Albums 2014: January

 As promised, here is the first installment of 'the sound of 2014 according to Caroline'. This particular installment is rather long, because I was enjoying the challenge a lot. To give you a spoiler before you plough through it though, if I had to recommend one of these to listen to, I would say Jeff Buckley 'Grace'. I think I would also argue for Lou Reed 'Transformer' and Regina Spektor 'What we saw from the Cheap Seats'.

1)      Kasabian ‘Kasabian’ (2004).

This is a bit of a cheat really- if anyone recommended it, it was James, but I think I partly listened to it because I had been meaning to do so for at least five years. I quite enjoyed it, but it sounded exactly as I expected it to sound; not necessarily a bad thing, but no musical surprises here!

2)      Bastille ‘Bad Blood’ (2012).

This was recommended by Sammie B, and others I think. I surprised myself by enjoying it- I don’t think I’ve actually heard any of their songs (somehow) except ‘Pompeii’ which I listened to when everyone was raving and really didn’t enjoy that much. I listened to this before I’d resolved to record my thoughts, so sadly I can’t think of anything to say except that that I liked it.

3)      Fleetwood Mac ‘Rumours’ (1976)

Recommended by Sammie B and later Rob F. This I enjoyed, it didn’t meet my preconceptions in that it was more ‘poppy’ than I thought but I enjoyed the pop. I hadn’t realised that Songbird and Dreams were Fleetwood Mac originals, and I enjoyed hearing them in their original form.

4)      Regina Spektor ‘What we Saw from the Cheap Seats (2012)

Brodie P recommended Regina Spektor – I’m not sure he meant this album, but it was the first I found so I went for it. I’m not sure what I expected but I think I expected her to not sound distinctive. How wrong I was. I really liked this, I found it interesting, and really, really powerfully emotive- from song to song varying between uplifting and evocative of pain. It reminded me a bit of Duke Special in the storytelling themes and the piano-driven nature.

5)      Above and Beyond ‘Group Therapy’ (2011)

Nat M responded to my question ‘what should I listen to’ with ‘don’t ask me, I listen to trance’. So I said, ‘try me’. And this is what he suggested. I really enjoyed it; I was having an errand-y evening and it very much fitted with that level of engagement, rather than a proper ‘listen to’ album but that isn’t meant to do it down.

6)      Delta Rae ? (?)

Hannah G said Delta Rae, who I’d never heard of. My general feeling was that they were good, big anthems, but they didn’t particularly do anything for me.

7)      Pink Floyd ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ (1973)

I had already listened to this this year when Rob L told me I had to, because it is so well touted as an iconic album. As mentioned in my previous post, I have heard it before, but I couldn’t particularly remember much about it. I ‘got’ it more on this occasion, and I understand why it has its iconic status. I have to say I didn’t particularly love it, but I didn’t dislike it.

8) Lou Reed ‘Transformer’ (1972)

This came as somewhat of a surprise from Simon R, who I has as a dead cert on Springsteen, but again I had been meaning to listen to it since his death last year. All I wrote down was ‘Yes, I should definitely have heard this before’. Again, lacking in anything more profound. But if you haven’t heard it, GO NOW.

9)      Enter the Haggis ‘Gutter Anthems’ (2009)

Another one from Hannah G, and another I’ve only listened to once (this was before I made the ‘two listens each’ resolution.) I liked it, but again, it didn’t grab me with anything especially interesting.

10)  Emeli Sande ‘Our Version of Events’ (2012)

I can feel people recoiling that she’s on the same list as Pink Floyd- however, I did want to listen to some new, popular stuff, and I really like some of her releases (Clown, for example). Sadly, she’s released all the good bits. I got exceptionally bored in the middle of the album, and felt a bit like I was listening to All Saints (note, I loved All Saints, but I wouldn’t recommend them as a classic).

11) Tool ‘Lateralus’ (2001)

Meg C and it turns out Jamie T rave about this album. I listened to it on a Sunday afternoon after a run and fell asleep… and haven’t got around to trying again yet.

12)  Jeff Buckley ‘Grace’ (1994)

Pete G for this one, although other people didn’t mask their belief it was madly depressing and wonder at why I’d want to listen to it. Again though, as with Lou Reed- stonking. I was expecting all mellow, and yet there’s a great diversity in the tracks. I thought it was great on the first listen, and have listened several times since. Great album. Listen to it.

13)  The Pixies ‘Bossanova’ (1990)

For some reason I thought the Pixies were a 1960s band, so this was a bit of an education… Roberto suggested this one, and although there were bits I enjoyed. There was too much screaming for my liking, though.

14)  The Smiths ‘The Queen is Dead’ (1986)

I was really unsure of this on the first listening, but I did recognise a few songs. Another recommendation from Roberto… I got into it on the second listen however, it’s a very distinctive sound. There was some good upbeat sound though, and down to earth gritty lyrics.

15)  Greenday ‘Dookie’ (1994)

I enjoyed this, recommended by Jill. It reminds me of being a teenager. It also sounds as I expect Greenday to sound, and there were no surprises (after one listen). I did really like the song ‘Longview’.

16)  Jamie Cullum ‘Twentysomething’ (2003)

This was a bit of a cheat, on many levels, as it was one of my favourites as a teenager and so I was listening again, on my own recommendation. It’s still great.

17)  Panic! At the Disco ‘Pretty Odd’ (2008)

Recommended by a couple of people- Peter H and Simon T.  I didn’t write anything down at the time except that I recognised one of the songs. So it can’t have made a very strong impression.

18)  Cream ‘Disraeli Gears’ (1967)

Another education, since I hadn’t really heard of Cream and didn’t realise it was Eric Clapton. I listened to it driving, which I’ve discovered is always a good way to listen to albums. My main revelations were ‘wow, it’s short’ and ‘wow, it’s that riff’ (in 'Sunshine of your Love'). However, it turned out I really like the blues/rock overlap, and I enjoyed it almost equally but in very different ways the first and second time of listening.

19)  Frank Turner ‘England Keep My Bones’ (2011) & ‘Love Ire and Song’ (2008)

This was recommended by various people, and I’ve heard it celebrated before. The first few tracks of ‘England Keep My Bones’ generally felt like happy, pratting around with mates, summer festival music, and were generally enjoyable, but didn’t stand out as anything special. However, the more folky themes e.g. ‘English curse’ didn’t feel haunting enough for me; it felt it needed a bit more time, space and development. “One foot before the other” was different and therefore refreshing for about a minute. Generally some nice songs, but the angry no-God song just got my back up a bit.

As for the other album, ‘Love, Ire and Song’, I found less to dislike, and I thought I’d heard some of it before. I found him overly angry though, and I gave up at ‘Imperfect tense’.

20)  Neutral Milk Hotel ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ (1998)

I think both Simon and Sean recommended this. I surpirised myself by enjoying it- it was gentle, and normally I don’t `do’ gentle. On a second listen I found it a really mixed bag, however; some of it a bit too odd (‘Oh Comely’), some of it really great (‘Two Headed Boy’ and ‘Holland 1945’) but there were moments that sounded as if they were just wrong, although this could be my laptop having an off day. The jury is out on this album!

21)  This was another cheat re-listening to ‘Reel Big Fish’ and ‘Less than Jake’, because I went to see them (yes, I am a 16 year old boy…), and also ‘John Butler Trio’ because I’ve always loved ‘Ocean’ but never listened to a whole album.