I wasn’t really in the mood for this, first thing. But I persisted and gave it a spin. It’s all very familiar. The beats build up, the bass kicks in, you go apeshit crazy.
It’s not exactly a home listening album. You need to be mashed off your head and stumbling into a ditch to really appreciate. Sadly those days are long behind me.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
I struggled to get my head around this. It’s more rock than punk, even taking a few unwelcome steps towards goth.
What a racket from a bunch of young Herberts. It’s a sludge of an album that sounds as though it’s stuck in time.
I’ve never got on with Gary Gilmore’s Eye. Sixth form humour at best.
⭐ ⭐
An album that makes you want to BOOZE and reflect in equal measures. The transition from Stay with Me to Debris captures this perfectly. An extra star for only being thirty six minutes long - the ideal time for any rock ‘n’ roll album.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
I gave Weller’s 22 Dreams another play first thing this morning. It all came about after a particularly vivid dream.
Hey! I know. Let’s play 22 Dreams at 5am to get me through the first work shift of the day. Job’s a good ‘un, etc.
I absolutely rinsed this album when it was first released at the start of the summer of 2008. It pretty much defined that period for me. I had to force myself to stop listening to this and nothing else as the year drew to a close.
Seventeen years have somehow passed between then and now. 22 Dreams is still an outstanding, mixed up album.
There’s so many disparate parts that somehow all hang together around the theme of a dream; Northern Soul, psychedelia, Krautrock. It really shouldn’t work, but it does.
It reminded me of listening to the White Album from start to finish on the punishing sound system at the Colchester Arts Centre last week. So many different styles, what a racket. But a bloody glorious racket at that.
22 Dreams started the resurgence period for Weller. Every other album since then has been outstanding. No bad feat, considering he delivers pretty much each and every summer.
The album carries itself, rewarding you when you reach the end. It sounds like a chore, but it really isn’t. It’s like coming to the season close of a boxset that you’ve binged. You’re left wanting more.
A lot of crap is written about Weller. Erm, just read the above.
But time and time again, he comes up with the goods. His back catalogue is now looking pretty much unrivalled in terms of UK artists. He’ll leave quite a legacy.
BUZZING OFF ME TITS, innit 💥
Clever songs, but never too knowingly. Prefab Sprout have always navigated the fine line between polished and smart arse when it comes to their craft.
Appetite is a statement alone; When Loves Breaks Down is lush.
Overall the album does well to capture that transition from early 80’s indie pop to the arrival of the CD audience. It has a delicate touch, but still sounds professional.
Very decent.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Blimey. I missed this one: the Betas are back playing together live once again. There was a couple of Roundhouse shows earlier this month.
Twenty one years after one of the most spectacular fuck ups in music history, they’re back making a familiar glorious racket.
Brilliant.
The Beta Band should have been a stadium band. Somehow we ended up with shitty Coldplay instead.
Life - and in particular the music industry - is never fair.
They didn’t exactly do themselves any favours back in the day. The £4k velcro suit is the stuff of music industry legend.
But it’s good to have them back, albeit briefly. Just don’t go raising your expectations.
Meanwhile, In Bowie News: I managed to blag a ticket for the V&A Archive for next week.
Hurrah!
Billy Bragg has a new book out. Billy Bragg often has a new book out, and they’re all bloody good.
The Andrew Collins biog is pretty much the Bragg Bible when it comes to the official detail, documenting his forty years or so of being the One Man Clash.
Progressive Patriot is worth a re-read during these times of social division.
The new Bragg book is The People’s History. A grand title for what looks like a grand read.
It’s essentially a scrap book of material put forward by fans and Uncle Bill himself. He adds in the commentary to give each artefact a little context.
I really should have kept my ticket stub from the old Mean Fiddler in Harlesden during election night back in 1997 - probably the best gig I’ve ever been to. I hope the dude who bought it off me on eBay appreciates it.
Bragg is a guest on the latest Word In Your Ear podcast - always a decent listen. He’s on fine form as well, promoting the book.
He describes how the contribution of fan culture has led him to questioning his own understanding of what took place twenty, thirty and forty years ago.
It’s a dangerous game to mess with other people’s memories as you put over your understanding of what actually happened.
Which is why a blog is such a bloody good idea.
Ha, bloody ha.
I confess to making little inroads in the fourteen CD Bragg box set that I bought over the summer.
Blogs, box sets, and Bragg - some projects you never really finish, and that’s often the point.
Too much to take on board here - especially during a working morning.
It served the purpose of background music that didn’t do my nut in - which sometimes, is all you want from a background music working album.
Nice analogue sound with a warm bass and drum thing going off. No shit, seeing as though Tusk was from the analogue era.
Oh - and it’s bloody long. I persisted, only because I couldn’t be arsed to break out of the working mindset.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
It’s obviously decent, but a little too dreamlike for my tastes. I want some more BALLS in my electronic music. Otherwise it’s just digital folk. The Hall and Oates sample just about saved it.
⭐ ⭐
