My Mind's Ink

I grew up Country. I got “The Year That Claton Delaney Died” (Tom T Hall), and “Lord I Hope This Day Is Good” (Don Williams). I had no older siblings to expose me to anything, so 80’s hair metal and the birth of MTV hit hard in my formative years. On the plus side, I’m still discovering things that somehow passed me by, songs that look/sound like they are tearing a hole to get out. Look at me with my finger on the pulse! I’ve discovered the latest greatest thing from 1970. This is why I could have used an older brother, instead I have three sisters and I’m sensitive, which just leads to a music collection sponsored by Lillith Fair. It’s a tragedy.

I also feel like I was born 15 years late. The 70’s retained the coolness of the 60’s, along with an aversion to bras, but ditched the social conscience. It looks like a great party.

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Portishead have a new album, which is doubly cool because I didn’t even know one was coming. It’s their third full studio album, aptly titled Third, although if you include soundtrack work, the live symphony album, and the bevy of remixes it seems like their catalogue is much bigger than two previous albums. In case you missed the 90’s Portishead has some amazing stuff and this new album is worth a listen if you liked their previous work.

You couldn’t really expect this trio to put together anything you might expect. It is definitely Portishead, but the album is an eclectic mix that spans between their dreamy electronic sound to heavy industrial and trippy orchestral backgrounds.

Beth Gibbons is a vocalist that could sing the alphabet and make it sound eerie and beautiful as far as I’m concerned. Although this album doesn’t hit the heights of their previous stuff it’s pretty good, and you certainly can’t call it vanilla.

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They have a new album out: Attack & Release

I’ve actually just stumbled on these guys and have only checked out a smattering of their stuff from 3 or 4 albums. It’s really good. If you smashed Led Zeppelin together with John Lee Hooker kind of. Real raw soulful stuff.

theblackkeys.com

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A friend suggested The Frames to me. Coincidentally I had just stumbled upon the lead singer in the movie Once.

In their latest album, The Cost, you get some of the same songs from the Once soundtrack, but not stripped down like in the movie.

A big deal in Ireland, they seem worth the time to check out if you like guitar and lyric driven melodies.

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I found Morcheeba late in their career and so had the pleasure of digesting all four previous albums all at once. I loved them and so had high expectations for the latest effort. Probably too high really. The principal vocalist on the first four albums, Skye, has left the group and been replaced briefly on their fifth album by a new vocalist and again on this latest work by an eclectic group of singers. All of whom are impressive, but it’s tough not to miss the girl you fell in love with in the first place. Dive Deep is typical Morceeba, in that it is not easily identified with any particular musical style. They are kind of a hip-hop electronic dance kind of a thing.

Anyway, after giving the album a couple of listens I would say it’s decent, it does not hit the heights of some of their past work, but there are some bright spots.

I would suggest you check out any of their first four albums. The fifth (The Antidote) was disappointing . The first four are all good but Fragments of Freedom, and Who Can You Trust stand out from the group slightly.

Morcheeba’s official site

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