Kings of Leon - Milk

I’ve always been a big Kings of Leon fan, though I can’t claim I liked them before they were cool – I remember a friend telling me to go listen to Youth & Young Manhood (2003) and Aha Shake Heartbreak (2004 in the UK, 2005 in the US) shortly after I told him how much I liked On Call (2007)! A lot has been said about how far the band has or hasn’t fallen since then, I’m going to steer clear of all that.

When I was listening to Milk, the 5^th song on Aha Shake, a couple of days ago, I realised that it sits somewhere between KoL’s very early songs and their later, more ‘arena rock’ sound.

The synth intro, the groovy guitar driven break, the vocals front and centre in the mix are all far removed from Four Kicks.  Add to that, the ambiguous lyrics about ‘hourglass bodies’ and ‘spotlights’ and you could easily have a song from Only By the Night (the one with Sex on Fire, 2008). At the same time, the driving bass line during the verses drives like the shuffle on Holy Roller Novacaine, and the vocals are just that bit more ragged, and the lyrics darker, giving the song more of a KoL circa 2003 than 2008 vibe. At the end of the day, music will always defy categorisation – every song and performance will always be unique – but it is always strange the little connections that sometimes pop up.

Cory Henry at Union Chapel 17 May 2016

I saw Cory Henry a couple of Tuesday’s ago at the Union Chapel and it was hands down one of the best gigs I’ve been to in a while. The gig was part of The Revival project where Cory gets to sit down and jam through songs he considers his biggest influences.  He draws on songs he played growing up, both standards and pop, and just runs with them.

It was clear form the get go that he was in his element. With just a drummer – the superlative Taron Lockett – and his 3 keyboards (including the Hammond B3 + Leslie speaker that every review mentions) they create an atmosphere that was intimate and yet also larger than life. 

It would be wrong not to mention that a huge part of this comes from the venue itself. The Union Chapel is indeed a chapel space, complete with Victorian gothic stained glass, and is still used for services. A huge rose window sits above the stage, and a smoke machine was used to great effect. Lockett’s sticks were a blur as he played, and as the stage lights caught the smoke the whole event took on an ethereal feel.

This contrasted with the passion with which Cory sang and played, baring his soul on a version of Ray Charles’ Drowning In My Own Tears. And with the huge sound of the both Cory’s organ and Taron’s drums, there was a shifting sense of being right there with them as they made their music, and sitting back, watching two musicians in a bubble on stage loving life.

The latter sense was most apparent during their cover of Giant Steps. Taron Lockett laid down an absolutely huge backbeat - he had a pad set up along side his kit just for this kind of sound. Meanwhile the former came across during the original composition NaaNaaNaa, a song Cory describes as made to cheer you up and make you feel good.

NaaNaaNaa is also where Cory’s showmanship really comes out, throughout the song he worked the audience, getting different sections of the room to sing different parts. This was a great experience, and you could feel the whole room come together. In essence, this is what The Revival is about: sharing music with the audience and seeing the connection it creates.

Rolling Stones Sunday - Paint It Black

I'm bending the rules slightly today, actually this is my blog, so I guess I make the rules. Anyway, today's song is a cover of Paint It Black by Chris Farlowe:

With a different orchestration/arrangement and a very distinct vocal performance compared with the original, it's an interesting cover to listen to. What's also interesting is that Mick Jagger actually produced this song, and is credited on the album, The Art of Chris Farlowe (1966), along with Andrew Loog Oldham - then manager and producer of the Rolling Stones. The album also includes the first recordings of Out of Time and I'm Free, Jagger/Richards compositions, which the Stones would cover later in the 1960's.

For those interested, although his website is a little dated, Chris Farlowe is still going strong, and was on tour in 2015.

Stones Roses - All For One

If X-fm's marketing hype is anything to go by, All For One, the first Stone Roses track for 21 years is the biggest thing since sliced bread. Unfortunately, it isn't.

It has all the right elements for a Stone Roses song: catchy melody, a good guitar riff, a healthy dose of reverb to to give a slightly spacey atmosphere. Where it really falls down are the lyrics. ‘Repetitive, child-like lyrics that sound like they were lifted from Liam Gallagher’s ‘maybe’ pile,' is how one Guardian commentator,  Daniel Thompson, described them.

While personally I think that's a little harsh, I understand where he is coming from. While Stone Roses lyrics are always abstract, there is normally a sense of story, or an overarching metaphor (think Waterfall, She Bangs The Drum, 10 Story Love Song). The lyrics of All For One however are a bit dull 'all for one / and one for all' sounds a bit Dave Grohl/Foo Fighters. And they don't exactly go anywhere, 'if we all join joins we could build a wall' doesn't exactly fill you with a sense of wonder or enlightenment. That being said, they are catchy - I've listened one and a half times and they are already stuck in my head - and musically the song is pretty much what you'd expect. Overall however, the song feels more album filler than comeback single.

I'm Leaving You

I thought it might be exciting to write about a song that was actually released this year for once, and just the other day I found Robert Glasper's new song I'm Leaving You (2016!!).  I found the song on a Spotify, what first caught my eye was that Miles Davis is credited as an artist on the song. Given he has sadly been dead since 1991 I thought it was a strange pairing. And when you listen to the song, it's not immediately obvious what Davis has actually contributed to it:

However, the funky cool vibe made me do a little more digging. The album the song comes from, Everything's Beautiful, is a tribute to Miles Davis put together by Glasper, with help from various musicians. I'm Leaving You features John Scofield on guitar for instance, and his playing is especially tasty around the 2:00 mark. A short while later, from 2:15 - 2:30, the collage of vocals start to take on Davis' signature muted trumpet sound. Oh, and in case you were wondering, that is Miles Davis himself saying 'wait a minute' sampled in the intro.

Everything's Beautiful will be released the 27th of May on Sony Records.

Amy Winehouse – Wake Up Alone

Lioness was released in December 2011 to raise money for the Amy Winehouse Foundation, set up after her death in July. Containing b-sides and previously unreleased tracks, the album is a treasure trove, among the gems is the original version of Wake Up Alone:

This version credits Paul O’Duffy as Producer, not Mark Ronson, who is credited on the album version. The difference in production style gives a more emotive and intimate song. Where the album version (at the bottom of this post) maintains a swaying, pop feel, this version has a freer, jazzy feel.

A lot of this comes from the free-comping guitar, and the stripped down drums. It gives Amy more freedom to linger on certain notes, sit just behind the beat, and play with the melody. While personally, I find the guitar to be distracting in the first half of the song, it settles down after the first chorus. The steadiness of the guitar becomes a foil for the improvised feel of the vocals.

Overall, it’s hard to say one version is better than the other because they are so different. Mark Ronson’s version clearly focuses sticking to the style of the rest of Back to Black. This is no reason to denigrate his talent as a producer – he is a big reason for the Back to Black's success. However, O’Duffy’s production places the focus squarely on Amy’s outstanding voice, which makes the song a stand alone work of art. As promised, here is the album version so you can make your own choice:

Exhibitionism

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