The Who announced the upcoming release of “WHO: Deluxe Edition”, featuring their latest album, a new Pete Townshend remix of “Beads On One String” (under the moniker Yaggerdang), and a clutch of live recordings from earlier this year called“Live At Kingston”. The collection will be available as a 2-CD set or in a special limited edition 6×7″/1-CD set bringing together the CD of concert material and 6 singles with songs from the album. The 2-CD set arrives October 30th while the vinyl/CD set is due for release on December 4th.
As their first album of new material, WHO reminded fans of the lasting power of one of rock’s greatest groups. Pete Townshend’s latest compositions like “Hero Ground Zero,” “Detour,” “All This Music Must Fade,” and “Beads On One String” sound both current and timeless. Townshend’s blend of symphonic rock, blues, and power-pop were matched by Roger Daltrey’s strong, expressive vocals. With a killer cast of musicians backing Townshend and Daltrey up, “WHO” has proved vivacious and worth revisiting.
To promote the album, The Who staged four intimate acoustic shows at PRYZM in Kingston upon Thames. Billed as their smallest-capacity shows in four decades, these shows are the most recent live recordings from The Who.
The WHO, live performances from their February 2020 club dates which celebrated the 50th anniversary of their historic concert at Leeds University. The first two of four acoustic concerts were held on February. 12th, followed by two more on the 14th. All four were instant sell-outs when tickets went on-sale in mid-December. All were held at a venue called Pryzm in Kingston-Upon-Thames, U.K., outside of London, which is miles away from the university where they famously performed exactly 50 years earlier, on February 14th, 1970.
The setlist for both of the Feb. 12th shows was just eight songs, spanning early favorites like “Substitute” and “The Kids Are Alright” through two tracks from the well-received December 2019 release, WHO. Those in attendance on Feb14th were treated to two additional songs when the Who offered a bit of Eddie Cochran’s “Three Steps to Heaven” and gave their first live performance since 2008 of their own “Tattoo.”
To get a sense of how intimate the concerts were, here’s a clip from the early show on Feb 14th, where Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend talk about their attempt to score a #1 album for the new album, only to be blocked, as Townshend recalls, by “that f**king c*nt Rod Stewart. We love him… actually he’s an old buddy of ours.” After more back-and-forth and thanking the fans, they perform “Behind Blue Eyes.”
Seven songs from those February 2020 shows make their physical debut here. Among them, the live staples “The Kids Are Alright” “Substitute,” the fan-favorite “Tattoo” (played on stage for the first time since 2008) and pair of songs from “WHO”. In the vulnerable setting of this intimate gig, The Who present slightly stripped-down arrangements of the jaunty, Simon Townshend-penned “Break The News” and the jazzy “She Rocked My World.” All this before a show-stopping “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
As for the new remix of “Beads On One String” – released today as a digital single – here’s what Pete Townshend had to say:
‘Beads On One String’ is a co-write with Josh Hunsacker who I met on Soundcloud. He wrote the music, I wrote the lyric and vocal melody. In 1932 on a visit to London, the spiritual master Meher Baba said that he had come to draw all the religions of the world together like beads on one string. We wait in hope, with love.
The ‘Beads On One String’ remix was an adventure to try to recapture some of the subtleties of my first solo demo. I love the studio version, but this remix by Myles Clarke and myself returns to the original synthesizer demo shared with me by my co-writer Josh Hunsacker. I also play bass rather than the genius Pino Palladino (I’ve got some nerve) and we removed the real drums and returned to computer drum tracks programmed by my co-producer Myles Clarke. We also restored Roger’s vocal track to its first incarnation which is more heartfelt. This is a gentler version of this song, less demanding perhaps, less bullying about our need to cut each other space, each on our own path. Why does it need to be more gentle than the album version? Because it must stand alone in a period when each of us is tempted to blame someone else for our troubles, maybe even God whoever we take her/him/both to be. I’m hoping it sounds less rock, and more modern indie-pop to new listeners.”
Taken from WHO 2020 Deluxe with Live At Kingston, Out 30th October
This new deluxe edition of WHO finds the band revitalized in the studio and onstage. Whether you missed out on The Who’s triumphant return the first time around or you want to complete your collection, the deluxe edition of WHO will be one to look out for. (Note that the previously issued bonus tracks “This Gun Will Misfire,” “Got Nothing to Prove,” “Dannyand My Ponies,” and “Sand (Demo)” – the latter a Japan exclusive – are all absent from this reissue.) check out Pete “Yaggerdang” Townshend’s remix of “Beads On One String,” released today across platforms.
The Who has one of the greatest rock legacies in music history – they’re one of the all-time great live bands, have sold over 100 million records worldwide, and had 10 US and 11 UK top ten albums and 14 UK top ten singles in a career spanning six decades.
WHO was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during spring and summer 2019 and was co-produced by Pete Townshend and Dave Sardy (who has worked with Noel Gallagher, Oasis, LCD Soundsystem and Gorillaz) with vocal production by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Roger Daltrey, Wilko Johnson). Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap.
Limited Edition Numbered 7” Boxset includes WHO pressed on 6 x 7” vinyl pieces all with individual artwork + Live at Kingston Bonus CD, a special acoustic performance recorded on 14th February 2020, 50 years to the day since the seminal Live at Leeds show.
Big Thief’s Buck Meek releases his new solo album, “Two Saviors”, on Keeled Scales. While his last album, 2018’s Buck Meek, is a yarn of blue-collar fairy tales and character driven narratives, Two Saviors emerges as a cathartic, naked confession of heartbreak, resiliency, and enchantment. The first word on Two Saviors is “pareidolia.” It is a word about recognising shapes where none were intended to exist – like searching for images in the clouds. It’s an uncommon word, with a beautiful sound, and serves as an apt guide through these new songs of Buck’s, which are themselves uncommon and beautiful, and which invite a deep, cloud-gaze state of attention.
Two Saviors was recorded by producer and engineer Andrew Sarlo (who produced the first four Big Thief LPs), under his specific conditions: they make the album in New Orleans, during the hottest part of the year, spend no more than 7 days tracking, all live, on an 8-track tape machine with only dynamic microphones, and no headphones, not allowing the players to hear back any takes until the final day. The band, featuring Adam Brisbin (guitar), Mat Davidson (bass, pedal steel, fiddle), Austin Vaughn (drums), and Buck’s brother Dylan Meek (piano, organ), set up in a Victorian house one block from the Mississippi River and worked within these limitations, encouraging every recording to be imbued with the living, intuitive, and human energy of a first take.
I wrote a handful of songs during the covid-19 lockdown, and asked Andrew Sarlo to produce a recording of one. “Roll Back Your Clocks” felt most appropriate. Andrew prompted me to record the song at home with an acoustic guitar, and send that solo version to each of my four band members separately. Then we overdubbed instrumental parts and vocals on top of my solo recording, without hearing any of the other band member’s contributions – with no outside direction or insight, and sent their stems to Sarlo, who took the parts and alchemized them into a mix, revealing a serendipitous union. This era has presented every human on earth with the challenge to relinquish all expectations and bend with the fragility of life and society. “Halo Light” is a gently rumbling rumination on “the afterglow of loss, humanity’s ephemera, and the eternal nature of love.”
All we are left with is ourselves, and our own capacity to find peace within. This was an attempt to embrace the quarantine – to try to make something beautiful and honest and new without denying the limitations, but to move within them. It was a reminder to trust our telepathic instincts, and to value the connection with our loved ones as something that we always have access to, even in solitude,
Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek returns with Two Saviors, his second solo record. Backed by a band featuring pedal steel, fiddle, and his brother Dylan on piano and organ, Meek takes a look at heartbreak and expands on the loose, easy going twang of his 2018 self-titled debut. The songs on this album shine with this wisdom and are not ostentatious about it. This is true to Buck’s nature. He is recording life, consciously and unconsciously on a broad spectrum of planes. A new album from him is a gift, a chance to wonder about ways we could be seeing, recording.
Culled from over 40 hard drives of recorded live shows spread out across years of touring behind multiple critically acclaimed records, “Live Drugs” is unlike anything previously available in The War on Drugs’ catalogue.
The first volume to capture the band’s live interpretations, Live Drugs is a document showcasing the evolution of the band’s live show over the years. Additionally, Live Drugs is a portrait of the enduring relationship between Adam Granduciel and Dominic East. A longtime friend, guitar tech and stage manager, East is Live Drugs’sco-producer and the presence Granduciel credits as holding everything together.
Sequenced to reflect how a typical 70-minute set would flow, Live Drugs thrives on live set staples immortalized on record for the first time. This includes Buenos Aires Beach from the band’s 2008 full-length debut, Wagonwheel Blues, and the long-time musical interlude flowing between Under the PressureandIn Reverse – which bookend 2014’s“Lost In The Dream“. There’s also the band’s essential cover of Warren Zevon’s Accidentally like a Martyr – a song “so true, you should ever be lucky to write a song that simple,” Granduciel says.
I keep returning to this version. It’s my favourite of the many on YT. The extended bridge in the middle… There is just something so pure and damn near hypnotic about it… The long foreplay opening…The sax just gently caressing your temporal lobe… The drummer is just in the zone… Then it all kicks back in… I can’t even with how much I love this
Shamir called this his “most commercial-sounding” album since his 2015 debut, but whatever mainstream leanings it might have did not compromise how vibrant or creative he could get. The 25-year-old singer-songwriter performs synth-pop, Gun Club country punk, and shoegaze all with the same confidence and charisma, in a voice that can transform any anxious misgivings into reassurance. “I prefer to be alone, but you can join if you like/I’ll stay strong for you ’cause I don’t want to be seen when I cry,” he sings on “Running,” speaking as much to his audience as he is to himself.
Shamir embraces a balance between composure and restless dissatisfaction throughout his self-titled album. He vividly captures a Gen Z-specific angst and stewing inner conflict: “Smoke all the weed so I can cover my anxiety,” he confesses on “Paranoia.” Indeed, some of the best moments on the album explore the contradictions of the self and the paradoxical relationship between thoughts and behaviors. Stylistically, Shamir is a hodgepodge of the different approaches the artist has employed in the past, synthesized into a mostly satisfying pop-rock sound. Still, Shamir’s penchant for melody and introspection have proved adaptable to any genre that he fancies at any given moment, characterizing even his most lo-fi work with a pleading humanity. No matter how roomy or tight the mix is, or whether he’s caught in a moment of self-doubt or soaring confidence, he brings a sweet buoyancy to his music that carries Shamir, while also peeking into the torment of being inside his own head.
There’s a lot to love leading up to next week’s eponymous effort from Shamir, but nothing quite brings it back home from the indie-pop polymath than when he winks at Nashville in the way he does whenever he puts a butterfly spin on Stetsons and pedal steel. “Other Side” is probably the most fully realized version of Shamir’s country crossover dalliances since kicking up some dust in 2018′s “Room” single.
Here, he resolves the brooding cow-punk darkness inspired by a true unsolved mystery with an idealized Hallmark Channel movie ending in the listen’s country-pop plucked banjo tumbling throughout its chorus. Where as the love tales heard churning out from the big machine are often sanitized in predictable visions created by a white-washed Americana, Shamir taps into something a little more real in his take on a happy ending: faith in spite of the unknown.
Shamir’s “Shamir” will be self-released October 2nd.
Lydia Loveless is working through a few things on her new album. “Daughter” is her first new release in four years, during which time Loveless has got divorced, moved from Ohio to North Carolina and was frank on social media about her mental health, and also having been sexually harassed by someone in the orbit of her former record label. So there’s a lot to cover on her fifth LP. She hasn’t lost her knack for writing brutally candid songs: Loveless is as frank as ever on these 10 tracks. She has, however, learned to pull back from the flame-thrower vocal sensibility of her earlier material. Loveless‘ songs display her usual directness and fearlessness, but there’s also plenty of vulnerability.
While she has often included laugh-out-loud lines in her lyrics, they don’t seem to fit this particular kind of therapy-through-songwriting.
The title track is a real gem. It addresses the difficulties women face to be accepted for who they are, not as people whose sovereignty is considered through their relation to others, whether as daughters, mothers or sisters. Loveless is at her most Stevie Nicks-like here, backed by a rhythm section evoking the sturdy base of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.
Loveless has a massive, powerful voice that she uses to great effect, though the effect is even greater, and hits even harder, when she blends it with a measure of restraint instead of going full-bore all the time. Singing with greater nuance also helps put the focus on her lyrics, which can be flat-out wrenching. Loveless sings with a mix of remorse and dismay on “Wringer,” a divorce song where the opening lines refer to dividing up possessions: “You give the sweetest kisses, dear,” she sings on the refrain. “But you leave the stinger.”
“September” is grim but youthfully defiant, its piano complemented by cello and Laura Jane Grace’s vocals.
Electronic percussion and synths, not usually part of the Loveless sound, provide the foundations for hopeful closer “Don’t Bother Mountain,” about her life’s current chapter. She finally lets her voice soar, as if emphasizing her will to keep going.
The challenges and traumas that led to a new start have made her talents as a musician and songwriter even sharper. Here’s hoping that the fine humour that gave her songs a special spark will be back soon.
“Daughter” available through Honey, You’re Gonna Be Late Records Released on: 2020-09-25
When Led Zeppelin III was released 50 years ago, it seemed destined to disappoint both the fans who wanted “Whole Lotta More Love” and the critics who weren’t all that keen on the band to begin with. Oh, sure, “Immigrant Song” was an instant hard-rock classic, and “Since I’ve Been Loving You” was blues as slow and heavy as you could hope for, but this album’s heart and soul lay with its acoustic numbers on what was then called Side Two. This wouldn’t do – hadn’t these guys already set up camp in the heavy metal slums? How dare they pretend to be other than what they were?
Of course, time has proven Zeppelin the wiser. III proved them capable of expanding their palette, showing more sides and more shades than the wannabes who were only capable of following one set of Zep’s footprints. The critics have come around, taking note of the bucolic dimension Jimmy Page and Robert Plant brought to their song-writing after a recharging stay in a quiet cottage in Wales named Bron-Yr-Aur. And the fans? Well, Led Zeppelin was never going to lose their fans.
Nineteen sixty-nine was one helluva year for Led Zeppelin. In the short span of 12 months they played close to 150 shows, recorded two best-selling albums, toured the US five times, and established themselves as one rock’s top box-office draws. In the harsh winter of ’68 they had been lucky to get $1,500 (around £883) for a club gig, but by the time 1970 rolled around, they were demanding as much as six figures a show.
The band’s meteoric rise had been breathless. While the music press weren’t particularly kind to them, their dramatic, sexually explicit hard rock was almost irresistible to a new generation of kids searching for something new and exciting that wasn’t “the same old Beatles and Stones”. But after a year of non-stop touring, recording and shagging, the band were ready to take a break.
It was singer Robert Plant’s idea to head for the hills – the Cambrian Mountains in Wales, to be exact. The 22-year-old remembered an 18th-century cottage called Bron-Yr-Aur he had visited in his youth, and felt it would be great place to temporarily escape life in the fast lane and commune with nature. Plant extended an invitation to his co-writer, guitarist and producer Jimmy Page, and in the spring, the two men took their women, instruments and supplies to the bucolic retreat to recharge their batteries and “get back to the garden”.
“It was time to take stock, and not get lost in it all,” Plant said later. And what better way to keep it real than at a place with no electricity, candles for light, water from a stream and an outside toilet?
The story of Plant and Page’s regenerative trek to Wales looms large in Zeppelin folklore, with many assuming that most of the acoustic-based songs that eventually appeared on Led Zeppelin III were written there. Page disputes that notion, but doesn’t dismiss the significance of the journey.
“When Robert and I went to Bron-Yr-Aur we weren’t thinking: ‘Let’s go to Wales and write,’” says Page. “The original plan was to just go there, hang out and appreciate the countryside. The only song we really finished while we were there was That’s The Way, but being in the country established a standard of travelling for inspiration and set a tone for Led Zeppelin III.”
While it might not have been conceived as a writing trip, the singer and guitarist’s stay in the Welsh mountains was deemed important and influential enough to be acknowledged on the album’s sleeve, stating: ‘Credit must be given to Bron Y Aur a small derelict cottage in South Snowdonia for painting a somewhat forgotten picture of true completeness which acted as an incentive to some of these music statements.’
Little did the band know that this ‘incentive’ and subsequent ‘tone’ would end up sending massive shockwaves throughout the rock world. Led Zeppelin’s pastoral third album was recorded at Olympic Studios in London and released in October 1970. It seemed almost self-destructively perverse – a 360-degree retreat from the testosterone-infused hard rock that had made them international superstars.
John Bonham teased the press about the band’s intended direction when Zeppelin regrouped for the first studio sessions of III in late May. ‘’We’ll be recording for the next two weeks and we are doing a lot of acoustic stuff as well as the heavier side,” he told the Melody Maker. “There will be better quality songs than on the first two albums.’’
The drummer wasn’t wrong. Six of the 10 tracks on the third album were built around the sweet ’n’ bitter strains of Page’s acoustic Harmony guitar as the band touched on everything from traditional “Gallows Pole” to country blues “Hats Off To (Roy) Harper”, to a folk song so upbeat you could square-dance to it “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”. To emphasise the rustic nature of the album, Zeppelin even changed their appearance, growing facial hair to Hobbit-like proportions and wearing clothes that made them look more like hippie farmers than sex gods. Fans and critics were dazed and confused, but the band stood their ground.
“We were so far ahead that it was difficult for people to know what the hell we were doing,” Page told journalist Brad Tolinski in the 2012 book Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page. “Critics especially couldn’t relate to it. Led Zeppelin was growing. Where many of our contemporaries were narrowing their perspective, we were really being expansive. I was maturing as a composer and player, and there were many kinds of music that I found stimulating, and with this wonderful group I had the chance to be really adventurous.”
Soon after the album’s release, Page was keen to emphasise Zeppelin’s evolution. “There is another side to us’’ he said. “Everyone in the band is going through changes. There are changes in the playing and the lyrics. Robert is really getting involved in his lyric writing. This album was to get across more versatility and use combinations of instruments. I haven’t read any reviews yet, but people have got to give the LP a reasonable hearing.’’
Page would go on to read the reviews. Some writers went so far as to accuse the band of jumping on the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young acoustic-rock bandwagon, which Page called “pathetic”, noting that acoustic guitars were all over the first two albums and arguing that they were at the core of everything the band did. The reviews so incensed the guitarist that he refused to grant any press interviews for the next 18 months after the album’s release.
Plant, at the time Led Zeppelin III came out, was more direct: “You can just see the headlines, can’t you? ‘Led Zeppelin go soft on their fans’ or some crap like that. But now that we’ve done [this album] the sky’s the limit. It shows we can change. It means there are endless possibilities for us to go in. We won’t go stale, and this proves it.”
The truth is, the third album should have come as no surprise to anyone paying full attention to the band. The radical seeds that sprouted on III had been planted years earlier. Throughout the 60s, as Page toiled as London’s top session guitarist, very little escaped his attention. Like a musical sponge, he absorbed every lick the Chicago blues boom had to offer, took copious notes on contemporary folk-guitar virtuosos like John Fahey and Bert Jansch, and even purchased a sitar years before world music caught the attention of Beatle George Harrison.
He had already started applying those exotic flavours to rock’n’roll during his brief stint with The Yardbirds, and developed those ideas further on such early Zeppelin tracks as Black Mountain Side, which featured an Indian tabla musician, and Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You, which improbably married a Joan Baez song to heavy metal power chords and a flamenco guitar solo. The acoustic songs, Page opined, were designed to create dynamics both on the albums and in live performances, and that the harder songs “wouldn’t have as much impact without the softer ones”.
Yes, some thought Led Zeppelin III was commercial suicide, but in retrospect it was a brilliant gambit. Not only did the album prevent the quartet from becoming hard-rock caricatures like, say, Deep Purple or Ten Years After, but it also gave them an opportunity to take an important evolutionary leap forward. Often marginalised as ‘the acoustic album’, III was much more than that: it represented a truly daring leap in synthesising the folk, rock and world music elements found on the band’s first two albums into what one thinks of as ‘the Led Zeppelin style’.
The tense and mysterious Friends, for example, was the result of an experimental tuning Page designed specifically to capture the droning vibe heard in North African music. With its Eastern tonalities and ominous string arrangement reminiscent of English composer Gustav Holst’s Mars, Friends was undeniably a gateway to future masterworks like Kashmir and Four Sticks. And it makes you wonder if Stairway To Heaven or Over The Hills And Far Away would have existed without stylistic forerunners like That’s The Way or Gallows Pole.
Page was spreading his wings, and the Zeppelin III sessions also gave Robert Plant the opportunity to grow as a songwriter. No longer forced to simply beat his chest and crow about the size of his knob, he wrote his first truly great lyric, for That’s The Way. Amid Page’s cascading acoustic guitars, dulcimer and weeping pedal steel, Plant weaves a mournful southern Gothic tale on a par with Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 hit Ode To Billie Joe. With its haunting ambiguity, the song could be about class, racism, homosexuality or even ecological disaster. It’s sophisticated, secretive and flat-out beautiful. And, Lord knows, it’s a far cry from ‘I’m gonna give you every inch of my love’.
Plant has said the third album was “incredibly important for my dignity”. Perhaps the same could be said for the entire band.
Led Zeppelin were daring, but not crazy enough to completely abandon hard rock. While the album has its share of quiet moments, it also has plenty of loud ones – peculiar as they may be.
Immigrant Song is one of the heaviest and most exciting tracks in the band’s entire catalogue. On the surface it seems pretty straightforward, until you realise it’s a song about Vikings, the main vocal riff sounds like Bali Ha’i from the Broadway musical South Pacific, and that the rhythm guitar borrows from Link Wray’s rockabilly classic Rumble.
Its lyrical inspiration came when Zeppelin took some time out from the studio and ventured to Iceland to play a show in on June 22nd as part of a cultural exchange arranged by the British Government. Their first gig in the best part of three months, it took place at Reykjavik’s Laugardalsholl Sports. More importantly, just as the Welsh mountains had proved inspiring earlier in the year, Plant let his imagination run riot as he contemplated Iceland’s endless day.
“It was one of those times when you go to bed at night but you don’t sleep because the daylight’s still there – a 24-hour day,” the singer said. “There was just an amazing hue in the sky, and it was one of those things that made you think of Vikings and big ships – and John Bonham’s stomach.”
Less than a week later the band returned to the UK to headline the Bath Festival Of Blues & Progressive Music. The new song had already made such an impact on Zeppelin that they chose to open the show with it, and the British public heard Immigrant Song for the first time.
Unsurprisingly, their Bath show was a sensation, prompting Melody Maker to enthuse: ‘Led Zeppelin stormed to huge success at the Bath Festival. About 150,000 fans rose to give them an ovation. They played for over three hours – blues, rock’n’roll and pure Zeppelin. Jimmy Page, in a yokel hat to suit the Somerset scene, screamed into attack on guitar, John Paul Jones came into his own on organ as well as bass, and John Bonham exploded his drums in a sensational solo. And the crowd went wild demanding encore after encore… a total of five!’
“Bath was a turning point in recognition for us,” Page said. “There have been one or two magical gigs and Bath was one of them.”
“Bath was great,” remembered manager Peter Grant later. “I went down to the site unbeknown to [promoter] Freddie Bannister, and I found out from the Met Office what time the sun was setting, and it was right behind the stage. And by going on at eight in the evening I was able to bring the lights up a bit at a time. And it was vital we went on to match that.”
Even more crucially than any show-stopping sunset appearance, the Bath gig would herald a new era in Zeppelin’s evolution. Midway through their set, Jimmy Page swapped his Gibson Les Paul for a Martin acoustic guitar, and John Paul Jones picked up a mandolin. As Page played a few opening chords, Plant stepped to the mic. “This is called The Boy Next Door, for want of a better title [a better title would emerge – “That’s The Way”, when it finally appeared on Led Zeppelin III]” he said. It was the first time Led Zeppelin played acoustically in the UK.
It isn’t all folky acoustic bluster on Led Zeppelin III; there’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You”, a standard three-chord, 12-bar minor blues that actually has way more than three chords and who knows how many bars, because the damn thing never seems to repeat. Or what about Celebration Day, a song that sounds like a berserk Slinky due to the fact that John Paul Jones is playing his bass with a guitar slide?.
Then, of course, there was the matter of the Aleister Crowley quote etched into the run-off groove of early pressings of the album. Yes, the Beatles had put his image among many others on the cover of 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, but this seemed a little more covert; a little more dangerous, adding another disturbing layer to the already dark mythology of Led Zeppelin.
The phrase ‘Do what thou wilt’ and ‘So mote it be’ were inscribed on the vinyl by recording engineer Terry Manning during the final mastering process: ‘Do what thou wilt’ on side one, and ‘So mote it be’ on side two. The phrases were homage to Crowley, a practitioner of black magic who was once called “the most evil man in England”, and whom Page was quite enamoured with.
This phrase is from one of the fundamental principles of Aleister Crowley’s philosophy of Thelema: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will. There is no law beyond do what thou wilt.”
By the time of the release of the album, it was still rather an open secret that Page was interested in the dark arts, and the inscriptions on the album were one of the first public signifiers. It wouldn’t be until the next year that the guitarist would buy Crowley’s Loch Ness estate Boleskine House. This was something Page would downplay later, explaining to Rolling Stone in 1976: “I do not worship the devil. But magic does intrigue me. Magic of all kinds. I bought Crowley’s house to go up and write in. The thing is, I just never get up that way. Friends live there now.”
Whenever he’s queried today, Page silences any conversation on the subject by advising the hapless interrogator: “Forget the myths. Because it was really all about the music.”
Which mostly it was, and moving forward into the future. This was a band who were staunchly opposed to repeating what they’d done before. “There was no way the third album was going to be like the first. If there was a Zeppelin philosophy, it was always: ‘Ever onwards. Let’s see what we can do next,’” Page said in 2005.
“With Since I’ve Been Loving You”, we were setting the scene of something that was yet to come,” says Page. “It was meant to push the envelope. We were playing in the spirit of the blues, but trying to take it into new dimensions dictated by the mass consciousness of the four players involved.
“Since I’ve Been Loving You” follows in the footsteps of the blues songs that lit up the first two Zep albums. This is deep-down, honestly delivered blues, Jones on organ and bass pedals coloring the track as Page pulls out all the stops. This song quickly became a concert staple. For an all-out aural assault, dig Page’s use of violin bow on guitar on “Out On the Tiles,” matching up with the bass. Bonham’s drums roll around inside your headphones. Plant and Page are also credited, but this is Bonham’s baby.
“The same thing goes for the folk stuff as well. It’s sort of, ‘Well, this is how it was done in the past, but it now has to move.’ There was no point in looking back. We were just inspired with this energy that we had collectively.”
“On Hats Off To (Roy) Harper, Robert and I were just singing and playing in the tradition of Sonny Terry And Brownie McGhee. Then we put the vocal and harmonica through an amp and turned on the tremolo, and suddenly it sounded edgy and surreal. It was a perfect way to end the album. We were tipping our hat to the country blues, but presented it in a way that no one else had done.”. “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper” is a tribute to their friend, folk singer Roy Harper. It is built on Bukka White’s “Shake ’Em On Down.” Plant’s voice was altered by means of a vibrato amplifier to magical effect. Page’s acoustic slide guitar matches it perfectly.
Perhaps the most surreal thing about Led Zeppelin III is that, after all these years, its time may have finally come. While it will never be their biggest album, it might be their most contemporary. Think about it: ‘dudes with beards, wearing expensive thrift-shop clothing, playing edgy folk music that borrows liberally from world music and heavy metal’ sounds very modern indie rock to these ears. It’s no wonder that the album has sold three times as many copies in the last two decades as it did in the first twenty years since its existence.
Perhaps this is what Page – ever the mystic – was talking about when he said: “We knew what we were doing was right and that it was actually breaking new ground. We were cutting with a machete knife through the jungle, and discovered a temple of the ages.”
Trailblazing can be tough business, but very satisfying when smart people follow your footsteps. Four decades later, it seems that the temple Led Zeppelin III built has become a very busy place indeed. Artists such as Laura Marling, Fleet Foxes, Devendra Banhart and even Mumford & Sons, whose thumping beats have at least one muddy boot in Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, have been known to drop in for a visit.
If one was really going to quibble with the concept of Led Zeppelin III, it might be with the notion that the band were doing anything particularly shocking or original. While it’s agreed that comparing them to Crosby, Stills & Nash was patently absurd, bands like Fairport Convention and The Byrds were all attempting to modernise folk music to some degree in the 60s and 70s. In a 2010 interview, Page flicked away that idea, but made a valid point, saying that while he admired those bands and what they were doing, he didn’t think anyone would ever confuse Led Zeppelin with Fairport or the Incredible String Band.
“They were coming from a much more traditional place, and I was coming from so many different areas. But maybe,” he adds with a laugh, “I was just coming from a rock’n’roll head. Something like Friends really isn’t – it isn’t traditional music, but I liked that we could go in that direction and put our own spin on it. At the same time, I don’t ever think we lost sight of the fact that we were a rock band.”
More unusual sounds and background conversation introduce “Friends.”Page’s acoustic guitar is superb, the bass droning, and Plant wailing. Jones did the string arrangements here. Plant’s chameleon-like voice is magic as he sings this great chorus:
Mmm, I’m telling you now
The greatest thing you ever can do now
Is trade a smile with someone who’s blue now
It’s very easy, just-
As the song winds down, the strings, bass drone, guitar, and vocals all build to a crescendo before yielding to the mesmerizing Moog synthesizer drone that gets deeper and slower and then suddenly explodes into…
“Celebration Day,” Page’s guitar and Jones’ wicked bass grabbing you before Bonham kicks the song into overdrive, twisting the beat around. Page’s double-tracked guitars are so good here, especially the James Brown-style rhythm.
As for the bad reviews, Page has softened over the years, saying that in hindsight he could see how III was misunderstood. “Journalists were in a rush and they were looking for the new Whole Lotta Love and not actually listening to what was there,” he told writer Nigel Williamson. “It was too fresh for them and they didn’t get the plot. It doesn’t surprise me that the diversity and breadth of what we were doing was overlooked or under-appreciated at the time.”
In the final analysis, after the album was released in October and the dust settled, Led Zeppelin simply went on their way as they always had, and immediately began writing and working on what would eventually become their biggest album ever: Led Zeppelin IV. With the same acoustic guitar that he used on the maligned III, Page composed some of the band’s most beloved anthems, including Stairway To Heaven, The Battle Of Evermore,Going To California and Four Sticks. Critics – and everyone else – be damned.
“Albumwise, it usually takes a year for people to catch up with what we’re doing,” Jimmy Page told Rolling Stone in 1975. But listeners needed at least a decade to fully absorb the stylistic change-ups on Led Zeppelin III. But listeners needed at least a decade to fully absorb the stylistic change-ups on Led Zeppelin III. The elephant-balled blues rock that had defined Zeppelin’s sound was now tempered down, replaced by a heady strain of wispy, mystic folk rock. Even the album cover was more laid-back, with the band’s trademark down-in-flames Hindenburg imagery replaced by a trippy collage of butterflies and smiling teeth.
“They just couldn’t understand it,” Page vented. “All of a sudden, [the headlines were], ‘Led Zeppelin Go Acoustic!’ I thought, ‘Christ, where are their heads and ears? There were three acoustic songs on the first album, and two on the second.'”
He’s right. But while the mellower tunes from Zeppelin’s early catalogue (“Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” “Ramble On”) had hints of menace, Led Zeppelin III found Page and Robert Plant fully embracing their softer side – not a surprising move, given the album’s relaxed genesis. By early 1970, the group members had been on the road almost nonstop, and after years of groupie-gobbling decadence, everyone needed a break.
“It was time to step back, take stock and not get lost in it all,” Plant later recalled. “Zeppelin was starting to get very big, and we wanted the rest of our journey to take a pretty level course.”
Page had become enamored with California’s growing singer-songwriter movement – particularly Joni Mitchell – and initially, he and Plant considered holing up in Marin County to be close to the scene. But Plant recalled a childhood trip to a cozy Welsh cottage called Bron-Yr-Aur, so in early 1970, the two men headed to the country, loved ones in tow. The va- cation was originally intended to clear their heads, but Page and Plant spent hours taking long walks and sitting by the night fire, and eventually began churning out the songs that would dominate III.
All those hours of rustic seclusion in the primordial countryside must’ve flipped a switch in them; III isn’t just their most California-folk-influenced album, it’s also their most English – steeped in traditional folk music and ancient history, from the mournful days-gone-by balladry of “That’s the Way” or the folk-tilt boogie of “Gallows Pole,” a centuries-old ballad rebooted by Page and Plant.
“Gallows Pole” is a traditional song arranged by Page and Plant. Side two is a light year away from side one, making this such a great departure from their previous work. The beautiful acoustic guitar, echoes, is joined by Plant telling the story of a man hoping to cheat the hangman. Jones enters next on mandolin and then overdubbed on bass. Then it’s time for Page on banjo and Bonham on kit to heat it way up. That’s Page on electric guitar, too.
“Tangerine” is the only song on the album that is Page’s alone. He and Plant wrote all the others (except for “Hat Off to (Roy) Harper”), three with Jones, one with Bonham. Acoustic guitar and Plant’s vocals are heard before Jones, Bonham, and Page on pedal steel guitar jump in. Page also takes an electric guitar solo. They have successful entered the realm of folk and country folk music, paving the way for songs on Led Zeppelin IV.
Plant’s voice sounds so tender on songs such as “That’s the Way” and the others on this side on the vinyl record. More pedal steel here as well. Page offers backing vocals. Page’s deft touch with the acoustic guitar again stands out.
By the time they’d returned to England and set up camp at Headley Grange – the remote country house where they’d later work on Led Zeppelin IV – they had an album’s worth of material, some of which predated their Bron-Yr-Aur outing. One such number was “Immigrant Song,” a relentless chug-a-lug of wailing vocals and volcanic viking drama that would kick off not only the album but many of the band’s live shows. “Immigrant” was just one of the album’s memorable electric moments, which also included the brooding slow-blues jam “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” the steady-metal throttler “Out on the Tiles” and the splatter-guitar frenzy of “Celebration Day.”
But it’s the all-acoustic second side that initially tripped up Zeppelin fans. The daydream shimmer of “Tangerine” – which would later be memorably employed in Cameron Crowe’s rock saga Almost Famous – demonstrated just how closely Page and Plant had been watching the Laurel Canyon scene, while the inexplicably misspelled “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” sounded like a furious hoedown. The album ended with “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper,” in which the titular folk singer is celebrated with a clamour of spooky slide guitars. For the kids expecting “A Whole Lotta More Love,” listening to Led Zeppelin III must have been a jarring experience – the hard-rock inverse to what Dylan fans felt when he first started plugging in.
Oh, for the glorious days of vinyl records with their magnificent covers! Atlantic SD 7201 boasted a gatefold cover, and the front part contained a volvelle: a wheel inside the double-fold with a collage of images that could be turned at the album opening; portions of the images were visible through eleven circle cutouts on the front. Zacron was the artist who designed it. The complexities of the cover caused a two-month delay in the album’s release. [It was worth it!]
Reviewers pounced on the record’s perceived mushiness (it probably didn’t help that “Stomp” was written about Plant’s dog), and sales quickly tapered off. For years, III was considered if not the weakest entry in the group’s catalogue, then at least the most disorienting – banshee shrieks one minute, hushed campfire paeans the next. What fans and critics missed, though, was that the album’s heart-on-sleeve, dick-in-pants sincerity wasn’t some cynical bid for credibility, but a necessary survival measure.
“The key to Zeppelin’s longevity,” Page told Rolling Stone, “has been change.” Songs like “Tangerine” and “That’s the Way” were the first that proved Zeppelin capable of that change, and that they weren’t just a group of comically alpha-male riff monsters.
It’d be a stretch to think of III as Zeppelin’s “mature” album – this is, after all, a record that opens with a first-person tale of Nordic conquest – but, at the very least, it proved they could write songs that match the depth and emotional power of the blues and folk they loved and borrowed from. “The third album was the album of albums,” Plant would later say. “If anybody had us labelled as a heavy-metal group, that destroyed them.”
The band Slowdive were formed in Reading, by Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell in October 1989. The two long-term school-friends sang and played guitar, and had been friends since they were 6 years old. At a Sunday youth group, they began making music in an indie pop band called the Pumpkin Fairies, with bassist Mike Cottle and drummer Adrian Sell. But when the Fairies disbanded, Slowdive formed in October 1989, the name, Slowdive, coming from a dream Neil Halstead once had. According to an interview in Alternative Press, he dreamt of two words, Slowdive and Slowburn. At first they were a highly derivative My Bloody Valentine/Sonic Youth clone, but even their first demo reveals a better understanding of controlled noise than most of their contemporaries. In their defence the ‘demo’ was really just them recording for fun, and it wasn’t until early in 1990 that the band became Slowdive proper with their own ideas. The band also included drummer Adrian Sell and Sell’s friend, bassist Nick Chaplin. A third guitarist named Christian Savill, was a major change was the addition of third guitarist, previously of local act Eternal. “We advertised for a female guitarist, but only Christian replied. He writes a sweet letter though, he said he’d wear a dress if neccesary”. The songs on the second demo show a leap forward, while previously they headed towards a climax of noise, ‘Avalyn’ was a gentle steady flow of nearly white noise. It’s this demo, passed on by another Reading act, Swervedriver, that brought Slowdive onto Creation Records and became the first single, as attempts to recreate the atmosphere in a more expensive studio failed. He was subsequently recruited and The name “Slowdive” was inspired by two events: a dream Chaplin experienced, and a conversation he had with Goswell, who suggested “Slowdive”, the name of a single by one of her favourite bands, Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Problamaticaly between recording the demo and signing to Creation their drummer left for University, and they were forced to draft in a replacement. He didn’t share the same aims and tastes as the group, and they didn’t really get on with him, making time on the road a little uncomfortable. More importantly “He had a shaggy perm, he looked like Jon Bon Jovi” so he was replaced by the bowl-cutted Simon Scott, of the sadly deceased Charlottes. Simon later left Slowdive on good terms in February-March 1994 to continue his career in jazzy circles and was replaced by “the immensely handsome and talented” Ian MacCutcheon before they went on their 1994 north american tour, which they paid for themselves since SBK Records, their U.S. distributor, who had promised them an extensive tour, went out of business.
My Bloody Valentine have been directly relevant to their use of guitar sound. The Cocteau Twins and The Byrds were big influences too. They worry about the build them up/knock them down syndrome, complaining that the British press expect revelations with the first record, while bands like the Cocteau’s & MBV have taken years to achieve the respect they have. The problem has probably been caused by the string of excellent debuts by Pale Saints, Ride, Bleach and Slowdive themselves creating an expectation that the best music will come from previously unknown bands. Slowdive have been perhaps particularly lucky with Melody Maker giving them single of the week for all their releases during 1991, and a reviewer at NME giving them the same accolade as he felt the review printed the previous week was unfair.
Slowdive was the first band featured by Creation on IRC on february 2nd 1995. In one of Slowdive’s newsletters, they wrote about a planned cover of Galaxie 500’s “Fourth of July” for a tribute album, that was going to be released by Elefant Records in Spain. To my knowledge, the album was unfortunately never released, and probably never will be, at least not including Slowdive, beacuse the band was dropped by Creation shortly after the release of Pygmalion, April 1995.
This affected the release of Pygmalion in the U.S. and the band started to look for a new label. Rumors said that Rachel and Neil sent a demo to 4AD, which got a positive reaction from the label. And that happened to be the truth. Rachel, Ian and Neil formed the band Mojave 3 and were signed to 4AD in the summer of 1995 (for that story, please check the Mojave 3 Discography). Rachel Goswell said: “After that (“Pygmalion”), Slowdive didn’t so much split as take a shift in direction, one that a couple of the other members weren’t comfortable with. It didn’t seem right to carry on with the same name, we needed to get a fresh start and all the pieces fell into place for us to get one.”.
The band quickly recorded a demo and several months later played their first show. Steve Walters, head of A&R at EMI, had attended the show. Afterward, he approached Savill and requested one of their demos. Slowdive then signed to Creation Records . The average age of the band was only 19 at the time. Sell felt things were progressing too fast and left for university after being in the band for about six months.
A self-titled EP was released in November 1990 and received great praise from music critics. Slowdive their original demo; the band had preferred the older recordings after feeling disillusioned with their studio craft. In a glowing recommendation, NME staff member Simon Williams wrote “Slowdive have banished the barrier restricting creativity… When they really relax, Slowdive can make Cocteau Twins sound like Mudhoney”. Melody Maker awarded the EP its “Single of the Week” award, an accolade the band’s next two EPs received.
Drummer Neil Carter joined from fellow Reading band the Colour Mary in time to play on the “Morningrise” EP, but left prior to its release in February 1991. Simon Scott took over on drums after his previous group, an alternative rock band called the Charlottes, broke up. The “Holding Our Breath” EP followed in June 1991, while the single “Catch the Breeze” topped the UK Indie Charts.
“Just for a Day” (1991–1992)
By mid-1991, Slowdive had been tagged a “shoegazing” band and part of “the scene that celebrates itself” by the British media. The term shoegazer was applied to bands that followed My Bloody Valentine’s example of abrasive guitars and ethereal vocals, while “the scene” represented these like-minded groups. Slowdive toured with other shoegazing bands through summer of 1991. The British music press became increasingly derisive of shoegazing as the Britpop and grunge movements came underway.
Production on Slowdive’s debut commenced shortly after Halstead convinced Alan McGee, head of Creation Records, that the band had enough songs written for a full-length album. Slowdive actually did not. The group began hurriedly writing songs in the studio. Experimentation with sounds and cannabis occurred during the process. Halstead drew lyrical inspiration from the abstract nature of the music. He recounted, “[We] went into a studio for six weeks and had no songs at the start and at the end we had an album”.
Their debut, “Just for a Day” was released in the September 1991. NME gave the record a positive review, but most of the press generally disliked the album as the backlash against shoegazing began. As writer Peter Buckley put it, the album was “dismissed as dreary and lacking in ideas”. This backlash worsened when critics re-evaluated shoegazing after the release of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless in November 1991.
Slowdive’s US label SBK Records planned to release Just for a Day at the beginning of the year, but not before initiating a viral marketing campaign. The band’s name was stenciled outside MTV and radio stations in New York. Fans stencilled their heads when Slowdive played in Manhattan. The campaign caused some controversy when a statue celebrating the end of slavery was unveiled and had the word “Slowdive” stencilled on it.
“Souvlaki” (1992–1994)
While they toured in early 1992 to support “Blue Day”is a compilation album by the shoegaze band Slowdive. It was originally released in 1992 and compiles the first three slowdive eps: slowdive (missing the track “avalyn ii”), morningrise (in its entirety), and holding our breath (missing the syd barrett cover “Golden Hair” as well as “Catch the Breeze”, which appeared on their first full- length ‘Just For A Day‘.
A re-release of their early EP material, the band began writing songs for a follow-up album, but the negative coverage Slowdive received in the press affected their song writing. “[It] did affect us as we were all teenagers at the time”, said Scott in a 2009 interview, “[We] couldn’t understand why people were so outraged by our sound that they had to tell the NME or whoever that they wanted us dead!.
“Blue Day” (1992)
Approximately 40 songs were recorded and re-recorded as the group became very self-conscious of their writing and how it might be received. When McGee listened to the new material, he subsequently dismissed it, stating, “They’re all shit”. The band discarded all the music and started over. In a 2009 interview, Halstead vividly recalled the incident: “I remember going to start the record in a studio in Bath. Spiritualized had just been there and left a huge Scalextrix in the live room. I remember thinking this was the height of indulgence! Ironically we scrapped everything we recorded…we had to start the record again back in Oxfordshire.
The band wrote a letter to ambient visionary Brian Eno and requested he produce their second album. Eno responded and told them he liked their music, but wanted to collaborate not produce. Halstead later called the recording session “one of the most surreal stoned experiences of [his] life”. “The first thing he did when he walked into the studio was to rip the clock off the wall and put it by the mixing desk”, Halstead remembered. “He then said ‘Okay, you’re going to play the guitar and I’m going to record it. I don’t care what you are going to play, just play something.'” Two songs from the collaboration appeared on the ensuing album: “Sing”, which was co-written with Eno, and “Here She Comes”, where Eno played keyboards.
Creation Records wanted Slowdive to produce a commercial sounding album. Halstead agreed: “We wanted to make a ‘pop’ record but it took a while to record”. At one point, Halstead suddenly left in summer 1992, seeking seclusion in a Welsh cottage. Savill, Chaplin and Scott were left in a recording studio in Weston-super-Mare, and while waiting for Halstead’s return, recorded some “joke songs”. To their misfortune, McGee acquired them and became despondent, by which time Halstead had arrived with new music, including “Dagger” and “40 Days.”
The band named their second album “Souvlaki” after a skit performed by the Jerky Boys, an American comedy duo that recorded prank phone calls.
Souvlaki was released in May 1993 alongside the Outside Your Room EP, a few months after Suede released their popular debut and the Britpop movement had began. Critical reaction, as with their previous album, was generally negative. NME writer John Mulvey. Said despite noting their dated and “unfulfilling” sound, he did call it an “exemplary product”.
Slowdive booked a tour with fellow shoegazers Catherine Wheel for a tour of the United States, only to find SBK Records had pushed the album’s US release date back eight months. The band recorded an EP, titled 5 EP, and started a modest tour through Europe with dream pop band Cranes. Scott was unhappy with the gap between releases and quit the band in 1994.
“Pygmalion” (1994–1995)
Scott was replaced on drums by Ian McCutcheon. By the recording of their final album, Pygmalion, Halstead had moved Slowdive away from the dreamy guitar sound and warm yet solemn tone of earlier releases to a newer, more minimalist extreme.
Slowdive were dropped by Creation a week after the release of Pygmalion (as were Swervedriver not long after). After a Slowdive Twitter account and website were launched in January 2014,
when Slowdive disbanded in 1995 music fans widely associated it with the demise of the shoegaze genre. Their last sign of life was “Pygmalion” (before they reunited in 2014) and it was, after just for a day and souvlaki a totally different and more abstract album. where the band attempted to put more song structures in place on souvlaki, they began to incorporate more elements of ambient electronica on pygmalion. tracks like “blue skied an’ clear” and “crazy for you” demonstrate that the songs are still there, somewhere — they’re just buried under more abstract sounds than before.
it was announced that Slowdive had reformed to play the 2014 Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona and Porto. In January 2017, Slowdive released “Star Roving”, their first single in 22 years, on Dead Oceans.] Their fourth, self-titled album, was released in May 2017, preceded by another single, “Sugar for the Pill”.
“Morningrise” (2020 reissue)
The English shoegaze band slowdive were formed in 1989 “Morningrise” might be the best shoegaze song of all time, and together with “She Calls” and “Losing Today” it is part of the wonderful Morningrise EP. The title track elevates the pop spirit with wonderful guitar cascades. The melody escaping the chorus is then just heart-opening.
Morningrise will be available as a limited edition of 4000 individually numbered copies on smoke-coloured vinyl. it includes an insert with the Slowdive catalogue.
“Holding Our Breath” (2020 reissue)
Holding Our Breath is undoubtably Slowdive’s best ep, featuring some of their best pre-Souvlaki recordings including “Catch The Breeze”, “Shine” and their cover of Syd Barrett’s “Golden Hair”. the finale is “Albatross”. this uses atmospherics in a dark and haunting way, which contrasts the rest of the ep which is dreamy and floaty.
“Slowdive” EP (released 2020)
A self-titled ep was released in november 1990 and received praise from music critics. Slowdive was actually their original demo; the band had preferred the older recordings after feeling disillusioned with their studio craft. nme staff member Simon Williams wrote “Slowdive have banished the barrier restricting creativity… when they really relax, Slowdive can make Cocteau Twins sound like Mudhoney”.
Melody Maker awarded the ep its “single of the week” award. this year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Slowdive. a limited 30th Anniversary edition is available on record store day. only 4000 individually numbered copies on green & black marbled (transparent green, clear & black mixed) vinyl are pressed.
“Slowdive” Released 2020
an immediately enthralling set – 22 years on, the classic 90s shoegazers have crafted a tight and intricate album of immersive melodies and hazy dreaminess.
A “comeback record” has become such a derogatory term suggesting the music contained within is solely for the nostalgic die-hard fans who would salivate over any old dross churned out by said returning band. in truth, this is all too often the case. imagine our joy, then, when we heard Slowdive’s 1st output since 1995’s ‘Pygmalion’ (their 3rd studio album) and realised that these sonic pathfinders have avoided every pitfall and shortcut that a reforming band with an expectant and dedicated fanbase could have made.
We should really have taken their signing to the Dead Oceans label (much adored by us residents) as an indication that this was going to be something a bit special. Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead work in perfect harmony with the rest of the band to extract the most from every guitar chime, every brushed drum, every vocal harmony, every drawn out note, composing a generously textured, cerebral experience.
Their sound is distinctly “Slowdive” but their 4th record explores the wide open spaces that surround the genre which has previously defined (and possibly even confined) them. by allowing themselves the space to stretch out and breathe, they reach apexes of post-rock, refined pop, neo-classical and even talk talk-esque jazzy explorations, all of which build into a phenomenal set. the level of intricate detailing here is reminiscent of low’s approach to creating a sphere of sound which completely envelops you.
‘Slomo’ re-acquaints us and settles us in, only to be followed by their most direct “pop”-song ever in the shape of the outstanding ‘Star Roving’. later, ‘Sugar For The Pill’ and ‘No Longer Making Time’ is the direction that the xx so should have headed in after their debut and the record closes out on the astonishingly delicate & affecting sparsity of ‘Falling Ashes’, which is essentially carried by 4 single piano notes on a constant loop.
It’s a record that has taken us all by surprise, pulling us back for repeated listens, whatever our mood. if only all comeback records were this worthwhile.
“A majestic return that doesn’t just fill in the gaps, but points unflinchingly towards future horizons” – drowned in sound
Band Members:
Neil Halstead – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Rachel Goswell – vocals, guitar, keyboards, tambourine
Nick Chaplin – bass
Christian Savill – guitar
Simon Scott – drums – vocals, guitar, keyboards
The 6-track EP contains two superb new tracks, “Yours. To Be”, and “The Ascent Of The Ascended”, recorded soon after the album was finished, as well as four tracks recorded in New York City back in March as a live session for Paste magazine. Three of the tracks are from I Love The New Sky alongside a new version of The Charlatan’s classic ‘The Only One I Know’.
Of the lead track, “Yours. To Be”, Burgess says: “At the tail end of the glory of the night before – with all the hope and beauty that the following morning brings. Away from the glare of the party – like the calm after the storm has left town. It’s a feeling that’s so pure and uncluttered. It’s around a while, then real life starts to creep back in. It’s all about making the most of moments as they are happening .”
Following rave reviews for his recent solo album, “I Love The New Sky”, Tim Burgess today announces news of a new EP, Ascent Of The Ascended, released 27th November via Bella Union. The 6-track EP contains two superb new tracks, “Yours. To Be”, and “The Ascent Of The Ascended”, recorded soon after the album was finished
Burgess goes on to say: “There was an energy that came from recording the album with such a brilliant band – I didn’t want it to end, I wanted to record a bit of a magnum opus, which is where Ascent of the Ascended came in. I’d always wanted to work with Charles Hayward from This Heat, so we have him a ring and he said yeah. With “Yours. To Be” being almost like an instant feeling you get in a moment, very rarely in your life – the two songs are so different but they somehow complement each other. So an EP was the perfect idea.”
“We had so many plans for playing live this year – from South by Southwest to Glastonbury and everything in between. But that wasn’t to be. We played four shows in New York before lockdown happened – so our session for Paste Magazine was such a rare event, we’ve included the songs to complete the EP.”
“A gorgeous, summery slice of psych pop that’s peppered with nods to a who’s who of musical innovators. From the opening chords of Empathy for the Devil, which give a nod to The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry, to the delightful Comme D-Habitude, which conjures up Sparks in their pomp, there’s not a bad note on the album.” Evening Standard – 5 stars *****
“Sunshine pop gently nudged and bustled off-centre by playful experimentation… There’s a lot going on here, yes, but with Burgess on such dynamic form, its all good.” MOJO – 4 stars ****
“Joyful and exuberant, it recalls the good cheer of post-Beatles Paul McCartney, while ‘Sweetheart Mercury’ has something of the sunshine pop of Super Furry Animals.” The Times – 4 stars ****
Alt-rock poster girl Tanya Donelly of Belly (who are reuniting to tour this summer!), Throwing Muses, and The Breeders is preparing to bid farewell to her solo career for now with a 3-CD set called Swan Song Series. “In terms of releasing under my name, I’m definitely done with that. I feel like I’m over my name at this point,” she tells EW, laughing. “If I do anything from this point on, I’d like to do it under a band name.”
Sparked by performing in her friend John Wesley Harding’s “Cabinet of Wonders” vaudeville-esque reviews, Donelly began reaching out to other authors and musicians to create this series of songs that feature everyone from Harding to Belly bandmate Tom Gorman to Rick Moody to Magnetic Fields’ Claudia Gonson. The 31-song collection, released in early summer 2016, is a compendium of collaborations with other artists and includes her first five self-released digital EPs and seven new tracks, but EW is premiering a highlight off the collection, “Wild Love,” today.
On this song, Donelly worked with singer/songwriter Will Dailey to create a sweet love song touched by a fuzzy, mystical folk vibe. “This is one of the most organic in terms of process because Will and I live in the same town and we’re friends,” Donelly says. “We wrote together, and it resulted in a song that neither one of us would have come up with individually — which is kind of the entire point of the series. There was one point where we were like: Is it too stylistically simple? Is it too direct? Usually both of us are a little more opaque. And this one is just so transparent and such a clear love song.”
“Wild Love”Swan Song Series is on American Laundromat Records.
The title track of Phoebe Bridgers’ second album pokes fun at the oblivious fan who, at a concert, will linger at the merch table for too long. Bridgers knows she could easily fill the role, too. “If Elliott Smith were alive, I probably wouldn’t have been the most fun person for him to talk to,” she told The New Yorker. “So I wrote that as if I were the punisher.” The record is the folk singer’s follow-up to 2017’s “Stranger in the Alps”, and her first solo project since she recorded with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker as boygenius and dueted with Conor Oberst as Better Oblivion Community Center.
On “Moon Song,” one of many standout tracks on Phoebe Bridgers’ new album, Punisher, Bridgers sings, “We hate ‘Tears in Heaven,’ but it’s sad that his baby died/ We fought about John Lennon until I cried.” These lines illustrate one of this album’s greatest strengths—while many records are emotionally resonant but emotionally one-note, “Punisher” is always as complex as it is resonant, unsatisfied with easy answers. The couplet wrestles with the conflicted nature of relationships, both between the speaker and another person and between the speaker and music itself. Like much of the record, the song is simultaneously tender, darkly funny, and mournful.
It’s a lot to take in. And just as we’re processing the weight of these lines, Bridgers whisks us away into a vivid dream: “You’re singing at my birthday/ I’ve never seen you smiling so big/ It’s nautical themed/ And there’s something I’m supposed to say.” Punisher, richly produced and beautiful throughout—complete with lush guitars, synth textures, swelling strings, and 2000s indie-rock horns—is a joy to listen to, but it takes some time to truly sink its claws in, revealing the depth of its humour and sadness. Certain lines kept swirling around in my head after the third listen: the one about whether Elvis “believed songs could come true” off “Graceland Too” or the moment when Bridgers sings, “I’m not afraid of hard work” on “Garden Song,” the album’s lead single.
“Garden Song” may be the most familiar song to fans of Bridgers’ first record, Stranger in the Alps—its slow, stately pace, its guitar picking and ethereal atmosphere, and, most importantly, its lyrics, which create their own self-sustaining universe. Like a faded memory or a rear-view vision of childhood, it’s a world that is at once familiar and strange, a tale of wrong, ghosts, healing, and the work of making things, if not right, then more whole. Bridgers’ voice is joined on the chorus by Bridgers’ tour manager Jeroen Vrijhoef’s resonant bass vocals. Elsewhere on the record, we hear Conor Oberst on “Halloween” and “I Know the End,” Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus on “Graceland Too” and “I Know the End,” along with many others.
The record is a triumph of collaboration, but it is always guided by Bridgers’ vision. Punisher was co-produced by Bridgers this time aroundalongside Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska, who produced Stranger in the Alps—and at every point Punisher is more expansive than its predecessor, both in terms of its instrumentation and its songcraft. Classic Phoebe Bridgers slow-burners like “Garden Song” and “Halloween,” which recall her mostly downtempo debut, float alongside uptempo tracks like “Kyoto” and “I See You,” which reflect Bridgers’ fantastic indie rock collaborations, both as one-third of boygenius and one-half of Better Oblivion Community Center. The dynamic variation on Punisher is one of its greatest strengths. Although the downtempo tracks still set the tone, the addition of tracks like “Kyoto” keeps listeners on their toes.
Punisher, as punishing as it can be, is largely an affirming record. (Apparently, the title refers to the kind of fan who stays at the merch table way too long.) There’s an existential kind of determination to it, perhaps best embodied on “Chinese Satellite,” a moving meditation on doubt, faith, and loss: “Took a tour out to see the stars/ But they weren’t out tonight/ So I wished hard on a Chinese satellite/ I want to believe/ Instead I look at the sky and I feel nothing.” A classic story of spiritual desolation amid the disenchantment of modernity, perhaps. But when no star or God is forthcoming, artists latch on to what they see, forging their own spirituality, based on what symbols are available—in this case the satellite will have to do.
I tend to link the stubborn spirituality of this record, its determination to make beauty out of an ugly world, back to the album’s lead single, “Garden Song,” in particular to the line, “I’m not afraid of hard work,” as it relates to gardening, which is to say fostering life. The album’s closer, the shape-shifting “I Know the End” is as affirming as the apocalypse gets, beginning straightforwardly enough before settling into an incredibly cathartic build—complete with kick drums, horns, and screams—which busts the song wide open. It’s easily the most intense track on the album, but when all the instruments drop out and all that’s left is Bridgers’ voice, something between a death-metal scream and a low hiss, there’s a knowing playfulness to it. The humour that’s made her Twitter legendary often surfaces in Punisher’s heaviest moments, and maybe that’s part of what makes the album a source of hope rather than despair, for all its sorrow. In an interview with Amanda Petrusich in the lead-up to Punisher’s release, Bridgers joked, “Here’s my thing, for your emptiness.” Enjoy.
The Fat Angel Sings 