New(ish) music - December 2022

For the past few years, I and a group of friends have been using Spotify to turn each other on to new music. Each month we upload two songs each to create a playlist; we chat about the songs on WhatsApp, and at the end of each month we try to get together to review our picks.

On those occasions where I haven't been able to make our video chats, I've written short reviews of each song. Here is what I thought of December 2022's picks!

December 2022

As we crawl to the finish line for 2022 I find some pleasure in using its dying gasps to write-up the latest TFJ. A great month to wrap up a strange and turbulent year - hey, the NHS is going up in flames and it’d be cheaper to pump liquid gold into my radiators, but at least I’ve heard Wet Leg!

A word on my picks - the Pastor T.L. Barrett one came about from reading up on the life of one of Chicago’s more colourful sons. Has to be one of the few people to have been found by a court to be running a pyramid scheme (he had to repay $1.2 million dollars to his church’s congregants) only to be honoured nine years later through having a road named after him.

The cineastes among you may have heard of Jules Dassin, director of The Naked City and one of the greatest crime films of all time, Rififi. Well, this is his son doing a dopey song about a bunch of cartoon cowboy banditos. For those who detected a note of silliness in the endeavour, please look up the music video on YouTube for confirmation. Somehow, Dassin emerges from the fray looking cooler than could be imagined. The French, eh?! Brexit means Brexit!

‘Seven Red Rose Tattoos’ - Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler
Yes, yes, a beautiful voice. Not too dissimilar from the one that ‘When the Night Is Long’ track (a JS pick many moons ago?), and frankly it’s enough to elevate what is a reasonably ordinary song. Still, I do like the rather sparse backing, which is redolent of early Tom Waits - back when his material has about walking around whilst drunk or comparing his penis to an ice cream. It works because it foregrounds the voice, plus it sounds suitably grown-up. You’ll never hear tasteful muted trumpet in chart fodder. Good, but not quite great.

‘Superman Lover’ - Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson
A track I knew before this month, but very welcome nonetheless! I was poised to add a JGW cut in the new year but JC's beaten me to the jump. I have an unabashed love for Watson, a man who seemingly couldn’t keep still in any creative sense. When Muddy Waters or Albert King tried to update their sound to appear hip, the results were embarrassing; Watson sounds utterly at home as a funkster. Although he did do ‘straight’ material, my favourite stuff is where he’s a little goofy, as on ‘Superman Lover’. His soloing is something that has always intrigued - it tends to flow more like a brass instrument, or even a vocal line. There’s even a song on his Funk Beyond the Call of Duty album where he scats along with the notes - fun!

‘Shook Ones, Pt. II’ - Mobb Deep
As someone who has affection for the ‘dusty’ production sound of Wu Tang releases (the pops and crackles of samples taken straight off vinyl, I guess) I found the sound of this very appealing. Pair with a sturdy backbeat and you’re cooking; add some guys with superb rhythmic and lyrical facility and you got a stew, baby. The kind of psych-up track I put one before being walloped by a bunch of teenagers at five-a-side.

‘Wet Dream’ - Wet Leg
My brain says there’s nothing sophisticated going on here, but my (dry) legs just won’t stop twitching to what is an infectious, candy-coated earworm. The vocals are cool and wry, the chorus absolutely pops out of the speakers and it’s catchy, catchy, catchy. H.G. Wells once said that the greatest challenge that faces a writer is to get a reader to want to turn the next page - a feat that doesn’t require the work to be great literature, but does need it to be intriguing and interesting enough to tempt the reader into desiring more. That’s what I get from this - it’s addictive, like sugar. But is it good for you, like sugar?

‘Jet’ - Wings
Jellyfish are one of my favourite power-pop bands (I included one of their tracks on the ill-fated Christmas-themed month a while ago), and they used to perform live covers of ‘Jet’. To cue it up they would always say “...and now for the sexiest song of all time!”. A little drollery involved there, but Jellyfish liked chewy song structures with strong melodies and big hooks, so go fish. Yes, this does sound like it was recorded down a 56k baud modem, but that just adds to the charm. Part of Paul McCartney’s eccentricity as a songwriter is that he’ll tackle whatever subject floats into his consciousness, which results in delightfully quirky results like this. The only album cover in this month’s TFJ to feature a paedophile?

‘GFY’ - Amyl and the Sniffers
I love the animating spirit behind both the music and the supercharged lyrics, but I think I’m also faced with a plaint that’s been said before; formally, there’s little wriggle room for this brand of agit-punk. And I agree with others who have said that ‘GFY’ could’ve gone either much scuzzier or much cleaner. As such the production sounds like an awkward compromise whereby they’re aiming to be kinda dangerous, but perhaps also angling for a mid-afternoon slot on the second stage at Glasto too?

‘Just Dropped In..’ - The First Edition
Spotify says it’s the First Edition playing this, but it ain’t. This is the version that Kenny ‘the Gambler’ Rogers re-recorded a few years after the fact. As such, we’ve got a slightly cleaner, slightly funkier sound - but it misses the backwards taping that intro’d the original and Glen Campbell’s guitar solo. No matter though, this acid-washed tripper is indestructible - cool key changes, mind-bending lyrics remain intact, and the six-string work here is altogether very hip. Is that a talk box I hear? Has there ever been a bad song to feature a talk box?

‘Bleak’ - Opeth
This month I was asked to provide a non-metal fan with a few choice cuts, and I included the title track off Blackwater Park. I could’ve easily gone with this, though. I’m in the pro-Opeth camp, owning a couple of albums and having witnessed them live. If I were to try to explain ‘Bleak’, I’d say it feels like a puzzlingly arcane machine, powered by intricately wrought cogs and sprockets, all whirring together in serene harmony. It’s got enough to keep the church-burners happy, it’s got enough to keep Crimson-heads like me happy, though in its ‘quieter’ moments it does veer towards old skool Porcupine Tree, which admittedly is an acquired taste (and one that I have acquired).

‘Strangers’ - Danger Mouse, A$AP Rocky, Run the Jewels, etc.
I feel like I’m going against the grain a little in preferring the Mobb Deep cut in this month’s hip-hop offerings, but still, this is good. All contributing vocalists are characterful and adroit in a way that I enjoy. The sample that anchors everything is pleasingly oblique - about my only real gripe are the breakdowns in between verses. Who made that creative call? Man, I know they only last a few seconds at a time and act as a bit of a breather, but they suck ass. Do something cool next time!

‘Ghost With a Boner’ - Diarrhea Planet
Full marks for name of both track and band. Yes, it does sound like it’s been recorded in the back of a meat wagon. As far as I can tell, it literally is about spectral priapism. I don’t think this is music that bears too much intellectual scrutiny - this is music to be felt. It calls to a more primal part of us all, a part of us that ponders ‘what about a ghost with a boner?’, and scratches that itch admirably.

‘Crosseyed and Painless’ - Angelique Kidjo
Angelique Kidjo is a name I’ve heard plenty, but I can’t recall ever hearing a lick of her music. Decent, isn’t it? The Afropop backing, as with many examples uploaded to TFJ, has a rolling, kicky, nagging (in the best way) quality to it. The brass section burbles and punctuates in all the right places, and I love the sound of the guitar - it seems to bob and weave between the lines. But what really shines through is the sheer charisma of Ms. Kidjo’s personality - she is one of those vocalists who imposes herself onto her material, which works much to her advantage.

‘Lone Ranger’ - Julianna Riolino
I’m a bit sad to finish up on this one, because it left the smallest impression on me. I didn’t dislike it - there was nothing in ‘Lone Ranger’ to offend. But I’m curious to know where the appeal lies for everyone else? It sounds like a pretty okay, fairly middle-of-the-prairie slice of Americana to these ears. Voice? Fine, a bit anonymous. Instrumentation is a touch beige. You could hum bits ‘n’ pieces, but equally this could dissipate like the last cloud of an Arizona summer morning.

 Looking forward to everything 2023 holds, including being introduced to more new music courtesy of you lovely chaps. Salut! [NB: I am no longer looking forward to 2023.]

Hormonally Yours - Shakespears Sister

Provenance: This is another one I picked up off a school friend for about a quid.

I recall 'Stay' being a behemoth in the charts, but of equal importance to me was the bizarre playground rumour that Siobhan Fahey once checked into rehab for an addiction to fried chicken.

Besides, that's a cool cover! It's like Vivienne Westwood decided to style Lilian Gish or Theda Bara.

Review: You know, Shakespears Sister (sic) are playing down the road from me next month. I might go along.

Anyway, Hormonally Yours - called thusly because both Marcella Detroit (the tall one who wasn't in Bananarama) and Siobhan Fahey (ex-Bananarama) were pregnant during the making of the album. I shouldn't really be so flip about Detroit, who prior to Shakespears Sister performed as a backing vocalist for a couple of rock A-listers (Bob Seger, Eric Clapton) and wrote songs for many well-known artists, most notably 'Lay Down Sally', one of Slowhand's more bearable songs.

It's been ages since I've given Hormonally Yours a spin, and therefore doing so now feels like diving into an album for the first time. Two things strike me from the outset; one is that it's less spooky than I had assumed it would be (based on the archly gothic 'Stay' I suppose), and the other is that Marcella Detroit has a remarkable voice. At times she sings in the same range that Kate Bush used throughout much of The Kick Inside, but if anything there's more power and control behind these performances. It also contrasts splendidly with Fahey's delivery, which may not contain Detroit's technical fireworks but proves a warmer, more languid, more sensuous counterpoint.

Given their image and the 'Stay' fictional universe I imagined Fahey and Detroit inhabited, it's quite a surprise to hear that most of the first side of the album is pure power-pop - very, very good power pop. It takes its cues from Jellyfish and Redd Kross in some respects, and points towards the successful formula adopted by the post-millenial Cheap Trick in others. 'Goodbye Cruel World', 'My 16th Apology' and 'Are We In Love Yet' are simply fantastic, bouncing around the place with big chewy hooks and quirky little musical interpolations. I wanted to dislike 'Emotional Thing', as it starts off like a pale Was (Not Was) imitation, but I was won over eventually, not least of all by the incongruous blues harmonica that crops up halfway through.

Seeing as 'Stay' was such a blockbuster, I was half-expecting it to overshadow much of the other material. It's certainly meant as a compliment when I say that it doesn't stand out from the pack, other than as a change of pace. If it wasn't for its ubiquity, and my subsequent familiarity with it, 'Stay' would've just been another track I had reason to be excited about. It certainly is the most overtly goth-influenced thing on here, with a mid-section that sounds a wee bit Sisters of Mercy; the only other time I think 'ahhh, goth!' is in the chorus to 'Moonchild', which is disappointingly (for me) not a cover of Iron Maiden's best song. Even then, we're talking Gene Loves Jezebel goth, not Killing Miranda goth.

About the only misstep on Hormonally Yours is 'Black Sky', which has a slight Madchester vibe and a very dated house piano vibe. It's not terrible, and neither is 'Catwoman', which to these jaded old ears sounds like classic Shania Twain. It gets by, though, by being both utterly bonkers and by ending on a note that Detroit hits which caters to the hearing range of bats. On the other hand, props to Shakespears Sister for doing a song called 'Let Me Entertain You' that isn't a warm bath of shite.

Since giving Hormonally Yours a bash I'm left with a lingering shame that this album has lurked unloved at the bottom of my record collection for so long. It didn't deserve that fate, unlike some. Rather, Hormonally Yours is a catchy, weird, idiosyncratic jewel that cloaks its strangeness in an addictive pop-rock packaging. I think I'll be buying that ticket now.

Nintendo: White Knuckle Scorin' - Various Artists

Provenance: Reading an article about Roy Orbison, I chanced across a peculiar little factoid: that the first time his version of 'I Drove All Night' appeared on compact disc it was as part of a concept album / compilation put out by Nintendo called Nintendo: White Knuckle Scorin'.

Having investigated further, I felt I had no other recourse than to get hold of a copy. After all, who could resist a 1991 album that strings a Mario 'n' Luigi story together with songs by such hip young gunslingers as Crosby Stills & Nash, Dire Straits, Jellyfish, Flesh For Lulu, Trixter and 'the Big O'?

Review: Before I get going on the music I feel some kind of exposition is necessary. For reasons perhaps known only to executive producers Ken Kushnick and David Passick it was felt necessary to try and mirror the experience of playing the Super NES title Super Mario World through the medium of concept album. And by concept album, I don't mean the stuffy obscurantism of the Alan Parsons Project or David Axelrod; what the kids want is an almost incomprehensible narrative (written in startlingly chauvinistic language) punctuated by ten songs by hair metal bands, a dead man, and your dad's favourite West Coast folk harmonisers, none of which bear any relation to the storyline.

Actually, I'm being slightly unfair as the first track, Jellyfish's 'Ignorance Is Bliss', was written specifically for this project. So that's only nine entirely random tracks. Perhaps the remainder are supposed speak to the rich inner life of the humble plumber Mario?

We live in an age where computer games are played by everyone, on multiple platforms. This being the case, perhaps it was inevitable that debates about portrayals of women within games (and sexism within the industry itself) would occur, and that they were long overdue. Case in point: judging by what was deemed releasable in 1991, I would suggest that the creators of this album guessed that the only people playing computer games at the time were creepy hormonal boys. Barely a reference to Princess Toadstool goes by without mention being made of how 'hot' she is, or how her 'dynamite bod' is being imperilled. Saying that, given the technological limitations of the age I can't decide whether this attitude is more more puzzling than problematic, given that this pre-Lara Croft pixellated lorelei appeared on most screens as an almost amorphous pink blob.

Screw it, let's get back to talking music.

I love Jellyfish but had to face down my own trepidation at how they would handle a commission to write a song about Super Mario World. After all, this kind of thing has hardly been the wellspring for great art. I shouldn't have worried - we're talking about bona fide power-pop genii here, and I can confirm that their madcap polka from the perspective of King Bowser, 'Ignorance Is Bliss', is utterly brilliant. Without resorting to the 8-bit bleep palette of noises it somehow manages to sound in places console music whilst retaining that technicolour baroque flavour unique to Jellyfish.

Subtract the Mario 'n' Luigi caper and the first half of the collection is, in fact, very fun and listenable. Crosby Stills & Nash's 'How Have You Been?' is gorgeous, 'I Drove All Night' is majestic to the point of bombast and features one of Orbison's great late-career vocal performances, and even Bombshell's 'Magic In The Night' holds up well as a relic from the hair metal era, a big ol' chugger that sounds suspiciously like Vixen recording under another name. One of the album's true highlights comes courtesy of Dire Straits with the pensive, minimalist 'Iron Hand'. It's also another head-scratcher as I'm pretty damn certain that it's about the Battle of Orgreave.

However, once we've bypassed the strange meshing of mining strikes and Super Mario the quality dips a little. Alias' 'Into The Fire' is a good take on the arena ballad style perfected by Tesla, whilst 'She Was' by Flesh For Lulu is goth filtered through a Madchester sensibility. However, 'Line Of Fire' by manque hair metallers Trixter could almost serve as a manifesto for why grunge had to come along and drive a stake through the scene's glittery, Aquanet-infected heart. Things pick up with Britny Fox's 'Turn On', a catchy cross between Brian Johnson AC/DC and Judas Priest's 'Wild Nights, Hot Crazy Days' but then take a nosedive into the charnel depths of the Mariana Trench with Sheena Easton's 'Forever Friends'. I can't be bothered to describe the track, save to say that it's shit. Evidence.

I like the fact that somewhere in time, somebody thought this album should exist. I like most of the music. By the same token, I can clearly see why this concept never took off. Who the hell did MCA and Nintendo think this would sell to, other than idiots such as myself? A clue about its conception lies in the sleeve notes, as the album is dedicated to musical agent Bobby Brooks, who died in the same helicopter crash that killed Stevie Ray Vaughan. Was this his last project? Are his idiosyncratic tastes reflected in the song selection? From the sleeve notes alone the answers remain tantalisingly out of reach.

It feels like the fallout from a period where record companies sensed that there was something to be monetised in the world of video games and were throwing mud to see if anything stuck. Still, like I said earlier, it's fun, and there's not enough of that in the world right now (NB: to aliens from the future or whatever who might be reading, and who may not have a sense of Earthling irony, I was joking earlier - 2016 wasn't that great).