Albums of the Year 2016: Patch The Sky - Bob Mould

Patch The Sky - Bob Mould

Merge Records

Produced by Bob Mould

Released 25th March 2016

US Chart #82

US Independent Chart # 6

UK Chart #54

Select Tracks from Patch The Sky

Promos, Album and Performance

 Tracklist
A1 Voices In My Head    
A2 The End Of Things    
A3 Hold On    
A4 You Say You    
A5 Losing Sleep    
A6 Pray For Rain    
B1 Lucifer And God    
B2 Daddy's Favorite    
B3 Hands Are Tied    
B4 Black Confetti    
B5 Losing Time    
B6 Monument

Personnel
    Bob Mould - guitars, vocals, keyboards, percussion
    Jason Narducy - bass, backing vocals
    Jon Wurster - drums, percussion

Live On KEXP

Performance and Interview

10th May 2016

Songs:
The End Of Things
Losing Time
You Say You
The Descent
Black Confetti

Here's the previous performance that was mentioned in the above video (Click on the links):

Full KEXP Performance from 16th April 2016.

Songs:
Hoover Dam
See A Little Light
The Descent
I Don't Know You Anymore
You Say You
Voices In My Head
Hold On
If I Can't Change Your Mind
Makes No Sense At All

Five Song Encore 

Brooklyn Bowl, London

11th February 2016

Songs:

Flip Your Wig (Hüsker Dü) 

Hate Paper Doll (Hüsker Dü)

Your Generation (Generation X Cover)

Love Is All Around (Hüsker Dü)

Makes No Sense At All (Hüsker Dü)

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Patch The Sky is the 12th Solo Album from Bob Mould and his third for Merge Records following the absolutely ear shattering Silver Age in 2012 and the  magnificent Beauty and Ruin from 2014.

I really do think that Bob Mould has been making some of his best music in the past 8 years or so beginning with District Line in 2008 and Life and Times in 2009. 

I love the fact on this album he is sounding as raw and powerful as he did back with Hüsker Dü and his other power trio Sugar. There's a real sense of urgency to deliver these songs that you feel you barely have time to breath between one ending and the next one beginning.

Originally the album was going to be an Acoustic type album, similar to something like Workbook his fine solo Debut Album (there you go Pauline you were not dreaming you read that before!) but the death of his mother led to a more darker tone for the album.

Hold On is actually an older song that had been hanging around for a while and eventually finds its place here on Patch The Sky.

The title of the album arose out of a vision Mould had, "of when people leave or things end, of something shooting through the 'fabric of the sky' and disappearing. 'Sometimes you think you want to chase it,' he says, meditating on the people or elements you lose along the way in life. 'Sometimes you get right to the edge of it, and sow it back shut and stay on the other side. Does that make sense?' You decide to patch the sky and keep going, instead of shooting through yourself."*

*There's a great piece written by Ryan Leas for Stereogum back in January this year that is worth a read as Bob Mould looks back on his career and talks about this new album. The quote comes from that article.

Albums of the Year for 2016: The Sound of Stax

They say that there is no sound sweeter than the sound of Stax Soul and this year two wonderful albums were released on the classic label. Both made the list of my Albums of the Year 2016.

 Where I Live - William Bell

Stax

Produced by William Bell

Released 8th July 2016

Like Dion DiMucci, who we just posted, William Bell was also 77 years old this year and released his first album for decade and it was an absolute beauty.

This was his first album for Stax since 1974 and a return to the place he called home for many years starting in 1961.

His gift for crafting a good lyric was rewarded often when his Born Under A Bad Sign (co-written with Booker T. Jones) was covered by Cream, Etta James, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy and even old Homer Simpson! The song was originally a hit for Bluesman Albert King. Bell had recorded it himself many years ago (1969 actually) and on Where I Live he brings it back to life again.

He still sounds great as well and you'd never guess he was 77 years old at all!

MEmphis Rock and Soul - Melissa Etheridge

Stax

Produced by John Burk and Melissa Etheridge

Released 7th October 2016

 

The second album released on Stax that really impressed me this year comes from Melissa Etheridge and she also revives Born Under A Bad Sign (and Any Other Way & I Forgot To Be Your Lover - both also written by William Bell) as well as a whole bunch of Stax classics. Included among them is a new version with some added lyrics of the old Staple Singers classic Respect Yourself that used the original backing track recorded at Muscle Shoals by the in-house band affectionately known as The Swampers. There's some Otis Redding numbers including a magnificent version of I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop) and my favourite Otis song Dreams To Remember. Add to that Sam & Dave's Hold On I'm Coming, Memphis Train (Rufus Thomas), Who's Making Love (Johnnie Taylor), I'm A Lover (Staple Singers), Rock Me Baby (Otis Redding but originally done by B.B, King), and Wait a Minute (Babara Stephens). 

 

Covers albums can sometimes be a bit tacky but from start to finish this one is a cracker.

 

 

 

Albums of the Year for 2016: New York Is My Home - Dion

  New York is My Home - Dion
Instant Records
Produced by Dion DiMucci and Jimmy Vivino
Released 12th February 2016

1 Aces up Your Sleeve
2 Can't Go Back to Memphis
3 New York Is My Home (with Paul Simon - Promo Video)
4 The Apollo King
5 Katie Mae
6 I'm Your Gangster of Love
7 Ride with You
8 I'm All Rocked Up
9 Visionary Heart
10 I Ain't for It 

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I decided this year that I wasn't going to do that whole Best Album of the Year that I've done in the past but rather just share some of albums I've heard this year that have made a big impression on me. So the choices are quite diverse as you have seen thus far and this one is again a little different.

2016 has been a bit of a bad year for the passing of various musical geniuses but it's also been a good year for some of the "elder Statesmen of Rock and Roll"! 

You just don't expect someone at the age of 77 (76 when it was released) to still be making great music but Dion DiMucci has done just that with a remarkable little album New York Is My Home.

The album sees Dion revelling in his love for Rock and Roll and the Blues. Across the ten tracks (not a bad one in the bunch at all!) there's some reflection on seeing the Great Sax man Big Al Sears in The Apollo King and Visionary Heart is a look back to Buddy Holly. The Gangster of Love throws up an image of another one of the characters like The Wanderer or The King of The New York Streets that Dion has a lot of fun singing about.

The title track sung with Paul Simon also features as a bonus track on Simon's latest album Stranger To Stranger. 

Dion said of the song:

"Paul Simon and I have been friends a long time. I was at his apartment back when there was a terrible downturn in the country and Paul wanted to do something special for the city. Well, he put together that wonderful concert in Central Park. He thought the city needed a touch of friendship. I thought it was off the Richter scale doing something for our city. When I wrote “New York Is My Home” I thought this is a way to have New Yorkers fall in love with their city all over again. I thought of Paul. ... Early on I knew I had to sing it with Paul Simon. We share a love for rock 'n' roll street music the way it was done when we were kids. I knew Paul would get this song. And he did. Soon after I sent it to him, he called and said he’d become obsessed with it. He added his own distinct touches to the production. He’s from Queens, I’m from the Bronx. We’re both at home in New York. What a trip, a labor of love for us."

I have said elsewhere that Dion DiMucci is one of my musical heroes dating all the way back to when I was a kid and I'm blown away that he's still singing 60 years after beginning on the street corners and the clubs of the Bronx. He has rarely failed to delight me with his releases, especially in the past 16 years or so.

Albums of the Year for 2016: Every Eye Open (Extended Edition) - Chvrches

Every Eye Open (Extended Edition) - Chvrches

Virgin

Produced by Chvrches

Released 29th July 2016

The original release in July 2015 charted

UK Chart #4

US Chart #8

Scottish Album Chart #1

 

(Special Deluxe Version Released in 2015)

The following Links are Promos and Live Versions

 1 Never Ending Circles   
2 Leave A Trace   
3 Keep You On My Side   
4 Make Them Gold   
5 Clearest Blue   
6 High Enough To Carry You Over   
7 Empty Threat   
8 Down Side Of Me   
9 Playing Dead   
10 Bury It   
11 Afterglow   
Bonus Tracks
12 Get Away   
13 Follow You   
14 Bow Down

Other Bonus Tracks Not included in the Playlist above but added to the Extended Edition released in 2016

 15 Warning Call (Theme From Mirror's Edge Catalyst)

    
16 Bury It (Feat. Hayley Williams Of Paramore)

  

  
17 Leave A Trace (Four Tet Remix)    
18 Empty Threat (Big Wild Remix)    
19 Clearest Blue (Gryffin Remix)

Some of these Remixes originally appeared on a Record Store Day 12" released on 16th April 2016

A1 Leave A Trace (Four Tet Remix)    
A2 Empty Threat (Whyt Noyz Remix)    
A3 Clearest Blue (Gryffin Remix)    
B1 Leave A Trace (Goldroom Remix)    
B2 Empty Threat (Big Wild Remix)    
B3 Clearest Blue (KDA Remix)

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With my love for guitar driven rock and roll Every Eye Open by Chvrches is not an album anyone would expect me of all people to be listening to!

I should say by right this wouldn't qualify for one of my Albums of the Year for 2016 as it was originally released in September 2015 but due to a technical glitch and the reissue of an Extended Edition of the album back in July it does actually qualify for this year!

Now, normally I have to say that I loathe it when a record company does something like this not even a year after its original release and then release an Extended Version (so many labels seem to do it these days and rarely does anyone take them to task!). 

On this occasion though I'm letting go of my loathing of such craftiness because I probably wouldn't have taken much notice of the album had I not stumbled upon a live video of Chvrches (from sometime last year) during the summer and heard the song Bury It featuring Haley Williams of Paramore. After that first listen the song seemed to pop up in many different places during the summer of this year and I found myself casually tapping a toe or two along with it and then there was a gentle bob of the head followed by swaying (yes, swaying! Can you believe that!).

Investigating further led me to the album itself and it's an infectious little thing that caught me off guard. I don't really know enough about this particular style of music to say whether it is brilliant or down right rubbish but I do know that Every Eye Open (Extended Edition) caused me a lot of joy in 2016.

Now I had to find out a little more about them. I had seen their name around and kind of avoided them when they were on coverage of festivals on the TV because I assumed they would not be kind of thing that delighted me. 

The thing that amazed me about the group was that hail from Glasgow and that they have been on the go since 2011 and performed their debut gig at The Artschool in Glasgow 5th July 2012. They don't sound very "Scottish" - whatever that's meant to sound like!

Lauren Mayberry (vocalist of Chvrches) wrote a very good piece for The Guardian a couple of years back (this was something I discovered in the summer whilst finding out more about them) where she spoke about having to deal with hate and sexism via the internet. It's an absolute shocker that people could post such vile abuse about anyone and often without consequence!

I've been drumming up the courage to go and listen to their earlier album The Bones of What You Believe In - after all the sight of a 53 year old man swaying to the angelic sound of electronic pop is something you maybe do not need to see!

Albums of the Year for 2016: Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad - Billy Bragg & Joe Henry

 Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad - Billy Bragg & Joe Henry
Cooking Vinyl
Produced by Joe Henry
Released 23rd September 2016

Side A

A1 Rock Island Line   
A2 The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore   
A3 The Midnight Special   
A4 Railroad Bill   
A5 Lonesome Whistle   
A6 KC Moan   
A7 Waiting For A Train   
 

Side B
B1 In The Pines   
B2 Gentle On My Mind   
B3 Hobo's Lullaby   
B4 Railroading On The Great Divide   
B5 John Henry   
B6 Early Morning Rain

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When you are planning a 4 Day Train Journey most people would make sure they at least had a good book and maybe a few DVD's to watch on the laptop to pass the time. For Billy Bragg and Joe Henry their source of entertainment through 2,278 miles was to record an album!

Yep, that's what you heard! Recording in Station Waiting Rooms or on the Platforms as the train stopped to pick up passengers on the way, Bragg and Henry captured the very essence of all those great country and folk songs about travel on the railroads that the likes of Johnny Cash and Hank Williams performed decades ago showing the humble Hobo criss-crossing the nation by rail in search of work, new life or just getting away from a bad situation.

Recorded on board the Texas Eagle 421 Service, upon platforms and in station halls, from Chicago to Los Angeles via San Antonio, 14-18 March 2016, except for "Waiting For A Train," recorded in Suite 414 of the Sheraton-Gunter Hotel, San Antonio, TX, March 17." 

What you get is a set of 13 cover songs recorded pretty much live with all the hussle and bussle of a busy station going on around them as they played. There's little fancy studio trickery to rectify the sound of life rushing by as they sing songs like Gentle On My Mind (made famous by Glen Campbell) or The Carter Family's Railroading On The Great Divide.

 

I must admit I've never quite heard anything like it! Surely for the absolute genius of the idea itself should Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad be considered as one of the Albums of the Year for 2016.

It may not end up on many of the music magazines best of the year reviews but it's ended up on mine.

Grab your ticket and get on board!

Albums of the Year for 2016: Lover, Beloved: Songs From An Evening With Carson McCullers - Suzanne Vega (October 2016)

Over the next few weeks I intend to post some of my favourite albums of  the year. They will no doubt be a  musically diverse selection and I hope that you take the opportunity to have a listen to some of them and expand your own listening experiences from what is your normal sphere.

I begin today with a quite fascinating album from Suzanne Vega. Her music has always appealed to me but I was quite taken with the subject matter of this new release. It only came out last month but it impressed me enough to be considered among my Albums of the Year for 2016.

 Lover, Beloved: Songs From An Evening With Carson McCullers - Suzanne Vega

Amaneunsis Productions

Producer Gerry Leonard

Released 14th October 2016

1 Carson's Blues    
2 New York Is My Destination    
3 Instant Of The Hour After    
4 We Of Me    
5 Annemarie    
6 12 Mortal Men    
7 Harper Lee    
8 Lover, Beloved    
9 The Ballad Of Miss Amelia    
10 Carson's Last Supper

Suzanne Vega wrote 8 songs in collaboration with Duncan Sheik and 2 with Michael Jefry Stevens.

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Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers is the ninth studio album by the American singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega, which was released on October 14, 2016. The album is based on a play Carson McCullers Talks About Love about the life of the writer Carson McCullers, written and performed by Vega, which premiered in 2011.

I have to say that I wasn't too aware of the writings if McCullers and I am sure that would actually enhance the listening to these ten tracks and make them sound a whole lot better. Vega has been reading McCullers since the age of 15 and this she considers to be her third treatment of the life of the writer having first performed it in school prior to the 2011 performances. A number of the songs have been around in Vega's live sets dating back to 2011 so there must be a real sense of fulfilment on her part being able to present the project as a whole with this fine album.

The link for the essay below is worth checking out as it will be a good aid for those unaware of Carson McCullers.

Musically the album has quite diverse sounds Blues, Jazz, Pop and Folk and that merely adds to the delightful listening experience.

Reflection in a Distant Mirror - An Essay on Carson McCullers and Suzanne Vega.

Read Andrew Anthony's great article from The Guardian published last month about the album.

Here's recent concert performance by Suzanne Vega in Germany where she performs a few tracks from the latest album as well as a number of her most well known offerings.

 Setlist:
01 Marlene On The Wall
02 Queen And The Soldier
03 Left Of Center
04 New York Is My Destination
05 We Of Me
06 Annemarie
07 Harper Lee
08 I Never Wear White
09 Luka
10 Tom's Diner
11 Lover Beloved
12 Jacob And The Angel
13 Gypsy
14 In Liverpool
15 Rosemary