Win a copy of 50 Years of Rock and Roll Photography by Gered Mankowitz

I'll kick off shall I?

Classic Album:

The Beach Boys - Sunflower

Mention the Beach Boys and most will think of songs of Surfing, the beach, California girls, or else  their watershed release of 1966, Pet Sounds.  Few venture beyond that into the more murky waters of their '70s output.  However in among them are two of their finest moments - Surf's Up and Sunflower*.  With brother Brian's ever deepening withdrawl from the band and life, Dennis Wilson came to the fore and here takes much of the credit for keeping it all together in making 1970's Sunflower.  Despite good reviews the album sold relatively poorly, however its critical acclaim was well deserved and with time its initial saccharine sweet veneer has aged into something with much greater depth. What we hear today is an album of songs with rare beauty, delicacy and insight.  None more so than on the album's finest moment, a song to melt even the steeliest heart, Dennis Wilson's Forever.  An album that truly speaks to the heart and one that's well worth revisiting or even discovering anew.

* by happy coincidence both Sunflower and Surf's Up are available together on one CD.

New Album:

Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)

Without a doubt Steven Wilson's latest album was my highlight of 2013.  With plans to return to Porcupine Tree put on hold, the result was this eclectic mix of the trademark giant soulful soundscapes intermingled with simpler and more delicate pieces.  The album was engineered by Alan Parsons so you would expect great sound and despite some evident compression, on the whole it achieves this. It has that wonderful quality of all great albums that it continually reveals more and more even after many plays.  I think this will still be playing fairly regularly in the Dane household well into 2014 and beyond...

Classic Album:
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath



Black Sabbath's first album and arguably the start of the heavy metal genre. Sure there was 'Rock' and even 'Heavy Rock' but Sabbath added something, or several somethings to the mix.

Still very bluesy at this stage, the direction which Sabbath would take was already beginning to raise it's head. The power riffs and supernatural themes were very much to the fore and Ozzy's vocals were already starting to soar above it all.

The first track (Black Sabbath, unsurprisingly) starts off with the sounds of a thunder storm and uses a simple 3 note motif which all but personifies evil and injects it with the power which was to become their trademark. The vocals again were simple and helped to set what at the time would have seemed a very strange and dark scene.

Another track to watch out for is N.I.B which again indicates Sabbath's future direction.

My advice to you is give it a listen and imagine the impact it may have had on you at a time when the supernatural motifs and the devil were not an everyday part of the music industry and when the kind of power which is demonstrated was certainly not the norm.

Newer Album:
Other Lives - Tamer Animals

Whereas Black Sabbath was a trend setter this album is more of a variation on a theme, but a very entertaining and well executed variation. It is based in the more folk oriented tradition of bands such as Mumford and Sons but with a sprinkling of spaghetti western. Old Statues is especially indicative of this as is Dust Bowl III. All songs on this album are memorable, well executed and worth a listen. Once heard for instance you'll find that For 12 won't stop going round in your head.

If this is the sort of music you normally listen to then give it a go and you certainly won't be disappointed, if not then I think you'll be presently surprised by this album and just maybe open up a whole new genre of music to enjoy.

WTF? 50 years span these two albums. 

Live vs. Studio

Band vs. Female vocalist

Rock vs. Soft pop.

Well apart from the blatant disregard for authority that the Fab 4 and particularly John showed, it would be fair to say that they never shouted at the venue "Royal Albert ****ing Hall".

So Twist and Shout closes out Please Please Me, it's a cover, yet it features a raw and raucous John. It was recorded in one take, so pretty 'live' for a studio track. To me, it is special because it supports the Beatles image. In the same way as Adele's cover of "I can't make you love me", by Bonnie Raitt leaves me with goosebumps, even after more than 10 plays. Great artists bringing something special of themselves, through someone else's creation.

Please, Please Me is such an amazing track. The key changes in the chorus, their first number 1. No coincidence. The album is extremely varied, Paul's melodies, Ringo gets what turns into a standard token vocal appearance on 'Boys'. If key changes within the chorus wasn't enough, the boys sang joyously about BDSM (Chains) and all on their very first LP.

So Adele has outcrassed the Beatles at the Albert Hall, but the truth is: after loving Beatles, the Who, Little Feat, Chicago Jackson Browne ... I do like to listen to Adele nowdays. Yup, my kids play me Nickelback and I can recall liking Kansas but, honestly I can listen to Adele and appreciate that she writes her own songs and sings them well, with feeling. On the Albert Hall Live (DVD) she speaks about what is behind some of the songs and that's a neat bonus. I know we all thought that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was about LSD but it's quite a treat to get to hear which you she's singing about......

Two albums I shouldn't have had.

The Rolling Stones - Aftermath

I remember playing this album on our portable record player one summer afternoon, we're on vacation at he seaside and I don't even recall having bought it. The sound of the Stones - dry and unpolished - strikes me as innovative too.

Being lured out of the reassuring, structured world of Rubber Soul and Revolver into the 11 unending minutes of Goin' Home is like a small trip for a 13 years old boy. I thought the Stones were just the Beatles' generation's bad conscience, but I discover unusual instruments, traces of root blues, anarchy and that flow into which the next musical generation will be happy to dive and lose itself.

There's great pop songs, but it's still the Stones, like we don't give a s**t about it. I don't really know what to make of Lady Jane; I never suspected that the Stones could be anything else than acid and defiant.

I have this feeling I went out for a cake and came home with a herring; my father hates it, so I just keep it for myself secretly, like a tentative, minor sin, for the rest of summer.

Ludovico Einaudi, In A Time Lapse.

Just before Christmas my wife and I meet Ludovico in Milano, to have the once-a-year pizza and chat we are used to.

I always hope we won't touch the subject of his albums because I don't have even one and I believed his music was for kitchen counters and spas, but saying hallo a couple of hours later he hands me his latest CD, with a nice dedication.

I play it after a couple of days, and to my surprise I re-discover an old friend and a fellow musician I had forgotten. His early music, very simple and not very challenging for the attentive listener, has given way to accurate and thoughtful paths, starting quietly and building to climaxes, with an engaging use of acoustic instruments and background electronics. He has a warm and deep touch on the piano, like it's not a professional tool but an object of love, a beautiful woman her husband is portraying. And I find hints of the things we both loved in the mid-seventies and it still seemed there was a chance pop and rock could eventually become classics.

And he's a nice person too.

The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in 1967 which when thinking afterwards was not the best possible timing for this type of debut and it indeed was not received that well, it sold poorly and the critics did not really like it. It has gained much respect since then though and many later artists have admitted, or it can be heard outright, the influence it has had in their works. Starting from glitter and punk all the way to grunge it would be hard to believe that any of these would have been what they were without this record making the way.

“We were trying to do a Phil Spector thing with as few instruments as possible”, John Cale, the classically trained pianist and viola player, said of this record. I do not know about that but how they used their selection of the instruments is still quite fascinating. The guitars manage at the same time sound raw and gentle, Nico’s (called chanteuse not a singer if that make a difference) almost fragile voice match so well to the spirit of the tracks she contributed and the electric viola spiced up the total end result nicely. Lyrics are interesting to put it mildly, although not yet in the scale of Reed’s later works (e.g. on Berlin album), to the point that they were one reason why there was only limited air play and some stores even declined to sell the record.

I have an early 80’s German reissue of this record which I bought back then only mainly due to having read about it and feeling that any collection must have at least one item from Velvet Underground. I was not expecting that much actually. However, I ended up playing it quite a lot at the time, which to be honest was a little bit surprising to me, and it has been in regular rotation ever since (played a couple of times of year). So for me this is one of the rare timeless rock albums which have not lost any of their charm during the years – still fresh and interesting after all these years and not played only due to nostalgia, a real classic in the true sense of the word.

Burn by Sons of Kemet is a relative new release from Naim Label. I bought the album for Christmas but actually received it only after New Year so really new for me. Although there were other purchases also this could be my most played album of the month. I do not usually particularly like any award winners be it books, movies or records. They tend to be boring and overhyped but this seems to be the exception that confirms the rule.

The choices of instruments are quite unique; saxophone, clarinet, tuba and two drum sets. Woodwind instruments play beautiful melodies and tuba adds a bass line but not in a marching band of way, all this on top of fierce rhythm created by the drums – the rhythm which takes back to the ancient Egypt. The guitar which has been included in a couple of the tracks brings nice variation but is wisely limited to only these. Inner Babylon which is also featured as a video is of course the most familiar tune but my favorite however may well be Rivers of Babylon which closes the album. This version has nothing to do the 70’s Eurodisco one but instead this has an almost spiritual atmosphere; one can almost taste the reviving waters in the middle of the desert.   

Sons of Kemet has been classified as a jazz act and it might be correct but this album is much more (it could be funk or reggae or even some sort of avant-garde) so it should interest much wider audience than just hard core jazz fans. Be curious and try this – it will be worthwhile.

Dear fellow music fans share your favorites please. For some reason there have not been too many contributions so far but all above have been interesting. At least I would like to read more.

1977 - The Sex Pistols stomp on to the music scene with their new release "Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols"

Self exiled Scotsman Jamie Telford brings to London his pop take on life.
Underpinned by Telford's piano, keyboard and organ, most songs veer to folk-pop with tinges of accordian, horns, reeds, assorted percussion and more.. Sometimes heading to heavier rock courtesy of electic bass and guitar, but also at times  a more modern sound with spoken text and electronic flourishes thrown in.
Telford has retained his strong accent despite his flight south - vocal sound puts him in a line of Scottish stars (think The Reindeer Section, Belle and Sebastian etc). However on his journey he has left behind northern gothic themes. Almost. He does look back down in to the misty valley with tracks such as "Until The End" and "The Ghost of Ms Havisham", but mostly concerns himself with urban matters (love,retail, health) sometimes looking furthur afield to global concerns in "Keep Looking The Other Way" with it's money laundering  theme.
A great disc with some nice changes in style and mood, but enough cohesion to hang together for a easy but stimulating listen.

Any news about the winners? Are they public?

Max, a list of winners should be posted by the end of the week.

Thanks. Too bad not more people have written.

It might be a little late, but I like the idea so I will give it a go anyway:

Classic album:

Van Morrison - Common One

This is a no-brainer for me, but apparently not a favorite amongst many Van Morrison fans. It got bad reviews when released, and songs from the album is seldom played by the man at shows. Still, I find the songs mesmerizingly poetic, both in lyrics and musicality, and the album is to me the clearest form of what makes Van so much more than most other recording artists. From the string arrangements to the horns of Pee Wee Ellis, the album is in essence a full blown voyage into the spiritual, romantic idea that is the core of Vans writing.

New Album:

Arcade Fire - Reflektor

This album has really surprised me, at first it felt a little shallow, in the way that a more catchy writing and pop arrangement seemed to be direction the band had taken. But upon further listening, this album is like dancing to the soundtrack of a broken relationship, it's melancholic and joyfully sad. Quite an achievement and even though this album might not be a classic one day, it is still a very interesting voyage for one of my favorite bands.

@Max

Hmmmm, 6 entries, one from the Administrator (which probably prevents eligibility for a prize).

5 prizes. It would appear that those rare entries are each going to draw a prize?

Pretty please, nice Administrator, Sir? Oh, and I might add (*grin), Richard is such a nice name, though I do say so myself.

Anyway, why I wonder, did not more people enter this competition? It got me listening to all the stuff of the other entrants, new to me or not. So thanks for the idea and I do hope I really 'won' a prize too. It will look great on the coffee table as well as possibly absorbing some sound and may hence be endowed with acoustic/audiophile properties

Oops, cool. I am pleased.

On the Naim FB page the names of the winners are there.... And I'm a very happy one!

Waiting for some more news...

M.

Sour Grapes.....

I wrote a review..... I think....

The FB entries were of the format: "Classic ______, recent ______"

oof!

Yes, I'm confused too...

I modelled my review format on Richard Dane's shown above.

I don't use Facebook at all, but have tried to find the rest of the competition reviews there - all I can see are people listing classic and current with no review??

Thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the above, and writing my own.

Same here. Enjoyed the reviews above. Had no idea others were posted on Facebook. I don't have anything to do with FB, but would enjoy seeing the other reviews here. 

I did so enjoy this competition. After seeing the flimsy FB version of the competition, I decided that I was worthy of the prize. So I hopped here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pro...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and ordered one for myself. May I humbly recommend that all those of you who believe you earned a prize pop-along and, for the price of an Hi-Res download, collect your prize.

Now who's gonna sign my copy?

So having been announced on FB as one of the winners of this competition, how do I claim my prize?

Thanks,

Simon.