Stocki's Musical Review of 2001
ALL THINGS MUST PASS
2001 began with George Harrison and ended with him too. In January he re-released a remastered version of All Things Must Pass that instilled a yearning for all his back catalogue to have the same make over especially Living In The Material World, 33&1/3 and 1979’s eponymous, George Harrison. There is little doubt that it made George’s passing in November a little more poignant, not that a Beatle dying is ever going to be anything but front-page mourning; and so it should be. I was quickly on the telephone to friends in London and Liverpool to get the evening paper tributes from the Evening Standard and the Echo respectively.
All Things Must Pass set my year off on a Beatles bent and I have ended the year listening to nothing else, buying even Ringo solo albums and reading Keith Badman’s book The Dream is Over; Off The Record 2. In the late seventies and early eighties I read all there was to read on the Fab Four but haven’t read much since. I have found Badman’s book a wonderful exercise in just simply getting some chronological cross-referencing of the solo careers. That Band On The Run was just before Ringo and Mind Games, that the latter two albums entered the charts the same week. The book is 550 pages of quotes from band members and a few reviews and magazine articles thrown in. It takes you on the journey from the break up in 1970 through to McCartney’s engagement to Heather Mills in July 2001. In being quotes from the time (mainly) there is not so much retrospective brush overs or hindsightful gymnastics which for me makes it closer to the truth of the history than a book of Lennon’s looking back interviews of 1980. Badman is thorough, comprehensive and enlightening. Maybe the best Beatles book I’ve ever read!
OTHER BEATLES
George was not the only one of the Beatles to give us retrospective releases in 2001. As well as the remastering of John and Yoko’s Milk and Honey, Paul brought out a double CD of his hits and history both as a solo artist and with Wings that covered his work from 1970 to 1983. It may be that it helped that I hadn’t taken Paul’s back catalogue too seriously in recent years but to hear this collection of 40 of his best all in a row reminded me of the man’s ability with a melody. That this collection ended before the career low of Press To Play may have been another advantage but you cannot knock a man who wrote Maybe I’m Amazed, Waterfalls, Every Night, Live and Let Die, Hi Hi Hi and My Love to name but six. McCartney maybe did not have the venom or breadth of subject matter that was his old partner Lennon’s canvas but it is somewhat unfair to dismiss him as no competition to John’s output considering that he himself made a couple of sub par albums and only really got it absolutely right once on his undoubted classic Imagine.
Following up his very best of with his first set of new material in four years could have been a bad move but when McCartney released Driving Rain in the autumn he need not have worried about such comparisons. Since his last album Flaming Pie McCartney had lost his beloved Linda and found new love with Heather Mills. Both loves and their interconnection of loss, healing and the kindling of brand new romance was the subject matter but maybe the sense of Macca being a single courting man again gives Driving Rain a youthful energy and edginess missing from his work in recent years. The stark bass intro gives indicators to the new sonic sounds of McCartney the bachelor. There’s a modern sparse live groove to Spinning On An Axis and She’s Given Up Talking could be the classroom where McCartney as the teacher has taught Elliot Smith about melody but the pupil tells the teacher how to dress it up. From Lover To A Friend is a ballad to rate with My Love and Waterfalls, Back In The Sunshine is as good as McCartney gets set off by Gabe Dixon’s finger dancing piano, Riding Into Jaipur is so George Harrison that one wonders did Paul want to pay tribute before the obituaries and Freedom the song for the American heroes of September 11th can be forgiven in that it was written as a sing along.
U2
But enough of my end of year obsession what were the musical highlights of 2001. Without doubt it was the year of the U2 revival, small R when it comes the band but sometimes a capital R when it comes to what they were doing spiritually on their Elevation Tour. This time last year I was writing a book on these Dublin boys and they had been the biggest band in the world and their Christian faith made them publishing worthy. By the time I had finished the book and it was published in early November they were the biggest band on the planet having mesmerised audiences and fellow musicians across the entire world as they put together a live spectacular that had even the band’s unbelieving bass player speaking of transcendent presence on stage and in the audience. Lead singer Bono had experienced more than the rise back to the zenith of their chosen career, he had watched the birth of his fourth child John Abraham and then watched the lingering death of his father as he flew from the stages of Europe to spend the nights beside him in his hospital bed. Just hours after the funeral he was joined in a wake like Ireland had never seen before as 80,000 descended on Slane Castle in County Meath for Ireland’s live event of the year. U2’s homecoming had more emotion than ever imagined. Within days of this emotion came September 11th, in the shadow of which U2 became rock priests and pastors seen no more clearly than in their contribution to the Telethon in aid of the New York heroes when Peace On Earth was segued into Walk On and the mourning was touched by an ending of hallelujahs.
THE FRAMES
Having written a book on U2 I have tried to explain to interviewers and many others that I would see myself as more of an admirer of U2 than a fan, although 2001 was the year when the fan thing returned for sure. Other highlights of the year showed why U2 are not my favourite band. The Frames live at The Limelight in November was simply the most sumptuous live happening of many a fine year though I admit I did not savour the Elevation Tour. John Lennon once said that he didn’t like concerts, that he preferred the albums. He concluded that you don’t watch painters paint, just enjoy their masterpieces. Lennon sadly passed away too soon to see Glen Hansard who is simply Bono’s peer in stage presence though a whole lot more the boy next door. This is a painter you want to see paint especially when his masterpiece this year was gentle, and beautiful like a pastoral scene while live he was like inner city mayhem, rushing over to touch the coat of heavy rock before running back into the bestest of pop songs. The band’s album For The Birds was gladly their most successful to date, following David Gray’s lesson of getting dropped from the label and DIY being a whole lot better artistically and commercially. Let us hope that it moves out of Ireland and conquers the world as Gray has done.
RYAN ADAMS
The Frames have few competitors for album of the year but one is the man who has dominated my end of year charts for the last two years. Ryan Adams is simply the most prolific artist as a young man since the early Dylan or Springsteen. Last year it was Heartbreaker and the year before it was his band Whiskeytown’s, Strangers Almanac. This year we got a posthumous Whiskeytown release Pneumonia, an album where alternative country’s pedal steel met the most luscious of Beatleslike pop melodies as well as the follow up to Heartbreaker, Gold. Gold has been the one to push Adams into mainstream success. Sixteen new tracks more electric and eclectic than Heartbreaker, the early pressings came with an extra CD known as Side 4 with five more blistering songs. That at least another twenty were being downloaded on Napster that would have made yet another breathtaking album and that he is talking about another double album for early 2002 and we are dealing with one ginormous talent. Indeed there is a fear that this young man is such a genius that rock n roll fate may take him away from us in a Gram Parsonslike way. His tousled hair and fraying denims are symbolic of his shambolic heart and soul. His band can be loose too, but loose in the most fantastic of ways – most nights! On Gold we rock to New York New York on which the video for the single had Adams frolicking around with the Manhattan skyline behind him just two days before it was changed forever and then we are weeping to the most gorgeous of ballads When Stars Go Blue. Maybe it won’t be long until people are saying “are you sure you don’t mean Ryan instead of Bryan!”
GOOD FRIENDS
So what else? Well, my good friend Juliet Turner signed an international deal with East West, took a front-page slot on The Irish Times Weekend magazine and ended the year gracing the stage of Dublin’s Point Depot twice! Bangor songwriter Iain Archer was spotted playing guitar for her and in some ways as Turner sets out to write and make the record that will make or break her world wide, Archer’s presence could be very crucial indeed. If I was her manager I would nurture that musical relationship. That is if Archer can find the time. Having spent a lot of the year playing guitar with Snow Patrol, whose When It’s All Over We Still Have To Clean Up should have broken them to higher things, including an extensive tour with the mighty Ash, Archer ends the year with numerous record labels in hot pursuit and ten years after I said, “If he is not huge I’ll be the Archbishop of Canterbury,” my need to convert to Anglicanism may become very unnecessary! His independently produced EP For What Feels Like Forever sets him up, without doubt, as the one most likely to in 2002.
Along with The Amazing Pilots whom he has interestingly been touring with in recent years. The north coast of Antrim boys now relocated to the south coast of England have landed a deal with the prestigious Easy Tiger home of Howie Beck who made a quietly beautiful album in 2001. The Pilots should have an album out soon and may take no time at all to become the torchbearers of the British No Depression scene. They were also to be given the credit for east Belfast’s Brian Houston’s most fulfilling album to date. With the band used as critiquers of the songs and the players behind the final first 11 that made Mea Culpa just that little bit more solid than his previous albums. Worth searching out.
Other more long term tips to follow the likes of Houston, Archer and Turner out of the wee north would have to be David McNair who released a three track EP produced by the much mentioned Archer. Still discovering his own vast ability and yet to develop his own niche sound, McNair is writing better songs at his age than Archer did. Belfast students, Edgeweather garnered a rave live review from me this year. Slow to commit their youthful potential to recorded tape is a mark of this band’s confidence and maturity. Live they are keeping everything tight and superbly played, piling in heaps of passionate hunger as they adventure towards a big, big sound that they can call their own.
Oh aye and let us not forget Benzene Headset the new moniker for Booley who indeed had become a whole new entity as Dave, Ian and Jonny added their own musical personas to Peter Wilsons. Their Garcon Pamplemousse is a worthy successor to one of my long time favourites Bathroom Floor.
Susan Enan too hinted on a live session on my radio show that her song writing continues to be honed and there should be something a little bit special from her next year. Speaking of my radio show sessions, Julie Lee might be another name to watch out for in 2002. Back home in Nashville she has been supporting Alison Krauss at the Ryman Theatre and it can only be a matter of time ‘til her songs like those she wrote in her year with us in Belfast become better known. Surely my show of 2001 was when she and Houston and McNair did a songwriter circle for my 5th anniversary. Pierce Pettis brought out his most representative album of his none too considerable talents to date. Very southern states of America. Very poetic. Very stripped back. Very, very good!
Of my other American friends there were great albums by Sarah Masen and Vigilantes Of Love. Sadly both proved that it takes more than artistic ability to make it in music. If you have second-rate marketers in record companies that seem to care more about money than art and soul then gems like Dreamlife Of Angels and Summershine can sit in Warehouses when there is a huge audience looking for this kind of depth. Masen’s Dreamlife was as always literary but had seen a coming of age in her musical daring and subject matter. Her live performances with Brian and Sherry Reed from the Evinrudes suggested even more daring in days to come. The Vigilantes played a near perfect gig at Belfast’s Errigle Inn, just for my 40th Birthday, and the new songs with their sixties feel, oohs and aahs and all, sounded as tasty as anything they’ve ever done. Mallonnee’s Rickenbacker was precision personified and so much better than the muddy mix that they got at Greenbelt. Oh for a label to take these boys into workable sales figures. Then again even Wilco got themselves dropped this year so what hope…
And the pick of the rest. Well Leonard Cohen’s Ten New Songs was as well arranged and accessible as anything he has ever done and that voice is just second to none. Dylan thankfully took his hottest band in years, led by Charlie Sexton who also produced Lucinda Williams, into the studio and came up with a historical mix of American music steeped in blues and 40’s croon as well as the Dylanesque Mississippi! The Pernice Brothers continue to colour way outside the lines of their Americana roots in Scud Mountain Boys. The World Won’t End could be The Beach Boys for the Third Millennium. Another tip would be the Scud Mountain Boys compilation. Anything Joe Pernice touches is worth buying whatever the genre. Dublin’s David Kitt fulfilled all the promise of his bedroom recorded Small Moments by making his first studio album sound like it was done in his bedroom! I asked my musical guru: “A forty year old goes into a record shop. What does a twenty five year old advise him to buy?” Ewan Gibson I lift my hat. I should kiss you. Kitt’s Big Romance is for those wee hours in solitude. Scrumptious!
GODRICH, TRAVIS AND RADIOHEAD
Travis made producer Nigel Godrich more like godlike in his omnipresence and omniscience. Having produced Divine Comedy and, of course, Radiohead he took on another sound altogether and gave it his usual depth of riches. He has become the UK version of Daniel Lanois, taking on a wide range of acts and giving everything he touches his stamp without losing the artist’s individuality. Indeed after reading that last line I need to say that he succeeds where sometimes Lanois fails! Travis’s Invisible Band was the fullest album of radio friendly hits I’ve heard since All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Mind you Ash were not far behind with Free All Angels, the album that put them back to the top of the charts after a bit of a tumble. I loved how that album made me feel young again but I still have reservations over Wheeler’s voice cutting it live.
Godrich’s more regular gig, Radiohead; well that is another story. I have to say that I just do not get it. Amnesiac didn’t recapture my attention and their live album at year’s end might have had some spiritual ambiance about it in some kind of strange way but, though I am glad I heard it, I do not see it being a regular on my CD player in the months to come nor on anybody else’s in ten years time. They have to be given ten out of ten for following their convictions into this particular pool of avant garde inspiration but watching them live on Jools Holland and seeing a talented guitarist pushing plugs into walls just seemed senseless and wasteful to me. Maybe next time.
WATERBOYS, SPRINGSTEEN AND MARTYN JOSEPH
So who challenges Ryan Adams, George Harrison and The Frames for top spot. Well that Waterboys album that we’ve waited on for nigh on 15 years finally came and didn’t disappoint. More focused than even the Fisherman’s Blues album from which the songs were out takes it may have been album of the year back then but just a little bit dated for now. Bruce Springsteen’s Live In New York City was a double album that failed by being a little bombastic and dated too. Having said that it included 41 Shots as sharp a political comment as Bruce has ever uttered and Land Of Hope and Dreams a song to herald in the coming Kingdom if ever there was one. This song summed up 2001’s Greenbelt festival for me especially my Welsh mate Martyn Joseph’s version of it to end a seminar that he, I and Guernsey’s Paul Chambers gave on Springsteen’s spiritual questing. It was simply hair standing on neck stuff. This and hearing Bruce’s song for September 11th, the prayer My City In Ruins makes one wonder where Springsteen is in that questing.
As an aside Martyn brought out a fab live album Don’t Talk About Love most of which highlights his telepathic stage relationship with Nigel Hopkins. Tender new versions of all the classic Joseph – songs of love and home and kingdom’s needing torn down and kingdom’s needing to come.
LUCINDA WILLIAMS AND UNAMERICAN
Lucinda Williams’ Essence was sublime. I had been disappointed with Wheels On A Gravel Road that had brought her all the acclaim and felt that this one surpassed it in it’s cocktail of emotions, hope of healing and redemption. The last track Broken Butterfly was as yearning and pretty as any other song of this or any other year. The female Ryan Adams, unquestionably.
Finally, but far from least was Unamerican. This one appeared out of the blue to me, though once I bought it I have known its history for well over 10 years. Steve McEwen was a young Greenbelt acoustic songwriter just arrived from South Africa in 1991. From his own Mother Redcap he joined World Party but left again for his big record deal which fell flat and sent him off to play session to Robbie Williams before this. The eponymous debut album of his new band rocks. It has energy, lots of passion for living and an uplifting feeling that few artists can do and get away with to such success. Again I fear that it might not have the record company ability of its songwriter but if it does they will be huge.
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