From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V7 #477 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Friday, August 15 2008 Volume 07 : Number 477 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] Unfairground, indeed [treesprite@earthlink.net] Re: [loud-fans] Unfairground, indeed ["Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Unfairground, indeed On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 7:36 PM, wrote: > I finally got around to checking out the new Kevin Ayers album, Unfairground, and i'm really stunned by how fantastic it is! It's really stellar -- one of his best without any of the qualifications us music nerds reserve for "comeback" albums or "return to form" efforts. It's the real thing. Gorgeously produced (members of Teenage Fanclub, Ladybug Transistor, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and Trashcan Sinatras join Hooper, Wyatt, Manzanera, St. John and more) -- the strings and horns are some of the best i've heard on a record in years. It's a perfect length at 33 minutes, and every song is strong. > It definitely seems to be an under the radar release, but hopefully more folks will make an effort to check it out! My, that's a name I hadn't heard in awhile! The Amazon samples sound a bit mellow. Then again, I sent YouTube clips etc. of my at-the-half Top Ten to an old friend, who wrote back, "Geez, I'm sorry you went to all the trouble of compiling that list. I listened to a little bit of everything and didn't find much that appealed to me (except for your reviews, of course, which are often better experiences than their topics)...Sure, I have my slower favorites, like Elliott Smith and Kahoots, but the softer sounds that appeal to me are still few and far between." Still trying to parse those Bauhaus and Fish records as "softer"... Some notes on new music: I'll probably find room for HERETIC PRIDE by the Mountain Goats on my Top Ten. Marie Digby's UNFOLD could be a keeper if I spin it a few more times. James Blackshaw's LITANY OF ECHOES will stun anyone open to metaphysical acoustic guitar extemporizations. Alice Cooper anyone? Yes, I know..."Well, the older stuff..." No but seriously--with the obligatory disclaimers that I am no Alice expert and that I've only listened to the new songs on YouTube, out of order, ALONG CAME A SPIDER impressed me deeply. Dark, dark stuff, not for the queasy and questionable for anyone who's lost a loved one to violence. But by that same token, edgy and potentially deeply disturbing (for those who wish to proceed along those lines). He no longer sounds like he's *merely* smirking. You don't have to know Alice is Christian (or the son of a preacher man) to appreciate "Salvation." It helps, though. The Aimee Mann Amazon samples, as I said before, sound promising. I'm waiting on a library copy of that one. Also dug samples from the new Kathleen Edwards (forgotten about her too, come to think of it...), Andy To A. P. Kern. I remember a wonderful moment As before my eyes you appeared, Like a vision, fleeting, momentary, Like a spirit of the purest beauty. In the torture of hopeless melancholy, In the bustle of the world's noisy hours, That voice rang out so tenderly, I dreamed of that lovely face of yours. The years flew quickly. The storm's blast Scattered the dreams of former times, And I forgot your tender voice, And the features of your heavenly face. In remoteness, in gloomy isolation, My days dragged quietly, nothing was new, No godlike face, no inspiration, No tears, no life, no love, no you. Then to my soul an awakening came, And there again your face appeared, Like a vision, fleeting, momentary, Like a spirit of the purest beauty. And my heart beat with a rapture new, And for its sake arose again A godlike face, an inspiration, And life, and tears, and love, and you. - --Alexander Pushkin ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V7 #477 *******************************