349. Annette Peacock: An acrobat’s heart
I so want to like this, but it’s no use. Don’t get me wrong, every minute of this record, taken separately from the rest, sounds like this is really going to be good…once the melody starts. AllMusic finds the arrangements for piano and string quartet wondrous, I think it’s a wonder she managed to remember any of it long enough to write it down. Sorry, Annette, it’s really brave and personal music, and I have the utmost respect, but this one doesn’t work.
At its best: pick a minute.
348. Kasey Chambers: The captain
You better be able to follow up on an opening line like ‘Well I never lived through the great depression / but sometimes I feel as though I did’. ‘I’m not much like my generation / Their music only hurts my ears’ isn’t going to cut it. Kasey Chambers’s got a good excuse for the kind of high school diary psychologizing and self-pity these songs are drenched in – she’s a high school kid, apparently. She’s got a nice voice, and this music may be of use to high school girls everywhere – so far so anti-generational. I don’t know though, maybe those girls’ll pick up on her dad’s influence all over this record faster than me. Someone’s living the dream through their kids, that’s for sure. As an artist, she’s not nearly there.
At its best: ‘Mr Bayliss’ is a harmless pop ditty which I wouldn’t turn off.
347. Eliza Carthy: Angels & cigarettes
It seems ridiculous now that people expected this to crossover from the British folkworld to major pop stardom. The ‘modern’ touches now sound ugly and plastic – this is not a record made by people with a genuine feeling for pop music. The songs are transparently based on the kind of professional backing musician / folk musician jam sessions (you can just hear it in the bass lines) that don’t do anyone any good, except artists with a contract trying to fill a record. The single ‘Whispers of summer’ has … something going for it, but otherwise this is grim stuff.
At its best: Whispers of summer
At its worst: Wildwood
346. Melanie C: Northern star
People should be ashamed.
At its best: Be the one (breezy pop of no consequence that sounds just fine)
At its worst: If that were me (‘I can’t even live without my phone / But you don’t have a home’)
345. Spice girls: Forever
The business plan is obvious:
1. Invest as little as possible talent, time and effort
2. Announce split of band
3. Rake in easy money
I’m surprised they didn’t print it in the booklet.
With a record like this, you feel compelled to start up a conversation with the song titles, just to pass the time.
Holler – Why, Why?!
Tell me why – I’m stuck here, aren’t I?
Let love lead the way – out of here?
Right back at ya – oh…
Get down with me – Please make it stop
Wasting my time – Now you’re speaking my language
Weekend love – Even a weekend seems too long
Time goes by – it seems to stand still though
If you wanna have some fun – I do!
Oxygen – Thanks, I feel like I’m choking
Goodbye – Thank you!
344. Jean-Michel Jarre: Metamorphoses
Total kitsch. And I don’t think it’s going to come back into style. Mostly cause, looking at the compositions, I can’t believe he writes less than 12 of these before breakfast.
343. Amar El Achab: Le chaabi des grands maîtres
This is probably really good. I just don’t get it. Sadly that means, after a few tries, that I have no interest in hearing this again, and so it fits all the way down the list. My loss.
342. Raha Shah: Tibetan bowls. The healing vibrations
It’s difficult to think of something to say about a record that bills itself: ‘[Listening to this record] some recall having seen images of God, angels or prophets. Others feel emotions they have never experienced before’. Turns out God looks like a synthesizer played really slowly.
341. Sidestepper: More grip
According to AllMusic this clumsily mixes latin music and British electronic dance music. I really don’t hear the second part. But I’m not really a fan of latin music, and this seems a particularly tired example of the form… Count me out.
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