CDs

[This post took two weeks to write. I don't think I'll do another one like it]

While in Boston recently I took advantage of what Donna is calling 'our half-price trip to America sale', so called because our pounds are worth twice the number of dollars, and bought myself a stack of CDs.

A little background - as I listen to various music podcasts, including NPR's All Songs Considered,CBC Radio 3 from Canada, KCRW in Los Angeles, and the long absent 3Hive.com's podcast, I'll scribble down the name of a song or artist that catches my ear. Later I'll add them to my amazon.com wishlist. Occasionally I'll see what other artists amazon recommends as a result of my browsing, and add them too. Much later on, I'll print out this list before heading to the shops, and I'll browse for as many of those CDs as I can, buying them only if I can find them cheaply. In general these are artists who not played widely on the radio, or who have a fairly small following.

Very often I have no memory of how and when I first heard these people, and it's not until I get the CD home that I might pick out the track that I first listened to and have an 'ah-ha' moment. Occasionally I am bitterly disappointed and wonder what frame of mind I must have been in to add them to my list. More often than not however I am delighted and feel as if I've discovered a hidden gem.

I know this isn't the model of how many people are getting their music these days, in which downloads are rapidly becoming the major form of distribution of music. I love the access to music from far and wide that the internet gives me, but I hate the lack of connection I feel to the thousands of songs on my harddrive. I love holding a CD in my hand, looking at the artwork, reading the sleeve notes. It fixes the music in my mind and connects it to me in ways impossible to obtain without that physical object.

A while ago we had the brilliant idea of copying a friend's entire iTunes collection. We only managed to grab A-H before it brought our computer to a halt. I've slowly gone through and tried to listen to all of the music, culling out the ones we don't want, highlighting the gems, but probably half of the music is unlistened to. That was two years ago.

This is without getting into the fact that digital files are most likely compressed, or my orderly but idiosyncratic system of organising my music, one that cannot be squeezed into the purely logical sorting options of iTunes.

Here then is a list of the recent CD purchases.

James Yorkston - The Year of The Leopard
I didn't know why I bought this CD at first, full of simple folksy music, nice but unremarkable. It reminded me of one of my favourite singers, Adem. That was until I got to the track Woozy With Cider, and I remembered that it was played on NPR's All Songs Considered. In fairness, the host did say that this track was different than the rest of his work, so I shouldn't have been surprised at this hushed, spoken-word meditation on life in London over an aural texture of sound, contrasting strongly with the rest of his songs.

Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
We loved Silent Alarm too much (initially a 3Hive.com discovery for me) to not buy their second album purely on faith. That, and the fact that they reference our now beloved Northern Line in the track Waiting For The 7.18. Right now after a couple of listens the album feels like a bunch of half-formed ideas and loopy sonic experiments, not the watertight 80s-dance-indie-pop I had fallen in love with. Still, when I don't immediately love an album it can often grow on me on repeated listens, as I discard my expectations and listen to it with fresh ears.

The Frames - The Cost
If I didn't know better, I would have sworn it was Cat Stevens (sorry, Yusuf Islam) singing his heart out on this CD. The Frames are a band with a wall-to-wall big sound mixed with sudden quiet, heartfelt lyrics and with a vocal line that wails over the top of everything in a way that makes the neighbourhood dogs suddenly sit up. It's the kind of music that makes a Grey's Anatomy producer sit up and rush in to the editor's room and say "We have new songs for Meredith's end-of-episode tedius-ologues!". In any case, I like it, I'm a sucker for this stuff, until it's overplayed on the radio (goodbye Snow Patrol and The Frey)

Fountains Of Wayne - Traffic and Weather
Fountains of Wayne are clever. They make well-crafted, fun songs that sound like other songs, about people who are not them, in a way that could be both sincere or ironic. Sometimes the good craft and ironic tone is all there is to a song, enjoyable for one listen and tiresome after that, if there isn't more to it. I do like it very much now, let's see if it lasts.

Brazil (remastered soundtrack) - Michael Kamen
I already have this CD, but this is a remastered edition and I couldn't pass it up. One of my favourite films with a score that evokes everything from personal isolation to operatic action. Dialogue snippets on a score album are a pet peeve for movie soundtrack collectors, but in this case it actually works. My favourite is one that reads like a potential interview with a certain Mr Bush in 2007...

INTERVIEWER
Deputy minister, what do you believe is behind this recent increase in terrorist bombings?

HELPMANN
Bad sportsmanship. A ruthless minority of people seems to have forgotten certain good old fashioned virtues. They just can't stand seeing the other fellow win. If these people would just play the game, they'd get a lot more out of life.

INTERVIEWER
And the cost of it all, Deputy Minister? Seven percent of the gross national produce ...

HELPMANN
I understand this concern on behalf of the tax-payers. People want value for money and a cost-effective service. That is why we always insist on the principle of Information Retrieval Charges. It's absolutely right and fair that those found guilty should pay for their periods of detention and the Information Retrieval Procedures used in their interrogation.

INTERVIEWER
Do you think that the government is winning the battle against terrorists?

HELPMANN
On yes. Our morale is much higher than theirs, we're fielding all their strokes, running a lot of them out, and pretty consistently knocking them for six. I'd say they're nearly out of the game.

INTERVIEWER
But the bombing campaign is now in its thirteenth year ...

HELPMANN
Beginner's luck.

Battlestar Galactica Season 2 - Bear McCreary
I didn't start watching BSG until recently, during its up and down Season 3. What I came to love as much as the show was its rich score, unusual for a television show. On the surface it's full of the cliches in recent film scoring - taiko drums, 'ethnic' instrumentation, and solo tuneless female vocals. Yet these choices fit with the central dramatic tone of the series - a dark and ambiguous tale of human survival, with characters trying to connect and pulled apart often by their own self-destructive behaviours.

Handel's Messiah (Complete) - Trevor Pinnock
I used to be obsessed with Handel's Messiah. I had a tape recording of the 'complete' Messiah, and much as with the first James Bond film you watch, it came to define 'my' Messiah. I don't know who performed or conducted that recording, and I've been searching for it ever since. Actually I think it was recorded from an old girlfriend, so perhaps my feelings about it are wrapped up in that as well. Years ago I bought a budget recording of the 'complete' Messiah. I then learned that not all 'complete' renderings of the work are equal. There are more versions of the work than there are of the original Star Wars film. That's a lot. It did have a rich expansive sound that conveyed the drama wonderfully, but it was marred by constant mistakes, including a bad trumpet note right at the climax of the piece, and in the end I got rid of the CD. Since then I've searched and searched, and bought this version based on the recommendation of all the Classical Music guides. It's nice, to be sure, but still leaves me cold. Gimme a less 'authentic' recording that adds a few hundred voices to the chorus and I'll be happy. As long as they don't hit bad notes and know how to come in together.

Buck 65 - Secret House Against The World
Ahh, the turkey of the bunch. I love the CBC Radio 3 podcasts, in which they play Buck 65 every other week. And everytime I like his music. So, how could I go wrong buying his latest album? Quite a bit, apparently. Moving away from the hip-hop of his that I've enjoyed, the album strays into odd sonic territory including country music, and it just sounds like a mess. I re-read the Amazon reviews, and I'll give it time. Perhaps its 'genius' will reveal itself over time.

Jason Collett - Idols of Exile
Another Canadian, but a winner this time. I was charmed by his upbeat Here Comes The Sun summery song, but the rest of them on the album are just as winning. Those Canadians musicians are a tight bunch, with Amy Millan listed on the liner notes singing backup on one song and Leslie Feist clapping her hands in others.

Storyteller - Peter And The Wolf
I didn't get this album in Boston, but they're our first bona fide discovery since moving to the UK. They opened for Piney Gir at Borderline in Soho a few weeks ago, and between Hugo the upright bassist, Donna the stand-up drummer and Marc the singer on guitar and piano, singing folksie/indie rock songs that sound both very familiar and yet fresh, we were won over. I had to scour the local music shops to find this short album, but it was worth it.

London | Soho | England | Music | KCRW | CBC Radio 3 | 3Hive.com | NPR All Songs Considered | Battlestar Galactica | James Yorkston | Jason Collett | Buck65 | Peter And The Wolf | Handel Messiah | Brazil | Fountains Of Wayne | The Frames | Bloc Party |