Various Artists, Ciao My Shining Star, A Tribute To Mark Mulcahy
Mark Mulcahy has never enjoyed the recognition he deserves in the UK. The proceeds from Ciao My Shining Star, an album featuring various artists covering his work, are to help him bring up his twin daughters following the sudden death of his wife, Melissa, in 2008.
The artists appearing on the album is a veritable who’s who in music featuring Michael Stipe, the amazing Frank Black, Thom Yorke, Juliana Hatfield, Frank Turner and Dinosaur JR to name but a few.
The album is almost bursting with love, hurt, loss, friendship, understanding and sorrow. There is an awful lot to like about this album and there really is something for everyone, from the opening track “all the best” performed by Thom Yorke (which reminds one of the Kid A era Radiohead) to the closing track “a world away from this one” you are struck by just how beautiful and wholly appropriate a tribute this album is.
The shadows of Dylan’s poetry and Buckley’s soul hang behind Mulcahy’s songs, and the beauty of the album is marred only by the tragedy that brought about its very existence. The stand out tracks are Frank Blacks cover of “Bill Jocko”, Juliana Hatfields “We’re Not In Charleston Anymore” and Frank Turners “The Quiet One” although there is very little to fault at all.
All in all though this is a beautiful and important album and one that truly benefits the artist and showcases the importance of his work. Damon Marcus
Madness, One Step Beyond (special 30th Anniversary re-issue)
I like Madness and was really looking forward to listening to this album, they are one of the greatest singles bands of all time and “One Step Beyond” features five classic Madness tracks amongst what can only be described as a sea of filler.
The album opens with three of the most memorable chart singles of the era. The bone fide pop classic of ‘My Girl’ followed by “One Step Beyond’ and the infectious ‘Night Boat to Cairo’. The album is just forty minutes long but there are simply too many tracks on here, many of which are just above average period pub rock, which ultimately just serves to dilute its impact. What could have been a genuine classic ten track album, augmented by the fantastic ‘Bed & Breakfast Man’ and 2Tone debut single ‘The Prince’, becomes stretched a bit thin, ending on a particularly weak note with the perplexing chant of ‘Chipmunks Are Go’.
The quality of the extras in this deluxe 30th anniversary reissue make up for these shortcomings however by the inclusion of the videos for each of the five singles found on the album. Disc two is a similar goldmine of material, of which the highlight is the four track John Peel session. The Spanish and Italian covers of ‘One Step Beyond’ are superfluous and again one gets the feeling they are there for filling but the Mike Barson demo of ‘My Girl’ proves to be illuminating. Add to this the cream of the Work, Rest & Play EP and you’ve got an attractively packaged, bargain collection of classic British pop memorabilia. Damon Marcus
Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, Band Of Skulls
Baby Darling Doll Face Honey is the debut album by Southampton’s Band Of Skulls, I had to point out where the band is from as the average listener would assume that the band was as American as apple pie, ghastly fast food or a handgun. They sing about “taking their baby to the Hollywood Bowl” in faux American accents and I was preparing myself to hate them but the album is actually rather good although something of a mish-mash of blues rock, garage and The White Stripes.
After the attention grabbing start that is “Light of the Morning”, the band dive into White Stripes territory with “Death by Diamonds and Pearls”, but quickly escapes the comparison with the gentle and soothing tracks “Honest” and “Patterns”. In fact, these two songs which lie buried in the middle of the album are rather vital to appreciate the sonic profile of Band of Skulls.
The album is a bit of a mess and the songs don’t quite sit together but as you dig through them it’s hard not to find something that you like, whether it be the lo-fi noise rock, the gentle acoustic numbers or the blues influenced tracks there really is something here for everyone.
All in all, The Band of Skulls debut is an alluring listen. Looking at this track by track, the album can be a little jarring, but when viewed as a whole, the album is an extremely cohesive and impressive body of work. Not only that, the band demonstrates the kind of talent that is rare, yet relatable to fans of rock, folk, and pop. The future of this band isn’t going to be bright, it's going to be blinding.Damon Marcus
Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits
Kurt Cobain stormed MTV and radio with punk anthems of genuine rage, and saved us all from the vapidity of hair metal and yet more manufactured boy bands. Following the death of his Cobain, Dave Grohl started his own band, and spent the next 15 years making diluted, mainstream rock radio hits. The Foo Fighters debut album was very reminiscent of Nirvana’s first album “Bleach”, experimental, punk, catchy riffs, screaming, distorted guitars and vocals and a breath of fresh air.
The Foo Fighters were never as exciting, inspiring or as era-defining as that of Nirvana but they did offer something different to the corporate commercialism on radio and television. In the years after Cobain's death, corporate consolidation of the radio took hold and quickly snuffed out nearly every bit of underground weirdness that made its way into the mainstream after the record industry went through its phase of signing every cult band they could get in the hopes of finding another Nirvana.
The Foo Fighters are excellent at being mainstream and as a compilation; Greatest Hits offers few surprises other than the fact that the record conspicuously lacks tracks from the band’s debut (and best) album. The first 13 tracks make good on the promise of the title and provide a parade of (slightly dull) modern rock radio staples. Of course, modern-hits compilations are unnecessarily laden with new tracks recorded simply to sell the record upon release to people who are too easily parted from their money, and this is no exception. Like nearly all songs recorded specifically for these releases, "Wheels" and "Word Forward" are sadly uninspired, and have no place among the heavy hitters in this collection. "Wheels" is particularly aggravating, sounding something like a half-hearted attempt at a country-rock crossover, which indicates a nervous desperation for continued success that has been absent from Grohl's work to date.
If you like The Foo Fighters then you’ll already have the decent tracks from this album already and the bonus tracks rely aren’t worth worrying about, don’t get me wrong there isn’t anything especially bad about the band it’s just that after the passion, angst and originality of Nirvana I never paid much attention to the radio friendly Foo’s.
In recent interviews, Grohl has said the Fighters are going "on hiatus" ,with the former Nirvana drummer returning to his roots in a new band, “Them Crooked Vultures”. The fate of The Foo’s is perhaps in question and sadly this is a poor goodbye from the band. I would sooner they had released another album and called it quits rather than selling us another unnecessary “Greatest hits album”. Dave Grohl went from being a member of one of the most pioneering, original bands in the world to a commercial, MTV friendly, pop band. Save your money and buy the Them Crooked Vultures album. Damon Marcus
Cable - SubLingual
Life can be cruel at times, especially when it teams up with lawyers to force the untimely demise of one of Britain's best and most original bands. The music business is the most vicious, money grabbing business in the world and sadly originality, talent and passion are simply fodder to those in charge.Cable should have been huge but sadly they are not even fondly remembered, the music industry took that from them also. Luckily though the Derby four piece left us with three amazing albums “Downlift The Uptrodden”, “When Animals Attack” and “SubLingual”, although sadly their last release is also their swan song.
After a lengthy court case with an ex manager Cable finally released SubLingual only to have to split up, this is truly sad as the album pointed towards an interesting future for the band. Unpredictable and eccentric to the end the band always managed to leave you wanting more but the tragic thing about this album is the fact that this really is their goodbye.
Song One starts the album with an explosion of feedback before launching into a riff and verse/chorus that is so infectious it will buzz around your head for weeks, HexagonEye is both rocking and brilliantly understated with the annoyingly catchy chant of “I Spy Flies With My Super Fly By’s, Looking Out For Me With Your HexagonEye”. Pocket Promise is both simple and poppy whilst making you want to jump around like a lunatic, whilst Comprendez? signals the end of something very special indeed.
Whilst listening to this album you can almost reach out and touch the emotions, the album is an elegantly bruised, hardcore, alternative yet original affair that should have been the bands breakthrough moment but sadly the bad guy won and the band were forced to disband.
After the final crash of the drums you realise that it’s all over, it really is a sad moment. This is a truly great album by a truly great band that never achieved the fame and attention they deserved. Due to a legal dispute they have been forced to abandon all they've worked for. Their end is our loss. Damon Marcus
Nirvana - Live At Reading
It is the offstage drama that lends an undeniable tension to this live album. On the DVD of the show that accompanies Deluxe Editions of this release (the standalone CD omits a song and all the between-song banter, and is very much inferior as a result), Cobain rolls onstage in a wheelchair and fakes an addled collapse, before ‘recovering’ and leading Nirvana through a ferocious yet lacklustre live set.
This is not a greatest hits collection but it is an interesting moment in music as the band debuted (as then) unreleased material and we gain an insight into the early versions of what were to become “In Utero” tracks such as “Dumb” and “All Apologies”. This collection of music perfectly fuses Cobain’s love for pop melody with punks searing honesty, with a haunting intensity.
This Reading festival show Took place at the height of the Nevermind frenzy and the set list draws heavily upon that album. It's fleshed out by material from Bleach as well as outtakes which eventually appeared on the b-sides/rare tracks album “Incesticide. There are also a handful of tracks, like "Dumb" and "All Apologies” that would eventually appear on In Utero. Given the colossal scope of the venue the sound quality of the recording is surprisingly great and show that the band were a formidable live force, the passion and quality of the songs are far more dynamic than the studio cuts of the songs.
This album is a great reminder that it wasn't the hit singles that were so compelling with Nirvana. It was really the sheer depth of the album's that was truly fantastic. Listening to the performances of tracks like "Breed", "On a Plain", "Negative Creep" and "Drain You" are every bit as vital as "Lithium" or "In Bloom". This album is a very different beast from “Unplugged in New York” and serves as a pointer to Nirvana's punch and energy as a unit rather than their musical ability, the unplugged album showed that the band could perform truly beautiful songs beyond the realms of “alternative chart rock” whilst “live at Reading” shows a band revelling in alternative, chart friendly rock.
In short “live at Reading” is an exhibition of Nirvana's intensity as a live act; they were an important moment in music’s rich history and are still as vital and important now as they were ten years ago. The bands show the Reading festival back in 1992 is one that we all wish we’d attended but only a lucky few truly did, Nirvana were unique and one of a kind and this release show that. Forget the indulgent soloing and theatrical spectacle many live albums trade in. Live at Reading delivers instead an opportunity to revisit a key moment in rock history, unedited and unadorned; to experience the greatest rock’n’roll group of their era playing what became, tragically, their final performance in the UK. Damon Marcus