Monday 28 May 2012

'Ghost of Song' Reviews: 'CD of the Month' Vinyl Mag

The Italian online music magazine 'Vinyl Mag' has just reviewed 'Ghost of Song', making it their 'Disc of the Month'
8 out of 10 apparently.
You can read the original review here.
Below is a clumsy translation (by me) which gives a rough idea of the reviewer's kindness.
If you can improve on it please advise...
Many thanks to the journalist, Gianfranco.
You can currently buy 'Ghost of Song' here, either paying Amazon's ridiculous £14.34 (I wondered why it wasn't charting) or, still on Amazon, here, brand spanking new, for as little as £1.44 plus p&p...

Vinyl: Ghost of Song: Reviewed by Gianfranco Marmoro


Without succumbing to the lure of the music business and the praise of English critics, the band Miracle Mile have survived for more than two decades with an artistic stature in pop-rock that has few equals. The exquisite arrangements of Marcus Cliffe joined with the mastery of the songwriting of Trevor Jones have created a catalog of pop music that does not desire the fruition caught fast and broken by a distracted public, music that observes the daily moods and changes in the small poetic joys of life. The group's singer and composer Trevor Jones began to reshape his career as a pop singer with more intimate, catching sounds, more acoustic and less contaminated by the modernity of the last project of Miracle Mile, that album "Limbo" reached a perfection unknown to many composers of the new millennium. Their music is reminiscent of the splendor of noble writers like Elvis Costello and pop geniuses like Paddy McAloon (Prefab Sprout), built on a series of songs with infinite harmonic nuances, never the victim of apparent defeat by the joyful or melancholy. The two solo albums by Trevor Jones, "Hopeland" 2009 and "Keepers" of 2010, have garnered the attention of fans as ever, despite the confidence and resigned tone that characterized them, the matrices of folk and soul have become evident with a grace and an unexpected strength, the music has captured the moods and sounds that tells of the passing time and seasons with a warm and compelling musical language. "Ghost Of Song" tries to look back over the short and decisive step of this adventure, collecting a dozen tracks from the two albums and placing them in a more enjoyable context by eliminating the parts recited and even sacrificing some small pearls. Steel guitar and piano underscore the solar notes of the beautiful "Hopeland", a ballad both evocative and nostalgic, balanced between country and soul that the voice of Trevor emphasizes with warmth and little emphasis. The swaying harmonies of "Girl On A Bridge" and the gorgeous ballad in the blues key "To Tell You The Truth" is the result of harmonic insights of rare beauty, Trevor Jones possesses the poetry of Joni Mitchell and knows the secrets of the best Bob Dylan. It remains incomprehensible that silence still accompanies the music of the composer in London, it is rare to hear an album as strong and vital as "Ghost Of Song", the lyrical genius in the progression of "Bluer Skies Than This" deserves to be handed down to posterity, while the melancholy tinged symphony and opera of "I Showed You The River" brings back the memory of the glorious splendor of albums like "Harvest" by Canadian Neil Young. It should be emphasized that the great influence of American music is sometimes evident in the more country ballads like "Something Resembling Love", but also latent in a most british pop song like the incantevoel "I Deny", introduced by creating a beautiful mandolin and acoustic guitar that opens in a harmony which has the airy softness of silk and the strength of wood, resisting his refrain is impossible and foolish. Autumnal music, to listen to by the fireside with the smell of smoke and the snow falling, but also perfect company for the sultry days of August. "Ghost Of A Song" with each listen reveals an immense collection of emotions . "Folding Street" eliminates any lingering doubts and enters firmly amongst the best songs of the decade, a growing lyric welcomes traces of folk music with a hypnotic refrain that resembles a ritual dance. Reflective, sometimes austere, music by Trevor Jones does not mind baroque tones but knows the secrets of simplicity and poetry, his lyrical force transcends genres embracing jazz, blues, soul sound in the folds of a rich twilight colors and power emotional simplicity marrying classical music with a lyrical triumph that has the force of authenticity and intellectual honesty. Trevor Jones is one of the most vital writers of the last twenty years but also one of the most underrated, but now has come the hour of his discovery and his appreciation.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Trev

    techy question - how do you get taht neat little row of email / blog / twitter this at the end of every post?

    cheers

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dave; they just kind of... appeared there.
    Sorry that I can't be more helpful...

    ReplyDelete
  3. off to try some ancient incantations and random button pressing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. D,i who set up the template for me, says that they are automatically there; you can then move them around in the 'settings' option.
    They're enforcing an updated template on us soon... brace yourself...

    ReplyDelete
  5. don't like change!

    the incantations have worked

    ReplyDelete
  6. Excellent. Shall we raise a glass?

    ReplyDelete
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    Voice, text & data plans costing you £0.00/month.

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