A Month of Nearly Nearly Perfect Albums (#15 and #16)

Today – Brothers, Sisters and Torquay Harbour

15. A Seat at the Table – Solange (2016, Saint Records)

It must be difficult being the less successful sibling, for instance I guy I used to work with, let’s call him Colin, was the middle brother of three.  His elder brother is an Airline Captain for Virgin Atlantic and lives in a four million pound apartment in London’s swanky Docklands and has a house in the Bahamas as a bolt home.  He is considered to be one of the best pilots of his generation.  Colin’s younger brother was one of the youngest violinists to have ever been recruited to National Philharmonic Orchestra, he was at the age of 17 considered to be a musical prodigy.  At 20, he quit that life to become a professional rugby player.   Colin, is an accountant for a local council in Devon and lives in Tiverton. 

Musically it must be more difficult, few people out there will remember a band called The Unbelievable Truth, who were a kind of indie folk band who emerged out of the fading embers of the Britpop era and considered one Andy Yorke, amongst their numbers.  Andy being the brother of a certain Thom Yorke, which is pretty much all anyone can remember about them.  Largely because Virgin Records appear to have signed Andy’s band on the strength of him being Thom’s brother (and if you Google Andy it will tell you that he is “A Musician and brother of Thom”).  And before all you indie than thou buggers tell me that you much preferred The Unbelievable Truth to Radiohead, you really didn’t.

Higher Than Reason – The Unbelievable Truth (1998, Virgin Records)

Which brings us to Solange, who is, as you will all probably be aware, the younger sister of Beyonce Knowles.  Who is, despite being clearly less successful than her elder sister, the only member of the Knowles family that you need to own records by and you should start with ‘A Seat at the Table’, which is her third album.

‘A Seat at the Table’ is a brilliant and multi layered album that stretches out over 21 tracks that has this restlessness to it – an intriguing blend of early 90s pop and lofi acoustic R&B.  It is very much a sound and concept that has been replicated elsewhere in the music industry since ‘A Seat at the Table’ was released, not in the least by her elder sister on her ‘Lemonade’ album.

The whole album is worth checking out and had I not blathered on about Andy Yorke and an untalented accountant I would have given you a better review, but the real highlights of it are below,

Weary – Solange (2016, Saint Records) – which has this gorgeous harmony revolving around it alongside an organ soaked backdrop,

Borderline – Solange (2016, Saint Records) – which sees here collaborate with Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest

Cranes in the Sky – Solange (2016, Saint Records) – which is just lovely, even if it is a song about a period of sadness.

FUBU – Solange (2016, Saint Records) – which stands for For Us By Us, and not something more rude in case you were trying to work it out.

Ok what’s next?

16. The English Riviera – Metronomy (2011, Because Music)

I barely recognised the English Riviera that Joe Mount and his band Metronomy talk of on their excellent third album that shares that name.   Metronomy’s view of it, if we are taking that from the music that accompanies it, is one of a sunkissed mecca where every bar sells lovely drinks and people sit and watch the waves gently lap against the walls of the harbour, as they sip cocktails in trendy bars as a DJ spins all of their favourite sounds.

Which all very nice because, ‘The English Riviera’ brings the good vibes and gives us songs where sweet sounding synths collide enthusiastically with chirpy basslines and newish rave sounds compete against a decidedly pop leaning for primacy. 

The Bay – Metronomy (2011, Because Music)

The Look – Metronomy (2011, Because Music)

All of which is no bad thing, because it makes for a very good listen, the songs are excellent nestling nicely as they do between dance and indie. The more dancey tracks are upbeat and full of this vitalising energy kind of like what Hot Chip were trying to do on ‘The Warning’. 

She Wants – Metronomy (2011, Because Music)

The more indie tracks don’t really rock and nor do they sound like they want to but those pitch themselves somewhere near the sound that Phoenix were doing a few years earlier. 

Loving Arm – Metronomy (2011, Because Music)

All of which makes ‘The English Riviera’ a bit jumbled because it doesn’t really know if its an indie rock record, an indie dance record or a post nu rave album.  It’s sort of all three, well actually its four things, because when its not doing its indie dance post nu rave thing there are the occasional forays into radio friendly 70s inspired pure pop to examine. There are two of these, one is good, one is bad.  This is the good one,

Everything Goes My Way – Metronomy (2011, Because Music)

Of course, if Metronony made an album about The English Riviera now it would sound a lot different to what it did in 2011.  Nowadays it would be a sort of squat rock record full of grimy sounding guitars with a definite post punk feel.  The songs would be about heroin dealers and the legions of beery stag dos that pollute those trendy bars that I mentioned earlier.   Those bars actually sell watered down Fosters at £7 a pint and as the Union Jack short wearing brigades sit outside and moan about immigrants the waves wash up needles, sanitary products and human sewage against the harbour walls as people shelter from the rain alongside the homeless in the doorways of one of the several hundred charity shops that line the towns streets. 

Trouble – Metronomy (2011, Because Music)

Here is a lyrical clue from one of tomorrow’s albums,

“I’ve always been the only, every classroom, every home”