hissyfit: Lovesong: Tracks of the Year

Friday, 30 December 2011

Lovesong: Tracks of the Year

OK folks, you might remember this from last year; you show me yours and...
Simply post me a CD of your favourite songs of 2011 and I'll reciprocate by return of post.
I've discovered quite a few new gems from your past generosity.
CDs to:
18 The Green
Wooburn Green
Bucks HP10 OEF
Please remember to include your postal address.
Here's what you'll be getting from me:
It's a mixture of old and new talent. I'm glad to say that there are more songs from these shores than usual; it's nice to hear a few regional accents poking through the sheen of Americana...
It took me a while to whittle things down to these choices.
I love them all; you might not be familiar with a couple that are freshly minted: Admiral Fallow (Scotland) and Lanterns on the Lake (Newcastle), but they hold heir own in lofty company.

I've included Gabriel's 'Mercy Street' because it's a new version and is just beautiful.
Things do get a bit sonorous towards the end but stick with it; lights off, single malt and you'll be fine....
If I had to pick just one track it would be Kate Bush duetting with her 13 year old son (in the guise of a snowflake); it kind of sums Kate up; bonkers but beautiful and brilliant.
I should mention the one that didn't quite make it: 'I Should Not Dare' by David Sylvian which is lovely but, to quote my mate Dennis, "you can't put 20lbs of sh*t in a 10lb bag".

1. Bats in the Attic (King Creosote & Jon Hopkins)
2. Although We All Are Lost (The Leisure Society)
3. If I Had a Boat (James Vincent McMorrow)
4. Sophia (Laura Marling)
5. For a Nightingale (Fionn Regan)
6. C'est La Mort (The Civil Wars)
7. Helplessness Blues (Fleet Foxes)
8. Bittersweet Melodies (Feist)
9. El Camino (Amos Lee)
10. Calgari (Bon Iver)
11. Subbuteo (Admiral Fallow)
12. Starless (The Unthanks)
13. Keep on Trying (Lanterns on the Lake)
14. Lippy Kids (Elbow)
15 Mercy Street (Peter Gabriel)
16. Snowflake (Kate Bush)

7 comments:

Anonymous30 December 2011 at 09:54
I'vegot an overlap of 4 plus the Elbow and Bon Iver nearly made my top 10. I'm going to give lanterns on the lake a proper listen because a few people have recommended it. Agree the snowflake track is the best thing on the kate bush lp

happy new year
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Hissyfit30 December 2011 at 10:20
I didn't think that I was going to like 'Lanterns on the Lake' when I first heard it; I initially felt that it wore its influences too boldly. The Mazzy Star/Cocteau Twins veneer is soon forgotten. Rather than covering up for the lack of something, the reverb actually adds to the woozy atmosphere and highlights the dry beauty of the strings when they come into focus. It's not really an album of songs; more a group of youngsters trying to make the most beautiful sounds possible and (by heck) they nail it!
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GEOFF30 December 2011 at 23:55
Right I have done one Trev, going to send as soon as possible.

All the best for the New Year

Your Northern Friend.
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Tim Patrick1 January 2012 at 05:52
I said I wouldn't do a Best of 2011 list of CDs, and I won't. Frankly, I have a hard time saying that there is a CD in 2011 that has a solid elpee's worth of good tunes... the bars been set too high by MM! But I couldn't resist attempting a list of cherry-picked individual songs that I've liked so far. This is last minute... CD's strewn all over the place. No rank, and some date errors for sure. I guess I'm going to have to start arranging my CD's in chronological order! Let's have a crack...

- Civil Wars - Poison & Wine
- Glen Campbell - Ghost On The Canvas
- Antlers - Putting The Dog To Sleep
- Bon Iver - Holocene
- Noel Gallagher - Let The Lord Shine... (B-side)
- Noah And The Whale - Old Joy
- Over The Rhine - All My Favorite People
- REM - We All Go Back To Where We Belong
- Joe Henry - Eyes Out For You
- Elbow - Dear Friends
- Stars - Fixed
- Joy Williams - If You Wanna Go, Then Go
- Ryan Adams - Come Home
- Jens Lekman - Waiting For Kirsten
- Snow Patrol - Lifening

Toronto Tim

PS: I just noticed an unusual Yankee bias here... still catching up!
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Hissyfit2 January 2012 at 14:43
Some interesting stuff there Tim: also much that I've not yet heard (Antlers/Joy Williams/Over the Rhine).
I must look into the Glen Campbell album (just watched True Grit again and, bugger me, he was awful) as I love his voice, even in sad decline.
Have always loved Stars so look forward to that. I put the Noah and the Whale album again and loved it; a great car stereo album. Underwhelmed by Joe Henry, he is one of my all time favourites as writer/singer/producer, but the songs seem to be secondary to sound at the moment... same with Ryan Adams album, I loved the sound of it but couldn't find the songs... maybe need to re-address.
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Anonymous12 February 2012 at 21:26
My selection is late, but better late than never. Not all new, but ones I heard in 2011 that really impressed me. Of course, I will spare your blushes by excluding many of yours that would grace my list, so here are my other fifteen in no particular order:-

No More Excuses The Bees
J'en Connais Carli Bruni
What You Say Carly Bryant
Rainbowarriors CocoRosie
Birds Emiliana Torrini
Changelings Gazelle Twind
You Belongs To Me Greymatter
Loving Strangers Russian Red
Pass This On The Knife
Ready To Tell Leah Zicari
Like 1000 Violins One Thousand Violins
White Are the Waves Papercuts
Una Noche Mas Yasmin Levy
Secrets OneRepublic
Sol Ja Camba Fantcha

Hope there are a few in there that whet your appetite,
Isobelle
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Anonymous12 February 2012 at 22:54
Oh! No....I missed one that just must tag on the end. One of my son's University friends is in Tom Williams & the Boat, so I have come to enjoy some of their tracks. The one I tag on to the end is 'Concentrate'. It is on Youtube.

Indulge me this one,
Isobelle

PS Changelings in my list above is by Gazelle Twins, not Twind as my frantic typing suggests!
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‘Jones’ is Trevor Jones; principle songwriter with the critically acclaimed duo Miracle Mile, where he works alongside collaborator, arranger and musical partner Marcus Cliffe. Together they have produced nine albums, the latest of which was 2012’s ‘In Cassidy’s Care’, rated ‘Album of the Month’ by HiFi News, with respected journalist Johnny Black noting that Miracle Mile were “far and away the most unfairly unsung musical wizards ever to emerge from this sceptered isle. Big on memorable tunes wrapped around honest-to-goodness emotionally involving lyrics.”

Trevor Jones has also previously produced four solo albums: ‘Hopeland’ (2009), ‘Keepers’, (2010), ‘To the Bone’ (2014) and ‘Happy Blue’ (2016). Co-produced again with Marcus Cliffe, ‘Carver’s Law is another triumph of intimacy.
Previous critical acclaim for Trevor Jones:

“Gorgeous, as ever. Trevor Jones finds the poetry in real life; gently beautiful and genuinely moving. You may cry.” The Sunday Times

“Masterpieces of subtlety and observation clothed in sumptuous, lush melodies.” R2

“Jones is in a class of one. Near-perfect explorations of the human heart. The beauty on offer here is enough to make you weep. It did me.” Americana UK

“Achingly tender.” Folk Radio UK

“Intellectually as well as emotionally engaging.” MOJO

"Meticulously orchestrated, careful and complex, this is canny songwriting leavened by bona fide humanity." Q

“Moves you to tears and refreshes the soul. Scintillating.” Maverick

"Gentle enchantment. The loveliest melodies you've ever heard.” Uncut

“Classic pop songwriting, gorgeously realised. Jones has compiled possibly the finest catalogue of adult pop. Gently beautiful and genuinely moving” The Times

Miracle Mile: A User's Guide by Johnny Black

Despite being based in a home studio in a rural backwater on the outskirts of West London, Miracle Mile chose to name themselves after a fictional gold rush main street half a world away where, according to adventure yarn spinner Jack London, ragged 49ers would blow their hard-won nuggets on booze and broads.
They apply a similarly unorthodox approach to their career in general. The band’s core duo of singer/guitarist Trevor Jones and multi-instrumentalist/arranger Marcus Cliffe have been relentless in their pursuit of the perfect song. Not the fastest, the gnarliest or the loudest, not even the most instantly commercial, but the song whose melody, lyrics, arrangement, performance and spirit might stand the test of time, giving pleasure to listeners not just for years but centuries.
They’d be the first to admit they haven’t yet found that perfect song and maybe never will, but I’d argue that their albums — the documentary evidence of that search — deserve a place alongside the best work of time-tested tunesmiths as elevated as Randy Newman, Elvis Costello or Tom Waits.

Marcus Cliffe wasn’t yet on board when the first album, Bicycle Thieves, arrived in 1997 but already it was evident that frontman Jones didn’t fit in with the prevailing mode. There was no rage, bitterness or self-loathing in his songs and nothing at all turned up to eleven. Instead, he offered meticulously orchestrated slices of ordinary human life, transforming the mundane into the marvellous with carefully crafted lyrics sincerely delivered. Even here, though, the hypnotic sample-based "Recycletwo" revealed a willingness to experiment that marked Jones out as more than just a pop craftsman in the vein of Crowded House or Aztec Camera.

What had started essentially as a recording project had become a five-piece live band by the time the follow-up, Candids, was released in 1998. Loaded with nagging guitar hooks and dynamic vocal interplay, it included one particularly affecting piece, "Small Ad," which featured just one line of lyric, the heart-rending couplet, "Baby’s shoes, never used." With those four words, Jones conjured up a yawning abyss of grief that other writers might struggle to evoke in an entire album.

Jones quickly realised that live performance was not his forte and retired to the womb of the studio for 1999’s third album, Slow Fade, which also saw the birth of the partnership that would lift Miracle Mile higher still above the norm. Marcus Cliffe, in demand as a player for Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois, Mark Knopfler and others, was drafted in on upright bass.
Immediately the music took a more intimate turn, with Jones exploring the little things that illuminate the big things. Almost every song offers up at least one unforgettable line, like "I'd rather be ashes than dust" in "Everybody Loved You," or the concept of filling the void left by his loss of faith "with despair and metalware" in "Starwatching."
Slow Fade was further enhanced by the delicately filigreed swirls and swoops of England’s finest steel guitar maestro, B.J. Cole, whose style sat so well with Jones and Cliffe that he has become virtually a full-time member of the band.

And then, out of nowhere, catastrophe struck. Trevor Jones’ beloved sister died in tragic circumstances. It’s typical of the man that, rather than wallowing in his grief as he had every right to do, he dealt with his loss in the quiet, honest dignity of "Sister Song," the achingly lovely tribute that concludes the fourth album, Alaska. It can’t have been coincidence that the album, despite its meltingly beautiful musical landscape, was named for one of the coldest places on earth.

By the time of Stories We Could Tell in 2004, Miracle Mile were drawing critical plaudits in every significant British magazine and newspaper, along with comparisons to such pop pluperfectionists as Prefab Sprout and the Blue Nile. Critics were noting that Miracle Mile was fast becoming a repository of timelessly romantic music fueled by the same shamelessly emotional human concerns that inspired the great standards. More than this, it was being noticed that while most bands go into decline after two or three albums, Miracle Mile were getting better, perhaps because they’d avoided the trap of trying to be contemporary, and had no need to be more outrageous than the competition, largely because they didn’t see music as a competitor sport.

The sixth album, Glow, showed up in 2005 and found Jones and Cliffe further expanding their musical palette mixing Celtic folksiness with slow, semi-industrial percussion on the inspirational "An Average Sadness," blending Badalamenti guitars with Bacharach horns on "What Kate Did Next," and opening "Strange Sympathy" with a beautifully synthesised string orchestration before letting the song melt seamlessly into a laid-back country-rock rumination on the gap between aspiration and acquisition. Glow was also their most lavishly packaged disc, gorgeously presented at no small cost to themselves.

Album No. 7, Limbo, offered fifteen songs overflowing with sensitively wrought melodies and heart-fluttering lyricism. If it’s not a contradiction in terms, Limbo was even more quietly passionate than usual, deliciously understated and, at times, devastatingly tear-jerking.

‘Cassidy’s Care’ followed in 2012 and received similar critical acclaim.
Miracle Mile may just be too concerned with timeless quality for their own short-term commercial good. They’ll never sink a fang into the jugular when they can plant a whisper of a kiss on that sensitive spot at the nape of the neck and set off a tiny ripple that will, in the fullness of time, explode in the heart. I, for one, wouldn’t want it any other way.
Johnny Black

“Trevor Jones finds the poetry in real life; Marcus Cliffe anchors it in the sweetest pop. Gorgeous as ever. You may cry.”
Sunday Times

"Gentle enchantment. The loveliest melodies you've ever heard."
UNCUT

“Gorgeous melodies, hooks galore, intelligent lyrics that demand and repay careful listening, beautifully produced instrumentation, and an overall effect that combines poignancy and joy in equal measure. Music and words come together in a state as close to perfection as makes no difference, and leaves you with a delicious ache that makes you hug yourself with the sheer overwhelming joy of hearing such wonderful music. The beauty on offer here is enough to make you weep. It did me."
Americana UK

“A little oasis illuminated by musical creativity, glimpsed like a lovely mirage. Intelligent tunefulness that doesn’t kowtow to passing trends has always been as rare as fish fingernails, but it’s here.” Mojo

“Classic pop songwriting, gorgeously realised” The Times

“Moves you to tears and refreshes the soul. Scintillating.”
Maverick

“A tender sadness. Songs that have universal resonance.”
Netrhythms

"Trevor Jones has produced a gorgeous pop album that few will hear — unless there’s justice in the world.’ The Wall Street Journal

“Jones has compiled possibly the finest catalogue of adult pop. Gently beautiful and genuinely moving”
The Sunday Times