Part II of Yesterday's Albums.

Afternoon all. Bruce has been and gone (my family all said it was an incredible show) and for the first time in days - for Belfast at least - it's actually a cloudy day. Perhaps there's an element of pathetic fallacy going on there. The clouds (and eventual rain) can't come soon enough because it's unusually and constitently hot for us at the moment. Not only that but it's also very humid. It's very difficult conditions to sleep in - I've had about three in a fortnight.

Anyhow, I know that was a pretty pointless ramble so lets get on with things. Yesterday I listened to two other albums. They were total contrasts too. First of all was C'est Chic by Chic (who else?). I have to say I liked it, even though though one or two of the tracks in the latter half of the album did kill momentum off for me. Having said that some of the tracks that I hadn't heard before I absolutely loved. I mean I already knew Le Freak of course but new favourites I found included Chic Cheer, Savior Faire and Happy Man. I must confess that I did get a little bored and I only got as far as the penultimate track's conclusion. It wasn't that I disliked the album, really I think I just wanted to hear a recently released album - and I've got so many new albums to listen to. The list is just set to grow, too. Anyhow, I will listen to more Chic though!

The album that I swapped C'est Chic for actually was Miles Kane's second album, Don't Forget Who You Are. I did like his debut record, Colour of The Trap, but his sophomore effort I have to say I really liked. In time, I can see myself loving it too. The tracks seemed to pack more of a punch than Colour of The Trap although in saying that it has been a while since I heard his debut. My early favourites are: Don't Forget Who You Are, Better Than That and Darkness In Our Hearts. One or two songs did pass by without leaving much of a mark, but even then they were still listenable. And the rest of the songs ranged from like to love. Definitely an enjoyable album though, I think I'll be adding it to my collection!


That's all for now, rest assured I'll be back very soon with my sound of the week post (advance warning: it's very predictable). Thanks for reading!

Sound of The Week

Early evening everyone. I was working on this earlier but I got delayed thanks to the Wimbledon final. Firstly - congratulations to Andy Murray. I'm a Nadal fan first and foremost and was hoping Djokovic would win. Having said that, Murray was simply better on the day and thus his victory was deserved. I certainly can remember the excitement I felt when Nadal won his first Wimbledon title five years ago now.

Anyhow, this sound of the week post once again comes with two new musical discoveries. Firstly, the discovery thanks to Glastonbury 2013. You always come away wanting to investigate at least one artist, don't you? For me Glastonbury was the introduction to one of my most favorite acts of all - Pet Shop Boys. Forever grateful. Anyway, what we have here is a little bit older: Chic's Good Times. I've been familiar with the names Chic and Nile Rodgers for years. I knew Le Freak and I'd been aware of some of Nile Rodgers work with Duran Duran, Madonna, David Bowie etc. I'd actually briefly toyed with the idea of listening to more Chic too... should have followed that one through really. I heard this when one of the Glastonbury coverage programs played a segment of live footage of it. I loved it and it's made me keen to check out their back catalogue. I'll be sure to post a follow up post once I listen to more of them!

The other sound of the week has surprised me even more in all honesty. It's Atomic by Blondie. This one has surprised me because I did try to get into them a few months ago. It just wasn't working. At all - in fact I had all but given up on getting into them. I loved songs such as Hanging On The Telephone and One Way Or Another but Denis and Heart Of Glass just weren't for me. I had resigned the whole group to that status until I heard Atomic. I must admit it's made me go back and reevaluate Blondie. I've heard two albums at the minute: The Hunter and Eat To The Beat. Both of which I've actually rather liked! They're definitely more varied than I initially gave them credit for I must admit. From what I've heard I definitely think I'm going to like their later material. I could even see myself really liking their most recent effort, Panic of Girls. Definitely going to be an interesting listening experience though!

So that's it for this week. Tomorrow sees the release of New Order's Bestival live set so I will definitely be ordering that. I'm still waiting the delivery of Jessie Ware's album through my doorstep too. It's due this week I think so if it's not here I'll definitely email the seller. Expect to hear more from me before then though!