28 Days - Upstyledown

YOURZ

Hmm, I don’t think I actually paid money for this – more likely it came to me through my time as a drastically under-paid rock journalist.  I remember liking the singles, Rip It Up and Sucker, but only because 28 Days were one of the first Aussie bands to mix hip hop and rock (at least, as far as I can remember, anyway).

Most of the album, however, is straight up so-cal punk, albeit from Bacchus Marsh, Victoria.  In fact, Jay Dunne’s vocal delivery sounds very like Dexter’s from The Offspring, that kind of shouty, helium-sounding voice accompanied by loud, distorted riffs that might have once got my heart rate up but now more annoy me than anything else.    

While it is consummately played and energetic (to say the least), and apart from the fact I’d forgotten about it, the reason why Upstyledown has sat in our collection for so long being ignored is because I just don’t have the sort of energy required to appreciate it.  And, at the risk of sounding like an old fart, most of this album ends up sounding all the same after a couple of listens.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT




MINE


Seriously, how many CDs do we have that feature men SJHOUTING at me while playing LOUD guitars REALLY FAST?  Can we have one less?  Please?


VERDICT: THROW IT OUT


For more information go to http://www.28-days.com.au/

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/