Conortje and Music

Continuing the theme of honesty I know of no other artist that is quite as honest as Sinead O’Connor. It is what I admire most about her. Well that and her incredible voice. Combined you have probably the best artist Ireland has ever produced.
She has had to put up with an incredible about of aggression from the media and public alike because of this. Because she says what she thinks and doesn’t care. This is somewhat strange in that she isn’t and has never been a pop star. The media however seem desperate for her to be just that. This is why they are delighted every time she opens her mouth because chances are you won’t be hearing some santised syrup that pop stars spew to ensure a happy audience. Far from it, Sinead like anyone of interest has opinions and when asked she’ll happily tell you them. However she is also not afraid to change her mind and say so proudly. Likewise she will freely apologise should she think she was wrong. On top of this she is capable of self-criticism which is very important for the sane mind. All this and more are to be found in this lady’s lyrics and if you listen and hear what she is saying it is astounding. And refreshing and oh so seldom found in singers today. People are often frightened of strong women who dare to speak their mind. They are punished by being mocked or made to seem crazy.

They laugh cause they know they’re untouchable not because what I said was wrong

I feel I can identify with some of the problems Sinead faces.  I am a very passionate person and will easily find myself in heated debates because I care about many different things and if I have an opinion I will not sit on the fence to avoid the issue. This is never easy to do and I admire anyone who has beliefs and expresses them. It is not the easy option and it takes a lot of energy. It will often leave you feeling bettered and bruised too. I can’t imagine how someone could do this in the public eye and remain healthy.

But back to the song. The lyrics here are about as personal as they come. In that aspect it reminds me of Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes album. It was released in 1990 but the text is as apt today. For me it is the quintessential Sinead song. I have always loved how she can sound so vulnerable and sweet when she sings so softly, almost in a whisper and then she can change completely and sing which such passion and power that never fails to effect me. This is one one the louder rockier tracks and I love it for that.

For me an artist is someone who tries to make sense of the world around them in their own way. They do not conform and they dare to be different. Sinead does that in spades and I admire her incredibly for it. God bless her

Whatever it may bring
I will live by my own policies
I will sleep with a clear conscience
I will sleep in peace

The Emperors New Clothes

Buy the album here for next to nothing!

Aimee Mann - @#%&*! Smilers

Mojo deemed this album an instant classic and it’s not hard to see why really. It’s classic Aimee. Nothing new whatsoever, just straight out gloriously simple Aimee tunes. The very best of tunes. Whereas her last couple of albums have had three or so excellent tracks among fillers this is pretty much a constantly great album. What a wonderful relief that is.

It also has one of the most apt songs I’ll ever hear. Apt for a particular time in my life - I’m referring to 31 today which I first heard two weeks before I hit the same number. It was like she had written it for me, and while I might not be quite as miserable as the lady in the song the sentiments aren’t a million miles from home either. But that is the theme of this album - people who aren’t having the best time of their lives for one reason or other.

Her songs here continue her strengths in song writing - clever lyrics and strong Beatles-influenced melodies - always a delicious mix - especially when bound by Aimee’s distinctive voice. Mojo weren’t wrong, one of the strongest albums of the year so far.

31 Today - Aimee Mann

Buy the Album here

Simon and Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy in New York

Like the ancient mariner I am continuing an endless voyage of harping on to strangers and friends alike about how underrated Paul Simon is. He has to be one of the very greatest songwriters of our time. And in my opinion the very best of all his songs is this one.

Despite its lushness and grandness it is incredibly intimate. It’s a love song for a friend. He wrote it about Art Garfunkel who was heading off at the time to make a movie in Mexico. He refers to him as Tom which is a reference to their early days together when they were called Tom and Jerry. His words being a show of support, a sort of a you’ll be fine, don’t worry.

The line ‘Let your honesty shine, like it shines on me’ still brings tears to me eyes. Love between friends is rarely explored in songs and the idea of admiring someone’s honesty almost never. The idea of honesty in lyrics is incredibly appealing to me. Likewise the ideas of innocence or decency. It is such a difficult thing to describe and write about yet something so lovable in a person. It is cutting everything else out of the equation and looking right into the soul - and when you really think of that and focus on it’s meaning, it can be quite breathtaking.

While this track is sentimental it is so in wholly pure way and fortunately doesn’t suffer from some of the sickly sweet production of some other Simon and Garfunkel tracks. I have no doubt it will remain a favourite of mine until the day I die.

Incidentally honesty features greatly in my next choice too. It must be in the air

The Only Living Boy in New York

How is it that Carol Keogh, one of the very best singers in Ireland, has remained almost completely unknown? It has always baffled me that she has never ‘made it big’. I fell head over heels with her instantly when I first heard her voice on The Plague Monkeys by The Plague Monkeys. The Plague Monkeys were a sublime group who made deliciously fragile music. Their debut album remains on high rotation in Conorland, even after all these years. I had the incredible privilege of seeing them play live on my very last night living in Galway in 1998 (Just before fleeing to Windmill land). Carol’s voice is in a league of its own. It’s distinctive and sweet but laced with something that reaches down much much deeper. She can do playful and mourning, often simultaneously. I adore many many songs on which she sings but for now, in this series (I will do it more often I promise) I have chosen one of my all time favourites. Here she sings with Autamata - another woefully underrated Irish group.
Every single moment of this song is perfect. The point when Carol breaks into Japanese singing is the highlight for me. I still sigh when I hear it - it is simply breathtaking. It really and truly doesn’t get much better for me.

As a bonus I am including the song that first introduced me to Carol. I have about ten favourite Plague Monkeys tracks so I have a feeling I’ll be talking about them again.

Out of This - Autamata

The Plague Monkeys - The Plague Monkeys

Sara and Tegan - The Con

This is a perfect Conortje album. One I liked upon first listen and one that I can’t stop listening to ever since. It just gets better and better with each play. The Con has the perfect blend of quirky, rocky, funky, dirty and poppy. If I had ordered a sound to make me happy this is what would have come out. In fact I would go as far as saying it’s one of the best albums I have heard in years.  With The Con they’ve mastered the perfect packet. The production is 100% perfect - not a beat too much or a harmony too little. It’s a total joy to listen to something this good.

If I was pushed to describe them I’d say they were like a rockier CocoRosie and yet much more melodic and consistent that those particular siblings. What these two groups share (apart from both being a set of sisters) is a slightly bonkers element of fun.

But at the end of the day it just comes down to good songs and The Con is bursting with them. Relief Next To me, Are you Ten Years Ago, Back in your Head and Like O like H being my current favs.

You can buy the album here. Hurry, hurry!

I read a lot of reviews in music magazines and on-line. Easily hundreds every month. Very often I will find myself disagreeing with some of them. This is perfectly normal of course. Occasionally I will really have a problem with what I am reading. Usually that’s because I believe the author has totally missed the point or has been listening with ‘closed’ ears. Today however I read one of BellX1’s Flock that had me so worked up I was actually inspired to write back. Totally pointless I know, but I wrote  it for my own piece of mind and to defend one of the good guys. The world is clogged with negativity and bitterness. I just wanted to dilute the opcean of spite with my tiny drop.

 Here is the link to the review and underneath my e mail to Pitchfork.

Dear Sir/Madam,I rarely feel the need to comment on a review as I realise that, at the end of the day, reviews are just personal opinions and therefore there is no right or wrong. Having said that, one would expect, at the very least, some degree of fairness in a journalist’s review. This is why I was filled with disbelief and disappointment upon reading Ian Cohen’s scathing review of BellX1’s Flock. His review almost amounts to vitriol and goes totally beyond respectable journalism. In fact his writing is clearly spiteful, using such phrases such as ‘Rice’s decaf froth’, ‘fucking mp3′, ‘this shit’ or ‘like getting pelted with a mousepad’. I can totally understand somebody not liking this music but surely this is a very poor standard of writing. There are many ways of assessing music without resorting to being offensive. It is also my experience that very very few albums are realistically so bad that they would deserve such a vicious attack.

 R.E.M.  - Accelerate

‘Music will provide the light you cannot resist’ sings Michael Stipe on the final track of this album. And how right he is. This is an irresistible album and R.E.M. are shining a lot more than 40 watts.

I sighed audibly with relief when I played Accelerate for the first time. I was sick to the back teeth of hearing the familiar chorus from the media of ‘return to form’ and ‘back to the glory days’. I haven’t read as much rubbish in music magazines for such a long time. They like the fact they have an angle - a reason to herald our Athens heroes again. What they fail to see is that there have always consistently been reasons.

Apart from relief I also had an immense feeling of satisfaction that had nothing to do with Accelerate but rather the previous few albums which music journalists seem to be scrambling over each other to dismiss. On hearing the urgent sounds of Accelerate I thought to myself how wonderful that REM let themselves evolve as a band enough to make All the way to Reno, Leave, E-Bow the Letter (incidentally my favourite REM track), Electron Blue, Worst Joke Ever and countless other quality tracks. Songs that they never would have made had they followed a linear line of development.  Thank God they did exactly what they did I say. Don’t listen to the crap that journalists spew, REM have been just fine as they’ve been - not everyone gets that REM have never been a please-all band. They just accidentally stumbled into a few years of heightened popularity that’s all. That confuses people who like things to be explained easily.

And now they’ve evolved along their path to Accelerate. Its urgency is delicious. I grinned like a fool before I knew the tracks well enough to sing along. Over recent years REM have excelled as a live band and this album reflects that much more than any of their others. They sound like they’re putting new life into songs they’ve known for years. Ironic as they spent such a short time recording it. I had already experienced this energy when I saw them in the Olympia in Dublin last summer. Even though I knew slightly what to expect I was still pleasantly surprised. I was more than pleased, I was excited. REM sound better than ever - and that’s saying something! They are certainly rocking out - and in a wholly organic and natural sounding way. The overall sound is refreshingly frantic - crisply rock I would even venture to say. Jacknife Lee has really done a fine job here. REM are not going to go till they’re good and ready and should you doubt that in any way just lend your ears to Accelerate.

I was truly devastated to hear the news that one of my favourite bands The Chalets have called it a day. Even more upsetting was to hear that the reasons were largely financial.

“We had brilliant fun during the six years The Chalets were together, but being on a small independent label made it tough financially. The tour we did with Kaiser Chiefs, for instance, was great but paid for by my maxed out credit card. As a result, I had to move back in with my parents which isn’t really what you want to be doing when you’re the wrong side of 30, and we all got proper 9-to-5s. We cleared our debts and thought, ‘Hang on, this getting paid every week lark is quite good.’ -  Dylan Roche

The Chalets were something incredibly unique - especially for Ireland. I always describe them as a cross between the B-52’s and Pixies which in my book is just what the world needs. They were uniquely fun and extremely talented. Their one album Check In remains a favourite in Conorland. It really is sad that I will never have the opportunity to check them out live again. They were spectacular in concert - I had the widest smile on my face during their entire set.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed though that this isn’t the end. Maybe if I win the lotto I can fund them… In the meantime have a listen to why I think they were fabulous. Turn it up and then drown your sorrows that they are no more (and then go buy the album if you haven’t already).

The Chalets - No Style

In my opinion Mary Coughlan is one the finest singers Ireland has ever produced. She is someone who has to be heard live though in order to truly appreciate what it is that makes her so special. Somehow it never comes across totally when recorded. Her unique, rich, smouldering voice can send shivers down my spin, make me laugh and often stun me into silence. She now has such a wonderful back catalogue that I could happily listen for hours and hours and not get bored - be it My Land is too Green, Billie Holiday songs or Delaney’s Gone Back on the Wine - and the countless  stream of perfect songs in between. My favourite however, at least today, is this song written by Elvis Costello. This song is made for Mary and perhaps the other way round too. Every second is flawless. The atmosphere built is breathtaking and her voice sounds like midnight blue itself. It also features the below lines which are among my favorite from any song, ever!

You say your tongue is tied, the words escape and hide

but he’s so patient and kind, he’s prepared to read your mind

That’s all very well till you find, because of the wine you drank

your mind is still a blank

Mary Coughlan - Upn a Veil of Midnight Blue

Check out Mary’s delights here