TOTW: The Libertines_ Music When The Lights Go Out

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The Libertines will always have a special place in my heart. Their first two albums were a key part of the soundtrack to my early twenties. Today looking back on this work I still find something that is missing from a lot of modern main stream rock music, It sacrificed production polish to keep a raw live sound.

This is something that since Punk has been lacking from rock music and it’s no surprise that The Clash guitarist Mick Jones was producer on their first two albums. What you loose in sound perfection is more than made up for in the energy of the recordings. You can hear that this is a band playing together and it connects you as a listener to something real. It sounds like you are in the room with the band recording together rather than in some virtual space unconnected from reality and with that comes a connection that is lost on a lot of more modern production.

That connection has always been prominent in The Libertines from the beginning. Both in live shows and on record. They had a fascinating shambolic lifestyle that was reflected in their music and their lyrics which is exemplified in Music When The Lights Go Out.

The self titled album this track came from can be seen as a break up album for the band and only got toured briefly before they split up. And this track perfectly summarises the tumultuous feelings in the band at the time with an honesty and fragility that still resonates to this day:

TOTW: Scott Walker_ Best of Both Worlds

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Scott Walker has had a log and evolving career. Starting with a more standard popular music fair with dark tinges, which over multiple releases slowly seeped their way into experimental dominance on his works over the past three decades. For record listeners who enjoy hearing an artist develop, there are few out there that have developed so extremely as Scott Walker and yet still have a mood that resonates throughout their entire catalogue of work.

Best of Both worlds goes back the late 60’s and the beginning stages of His solo career. His iconic vocals haunt almost any instrumentation he sings over. It’s this sinister edge added to the orchestral accompaniment that really elevates the lyrics and the track as a whole to a level other versions of the song from different vocalists can’t achieve.

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TOTW: Oh Sees_ Jettisoned

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Orc is the latest album from the prolific band Oh Sees who have released thirteen albums over the past nine years. Although on my radar over the past few albums due to highly positive reviews. I haven’t really given them the chance they deserve until now.

Orc manages to blend many different areas of rock music with a garage rock aesthetic and with it comes an album full of vigor. It works better as an album as tracks complement each other well blending the harsh and smooth to great effect. So choosing a single song is a little hard and I recommend you give the whole thing a listen however I need to pick one track for the week and that will go to Jettisoned as it manages demonstrate a nice blend of their different influences:

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Charles Bradley- Victim Of Love

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Charles Bradley- Victim Of Love

Last week we lost the incredible voice of Charles Bradley who passed away from cancer. He didn’t rise to success until later in life, working as a handyman and even living homeless before his music finally got recognition. Like all great singers he can pull from this experience and add a weight to his delivery which goes further than the lyrics themselves.

Victim Of Love is a great example the qualities unique to Charles Bradley. The power and pain that come from his vocals make this track more than the sum of its parts. It’s a skill that will be sorely missed:

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TOTW: Nina Simone_ Who Knows Where the Time Goes

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Originally an English Folk song written by Sandy Denny, Who Knows Where the Time Goes has been covered by many artists and always manages to entice with its wistful lyrics and interesting chord progressions.

On this cover Nina Simone manages to portray the longing of the lyrics which is only enhanced by an instrumental accompaniment that gives plenty of breathing room. The track is also a live recording which creates an intimacy and seance of place that makes it even more compelling.

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TOTW: Marvin Gaye- Funk me

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Listening to Soul, Funk and Disco music has been fun over the past month and helped me raise my awareness to old classics that I’d either never heard or forgotten. It also made me aware that I hadn’t put one of my favorite tracks on my Track Of The Week playlist yet. Funk me may be less well known than some other tracks by Marvin Gaye but it has one of my favorite bass lines ever recorded which manages to be both technically complex and catchy from first listen.

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TOTW: Squeeze- Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)

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I simply love this track, The punk influence is clear as the track crashes straight into its opening and continues to keep busy in its arrangement instrumentation and composition to create a song that’s constantly shifting and staying vibrant throughout its four minute playing time and stays that way on repeat listens:

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TOTW: Oneohtrix Point Never- Leaving The Park

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I always look forward to a New Oneohtrix Point Never Release. Danial Lopatin under the OPN pseudonym has always pushed electronic music in unique and exiting directions.

On his new project this sound has been reigned in somewhat due to its purpose as the score for the feature film Good Time. This results in his most accessible work to date for the general listener and a perfect place to start for anyone new to his sound.

Leaving the park features looping arpeggiated synthesis that interweaves with other electronic sounds that vary from the wistful to the sinister. Creating a style reminiscent of the music of John Carpenter whilst also keeping the soundscapes and sound design found in other works by OPN:

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TOTW: DJ Shadow- This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way)

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Over the Past few weeks I have listened to a lot of music fitting into the funk and soul genre as I gather a collection together to DJ and I came back to this lesser known gem by DJ shadow.

His work has always sampled music from the history of soul and funk and chopped them up into strong beats and iconic melodies but on this track he decides to return to the very origin of the works creating a modern soul classic with the history of the genre at the forefront but mixed with the modern production techniques that weren’t available at the time to create something that fits into both worlds.

The result is something quite special. A track that seems to come from a parallel universe where soul music stayed close to its routes and in that way it manages to work well in both a modern and old DJ set and can even provide bridge between the two.

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TOTW: Glen Campbell- Wichita Lineman

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Glen Campbell passed away this week after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for the last few years. He leaves behind a collection of brilliant country songs and one of my favorite tracks of all time Wichita Lineman.

There are songs that resonate with you at particular points in your life and in the future bring those memories back with vivid detail, Wichita Lineman is a perfect example. One perfect moment where it correlated with me traveling back from visiting Glamorgan university for a taster day when I was 18 years old. My mini disc player had run out of batteries and so I plugged my headphones into the virgin trains seat and on comes Wichata Lineman to accompany me as the train wound its way over the lush greenery of South Wales on a clear day as the sun hung low in the sky.

Listening back to this song takes me to this place and time in my life. A moment when everything was ahead of me. Multiple paths leading to the horizon with both the luxury and fear of the choice to pick which one to walk down. At that moment alone on the train with a Whichita Lineman playing in my ears I came to the realisation that things were changing, I was growing up and yet it was all going to be all right. Feelings I will always associate with this song for the rest of my life and with that Glen Campbell will stay with me long after his passing. A true representation as to the power of music at its best.

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