Kirsty MacColl - What Do Pretty Girls Do?

MINE

So I didn't pick Kite, my favourite Kirsty album.  And I didn't pick one of the more "complete" best-of's that I've got.  But I picked this one, because it's a compilation of some live sessions she did for the BBC.  Now if you know Kirsty (like I know Kirsty) you know she didn't really enjoy performing in front of people (until later in her life).  So getting a live recording is a bit of a bonus.

Here she shows a lot of her country stylings, and particularly my favourite song, Don't Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim.  A hymn for any girl who's been treated like dirt after giving her all, this version is kind of close to the original.  But the standout version is her voice-and-guitar stying of He's On the Beach, which was originally production-packed. (And for all of you northern hemisphere types, on the beach is exactly where YourZ and I hope to be today.)

The album also features a duet with Billy Bragg of A New England.  Made me wonder if he misses her.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP and he says it's brilliant there

YOURZ

I could have guessed Mine would pick a Kirsty MacColl CD of some sort.  Predictable much? 

When we reviewed her earlier this year (see it here) I said while I appreciated her talent, I found it all a bit too nice for my liking.  While there are some pretty cool tracks on What Do Pretty Girls Do, a lot of this is just a bit too country for me. 

However, there are two versions of A New England on here and I could listen to both over and again without any effort.  The duo with Billy Bragg is just about perfect.  And the guitar groove of My Affair coupled with that wondeful voice was a very pleasant surprise indeed.  And Bad is anything but.  Still, its not enough for me to say anything but...

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

For more information: http://www.kirstymaccoll.com/

John Kennedy - Have Songs Will Travel

YOURZ

It wasn't until I was researching this review and found a few of Kennedy's band JFK & The Cuban Crisis videos on YouTube that I stumbled across Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong and recognised the song King Street.  While there is a big difference between the original band version and the one on this collection, both are equally great takes.

I remember seeing the clip and admiring the song way back sometime after it was first released.  I particularly liked the line


On King Street, I am King.  

In contemporary Australian  at that time, there was a move to have worldly rather than local references due to some cultural cringe but Kennedy defied this with his songs, sprinkling his tracks with locations around Sydney and Brisbane.  I really enjoyed hearing names I recognised and places I had been.

Vocally, he reminds me of Billy Bragg but (no offence to Mr Bragg, of course) with a better voice.  More importantly, he wrote great songs that have travelled well over the years.  I particularly liked Miracle (In Marrickville), Big Country and Juliet Jones.  And Kennedy can do the solo singer/guitarist thing very well indeed.  This collection deserves to be played more.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

A Forgotten Gem for me indeed.  I never followed John Kennedy when he was part of JFK and the Cuban Crisis, but came to him in his later years, with Love Gone Wrong, just prior to his departure for Berlin.  I'd purchased their album, Always the Bridegroom, when it came out in '87 and it featured heavily on my turntable.  Odd moment: some years later when I was playing it while a musician friend of mine was visiting, he told me he'd sung backup on Better Days, a semi-gospel number.  It's one of my favourite cheer-me-up songs.

This album is a sort of unplugged greatest hits, and I haven't played it for way too long.  His self-styled Urban and Western tunes are fun to sing along to, and matched with funny and clever lyrics.  However, I do recall going to see the band in a farewell concert before he left Oz for Germany (he's back now) and having him admit that in The Ballad of Jackie O he wrote what he freely admits to be the world's worst-ever rhyme.  I'd have to agree.

It must be lonely when you're recognised

As the world's most famous widow

If you married me I wouldn't die on you

Like all the others did - oh, oh, oh, oh

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://johnfranciskennedy.com.au/

Kirsty MacColl - Electric Landlady

YOURZ

I've been waiting for the pointy stick to land on Ms MacColl only because I knew it would elicit a passionate review from Mine, who is a big Kirsty fan.  I must admit I'm generally ignorant of her work, although I'm very familiar with her duo with Shane McGowan of The Pogues on Fairytale Of New York (if you don't know this classic, check it out here - best listened to with a skin full and preferably loudly late at night).  She's also responsible for a wonderful cover of Billy Bragg's New England, a version I prefer to the original (sorry Billy).

Imagine my surprise when I listened to the first track on Electric Landlady and found I instantly recognised it.  For the life of me, though, I don't know where I've heard Walking Down Madison before (for a moment I was convinced it was covered by the Pet Shop Boys, who I definitely don't like - isn't it curious how the mind works - okay, maybe it's just my mind...)

Anyway, I was kind of hoping there'd be more tracks like it on this album but there aren't.  This doesn't mean the rest of the album is crap, because it's not.  There are some nice tracks on it.  But there's that word again - nice - and I think if you're a regularly reader of this blog you know my feelings on 'nice'. 

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

MINE

I'm crying.  I can't help it. Every time I think about the loss of the songstress who I adored for so many years, I get all teary.  I'm very much a "no regrets" kind of girl but oh how I regret not getting on a plane and flying to London when I heard Kirsty had gotten over her decades-long stage fright and was performing.  I thought to myself, "I can save up for that.  Next year will do." And then she was dead, mown down by a motor-boat driver in Mexico in front of her two sons.

I fell in love with Kirsty when I saw her video for A New England, where she's pregnant (unheard-of for singers even now) and revelled in Kite when it came out a few years later.  I love that the title for this album comes from Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, after he lived in a flat she owned.  I can't say it's my favourite Kirsty album, I love them all.  I can say I love Walking Down Madison, All I Ever Wanted and My Affair.

But so many of these songs are beautiful.  My only problem is listening to them without howling.  I miss her so much and on my next trip to London I'll be sure and make a pilgrimage to her memorial bench in Soho Square, dedicated in her memory and a fitting tribute as it reflects a song on her next album, Titanic Days.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP so you can't hear me sobbing

For more information: http://www.kirstymaccoll.com/

In our collection we also have Kite, What Do Pretty Girls Do?, Titanic Days, Tropical Brainstorm, The Essential Collection and The One And Only

February - Wrapup

MINE

Well that one just whizzed by - anybody would think there were less days to do everything this month.  Oh, wait...

So I guess we mostly discovered whose musical bones are broken - or who we're tone deaf for, which in my case is Radiohead, and in my husband's case is Madonna.  But the reviews keep coming and we're exposing ourselves to a whole bunch of stuff we ordinarily wouldn't be listening to.

This month I most enjoyed discovering The Grifters.  And as I have the next week off from work, I'm looking forward to revamping my gym-workout list to include some of the new music I've discovered and the songs I've rediscovered.  I'm also heading off to purchase Florence & The Machine after finally listening to some samples, and confirming to myself I can in fact still decide what music I like just by reading a review.  Age-based self-doubt, begone!

I guess what I might ask from some of you who are reading is - given you've taken note of what we own and what we like, do you any suggestions for us?  Who do you think we might enjoy getting down to?

YOURZ

February gave us the broken bone dilemma.  As Mine has mentioned, we both discovered which of our musical bones are useless beyond repair.  But isn't this again a perfect example of just how our individuality shines when it comes to any form of art?

I had a moment when the pointy stick came down on Madonna, you better believe it.  But then I remembered Mine also had to go through the same with Radiohead and I felt a little better.  These two artists are probably the most perfect example of the musical distance between Mine and YourZ (truly).  But the beauty of this month, the moments worth savouring are not the distances, but those when we're close.  I was stoked to hit on Aint My Lookout by The Grifters, an old favourite I hadn't listened to for ages.  And it returned the favour Mine gave me last month with Wild Wood by Paul Weller.

In the last Wrapup, we wrote we were giving James Hunter's The Hard Way, to my parents.  Well we're happy to report they really enjoy it, as we thought they would.  In fact, my father, bless his orthopaedic socks, has said if there is anything else like that we want to get rid of, he'd be happy to take it off our hands.  This month, we've decided to give away Billy Bragg's William Bloke to one of our favourite kindred bloggers, Chris at The Small Takeover (see his blog here).  Chris, if you're reading this, send us an email with your address, so we can send you some padded baggy goodness (and we'll also try and contact you direct).

When we started this project, we wanted to do it without the influence of friends or family.  We wanted to make a good start, suss out the problems and sort out exactly how we were going to run this blog without the burden of other opinions.  And believe me, some of our friends and family have very large opinions, so this was important to us.

But the thin veil of anonymity became even thinner this month.  It was lifted rather easily by an ex-girlfriend who, through another blog, discovered our identity.  This has led us to deciding we're going to 'come out', so to speak, and let everyone know we're writing this blog.  I don't know what this will mean but it's exciting.

Finally, I just want to mention two very important individuals who came into our lives this month, bringing with them chaos, mess and so much joy, our world is all the more richer for having them.  Here's to Dusty and Strummer, our wonderful new kittens.

Billy Bragg - William Bloke

MINE

Ah, Billy.  Our relationship began all those years ago, on a late-night TV music show, not with any of your recordings but with the vocal stylings of one late-lamented Kirsty MacColl (of whom, I'm freely betting, more will appear here).  Her version of your song  A New England held me transfixed.  In fact, so enamoured was I of Ms MacColl's version, I sneered at yours when I was introduced to it a short time later.

It wasn't until I heard Talking with the Taxman About Poetry - which opens with the delightful Greetings to the New Brunette and also features the transcendant  Levi Stubbs' Tears - that I really understood what you were all about.  But I've always preferred your personal songs to your political ones, despite agreeing with what you have to say, you old-skool lefty.

I've seen you - um, three or four times, can't remember - and for a while there you were one in a whole range of blokes-with-a-guitar I saw back-to-back (Luka Bloom and Elvis Costello also featured as such, I recall).  But William Bloke doesn't have much on it I like.  Everybody Loves You Babe made me smile, and The Space Race is Over echoed my feelings so well - didn't we all dream of walking on the moon?  But generally this doesn't have much in it to warrant keeping it in the collection.

Fear not though Billy, I think your best-of album Must I Paint You A Picture? will be on my to-buy list.  I can see this blog's going to prove expensive, in the end.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT


YOURZ

If there is such a thing as English country music, then Billy Bragg is definitely one of its biggest proponents, particularly on William Bloke, his eighth album.  Musically, this album moves between quiet, stripped back tunes reminiscent of Randy Newman (with a similar kind of humour too) to mid-tempo numbers.

Lyrically, Billy continues to tread pretty much the same ground he's always done, moving between quasi-political and protest songs to more personal songs about love.  Gone is the raw, raggedness of his earlier releases and in its place is a smoothness in production that, quite frankly, makes it bland and boring.

I like Billy.  He's intelligent, articulate and passionate.  He also enjoys a beer or three. He has a wonderful wit and because of this, his column in Q Magazine is one of the first things I read with each new issue.  As it is, I would love to say I enjoyed listening to this and although I tried hard to, I couldn't. Sorry Billy...

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://www.billybragg.co.uk/