This is unusual – a classic album that I’ve never heard of. I’ve never even heard of the artist. I’m looking forward to this.
Some Historical Context
I’ve got absolutely nothing to go here.
The rest of this blog post will be written as I listen to the album.
The Songs
1. In the Bath
As it starts off, I’m immediately reminded of The Orb. It has the same musical form with repeated spoken snippets over the top. Oh, and a minute and a half in it gets going a bit more. Nice, but never really goes anywhere.
2. Nervous Tension
As it starts, this seems very much more of the same. There’s a nice bass riff at about 6:25 – very beatnik. I think I could do without the narration though.
3. A Tune for Jack
Twenty seconds of talking before this one really starts. I think I’ve pretty much got the gist of what this album does now.
4. His Majesty King Raam
Getting a little bored now. Oh. I thought it was finishing, but there’s still over two minutes to go. Does everything need to be so long?
5. The Staunton Lick
This starts with a guitar lesson – which is a bit weird. They’ve stopped reminding me of The Orb, now I think they’re a second-rate Beta Band. Now that’s not a terrible thing to be as I really like The Beta Band. But I have plenty of Beta Band music to listen to and I’m not sure why I’d ever choose this album over, say, The Three EPs.
6. Homage to Patagonia
This is even more Beta Band than the last one. Oh, and it has a false ending – how witty. Is that a sitar I can hear?
7. Kneel Before Your God
I think they’re starting to reel me in. There’s nothing to differentiate this from the previous tracks, but I’m quite enjoying it.
8. Page One
Nothing new or different here. But, you know, I’m really starting to quite like it.
9. Come
I still think it’s rather Beta Band-y, but I’m now questioning whether it was fair to describe them as “second-rate”.
In Summary
Well, wasn’t that an interesting experience. I just over an hour I’ve gone from “meh” to “hmm” to then to “ooh”.
I’m wondering whether the album actually did get better as I went through it, or whether I just got more used to what they were doing.
I’m clearly going to have to listen to this again.
Rating
[rating=3]
(but there's definitely scope for that to increase on further listenings)
Definitely listen some more. I would hesitate to rate any album on the first listen. There are albums that I actively disliked initially, but are firm favourites now (mid period Radiohead is very hard to get into). I have this one btw, and really like it.