Music Chatter Personal Rambling: dears marianne faithfull nick cave and the bad seeds tom waits walkmen wilco
by Matthew
14 comments
Toad 2.0
New, New and Always Too Fucking New
One of the almighty perils of mp3 blogging (it’s a perilous business I tell you – fraught with danger…. now where was I? Ah yes, forgot to even close my brackets didn’t I. What a muppet… here you go:) So erm, anyway, one of the side-effects of mp3 blogging is that you get so utterly swamped with new music, by zealous promoters, eager bands and your own enthusiasm, that it can be hard to actually remember to listen to old stuff. Not so much the old classics, just the really excellent albums from about two or three years ago which you still love, but which are neither new enough to warrant urgent attention nor legendary enough to have indelibly permeated into your consciousness.
So today I am going to have a little look at my first ever internet Best Of list. I started regularly writing about music back in 2004, long before I even knew what blogs were, and 2004 was my first ever Official List. That was the year Wilco released their masterpiece A Ghost is Born, which was narrowly pipped to the top spot by Nick Cave’s equally stupendous double album The Lyre of Orpheus and Abbatoir Blues. Even Tom Waits released one that year. Real Gone may not have captured me at the time, but it’s one that has a surprising number of excellent songs on it when I take the time to look back.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Cannibal’s Hymn
Wilco – The Late Greats
Tom Waits – Trampled Rose
Looking back at the reviews themselves from that year, I am actually surprised by how steadfast my opinions have been. I can’t say I seriously disagree with anything much I said about those 2004 releases. The Walkmen is still a storming album of fuzzy, guitar and chiming piano-driven brilliance. That Killers album is still an indie-pop classic which, despite whatever failings they might have, caught the mood of the nation perfectly that Summer. And The Dears were one of the first in a new wave of superb Canadian music who, in the track I have chosen, married indie with cabaret, somewhat oddly.
Marianne Faithfull released a record in 2004 too. It wasn’t great, largely because most of it was penned by the dismal PJ Harvey, but Nick Cave wrote a couple of decent tracks for her. The best of the lot though was Last Song, which was written by Damon Albarn who himself recorded a version for last year’s The Good, the Bad & the Queen record. I think I might prefer Marianne’s version, actually. So yes, that’s how I started. It all shifted over to Song, by Toad a year and a bit ago, then I migrated to Wordpress in about May and here we are. Let no more albums get lost in the avalanche of newness! I sometimes need to remind myself that I am a fan, not a machine.
The Walkmen – Little House of Savages
The Dears – The Death of All the Romance
Marianne Faithfull – Last Song
*sniff* ♫..tell me the lies…♫ *sniff*
It’s here, for anyone after a wee sniffle…
Know precisely what you mean Toad. On this week’s show Hope’s remit was to go back through the previous playlists & pick a selection of favourites for her final broadcast, but she found it totally overwhelming. So much stuff (approx. 24 tracks per show over 52 shows) she had forgotten entirely, as had I.
It’s madenning the amount of stuff that passes through these ears & I do feel like a production line every now & then.
Toad et al:
Forgot to mention (*hame* plug) my mates Prince Edward Island were on your Scotland’s BBC2 RAPAL TV Show this week. Bloody good it is, too.
You can, I believe watch the thing here (two sings + mini-interview at start & 2 songs at the end, including their corking Partlife:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=rapal
Sorry for the intrusion, but as you’re going on about new stuff, thought you’d like these.
)
DC
i myself was just listening to a mix-tape i’d made two years ago, and it was chock full of songs i’d forgotten i loved.
i think we might be under an unusually heavy onslaught at the moment because it’s january, and so few records were released in december that they’re working overtime right now.
My increasing inability to listen to older music is one reason why I have begun to slip out of listening to newer music in recent months.
Don’t mock….the same thing will happen to you youngsters in the fullness of time.
Well, string me up and call me a muppet, I never knew that Damon song was done by La Faithfull first.
Davy – does that make up for my Dylan fuck up a few weeks back?
Listening to new music is a pleasure, but one of the things I was always afraid of in trying to turn a hobby into a profession (which I haven’t – not even close) was that I might take the fun out of something I loved.
I haven’t done that but I have developed the following rule, which works for me: at work, new music all day and nothing else. At home, only things already established. I know this only works if you can listen to what you want to at work, but it helps me prevent my passion for new things from overwhelming my love for old ones.
JC, I’m not sure I quite follow. Can’t listen to new stuff nor old stuff? What are you left with then?
The amalgamation that is The X-Factor.
The porcupine enema that is the X-Factor.
You just bunged in that ‘dismal PJ Harvey’ reference because you didn’t get a reaction out of the Cat Power thing.
Ah… I just re-read the bollocks that I typed a couple of days ago that led to confusion.
It’s the fact I don’t have enough time to even listen to all the old stuff that I love that has stopped me really looking out for new stuff (not that I’ve given up entirely)
Does that make more sense???
And I do believe the same thing will one day happen to you young man.
Not entirely Crash, but a little. I genuinely do think she’s rotten.
Mr. Toad, if you get a chance to see the heartbreaking video for The Death of All Romance, you absolutely must! Two teddybears, in love, torn asunder by the apocalypse.
I wept.