Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
Tap Tap
On My Way
(Stolen Recordings, 2009)
Who knew that Pete & The Pirates concealed a pop genius?
While I have nothing actively against Reading five-piece guitar group Pete & The Pirates, - apart from one of those dorky, bopping-around bass players it hurts to look at - they've never made a case for being something for me. How strange then, that singer Thomas Sanders' second solo album should be so much the opposite. The fey, Estuarine voice is, naturally, the same and the backing, while cheaper and scrappier, is not a dramatic redux (Sanders has not "gone" gabba, or chillwave). Yet stripped of the trappings of a contemporary indie group, the singer's winning aesthetic shines properly in all its English oddness and inadequacy and borderline depression (on Syd Barrett-esque opener Autumn & Tea, it's as if he just about made it out of bed, and instantly regretted it). Melodically, there is something daringly basic about tunes like Spanglish carny novelty, El Gusano and the twisted nursery cadences of Straight To Hell ("It really doesn't matter what dress you put on / because your clothes never seem to stay on for that long"), while the June Brides-y Queen Of Hearts recalls a time when "indie" records weren't produced to death and Dirty Sky is a gorgeous, wispy slice of melancholia Damon Albarn might write if he weren't so high-concept these days. Every song is a world in itself, playlets haunted by exotic gamines - gypsy types and "Egyptian-eyed" temptresses - whom Sanders' narrators feel guilty about obsessing over. Perhaps the songwriter needs to ask himself if he's with the wrong woman - or, for that matter, the wrong band.
Danny Eccleston
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 7:00 AM GMT 08/02/2011
Further Listening
Tap Tap – Lanzafame (Stolen Recordings, 2007)
Let’s Wrestle – In The Court Of The Wrestling Let’s (Stolen Recordings, 2009
Syd Barrett – The Madcap Laughs (Harvest, 1970)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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Lovely write-up, will have to check this out!
Posted by Captain Feedback at 1:32 PM GMT 09/02/2011 Report Abuse
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