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 - Blondie Parallel LInes

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.

CD 2

Parallel Lines by Blondie (1978)

This is another album that I once owned on vinyl and it has always been my favourite Blondie album (although I do retain a certain fondness for their second album Plastic Letters, which I may have once had on tape but never actually owned). The Internet tells me that Parallel Lines that was much more commercial than their previous two. It certainly contains a few hits - Hanging on the Telephone, Picture This, Sunday Girl and the disco driven Heart of Glass all feature on this album, which pretty much guaranteed it would be a big commercial success. These are not my favourite tracks on the CD though - I tend to prefer their less poppy tracks. My particular favourites are 11:59 (the only track on the album written by keyboard player Jimmy Destri), Will Anything Happen and Fade Away and Radiate. There's a definite pop-punk feel to this album and it seems obvious to me that it influenced some of the later pop-punk bands like The All American Rejects and Green Day. I can see why the album was number 1 - I don't listen to it often now - but I definitely still enjoy it when I do. 

Keep.

The Clash on Trial

I was watching "Pop on Trial" tonight on BBC4 tonight and was amazed to hear Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks rate The Sex Pistols over the Clash, who he described as a "pub band" and likened to The Rolling Stones. The Clash have little in common with the Rolling Stones aside from the fact that they both acheived massive success. But whereas The Stones have embraced success and the massive wealth and hedonistic lifestyle that went with it - The Clash were never entirely comfortable with it - and ultimately this was what destroyed them. Comparing the Sex Pistols to the Clash is like comparing Robbie Williams to Bob Dylan or The Spice Girls to The Slits or Patti Smith. Although there is no doubting the vision and energy behind the Pistiols, ultimately they had very little to actually say. They have preached anarchy but they never offered us any kind of concrete vision to replace the establishment that they wanted us to destroy. The Clash, however, were an altogether different kind of band. A band with real and wide ranging musical roots/influences and ideas and Joe Strummer's deeply political views of the world. They sang about things that mattered to them, they connected on a real level with fans and they tried to keep prices down on tickets and records.

On a lighter note one of the other presenters of "Pop on Trial" was Gaz Coobes of Supergrass who I was amazed to see is morphing into Neil young - and her is the evidence:

Gaz Coombes

Neil Young

The Future is the Past...

It is very seldom that I watch a film that I know that I will want to see again, and even rarer to see one that will watch again within a week (pretty much unheard of actually!)

The Future is Unwritten is one of those films. I had been really looking forward to watching it as I have been an unashamedly huge fan of The Clash for years, but thsi film far exceeded all my expectations.

Once you get used to the quirkiness of the filming it is riveting viewing. Temple has filmed a bunch of Strummer's friends and peershanging out around a campfire on what looks like the banks of the River Thames. They are listening to a recording of Strummer's radio show that he made for the BBC World Service. One of the most striking and original things about the film is that the narration is largely the voice of Strummer himself talking about his musical life. This is interspersed with anecdotes supplied by his friends and is run over video and photo footage of Strummer's life plus anamated drawings.

One of the great things about this film is that it covers the whole of Joe Strummer's life not just the period of time when he was in The Clash. I found it fascinating to learn about his childhood, his time as a hippy living in a London squat as well as what happened to him after The Clash disbanded. I am ashamed to say that I was such a huge Clash fan in my teens and twenties that I never really came to terms with their split and so didn't follow their subsequent musical careers. This was definitely my loss - The Mescaleros produced some brilliant music and I am just left wishing that I had given them a chance when Strummer was still alive.

I would highly recommend this brilliant/funny/sad film and would suggest that while you watch it you might want to keep a pen and notepad handy as Joe plays some excellent tracks on his radio show that you will undoubtedly want to hear again.

Recommended tracks:

Johnny Appleseed - Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

Coma Girl - Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

Blitzreig Bop - The Ramones

1977 - The Clash

Corrina, Corrina - Bob Dylan

To Love Somebody - Nina Simone

This is Not a Lovesong - Public Image Limited