Thursday, May 02, 2013

Four Record Reviews

Jonathan Richman I'm So Confused (1998)
Miles Davis Miles in the Sky (1968)
Murmansk [untitled] (????)
v/a Grass, Food & Lodging (2012)

These are some records my friend Mr W--- was unloading. Or maybe they are CD-Rs. It is so hard to remember. The Miles Davis one is enjoyable enough in a "Jazz - what's not to like?" kind of way, but may not be the greatest album he ever recorded. The Murmansk record I have not listened to for ages but I remember it being an enjoyable slice of down tempo ambient electronica, so much so that I have added it to my sleepy snoozey bedtime iPod playlist. The Jonathan Richman record is probably the winner of the single artist albums, a live sounding collection of lovelorn tunes that I need to listen to more. It comes from a period when I probably was seeing Richman live reasonably often, so I may even have heard these songs live.

Grass, Food & Lodging is a compilation Mr W--- made himself. Well done Mr W---. Readers may be surprised to hear that it has a bit of a drøggy theme. I like it. The two tracks that most stick in my mind are 'It is so nice to get stoned' by Ted Lucas, in which Mr Lucas affirms how nice it is to get stoned, and a wonderfully atmospheric and strung out rendition of 'Sister Morphine' by Eileen Warshaw (though it is a long time since I heard the Marianne Faithful version so maybe if this were put next to that it would not sound quite so good?).

You can hear an excerpt from that version of 'Sister Morphine' here, and possibly even buy a compilation album on which it appears.

Sister Panda

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