Top 20 Rockumentaries

 

I am a sucker for a rockumentary. In fact, my idea of good comfort TV is a rockumentary or a programme about art or an artist. I am fascinated by other people's creative process. I find it really inspiring. I don't even have to like the band - a good rockumentary is compulsive viewing whether you like the music or not. Here are my top 20 rockumentaries - in no particular order. I would highly recommend all of these. (If you have a rockumentary you highly recommend do comment below.)

1) Meeting People is Easy. (A film by Grant Gee about Radiohead)

2) Talihina Sky. The Story of the Kings of Leon.

3) Joe Strummer The Future is Unwritten 

4) Long Train Running - The Tragically Hip

5) Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

6) One More Time With Feeling (Nick Cave)

7) 20,000 Days On Earth (Nick Cave)

8) Dig! (Dandy Warhols/Brian Jonestown Massacre)

9) The White Stripe Under Great Whit Norther Lights

10) loudQUIETloud: A film about the Pixies

11) Beware of Mr. Baker (Ginger Baker)

12) CSNY/Deja Vu 

13) Pearl Jam Twenty

14) Glastonbury

15) Heima (Sigur Ros)

16) Big Easy Express (Mumford and Sons/Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros/Old Crow Medicine Show)

17) Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (David Bowie)

18) Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

19) If I Leave Here Tomorrow: a film about Lynyrd Skynyrd

20) Red Hot Chili Peppers: Funky Monks

Minimalism Project - Free All Angels by Ash

A couple of years ago I started attempting to review all the albums that I owned. I got about four or five in and lost momentum. This year I intend to listen to every CD I own - and if I don't love it I will get rid of it. (read more about my minimalism project here) I am going to do mini reviews of the albums as I go.


Free All Angels - Ash (2001)

This is an album I bought three or four years ago in a sale and for some reason it never even made it out of its cellophane wrapper. Ash very much evoke the early 2000's for me - they have a very particular pop-punkish style that is very much of that time. Ash remind me a of quite a few other - some of their tracks are definitely almost pop-punk but others are more influenced by bands like The Happy Mondays and Oasis. I am surprised at just how many tracks are familiar - my top track, and probably their best known from this album, is Shining Light. Ash was one of those bands that were featured quite a lot on the soundtrack of Teachers - a TV programme that was really popular in the early 2000's and listening to this CD really made me want to rewatch it. Maybe it will be revived on Netflix eventually.

I thought this was a CD that was headed straight for the go pile but am finding it surprisingly enjoyable. Apparently this was in Q magazines top fifty albums of 2001. A keeper for now.

Minimalism Project - Hello Love by The Be Good Tanyas

A couple of years ago I started attempting to review all the albums that I owned. I got about four or five in and lost momentum. This year I intend to listen to every CD I own - and if I don't love it I will get rid of it. (read more about my minimalism project here) I am going to do mini reviews of the albums as I go.

Hello Love by The Be Good Tanyas (2006)

I was introduced to The Be Good Tanyas and Frazey Ford by the sister of my ex partner. Frazey has a unique singing style which is not everyone's cup of tea, but I really like it. She almost slurs her words at times and it is sometimes hard to make out the lyrics. This could be in part due to her accent but might also be a country/folk style choice.

Probably the most famous track on this album is A Thousand Tiny Pieces but there are a host of great songs on here - including a rather lovely folky cover of Prince's When Doves Cry. I was interested to read on Wikipedia that members of The Old Crow Medicine show are guest players on the album. I have been a fan of Old Crow saw the film Big Easy Express.

This album was a bargain - I picked it up for a pound in a charity shop recently. A pound well spent. Definitely a keeper.

The minimalism Project - The Unknown Soldier by Roy Harper

A couple of years ago I started attempting to review all the albums that I owned. I got about four or five in and lost momentum. Now I am proposing a different approach. This year I intend to listen to every CD I own - and if I don't love it I will get rid of it. (read more about my minimalism project here) I am going to do mini reviews of the albums as I go.


The Unknown Soldier by Roy Harper (1980)


I knew this album was a keeper before I even listened to it. I have a rather large sentimental soft spot for Roy Harper, and for this album in particular - which was the soundtrack to a big part of my teens. I was introduced to Roy Harper (and this album) by a muso friend of mine called Alan who lived in the commune where later I would end up living myself for several years. Alan had a massive record collection and introduced me to some great albums including this one and My Life in The Bush of Ghosts by Brian Eno and David Byrne.


I remember that I had to order the LP specially from the local record shop (Jons) in my hometown and it took weeks to come. The album is quite different to many of Harper's earlier more folky LPs - being more soft rock in style. Harper has worked with a stellar array of musicians over the years and this album is no exception. Several of the songs are co-written by David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd) who also plays on the album, and Kate Bush provides some of the vocals on "You" (The Game Part II). I have to say that I don't love the album quite as much as I did aged 15 or 16, but I do really enjoy listening to it now and then. Some of the songs are quite haunting and of course for me there is a huge element of nostalgia in the listening. I think as an adult you can't help but be moved by music that had a major influence on your developing mind. This album also brings back memories of sitting in my bedroom listening to this with particular friends from my teens. I am not sure whether I converted anyone to being a Roy Harper fan, but I am certain I played this to anyone who visited me whether they liked it or not.

The Minimalism Project - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

A couple of years ago I started attempting to review all the albums that I owned. I got about four or five in and lost momentum. Now I am proposing a different approach. This year I intend to listen to every CD I own - and if I don't love it I will get rid of it. (read more about my minimalism project here) I am going to do mini reviews of the albums as I go.

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

I am definitely a Bob Dylan fan - but I don't love his work universally. I am not enamoured of his early more folky stuff (even though I do like folk music), nor am a a massive fan of his much later work. If I had to pin down my favourite Bob Dylan years they probably range from 1970 to the mid nineteen eighties. Freewheelin... is very early Bob Dylan indeed, but still there are echoes of things to come - especially in tracks like Masters of War - a song aimed at the industry of war (and based on a folk song), which put me in mind (a little) of Hurricane from the album Desire. Hurricane is much more sophisticated in terms of arrangement and production but Dylan sings it in a similar way. What I found interesting was that some of the tracks on the album I know better as cover versions. In the 80s I had an album called It Ain't Me Babe, a compilation of Dylan covers by famous musicians, which included excellent versions of A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall and Girl of the North Country by Bryan Ferry and Rod Stewart respectively. These covers are so good that I find they have spoilt the original stripped down versions for me. I find them interesting but I don't love them in quite the same way. Maybe it's the nostalgia coloured glasses through which I view those covers - the early 80s were my formative years after all. Or maybe it's simply familiarity.  I just don't love this album in quite the same way. Maybe I only love Dylan's more fully developed work. There are moments I really enjoyed here - Don't Think Twice, It's Aright and Corrina, Corrina for instance. I am not convinced that this album is a keeper for me though - I am going to put it to one side and listen to it again before I decide.

Minimalism Project - The Very Best of Elvis Costello

A couple of years ago I started attempting (on this very blog) to review all the albums that I owned. I got about four or five in and lost momentum. Now I am proposing a different approach. This year I intend to listen to every CD I own - and if I don't love it I will get rid of it. (read more about my minimalism project here) I am going to do mini reviews of the albums as I go.

The Very Best of Elvis Costello  (2004)

It has to be said I don't love greatest hits compilations. You can have much of a good thing and listening to hit after hit can be tiring. That said I do own some greatest hits compilations and this is one of them. I wasn't a huge Elvis Costello fan when I was younger and the records of his I did own were singles so I didn't really know where to begin with is albums. I remember when I bought this double album - it was about 12 years ago. We had been to a garden party out in the wilds of Norfolk and at some point Elvis Costello was played and I found (to my surprise) that I was really enjoying it. Later that week I duly went out and bought The Very Best of... But I have to confess it's not something I play very often. I listened to CD 1 today and did enjoy it to begin with - but there is just too much of it. Each CD (there are two) has twenty plus tracks. If you listened to the whole thing it would be like listening to four albums back to back - only the most die hard fans would want to do that. I can do it with Bowie (heck I can listen to ten Bowie albums back to back) - but each Bowie album is pretty unique and, I have to say, Elvis Costello becomes a little samey after a while. There are some very good tracks on here though, and CD 1 has quite a few of the early new wave hits - Accidents Will Happen (which I still have on vinyl), Radio, Radio, Pump it Up etc. But it also has a smattering of his more corny sentimental tracks that I was never particularly keen on - For the Roses and She for example. At some point I will give CD 2 a listen - but not today.

There are enough good tracks on here to make it a keeper I think.

Minimalism Project - Black Tie, White Noise by David Bowie

A couple of years ago I started attempting to review all the albums that I owned. I got about four or five in and lost momentum. Now I am proposing a different approach. This year I intend to listen to every CD I own - and if I don't love it I will get rid of it. (read more about my minimalism project here) I am going to do mini reviews of the albums as I go.

Black Tie, White Noise - David Bowie (1993)

Anyone who knows me well will know that I am a massive Bowie fan. Black Tie, White Noise is probably one of my least played Bowie albums, despite the fact that it contains some tracks that are on my Bowie playlist on my i-pod - Jump They Say for example. Listening to it this evening I have realised that I have been doing it a grave disservice - it really does deserve to be played much, much more. After a slightly discordant, almost entirely instrumental opening track Black Tie, White Noise gets right down to business. The album has a more emotional feel to it than most of his previous work (perhaps not surprising given that some of the tracks were written for his wedding to Iman). The influence of producer Nile Rodgers is very evident on some of the tracks such as Miracle Goodnight - whose stripped back sound is a little reminiscent of Chic, and Looking For Lester - a disoey number with piano not unlike that of Lady Grinning Soul. My personal favourite track is Jump They Say - which alludes to Bowie's stepbrother Terry who committed suicide. Apparently the cover of Cream's I Feel Free is also in honour of Terry - although I have to say that this track was the low point of the album for me - I much prefer Bowie's own work to his attempts at covers (with the exception of Jaques Brel's My Death and In the Port of Amsterdam). There is also a bonus CD of remixed tracks, however I will not be reviewing that here - I am not a massive fan of re-mixes.

Definitely a CD to add to the keep pile.