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/

The Kinks Choral Collection - Ray Davies

MINE

When I came across a mention of this in some article, somewhere, I happened to be at work.  So I threw on the headphones and let YouTube take me there.  Big mistake.

The reworking of Waterloo Sunset had tears rolling down my face, and it was only with some effort that I managed not to howl out loud, but rather sniffle genteelly into a hastily-snatched tissue. For some reason Decca appear to have removed all the original video for the album, but there's a taster here.

I know you're probably wondering why I seem to be obsessed with music that makes me cry.  I'm not really, but when there's a song that really touches me like this, I have to let you know about it.  It brought me back to when I saw Ray Davies, a few years ago now, when he was doing a "Words and Music" tour, talking about his songs as well as playing them.  And it's strange that now he claims the song wasn't about Terence Stamp and Julie Christie, because I'm sure that's what he said at the time.  It also makes me remember standing, as they did, on Waterloo Bridge at sunset, watching the ducks on the Thames.  I also have a big link with Days, as I love Kirsty MacColl's version and the choir just brings it together beautifully.

And quite apart from anything else, I immediately recognised the cover art as being from William Blake, which made me admire the project all the more.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

Mine had read about The Kinks Choral Collection somewhere recently and came home declaring we had to own it.  Considering we don't own anything by either Ray Davies or The Kinks, I wondered why she was so insistent.  I mean, choral versions of The Kinks classics didn't sound that appealing to me.  Choral versions of anything are the realm of my parents and kind of make me cringe.

But listening to this collection is a pure treat.  Ray is in as fine a voice as he's ever been and the Crouch End Festival Chorus, as choruses go, gives a surprisingly rich and textural backing to Davies' originals.  While a lot of the material is new to me (I've not ever heard any of Ray's solo stuff, at least not intentionally) it all sounds gloriously big yet unexpectedly intimate at the same time.

But it's the familiar tracks that do it for me.  Waterloo Sunset could very well have been written for a choir, such is the strength of this retelling while both You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night benefit hugely from the booming choral arrangement.  But it is Victoria, Ray's classic satirical dig at Victorian times and the decline of the British Empire, comes a full circle and sounds so alive and vibrant, it is almost hard to believe the Empire is dead and gone.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information go to http://www.raydavies.info/

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

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/