Such a mixed bag, this. The first two tracks could go down as the worst 7 minutes 27 seconds in recorded history, but I can't say for sure as I didn't get more than 30 seconds into either one. Then there's a Crowded House song. The advantage of Crowded House songs is that they don't make your skin crawl until about the third listen, and I haven't reached that watershed on this one yet.
Then there's a run of good stuff. Not the best I've heard from Tinariwen, admittedly, and I've never fallen for Laura Veirs, but she's OK. You can't often go wrong with Martin Carthy, but a collaboration with Paul Weller singing John Barleycorn? In seeking to appeal to both traditionalists and modernists it probably alienates both a bit, particularly because it ends up going on too long.
I'm very grateful to The Word (who, I'm assuming you know by now, compile all the Now Hear This CDs) for alerting me to Nick Lowe's recent work, which is consistently high class.
Segueing from Lowe to Amiina is a bit of a whiplash, but the track is OK. Then Cherry Ghost and Maps have me reaching for the skip button again.
Carla Bruni's music is better than it has any right to be. I read somewhere that Clive James (no mean songwriter himself) was predisposed to write her off, but when he listened he found himself wanting to marry her. Some short guy got there first. Actually I can forgive her Sarkozy, but Clapton and Jagger?
The remainder of the CD fades out in a wash of blandness. A coherent listen, it's not. If this really were the best of 2007, we'd be in a pretty pickle.
Discogs entry for this album
Wikipedia entry for this album
Rate Your Music entry for this album
Comments