Author: misterstory

Posted in Album of the Month

Not Even Happiness – Julie Byrne

Posted on by misterstory

Happy (just about) June Brothers. I am going to stick with the tradition of starting my AOTM post by apologising. I have been under-active on our little blog and I am very late to the June AOTM party. The reasons are the same as usual. Life is too hectic and I am poor at managing it. I have taken steps, I am currently working my notice period and changing jobs with the aim of a longer term better quality of life. Another change that I have made this year is that I have not let me love of music suffer at the hands of a hectic life. My escape into music this year has focused mostly on calm and ‘therapeutic’ additions to my new-music folders. ‘Not Even Happiness’ is no exception to this trend.

I would like to present what I consider to be, a thing of beauty. It’s probably filed under ‘Folk’ of some sort but Guy, please don’t let that put you off. For me this is irrelevant as this works on so many levels and for so many environments. I listen to this all the time. It’s been a universal constant in my life since it was released earlier in the year. Back in the cold of Feb and March it felt like a warm winter blanket. In April and May it felt like shoots springing-up through new ground. Now it feels like a cold beer on a sticky evening, chilling out on the decking. There few albums that can pull off this trick.

I won’t go track by track on this one as I could make a strong claim for each one to be my favourite or my ‘stand-out’ track from the album. The instrumentation is simple, sparse basic. Her voice is immaculate and the production of her voice matches this perfection. Her range is impressive but she never feels the need to make a show of it. There are no fancy, show-off vocal embellishments, there is no need. Her finger picking is beautiful. I think its interesting that she chooses to use an electric guitar rather than an acoustic guitar on some tracks. The guitar is paired with a small and varied number of other instruments through out the album, few tracks have more than 2 or 3 instruments and I think I am write to say that there is no percussion on the whole album?

The result is a hauntingly beautiful collection of songs that merge and sway into one another like clothes on a line. This album brings out the best in me. It makes me smile, and loving, and grateful, and thankful. It makes me kiss my wife and ruffle my kids hair. I am a happier person for this album being in my life. I hope that you enjoy it and I hope it makes a similar emotional dent in your life.

Happy listening. As always, if you can give it a run through on headphones you won’t be disappointed.

Posted in Uncategorized

Mr. Story’s Albums of 2016

Posted on by misterstory

In no particular order, the albums that I have most enjoyed this year …

Frankie Cosmos – Next Thing

No matter what mood I am in I love listening to this. It’s bizzarely universal for me. If I want to jump about and sing like nobody is in the room then I put it on, if I want to chill out, I put it on. Morning, evening. I think you get the point.

Nicolas Jaar – Sirens

I loved his first, I loved the Darkside album and I love this. I don’t think this is as strong as Darkstar – Psychic but its a hell of a listen.

Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm – Trance Frendz

I listen to loads of music that I would never choose for the AOTM. Maybe that is disrespectful to the Brothers. Perhaps I should branch out? These two musicians / composers (whatever) get together to go on hikes and talk about making music. Occasionally they meet in one or the others home cities to make some music. One evening they recorded 6 tracks, live with no overdubs or post fannying about. They created a haunting alum of calm lilting piano music that is then blended into electronic claustrophobia. Those of you who know Paul Ledger will appreciate his comment after he sat in the dark and listened in full on his head phones ‘Its beautiful Joey but you’re still one dark fucker’.

VIDEO LINK CAUSE THE BLOG WONT LET ME PASTE DIRECTLY INTO THE BODY LIKE ABOVE!!! 

Bon Iver – 22, A Million

I didn’t know what to make of this at first … I love it now. He’s pretty bloody consistent isn’t he!

Christine and the Queens – Chaleur Humaine

I don’t care if its not the artists original words, language guests etc. I love love love it. Probably album of the year for me. Thank you David.

Anderson .Paak – Malibu

This has been with me nearly all the year I think. This and Frankie Cosmos. They’ve been consistently albums I’ve turned to.

Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass

Beautiful

Posted in Album of the Month

JANUARY: Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass

Posted on by misterstory

I cannot claim any long-standing relationship with Ms. Obel’s music. One evening in late November I switched 6 Music and caught the back-end of a live session. It was the voices I heard that sparked my interest initially. I think I only heard about 90 seconds but after a bit of ‘Ask Jeeves’ (Q:does that still exist?… A:I don’t know, Google it?) I was introduced to Ms. Obel’s music. Citizen of Glass was not out but there were a few tracks on Spotify and I loved each and everyone.

As referenced previously in my wittering, I don’t get as much time to listen to music as I used to / would like. I do listen to music in the evenings but my evenings are not as long as they used to be. Following the daily bedtime battle and the realisation that child-2 will probably be awake for 3 hours in roughly 2.5 hrs we like to keep the evenings calm. I like to read but am useless at reading when listening to some music. I struggle with a lot of music with lyrics when reading. Over the course of a few years this has significantly changed my listening habits. My evening music has become calmer and more instrumental. I listen to a lot of (cringe) ‘Modern Classical’ ‘Neo-Classical’ (puke) and other terms for music with strings that nobody knows what to call. Musicians (composers?) such as Olafur Arnalds, Max Richter, Johann Johannsson and Julian Barwick have become the main-stay of what I actually listen to. However, I’ve not shared any of this on the blog which is stupid really as it is what I listen to and this blog is supposed to be about sharing new music and what we’re currently listening to.

Which brings me to Citizen of Glass by Agnes Obel. Ms. Obel is a Danish singer / songwriter. A bit of time on ‘Ask Jeeves’ suggests numerous genres for her music – classical, folk, pop, experimental among others. The main point for me is that her music is calming and beautiful. There are no beats. There will be no-cool-down-with-the-kids points available for referencing this album, unless of course the kids are listening to music like this which could well be happening given my proximity to ‘cool’.

The album is cinematic and sweeping. It has a rhythm to its sequence and provides a progression through the tracks but also a gentle return to its starting point. By this I mean that listening on repeat is a rewarding experience. There are 10 tracks in all, 8 vocal and 2 instrumentals. The instrumentals (for me) do not feel like filler and have stand out qualities that set them apart as rewarding entities in their own right. The instrumentation is 100% acoustic / orchestral – lost of piano (though this is her album where she consciously steps away from reliance on the piano), strings, harpsichord, harp, spintet, celsta (…. I’m not selling this am I?) and of course her voice. I’ve not checked all the vocal credits but she provides her own backing vocals and harmonies. She even duets with herself on ‘Familiar’ where she provides a ‘male’ counterpoint to her beautiful ‘female’ vocal.

As with many albums the greatest rewards come on repeat listens when you have the ability to concentrate on the music rather than as background music. I hope that you guys get as much from this as I have. I appreciate that this may not be ‘your usual thing’ but hey, it may well be and you’ve just not been blogging about it like me.

 

Posted in Album of the Month

AUGUST: ‘Next Thing’ by Frankie Cosmos

Posted on by misterstory

20160214_frankie-cosmos-album-art_91.jpg

I’m only asking for 28 minutes of your time. 15 songs, at least half of them barely make it over 2 minutes each. Frankie Cosmos (Great Kline) is a 21 year old singer song writer and this is her 2nd full length release. I was aware of the first, slightly more aware of the EP that followed but have really taken to ‘Next Thing’. This was released around Easter but and its been a big part of my life since. It feels like I’ve had it for much longer than 4 months.

02-frankie-cosmos

What you will hear is 15 guitar driven pretty pop songs and beautifully crafted if delightfully simple lyrics. If you can spare the time, to sit and listen with the lyrics at hand it is a great experience. Ms. Cosmos extracts heart lifting significance from the mundane and almost never fails to make me smile. I am sucker for singer songwriters, I love the focus that one person pouring their heart out provides. This is a great example.

Frankie_Cosmos

I hope you enjoy. As I say, its only 28 minutes. You could listen to it 2.5 times for every ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ or ‘Malibu’ so you have no excuse not to get involved if you don’t like it first time.

Look out for Floated In, Embody, On the Lips, Sinister.

Pitchfork reviews and article if you’re interested?

Pitchfork Review

 

 

Posted in Album of the Month, New Tunes

APRIL – ‘Malibu’ – Anderson .Paak

Posted on by misterstory

anderson-paak-malibuFor me, first and foremost this is a ‘soul’ album. There is extensive genre hopping on Mr. .Paak’s second album, but the overall impact as a body of work to me feels like soul.

As with my last AOTM (Miguel), Anderson .Paak is a mult-instrumentalist-singer-songwriter with some added rapper-ness for good measure. This is  lot less ‘love-sexy’ (R&B?) than Miguel and I think perhaps an easier listen for Brother Guy? I saw a number of very good reviews for this album but I fully engaged with it when I was in London for a very long day’s work on trains and walking across town. I got to listen to the album probably 4-5 times throughout the day and it put a big fat smile on my face.

This guys singing voice is gorgeous, his singing based tracks feel organically soulful and emotionally driven. There’s a sense of humour running through the album that  really resonates with me. It would take me far too long to reference all of the lyrics that hit home for me because the song-writing is so good and so mature. The album feels very socially conscious without ever feeling preachy. He’s obviously had an emotionally troubled life which he uses for inspiration in a very measured manner, never played for effect or thrust in the listeners face (ears?). Never greater than on the last track, ‘The Dreamer’ tell me you don’t love that track and it’s message?

There’s obvious Kendrick Lamar influences weaved through these tracks. You will hear it when you listen to it initially. I understand that the albums were recorded almost at the same time though so it would be interesting to understand how the artists arrived at relatively similar  places independently. They both worked with Dre extensively on Compton and come from the same music back-yard. As you continue to listen the Kendrick Lamar references soften (or they did for me but perhaps cause I have not listen to Pimp A Butterfly that much) and it blossoms as something quite different.

I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Album of the Month, Uncategorized

December: Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars

Posted on by misterstory

Good evening. Welcome to Beach House – Thank your lucky stars.

9 years ago I was checking out what was happening in Manchester that coming weekend. ‘Beach House’ were playing at Day and Night that Saturday. I googled them, came up with a you tube or two and ordered the album as I liked what I heard and wanted to know more before going to the gig with Stacey. I loved the album …. but we never went to the gig. Can’t recall why.

That 1st album was a very honest, raw affair. It was early enough in the whole ‘dream-pop’ (yuk) ‘low-fi’ (puke) thing that many of the tropes of the genre had not warn thin. The 2nd album didn’t move it on and I didn’t love it. Then they released ‘Teen Dream’ that everyone except for David loved. Teen Dream was a big step forward and played with lots of the same ideas but paired them with some really strong, catchy pop songs. Literally everyone who has heard it at our house has gone out and bought it.

2 years later they released ‘Bloom’ which annoyed the shit out of me. They released the same album again but with a different cover. There was nothing new. It was embarrassing how formula driven it was. Love affair over.

In August of this year they released ‘Depression Cherry’ I was excited as Beach House have such a big place in my heart … but was disappointed again as there was once again nothing new and the formula had been trotted out yet again. So it was with disgust and huge frustration that they released another album 2 months later! WTF! Quality control anyone?

However, when I listened to this one I heard what I had wanted to hear for the last 2 albums. Some new ideas, playing with some new instruments, possibly a bit darker return to their debut that I loved so much. A couple of tracks blew my socks off (‘All your yeahs’ and Elegy to the void’). It felt more honest and real than anything that they’d released since their debut. In some ways it feels like a debut. I’ve had this on hard rotation. My wife adores it and reminds her of our early days which always helps. I am conscious that this may be more of a ‘heart’ choice than a ‘head’ choice as Album of the Month but what the hell. Live dangerously.

Merry Xmas.