MARY GAUTHIER - DARK ENOUGH TO SEE THE STARS

One of my favourite songwriters and this is as good a collection as she has released. Reading the memoir alongside made it even more incredible.

 

2. PJ MOORE & CO - WHEN A GOOD DAY COMES

A former member of the Blue Nile, PJ Moore,  hooks up with my friend Malcolm, adds the voice of Mike McKenzie and fills the gap left by his former band. Lush and gorgeous.

 

  1. BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN - ROLLING GOLDEN HOLY

Anais Mitchell again in her supergroup with Eric D Johnson and Josh Kaufman. I had missed their debut but when Jonny Clark tipped me off on Twitter I took a lash. How wonderful! Hypnotic melodies with clever lyrics. Intriguing and sublime throughout!


STOCKI'S FAV RECORDS OF 2022 - # 20-11

First Aid Kit

20. MEMORIAL - MEMORIAL

My daughter, Jasmine, tipped me off after they supported Amber Run. Couple of young English men sounding like a 21st century Simon and Garfunkel…

 

19. DEL AMITRI - FATAL MISTAKES; B-SIDE AND OUTTAKES

Used to always love Del Amitri b-sides. With no singles to put them on in 2022 they just put them straight onto album. Brilliant!

 

18. JANIS IAN - THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE LINE

If this is this the legend’s last record, it was a beauty to leave us with.

 

17. FONTAINES DC - Skinty Fia

The Dublin boys with deep groove and poetry to stimulate the head too.

 

16. HANNAH WHITE - ABOUT TIME

Supporting Ricky Ross this woman’s voice caught me out and Car Crash and Broken Bird show a songwriting flair that comes from an open heart.

 

15. RORY NELLIS - WRITTEN AND UNDERLINED

In the first half of the year this was my car soundtrack of choice. Articulate songwriting with a rock half volley from a Belfast man growing into his craft.

 

14. FIRST AID KIT - PALOMINO

Those Swedish harmonies. Loved particularly White Horses II and Angel, quoting the latter in a recent sermon.

 

13. JULIAN LENNON - JUDE

I follow Julian on Instagram and have grown to love him as a human. The record was a bonus and has some very sublime moments.

 

12. COWBOY JUNKIES - SONGS OF RECOLLECTION

Margo and the boys interpret some classic songs, their Five Years of Bowie’s, Neil Young’s Don’t Let It Bring You Down and a very early go at Dylan’s I’ve Made Up My ind To Give Myself To You particularly good. Achingly beaut.

 

11. CHAGALL GUEVARA - HALCYON DAYS

Waited almost half my life for this follow up. No one rocks out with such pure melodies and then adds such cleverness in lyric. No one like them. Wish there were thirty years of records in between!