The Fascinating Turnip

Well I might as well post something while I'm in the mood for it. This "segment" will essentially feature (as the cryptic title suggests) a few performances that I find fucking brilliant. On this post I'm going to be excessively pretentious with my picks, so if you happen to find pretentiousness nauseating, grab a plastic bag. And choke yourself with it. Right! First pick:

Charles Aznavour - La Bohéme:


La Bohéme is already a great song, but Aznavour's gestures add quite a lot to it. He may be singing, but he is also telling a story, and he acts accordingly. I find it quite interesting how he alternately seems completely uninterested in the fact that he's singing a song (in the beginning, for example) and to be overwhelmed by it (in the end).
He has quite a natty handkerchief as well.

Jacques Brel - Ne Me Quitte Pas


Again, a terrific song. The title essentially means "don't leave me". The imagery he uses (in the lyrics, I mean) is brilliant, but again, the performance is fantastic. Look at him: ugly, sweaty, dishevelled, pathetic, in absolute and utter pain and despair. All these things that standing apart are terrible but which together (despite not being particularly nice for one to feel) are beautiful. This song is exactly that. A man having to resort to begging, having to put all of his self respect aside so that he isn't left alone. And that, my friends, is beautiful.

Jacques Brel - Ce Gens-là


Now this one is quite interesting. The minimalistic, repetitive music behind yet another startling tale makes the whole song terribly hyptonic, dreamlike. The lyrics are absolutely brilliant. A tale about a forbidden love, it could just be another cliché, but it isn't. The family that keeps the two lovers apart is poor, but not at all humble. The "singer" is telling us exactly that, describing how vile and pathetic they are, telling us that one must not pretend one is rich if one is not.
The performance, of course, is mind shattering. I should have mentioned before, perhaps, that Jacques Brel was also an actor, because you can certainly notice that in the video. What can I say? From the subtle movement of the hands to the exagerate pronunciation of certain words, to slurping of the soup...Brilliant.

Trollheart

Eclectic, to say the least!
Is it just coincidental that all three performances are from French singers, or was that intentional?
Haven't heard the name Charles Aznavour in ages, just like I hadn't heard Sacha Distel, until I featured "Where do you go to my lovely" in my journal...

Oh, and, pretentious? Moi?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Fascinating Turnip

Well, I wouldn't say it was intentional, they were just the best performances I could think of at that particular time, though another performance that wasn't french or in that particular vein might not have suited the post's ambience or whatever you wish to call it.

So now that I am here, I might as well make this about something more than just a reply to good old Trollheart. Here is a couple of tunes for those of you who wish to wallow in self pity and abject desperation and what not:


He does look a bit too much at the camera, doesn't he? Ah well. On the other hand, the using of the icy, barren landscape is quite interesting because this song has always made me feel like I'm trying to stay worm in something of a frozen hell. Oh, and miserable as well.

Low - Lullaby

Ah, this one. Well, the vocals are bloody brilliant. It is not particularly cheerful either. The guitar is absolutely terrific in this one, especially towards the end. Great use of build-up, reminds me of an Archive tune (though the genre isn't at all the same):

Bulldog

Almost 23 1/2 years I've been capable of sentient thought and I still don't have a Divine Comedy album to show for it. For me, they're like an application form I've been meaning to fill out but that's just been sitting on my desk for a week - I know I should really do something about it but, for some reason or other, I just keep putting it off.

Top man for giving a mention to Jaques Brel as well. A man with a best of comp of his will always be a happy one! Must admit though that I only got to hear about him via translations of his songs like these...


David Bowie ft. Mike Garson - My Death (Live) - YouTube


Scott Walker performing Mathilde - YouTube


Frank Sinatra "If You Go Away" - YouTube

...as opposed to actually knowing anything worth knowing about French music.

Keep this up by the way - this journal's immense.

The Fascinating Turnip

Bulldog! How are you mate? Longe time no see.

If you plan on finally getting your hands on some The Divine Comedy albums (and I grant you, it will be worth it) perhaps you should consider going about Fin de Siécle or Liberation first. I haven't listened to all of their albums with the attention I should have done, but they've been dethroning a lot of worthy placeholders on my top 5 bands on last.fm lately. I mean, they're amost beating Pulp mate and, I don't know about you, but I bloody love Pulp.

That aside, I don't own one Scott Walker album, which is probably a bit more shocking that never having picked up a The Divine Comedy one.

Well, thanks! I'll try to keep this up. And bearing that in mind...:


I think I've mentioned these fellows somewhere, but I just had a quick look 'round this journal and I didn't see anything. Then again, I may be an idiot. Bear with me:


I can't really be arsed with writing those in-depth band bios, I'm sorry. But what I will say is: Why on God's inner thigh were these chaps not a bloody hit?! I mean come on! When you give them a listen you'll see what I mean, but it's bloody annoying, for fuck's sake! Roddy Frame wrote these songs when he was 19! Oh, and they're scottish.

Now let's have a look at a gem of an album:

This album my friends...is fucking immense. It's a cascade of pop hits that were never pop hits. Brilliant, the lot of them:


They're very Disney, aren't they? In a good way, not in a cryogenic chamber, anti-semitic way. The use of the classic guitar is a constant in all of the songs I believe, and it's always done very, very skillfully.


Have you ever heard anything so silly, joyful, innocent, childish...and yet so arse buggeringly beautiful and genuine? And the solo on that last track (which may just be my favourite in the whole album) is terrific as well. Just get the album. Get it right bloody now, it's the cheeriest bally thing I've ever heard, and while it might be hard for you to put something cheery on when you're depressed or what not, it'll be bloody worth it. Always works.

This album only really has one problem: it has so many terrific songs right in the beginning that I never really remember the ones in the end.

Oh, here's another one:


Class.

Trollheart

Aztec Camera had some hits, in fact: this is one of them, possibly their biggest, "Somewhere in my heart"



but it can't compare to the heartbreakingly frank "How men are". What a song!



Yeah, a sadly underrated band though...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Fascinating Turnip

Indeed, but the question is that they're probably seen as an 80's one hit wonder band, and they certainly weren't. Perhaps a "one album wonder" band, but that's debatable.

Here are a few tracks from Paul Weller's project after he left The Jam, The Style Council:


Terrific pop tune, bit of an R&B touch which is pure class. Released as a single.


Now this one is immense. Tracey Thorn's voice really adds quite a lot to the track, not only because it's brilliant, but because I think the song benefitted from a female vocalist. Has a bit of a film-noir feel as well, especially due to the rain pouring in the background and the presence of the piano. Always good if you're in the mood for some contemplative melancholy. That's probably a drink in some really snotty bar, actually...


A bit of a misty, minimalistic song with quite political lyrics which thankfully don't detract from the track's general beauty in the least. Again, class.

These last two tracks are from the 1984 album Café Bleu.

Trollheart

Just so you (and everyone else interested) know, I'll soon be compiling a "Beginner's Guide to The Divine Comedy", sometime in the next few weeks, other workload and life permitting (though in fairness, I have very little of the latter!)

I've already created one for Threshold and Balance of Power, and in case you haven't seen them they basically give an intro to the artiste, pick out selected tracks from each of their albums and let you decide whether or not you'd be into them, or if you already are, what albums are considered their best (and worst).

Like the squeaky-voiced teen said in "The Simpsons" --- "Keep watching the skis!"

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Bulldog

Long time no see indeed, Mr Ballad sir! I'm good ta. Between jobs, trying to figure how I'm gonna pay for Christmas and so on!

I'll be sure to check out Divine Comedy in some depth soon. I would do tonight, but for some bizarre reason best known to itself my library's gone and deleted itself off my mediamonkey player. All the MP3 files are still there and backed up several times over, just gotta take a while to sort them out all over again.

Good lad for mentioning Aztec Camera - High Land Hard Rain is one of my all-time favs also. Couldn't agree more with how the album comes off as a bit top-heavy though - so many great songs at the start that the end doesn't really stand out so much as it might. It's a tough call, but the Boy Wonders, Walk Out To Winter, the Bugle Sounds Again and We Could Send Letters would be my picks of the litter. The Knife is another album of theirs worth having as well. Apart from that, all I've got of theirs is a copy of their best of and Love - the album with Somewhere In My Heart on it (which is only half-decent really).

As for the Style Council, all I really know of theirs is this;


The Style Council - Have You Ever Had It So Blue - YouTube

^ The song they did for the soundtrack of Absolute Beginners (which is itself an album absolutely everyone should own if I'm frank).

The Fascinating Turnip

I only have Café Bleu, and to be frank, the album goes a bit dodgy in the end, I feel.

Never heard of Absolute Beginners, is the film worth it or just the soundtrack?


Ah, Radiohead. They might get overly praised by some their fans and for that same reason seem to be truly hated by a few music lovers. No matter how annoying their fans can be, however, these chaps have written some stellar songs. For me, Radiohead have been one of those bands who have evolved in a very positive way. I don't mean I enjoy the latest albums more than I enjoyed the earlier ones, but they've certainly become something quite different from what they were in Pablo Honey (which to this day I've never really felt like listening to), moving away from that style and towards something a bit less linear, a bit less mainstream. I find this shows quite a bit of character, and I admire them for it. Another band which underwent a similar progress were Talk Talk. Were they brilliant? No, they were bleedin' immense. They started out with a few pop tunes and then contributed heavily to the creation of Post-Rock.

This post is not really about Radiohead's career, or Talk Talk's, for that matter, I just felt I had to do a bit of an intro, as opposed to just posting videos of what I enjoy now and then (which is what I usually do).

Lately, as one would guess, I've started listening to Radiohead quite compulsively again. Especially Amnesiac and In Rainbows ( albums which I oddly didn't really fancy too much some time ago).

Here are a few glorious tunes, then:


Absolutely brilliant. I'm completely addicted to this track. That chord progressive got stuck in my head like not many songs have done, it's uncanny. I've had to listen to it an inordinate amount of time these last few days. Uni's been kicking my arse and I find myself reserving small amounts of time to listen to music. This one...this one's been all consuming. I'll probably tire of it sooner than anyone should, but I can't let it go. Thom Yorke's voice, the insane rhythm of the whole track, the intense energy coupled with the beautiful melodies, the repetitiveness...The backing vocals! It's absolutely perfect. I've never thought that lyrics were one of Thom Yorke's strengths, and surely the ones on this song are nothing special, but coupled with the music they paint such an accurate picture, such a brilliant picture. And this is often the case with Radiohead lyrics. They make sense in a way that makes no sense.


What can I say, another brilliant track. Beautiful guitar work, beautiful vocals. This one seems to have a bit of an earlier Radiohead tint, in that it makes you feel small as an ant and absolutely empty inside, much like many of the tracks from OK Computer. Have you ever listened to Radiohead on the Tube? It kills you. Makes you feel like you have no free will, like your whole life is getting carried from A to B (in a bit of an existential way, because the Tube does tend to take you to places...) by ugly mechanical things which are far more important than everything you'll ever do.

This is not to say these two are my favourite Radiohead tracks. They're among my favourite ones, however. That is fairly certain.

About Talk Talk, I think Bulldog there has done a grand job already reviewing all of their albums and I've already mentioned Renée (one of their songs from the pre post-rock period that I love), so I'll just urge you all to get Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, which are brilliant albums.