Various Composers - Romance Of The Violin [Bell/Stern- Academy Of Saint Martin In The Fields]

This is pure indulgence, in essence a bunch of fabulous tunes dressed up [piano / chamber], or dressed down [Opera arias] to fit the 'violin & orchestra' mode, in many ways fairly sugary, but all well transcribed and fitting, the orchestral arrangements are by Craig Leon, and the solo violin line is mainly by Bell, this album really works for me, and early in my Blog, i wrote about the previous outing of this disc [21st February 2010], though i do feel it's somewhat short measure [52 minutes], a few more well chosen pieces wouldn't have gone astray.

Joshua Bell is American, born in 1967 [now 43 years old], he made this recording in 2003, it was his first recording with his 'new' 300 year old $4 million Strad!, and it certainly makes a lovely sound, so far he's sold 5 million copies of this album, the photography throughout is stunning [by Timothy White], Bell photographed late in the evening, i take it a brown filter, lovely blackness, and with Bell himself highlighted, it's a lovely all round package.

I'd like to mention a couple of tracks, track 7, the Andante middle movement from Mozart's Piano Concerto 21, there's a wonderful rolling sweep to his melody, the violins are gorgeous, and track 11, i love the baroque sensibilities of Monteverdi's Pur Ti Miro, the opening harpsichord really sets the mood, it's a piece i didn't know before, so it's good to make the acquaintance, but deep down it was track 12, Massenet's Elegie that impressed me the most, in fact reading the booklet notes, it happens to be Bell's favourite too!, originally it was a piano piece, but Massenet later made it into a song, it has a very simple melody, and yet... the most simple melodies can have the most complex emotions attached to them!, after a subdued orchestral intro, the violin plays the main melody [0:36-1:21], with a degree of sadness and longing, certainly subdued compared to what's coming next, it really develops a passion and intensity [1:45-3:11], with very strong lunges on the heartstrings, this is the most glorious part of this piece, and then there's a refrain which is like an innocent sigh! [3:11-3:28], which soon swoons into passion again, it's such an endearing piece, once it gets in your head and heart, it's in there for good!.

Here's Joshua Bell playing the Massenet Elegie on YouTube.

Lucinda Williams [Car Wheels On A Gravel Road]

Just lately i've had a rash of female singer songwriters in my Blog, what with Shawn Colvin and Kathryn Williams recently, and Nanci Griffith mid month too, i played this disc 16 months ago and reported my feelings in my Blog [26th March 2010], and here it is again, i actually played this over the park as i watched the sun go down, it's a very 'twangy' album in many ways, Williams is great with off the cuff stories and ideas, even the picture's very down to earth.

Lucinda Williams is now 58, yes the big 60 looms, and it seems hard to fathom she's old enough to be Grandmother material, she was born in Louisiana USA, and she recorded this album in 1998, the front cover is really appropriate, a self-built wooden house down a dirt road [photo by Birney Imes].

Most of these tracks i really enjoyed, but tracks 3, 7 & 9 are the highlights on the album, showing Lucinda Williams at her songcraft best, here's a synopsis of each,

3 2 Kool 2 Be 4 Gotten - my favourite track of the album, starting with a solo martial snare drum beat intro [0:00-0:10], a really excellent way to start a track [drums by Donald Lindley], and Gurf Morlix's twangy electric guitar comes in and completes the intro [0:10-0:25], and it's these two that create a real groove throughout that makes the track, Williams is very idiomatic in her wording, each of the three verses starts off restrained, but ends up more emotional, or maybe it's just the little stories she spins, i like the lyrics at the start of the second verse, 'man running through the grass outside, says he wants to take up serpents', you have to comprehend the 'bible south' to fully get that, the start of the third verse is especially restrained, with Gurf Morlix restraining the use of his guitar, so it's more Williams and the snare drum in duet [3:08+], plus the extra snare drum solo just before that, a fantastic track.
7 Can't Let Go - the dobro intro is excellent [Williams i believe], and with a couple of slide guitars in there, it's very bluesy, a Randy Weeks song, love the lyrics 'feel like i been shot didn't fall down',
9 Metal Firecracker - 

Shawn Colvin [Cover Girl]

This is my favourite Shawn Colvin disc, as the title suggests, this is a covers album, Colvin singing other peoples songs, none of them are particularly 'famous', apart from the first track maybe, she started out singing other peoples songs, and she still likes to sing the odd song live, so it made sense for her to do a whole albums worth, it was a great idea, what makes this disc extra special is that she goes off the beaten track with some of her own personal favourites, it therefore also doubles as a great exploratory disc, there's Artists and songs you can check out, and further your musical searches and loves, Colvin recorded half of these tracks in the studio, and the other half live [they're mixed up, rather than first half studio, second half live], usually this is a recipe for recording disaster, but here it works seamlessly with aplomb, i love the live involvement, most songs are wonderful gems, the instrumentation is fairly acoustic and intimate, this resides roughly at No 50 in my all time favourite discs.

Shawn Colvin is American, born in 1956, making her 55 today, she recorded this album in 1994, the photography throughout the booklet is by Cathrine Wessel, the booklet is a foldout six page long affair, with Colvin regaling her experiences with each song.

Playing this disc again was a beautiful experience, the album has a lovely variety to it, i so much enjoyed the late middle of the album, tracks 8-10, here she gets really intimate and emotional, and i would like to give a synopsis of these three songs,

8 Someday - a Steve Earle song, i originally heard the Earle version first, and the Colvin version is quite similar, maybe Steve Earle sings it more like 'i'm tired of this place, and i just want to get out!', Colvin is a bit more restrained,

9 Twilight - 

10 If These Walls Could Speak - 

Various Artists [It's Electric]

Here's a disc i bought from a second hand shop in London in the mid Nineties, it's featured fairly heavy rotation in my disc player, it is in fact the original first 'Electronic' hits compilation album i bought, and this spawned interest / acquiring a whole load of others, every one of these hits is a classic, not a dud in sight, it's the near perfect Electric anthology, and everytime i play it i'm wowed by the sheer invention of the music, those were the years [late Seventies to the mid Eighties] when the Pop charts had really decent music, this disc is in my all time top 100 discs, i played this over the park as i watched the world go by.

The tracks that really hit me were 2, 12-13 15 & 19, i'm 'shocked' at the genius of layers in a lot of these tracks, so multifaceted, here's a synopsis of each of these tracks,

2 Kraftwerk - The Model, lovely electronics, i think all the instruments on this track are electronic, even though there's drum machines hit with sticks, only the voice is human, a very simple song, sung in the German accented English, and i just love those simple lyrics, almost silly robotic words, but they fit the music perfectly, Kraftwerk are a quartet, and it sounds like four computers, rather like Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass sounding, and the different layers are superb, i like the way the vocalist has to fit maa-gazine to the music! [2:52], and the final outro synth is really satisfying [3:21+].  

12 Talk Talk - It's My Life, the intro sounds like jungle synth sounds over a chugging beat, the vocals are quite lazy sounding, the chorus is fantastic, the synths go into the treble, and the voice rises up an angry level, right at the end the chorus is repeated twice, and it really develops an intensity.

13 Tears For Fears - Mad World, this time the intro is less than inspired, but the chorus is the best thing, it has a nice intensity to it, right at the very end there's this tambourine outro [3:26-3:31], strange yet enjoyable.

15 Tubeway Army - Are Friends Electric, 

19 Ultravox - Vienna,