Kosheen - Resist

MINE

Oh this is a Forgotten Gem for me... why haven't I been putting this on my workout list?  It's just the sort of music I love to insipre me for one more minute on the elliptical machine.  Vaguely reminding me of Moloko and Portishead - but faster - this album is chock full of great songs.  Demonstrate, Catch U, Suicide - all pearls. 

I'll have to say I love this primarily because of the gorgeous voice of Sian Evans, who also doesn't suck as a songwriter.  Classified as trip-hop, I'd call them darker dance-pop.  And magnificent.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

Another of those albums added to our collection through the recommendation of a friend who worked in a record shop.  Thankfully, he got this one right as Resist is a great example of the genre.

While not necessarily my cup of tea (peppermint, if you please), it is the sort of music perfect for cruisy summer balcony parties while soaking up the last of the sun, just before the night (and whatever else) comes on.  You know what I mean...

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

For more information: http://www.kosheen.com/home/

Cowboy Junkies - The Caution Horses

MINE

Why is it, after listening to the Cowboy Junkies, that I just get KD Lang in my head?  There's certainly some similarities between Margo Timmins' voice and KD's, and I guess the soft alt-coutnry stylings of the Junkies are pretty close to Ms Lang's catalogue.  Or is it because they're all Canadians?  No, that can't be right, otherwise we'd own some albums from a certain pointy-headed screecher whose name I can't even be forced to place on this blog.

Generally the Cowboy Junkies are more bitter than sweet, unlike KD.  For example, the song that I bought this album for - 'Cause Cheap is How I Feel -  is a great Christmas song with no happy or jolly about it.  It mentions looking for a present - For something small and frail and plastic, baby/ 'Cause cheap is how I feel

There's also a cover of Neil Young's Powderfinger - but to my shame I have to say I'm really unfamiliar with the original.  Altogether I think this is another album to pull out when the cranky pants are making me frown, and it helps to really listen to the lyrics, as they're often interesting and never ordinary.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

The Cowboy Junkies are a band who've essentially passed me by.  I haven't even heard the lauded album, The Trinity Session, which is, apparently, a marvel of recording and engineering.  But I wouldn't know. 

So the anticipation of listening to The Caution Horses was fairly high for me as I thought it was going to be a bit of treat.  I'd been led to believe the Junkies were somewhat like Mazzy Starr, a band I used to have a lot of time for and which provided a nice change for the usual loud rock guitar music I liked.  But the reality is quite different.

This band doesn't sound at all like Mazzy Starr.  In fact, it sounds like a ballady country band.  Oh sure, they do it all well, and Margo's voice is lovely and shares a similarity to Beth Gibbons (from Portishead), the songs are just a little bit too country for my liking.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

For further information go to: http://latentrecordings.com/cowboyjunkies/

Portishead - Portishead

MINE

Oooh ... Portishead ... long afternoons with nothing to do but read.  Early mornings after loud nights out with intense chat and soul-searching the order of the day. Dummy was the soundtrack to some seriously good nights in and Portishead only more so.  That sound, that deep, trippy, grungy sound with Beth Gibbons' vocals trailing above like an angel with a serious migraine (YourZ sez: couldn't have said it better myself).  You know what I mean, she's sounding beautiful but only a short way away from turning on you and ripping your eyes out.

Why has it been so long since this got a spin on the CD player?  Because if pushed I'd probably automatically put on Dummy when reaching for one of their albums.  And I'd seriously forgotten how good, and how James Bond-y, All Mine is.  The creators of the new Bond franchise would do well to look at it for a future soundtrack.  Preferably one involving closeups of Daniel Craig's near-nude body.  Actually I've made a little collection of cool Bond-y type tunes.  The Propellerheads' On Her Majesty's Secret Service and OST's The Spy Who Dubbed Me also inclusion.  You listening, Sam Mendes?  Oh sorry, you don't even know if you're going to get to do this movie.  Here's hoping MGM gets its act together somehow.

But I digress.  Daniel Craig will do that to a girl.  Um, so this album is truly gorgeous, worthy of being in anyone's collection, and why don't we have Third?  Hmmmmm????

VERDICT:TURN IT UP

YOURZ

Portishead evoke such a mood with their music, it often reminds me of movies not yet made; sad, slow and beautiful stories of lost lovers, ghosts of better days and loss of innocence.  Their spare arrangements and use of repetitious rhythms and scratches literally defined trip hop.

After the release of Dummy and the attention it brought them, they retreated, regrouped and came back three years later with this genre-breaking self-titled second album.  It's a darkly-dressed production, rife with eerie theramins and spooky sounds that could very well have made listeners uncomfortable if it wasn't for the inherent beauty of Beth Gibbons' vocals.

It's been quite some time since I listened to Portishead and, like Mine, I found myself wondering why I hadn't heard this for so long.  It is the sort of 'coming-down' music I enjoy so much.  For that reason alone, I'm going to call it my first Forgotten Gem for April.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP




For more information go to http://www.portishead.co.uk/

In our collection we also have Dummy