I can’t find enough time to listen to music at the moment. Don’t remember there being a better month for new albums since the 70’s, if then. Tomorrow sees the official release of Vampire Weekend’s stonking third album. Critics tend to say that the third album the key release in determining a band’s longevity, , and in the case of Modern Vampires Of The City, they’re probably right. There are also new releases by Primal Scream (their best for 20 plus years) and Rod Stewart, whose Time is his best album since the mid-70’s ie sincer I saw him with The Faces, 40 years ago this christmas, when they were on top of the world. Seriously. Have a listen to the song below if you…
This Easter, we managed to get away for a week in Lanzarote, a beautiful island in danger of being over-run by hotels offering inclusive food and drink deals. We stayed in a quiet bungalow at the far end of Playa Blanca, and ate well at local restaurants, swam a lot, visited the sights, and did loads of reading. Here are the books I finished while I was there. The Successor – Ismail Kadare This had shades of Lanzarote’s late Nobel winning author Jose Saramago (whose museum home we didn’t get to visit, as it’s not on the tourist trips and we didn’t want to rent a car), with a tough, allegorical flavour to a story that, nevertheless, gets at the reality of politics in contemporary…
Slightly extended version of my review from The Nottingham Post. This Grammy nominated singer-songwriter from Oklahoma is just 24 and comes with a head of critical steam plus a debut TV appearance on BBC2’s Later this Friday. Fullbright has a rich voice, a rootsy sound and a wide range of material that recalls songwriters as far apart as Ryan Adams and Randy Newman. In the intimate Glee Studio, he comes on solo with two new, promising songs, then is joined by veteran Oklahoma guitarist Terry Ware. The older man contributes tasty licks and whatever else is needed for the rest of the evening, creating a surprisingly full sound for a duo. About half of Fullbright’s debut album, From The Ground Up, is…
A slightly extended version of my review from the Nottingham Post. Richard Thompson’s ‘power trio’ is a distillation of what has been his core band of the last ten years, last seen here on the Dream Attic tour. That time, perhaps unwisely, he devoted the first 75 minutes to his new album. I bought eight tickets for that show, and none of the people I went with chose to come this time. Nuff said. Tonight, the band start with three songs from Electric (a stronger album) but play just three more new songs during the rest of the set, which blends the new with an astute selection of classics and interesting choices. The set list is clearly aimed at long time fans, some of whom…
I’d waited thirty-three years to see a Keith Jarrett solo show and forked out forty quid of xmas present money in order to join the South Bank Centre and get priority booking. This worked out well, as we arrived in time to check out the sold out Light Show at the Hayward Gallery, a stunning array of illuminated pieces and installations, that Southbank members get in to for free. There are notices everywhere about photography not being allowed, but these were frequently flouted. Before leaving, I took my partner for a return visit to Olafur Eliasson’s incredible night garden of 27 strobe lit (hence you couldn’t stay for long) water sculptures just before the gallery closed and we would have had the room to ourselves…