Sunday 15 January 2017

The Listening Club - 15th January 2017

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing fine. Indeed, it's good to be back after a very enjoyable extended break, with a wide-open year ahead indeed, even if staying in and peering out the window clutching a glass of wine seems to be the current order of the season, although coats and boots will be reached for soon, as we head off to Haarlem later this week to break our 2017 gig-duck in the company of Einsturzende Neubauten. Set the bar high, I say...

Last week we shook off the debris of 2016 in fine style with this year's #festivevortex, which as always did everyone proud, a mighty selection of tunes - many thanks to everyone that contributed, and double plus thanks to the man @JimMcCauley for assembing and hosting the shebang. Glorious stuff, for sure.

Back to the regularly scheduled, way back in the mists of time @101retstum was left holding the frisbaton, and here he is with the first intro of the year...

"I've no idea how long it is since my last pick on LC. I'm pretty sure it's well over a year. In all that time do I expect the ghost of Lana Del Rey to have disappeared, taking the cries of "Oh Gareth!" with it? Of course not! No matter, it's actually quite liberating.

My choice today is from following a similar instinct to the one that brought on LDR - a sudden impulse telling me that this was the right thing to pick and stuff it if it goes badly.  Musically it's very different though.

I think this happens a lot with artists. A new artist explodes onto the scene with a new and exciting album that receives critical acclaim for exploring new ground, yada yada yada. Then the second album comes along, and everyone finds it a bit disappointing because they were expecting more of the same, and while it has its similarities it's not really what they wanted, and it may have lost some of the production values because it was rushed out as a successor to the first amazing album, etc.

This is one of those second albums. And like a lot of such second albums it's actually better than the first. Partly because the first is over-hyped and played and re-hashed to death, and partly because the drop in production values somehow make it more authentic, and partly because it just manages to be different while still following the same basic format of its predecessor. I find it makes good listening for when I'm trying to be creative, but obviously that could be just me.

If you want a drink to go with this I'd suggest a strong real ale. If you want cake I'd suggest a local speciality. If you have a pipe to wave around while listening, that might help too, regardless of whether it actually has tobacco in it.

I hope you enjoy these 40 minutes, but just in case I will be opening a sweep on how long it takes for me to get an Oh Gareth. But only just in case."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here (right-click-save-as) and the spoiler-ridden HearThis stream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT!

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