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Album of the Week - Opinion/Samples

Okay - a thread along the lines of "What are You Listening to Lately". Hopefully this won't get out of hand, but - my thoughts are for thread participants to recommend (on a weekly basis) a single album/CD from their stacks, make a few personal comments, and add a link so people can hear some of the album. Keeping it to a once a week basis should let the pleasure extend indefinitely...

To link - add a mark-up tag to an Amazon page that has a "Listen to Samples" selection.

I'm sure everyone here has GREAT musical taste, and probably know quite a few hidden gems/personal treasures that have yet to hit mainstream consciousness ...

Starting out from my collection, I'm going to dust off the jacket and select:

The Blue Nile - Hats

The Blue Nile puts out an album about once every six years, and god knows I wish they were more prolific. Their first two albums - A Walk In the Rain and Hats from the mid-late 80's - are tone poems more than anything. I'd probably describe these two as "Impressionistic rock" or "smoky cabaret rock". It's sort of haunting and uplifting at the same time, with mournful horns - synthesized beats/keyboards - yearning vocals with a Scots burr. And the lyrics are poetry of an everyman ...

Last heard from with 1996's "Peace at Last". A little less atmospheric than the other two - but still great.

Hoping they release at least once more in my lifetime, because they are so damned good. I assume they were bigger in the UK - but are little known over here. Unfortunately "Hats" and "A Walk In The Rain" only appear to be on import labels now, but they are worth forking over the dough for...
regiolanthe
regiolanthe OP
75 posts
 
Ben -

Ah well - the fickle British musical public strikes again! I must say that I'm sorry to hear that the Blue Nile are imbroiled in yet another red tape mess (that's what happened to Peace At Last, right?). With any luck, they'll take charge of their own musical destiny to release the "new" one before they become completely disenchanted with the industry.

Anyway - why don't you put a work up for AOW consideration! No Bob Dylan, 'cos you've got quite a thread going on about his remastered ones anyway!

BTW - an RIP for Matthew Jay, one of those up-and-coming sensitive troubadours from your shores (Welshman, I believe). Only one release, but it showed promise.
jax2
3,031 posts
 
Clueless - I enjoyed the little snippets I could hear on Amazon. Thanks for the recommendation, I'm going to pick that one up. If you like a guy with a guitar, then you may appreciate Richard Buckner. A friend of mine introduced me to him recently and I can't stop playing his two acoustic offerings:

Bloomed

and

Devotion and Doubt

He's got a bit of a country twang to his music and vocals, but the lyrics are intelligent and insightful, and the songs are just beautiful...somewhat soft and meloncholy but with an edge somehow. I believe he's from Vancouver, BC.

Marco
pmkalby
130 posts
 
David Vest and the Willing Victims-- Way Down Here.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009ZYB8/qid=1065213329/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-6316972-6201553?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

The guitarist's tube amp buzzes a bit through this sparsely recorded live set. Buy it anyhow. I bought it and about wore it out, rested it for a week or so, brought it back out last night. Phenomenal blues set-- from piano heavy boogie woogie blues to some more traditional stuff. Paul Delay on harmonica and backup vocals-- his trigger work on track 3 is amazing, and Vest's lyrics show his gift for political commentary (whether you agree with him or not) as evident from his writing available on line if you visit http://www.rebelangel.com

You can buy the CD off his rebelangel site, too if you don't like to support Amazon.
pmkalby
130 posts
 
Great thread- let's see some more contribution --

Sorry I forgot to make my link clickable. If you can't handle the cut-n-paste--

David Vest & the Willing Victims featuring Paul Delay

Oh, and by the way, Vest plays with Paul Delay's usual band now at Paul's gigs, having replaced their departed horn player-- they played my wedding reception. Yes, I am gifted with both excellent taste and good luck, but that's not the point. The point is, Book them from Paul Delay's website http://www.pauldelay.com and you'll get Vest's piano work on Paul Delay favorites AND they play most of the material off of "Way Down Here", too-- it's like 2 for 1 and their cost to play a gig in the NW is remarkably low for the level of talent (Vest, + the greatest living harp player Delay + a great guitarist Pete Damann- they already shared a bass player). Can't reccommend them highly enough for any function where you might want a killer live band.

* I am in no way affiliated with any of these guys. Just love their work.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
I recently completed my collection of The Can by winning two auctions from one seller "Soundtracks" and "Unlimited Eddition" 2lp.
I have near all their albums. For more info on this band visit www.spoon.com
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