Sound & Vision

I don't tend to pay much attention to music videos, I think I missed the generation where they were a big deal and growing up I never had MTV or even Youtube (Top Of The Pops was as good as it got)- but for whatever reason I was thinking today about two that I find myself coming back to watch over and over. Beautiful in their simplicity, I don't need to say much about them as they really speak for themselves. Posting them here because they really deserve to be seen. Joyous, human, memorable. (And cheap!)

This Month, I've Mostly Been Listening To...

Ed Harcourt- Back Into The Woods             /        Giant Drag- Waking Up Is Hard To Do

Back Into The Woods

Released mere weeks after its existence was announced, Ed Harcourt's sixth studio album is the product of one day's work at Abbey Road studios. Recorded in its running order and using the first or second take each time, it's a testament to Ed's ability to draw the listener in- the minimal arrangements are utterly captivating. Now a family man with two young children, the lyrics are reflective and apparently past indiscretions and his legacy are on his mind. 'Hey Little Bruiser' is a parental ode offering words of wisdom to his offspring, 'Let no man be your keeper, they have secrets in their eyes. Where would we be without the dreamers, who pay no heed to good advice?'. 'The Pretty Girls' dances in with a dainty piano intro that's a touching tribute to the wife who's 'the circus tamer to my beast'. He's at his most Jeff Buckley-like on 'Murmur In My Heart'. For all its stripped-down intimacy, it doesn't feel like anything is lacking from the album- instead it's like being invited to a private concert in a tiny back room.

  

 Waking Up Is Hard To Do

 

Eight years after the debut full-length 'Hearts And Unicorns', Giant Drag followed it up this month with 'Waking Up Is Hard To Do', a $15 digital download only album, available from Bandcamp. While not aware of specifics, I know the band has had a difficult existence, as the long gap between releases would indicate. It seems to have been a labour of love for Hardy, who describes it thus...;

'Giant Drag has felt like one big lonely abscessed tooth that needed to be pulled to make way for a colony of new, better, whiter, faster, catchier teeth to take it’s place'

'Waking Up Is Hard To Do' opens with the surprising lightness of '90210' and a definite hint of 70's glam. 'We Like The Weather' continues in a similar vein. Given the grungey fuzz, distortion and lo-fi sensibilities of album one it seems a deliberate shift in style. 'Won't Come Around' goes so far as to tease at David Bowie's 'Sound And Vision' with the backing 'oooh's'. 'Firestorm' is a spirited 'riot grrl' indie rocker (You think I'm wrong? I think you're wrong about that... You think I'm strrrrrong, you weren't supposed to see that') until the half-way point where the drums slow and the vocals become a kittenish lament (But I know I bring you down... and I know you don't want me around'), before regaining its attitude. 'Garbage Heart' steals the melody of Andy Williams's 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' and turns it on its head, audaciously using it to declare independance from a failed relationship 'there are no words left to say... you have been thrown away'. A few tracks on, 'Heart Carl' is another highlight a soulful, heartbroken ballad 'I never asked for this. Does anybody ask for this? We all want somebody... to reach out and kiss'. Album closer 'Seen The Light' is a playful, stomping track with gospel-style group vocals chiming in at the end. There's a sweetness and positivity that runs through the whole album and I enjoyed it as much as anything I've heard or could hope to hear all year.

I loved it, highly highly recommended. Please check it out.

 

In defence of... The Ordinary Boys

 

Whenever I get talking music with someone there's no band I have to justify more, or mention without adding a pre-emptive caveat for, than The Ordinary Boys. To the uninitiated, minds instantly leap to Big Brother, Preston being in girly gossip mags and their apparent 'selling out'- with 'I Luv U' getting mainstream airplay and the different sound of album 3 'How To Get Everything You Ever Wanted In Ten Easy Steps'. Even the band name is vaguely boy band-ish, if you're not aware of its origins as an album track title from Morrissey's 'Viva Hate'. (Although not nearly so much as 'Next In Line', as originally known as according to Wikipedia. Presumably after the Kinks song). With Preston writing again and the promise of some tour dates I will save myself the effort in future by referring them to this blog. So here's a brief rundown of my history with The Ordinary Boys.

Not to get ahead of myself, it was 2004 when The Ordinary Boys released the debut 'Over The Counter Culture'. The musical landscape of the early 2000's does not make inspiring reading, looking back. The top 10 albums in the UK in the first decade of the new millenium, by sales, include two by Dido and one each from James Blunt, David Gray, Leona Lewis, Coldplay. The top 20 contains two further Coldplay albums, Keane, Norah Jones, Snow Patrol... So 'Maybe Someday' with it's punky, shouted intro, choppy Jam guitars and sub 3 minute running time was an instant attention grabber. Championed by Steve Harris (@SteveXFM), then buried away in a late slot on Virgin Radio, here was a band that struck an instant chord with me. The look, the influences, the lyrics. I was 21 and in my first proper job and the likes of 'Week In Week Out', 'Maybe Someday', 'Talk Talk Talk' were anthems for such disaffected young office prisoners as I had become. Better yet, 'Weekend Revolution' railed against the 'living for the weekend' crowd-

'You loutish lads look not for love,

You grab your loins and hunt for blood,
You unleash the tension,
Do things i wouldn't mention...

Your weekday demons take their toll on you,
But your weekend revolution just won't do'

OTCC rattled along with urgency. Intelligent lyrics, a healthy dose of brass, lots of guitars. Harrington jackets and a 'Specials' cover. CD artwork designed to look like a 'Penguin' classic. Utterly incongruous with anything else around at the time yet perfect for me. 'Brassbound' followed a year later. Seemingly maligned by the band themselves these days, more than a dash of UK pop reggae was added to the mix. 'Boys Will Be Boys' recalled the hooligan ska of Bad Manners, while the likes of 'On An Island' and 'Call To Arms' were bouncy, sunny and deserving of a wider audience. All the while a decent cache of b-sides and covers had been amassed, displaying not only great taste (Ramones, Buzzcocks, Stevie Wonder, Kinks, Eddie Cochran...) but further evidence of intelligent, insightful songwriting and relateable lyrics. 'Quarter Life Crisis' and 'We Soldier On' stand out for me as particular praise-worthy. In another era 'This Could Be The Night' and 'Hand In Hand' could have been massive hits. I understand that name-checking these songs to people who won't have heard them means nothing in and of itself but the point is any preconception of who The Ordinary Boys are is way off the mark.

Big Brother happened. Preston had often stated a fascination with celebrity culture, and reality tv (and troublesome debates solved in glossy magazines) so on a personal level his involvement was not much of a surprise. In his words, he went in as 'an interactive spectator'. To cut a long story short he aquitted himself well, charmed the nation, and came out with a public profile and new audience of teenage girls. Great news for the record label, but slightly disconcerting for the loud and loyal 'Ordinary Army'. I've recently re-evaluated the post-BB album and it's far from the disaster I'd written it off as- it's no OTCC but I've made my peace with it. Though at the time the departure in sound and influx of Preston fans ignorant of the band's existence pre-BB left a sour taste. A quick side-note on the 'other' thing Preston is known and judged for, the 'Never Mind The Buzzocks' walkout. I still fail to see how it reflects badly on him at all. If you go on that show you know what you're letting yourself in for and can be considered 'fair game' but having your (then) wife sneeringly mocked in front of you is not something anyone could be expected to laugh along with. Anyway. 'How To Get Everything You Ever Wanted In Ten Easy Steps' somewhat limped along and the band folded with a whimper.

For a long time I lamented the turn of events that saw MY band thrust into the spotlight only to burn up under it... In hindsight, 'How To Get Everything...' was an honest album- if they had just churned out another OTCC things could have turned out much the same but maybe there wouldn't be the same desire to recapture past glories that has led to a rejuvenated Preston being 'so happy and psyched' to be back in the studio now. In 2008, the year after the official 'split', Preston made available the unreleased track 'Busy Wasting Time'. Insult to injury as it was a breezy continuation of the Brassbound sound and a hint at what might have been. A further 3 years passed and the feeling of dissatisfaction remained that the band would be remembered for the wrong reasons, until July 2011. With the dust well and truly settled, completely out of the blue, something as exciting as it was welcome was quietly announced-

'B-Unique (my publishers and friends for the last eight years) suggested I do a few last Ordinary Boys shows while I was still in my twenties to give the band a proper burial...'

'I want to play mainly the first record and some b-sides and maybe some rougher, sweatier versions of some of the singles. I just need something loud and fast in my life and I want to do it before I turn 30 next year.' 

Music to my ears, a clean slate and a much more appropriate send-off. A new track 'Run This Town' emerged and it was like the return of an old friend, a weight was lifted, all resentments forgiven. The Islington Academy gig in December was the third and best time I'd seen them live. So for the public at large's opinion to be based on them for the brief  period in the middle, where things were messy and not representative of the band as a whole disappoints me. 

If it had ended there, I'd have been content. No unfinished business, demons laid to rest. But what that fortnight's worth of gigs proved was that there was still a taste for it on both sides. When the band packed up in 2007 I never could have hoped that six years later we'd be hearing new material, and for it to be as high a quality as 'Reluctantly Yours'. The waltzing organ, sardonic vocals and air of resignation bring to mind Terry Hall's 90's solo albums. It's a brilliantly written pop song in the purest sense of the word. Familiar enough for comfort but a very individual track, it's hard to place it's origins in the Ordinary Boys timeline so if it's an indicator of what's to come I couldn't be happier.