What are you listening to right now?

[Who Shot Sam?]

The noses on your records lately, Sam!

Quite a schnozz, ain't it?

[mood swung]

Apparently, that's what all the serious musicians are wearing...

[Who Shot Sam?]

Picked this up for $6 from Amazon after I heard a story about her on NPR. Very promising debut album.



Here is a clip of her performing one of her tunes on a Philly morning show, from YouTube...

[Otis Westinghouse]

Apparently, that's what all the serious musicians are wearing...

Same conductor

[bambooneedle]

Great album! T-Bone Burnette always seems to bring out the best in the people he works with. Who would have though Robert Plant could harmonize! Gotta give Plant some credit for turning down a very lucrative Led Zep reunion in order to tour with Krause in support of this album.

Agree. Gotta comment because things like that don't go unnoticed.

Yep. "Killing the Blues" probably my favorite track, but the entire album was a really unexpected surprise for me. I wasn't planning on picking this up, as I'd never really been a fan of Plant's singing, but I read enough glowing reviews to convince me to take the plunge. T-Bone got him to tone it down beautifully.

I've had a listen to about 3 tracks from this album including that one and Plant sounds so unlike himself in Led Zep, like someone much younger. It would be hard to guess it's him.

definitely on my 'to get' list.

[pophead2k]

I got this for my girlfriend's dad for Christmas and then ripped it for myself! Great album and a real compliment to both artists' catalogues.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Incredible bargain - can be had for under $20. Fantastic performances, beautiful sound. Wow.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Saw this guy on a Lexus commercial...

[Otis Westinghouse]

Wow, I've never even heard of Zinman (perhaps because he divides his time between Zurich and New Jersey), but a quick Amazon check does reveal rave responses (not that that's always a guide to much...). I can get them delivered new from Marketplace (Caiman USA, been reliable before) for all of £12.69. Looks like a must. I have various of them on vinyl, never play them.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Compl ... 043&sr=8-1

I'd like a complete piano concertos too, but can't see that. I wonder what his 5th is like, one of the Beethoven pinnacles, for sure.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Wow, I've never even heard of Zinman (perhaps because he divides his time between Zurich and New Jersey), but a quick Amazon check does reveal rave responses (not that that's always a guide to much...). I can get them delivered new from Marketplace (Caiman USA, been reliable before) for all of £12.69. Looks like a must. I have various of them on vinyl, never play them.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Compl ... 043&sr=8-1

I'd like a complete piano concertos too, but can't see that. I wonder what his 5th is like, one of the Beethoven pinnacles, for sure.

Zinman was the music director in Baltimore for a number of years. He's great in the romantic repertoire, Beethoven and Schumann in particular. The tempi are generally quite fast, which is how musicologists now believe Beethoven intended them (listen to any one of the performances from Karajan's 1962 set in comparison and you will hear how slow everything is in comparison). Plenty of blood and thunder in the Zinman set, and a wonderful ear for detail as well. The 5th is excellent, but they are all outstanding. Never heard the 8th played better.

Zinman has also recorded the concertos with Yefim Bronfman, and they are available for about $6 each (probably cheaper via Caiman):

http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Piano-C ... ER&s=music

Never heard these performances, but Bronfman is a fine pianist and I'm sure they are good. I have a recording of him playing the Prokofiev violin sonatas with Shlomo Mintz that I listened to the other day. Beautiful music making.

The set of the piano concertos I own is from the 1980s on Sony with the American pianist Murray Perahia, Bernard Haitink conducting. It's probably available on a fairly inexpensive 2 or 3 CD set.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Yefim Bronfman is also a new name to me. Uzbeikastani! I have 4th and 5th concertos with Kempff, which is a great recording:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Piano ... 771&sr=1-2

But a complete set would be good. Like the idea of brisker-paced symphonies, perhaps more as they were imagined originally.

Another fantastic concerto is Tchaikovsky's first. Ravishingly romantic. I have this, a great Richter performance with a splendid Rachmaninov too. These reviewers dismiss the former and rave only about the latter, though I love both. Tchaikovsky needs to be played at massive volume to get the effect right.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Piano ... 771&sr=1-2

[Who Shot Sam?]

Still on my classical binge. God, what gorgeous music. My favorite Bach keyboard pieces. I may get the missus some sheet music for this so she can give it a whirl at home...

[Otis Westinghouse]

Nice cover. I don't think I've heard those. Damn, something else for the shopping list! I may have some or even all of it on a tape somewhere...

I've been playing this:

I heard Kid, the original single, on the radio and thought it was just perfect. The version here is very gentle, all strings and acoustic guitar. Two of their other great songs also get excellent airings, Back on the Chain Gang and I Go To Sleep, the latter done nicely with Damon Albarn on piano. Can't get enough of her voice.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Nice cover. I don't think I've heard those.

The Glenn Gould recordings of these are fantastic as well, if you can handle all the vocalizing.

I've been hearing a lot of old Pretenders stuff on the radio lately as well. Some of those early singles are just perfect.

[Mr. Average]

Peter Gabriel "up"

[Who Shot Sam?]

Just superb - giving my stereo system a bit of a workout.

[Otis Westinghouse]

The Glenn Gould recordings of these are fantastic as well, if you can handle all the vocalizing.

No, I can't! I have a Gould English Suites recording where his humming is kept to a minimum, that's OK, but ones where it is obtrusive just seem tragic to me, as if no-one dared tell him he was destroying something perfect. Saw a very positive review in today's Observer for Murray Periah's new Partitas recording.


This is just lovely. No great shifts in style since Leaders of the Free World, even the same colour palette on the cover, and not quite anything to match the sheer genius of great Expectations, but several superb songs, wonderfully imaginative arrangements and sounds as ever, witty lyrics, and an all-round smasher. A must-have if you're at all partial.

Garvey's north-western wit seems to be coming very much to the fore, and it reminds me a hell of a lot of the turn of phrase of my old mate Bob, who hailed from Rochdale, just down the road from their Bury. He too might have opened a lyric with:

I've been working on a cocktail called 'grounds for divorce'

and followed it with:

There's a hole in my neighbourhood down which of late I cannot help but fall

Great stuff. As usual, they scale the heights both when being epic and stadiumesque (see the above), or intimate and poignant, and there's more of the latter on this LP. Mirrorball and Weather to Fly, for examples. Two or three listens in and they're lodged in your head and heart for good. I was sceptical at first about The Fix, the Richard Hawley duet about corruption in the betting world and pulling a fast one, or something, and although it's out of keeping, it's a nice addition by being less expected.

It was £10 in Fopp. For an absurd £15 you could get the digipak edition which posted Additional Artwork. £5 more?!? Both contain the same annoyingly presented 'bonus track'. As £10 was cheap, I added this for all of £2:

There's a certain frisson to buying a Neil Diamond record. My mum used to do that! Can I believe I'm really going through with it? I was intrigued to hear it when it came out and got rave reviews along the lines of 'Rick Rubin worked his magic with Johnny Cash several times over, now he does it with Neil Diamond'. So it's all nicely stripped down, direct and intense, but... it's still Neil Diamond. I wonder if it will get into my head if I play it over and over, but I'm not sure I want to hear his voice that much. For £2, who's complaining?

[Who Shot Sam?]

Saw a very positive review in today's Observer for Murray Periah's new Partitas recording.

Yes, he's a bit of a Bach specialist. His Goldberg Variations recording is really extraordinary. Great with the Mozart Piano Concertos as well.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I have the Goldberg. Splendid stuff.

Right now I'm listening to REM tearing up the Albert Hall live on Radio 2. New stuff is feisty enough, Monster part 2, kind of, but so far the oldies have been the best, especially the divine Electrolite. It's surprising that they;ve never played the Albert Hall before.

[pophead2k]

Man, this is nice. I haven't listened to it in ages and now I'm wondering why.

[verbal gymnastics]

Rockferry - Duffy

I am loving this album. I think Elvis could do a fantastic version of the second track, Warwick Avenue.

[Who Shot Sam?]

[Who Shot Sam?]

Shelby Lynne's fine album, again. Decided to get this on vinyl when I pre-ordered Momofuku. Nice 180 gram vinyl for $12. Sounds lovely.



And Murray Perahia's famous recordings of the Mozart Piano Concertos, all in a nice slim box...

[PlaythingOrPet]

The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely


Definitely a grower not a shower.

[so lacklustre]

Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus it is not, but enjoyable nevertheless.

I'm finding the 'tache strangely attractive: http://www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com/d ... index.html

What he said including about the 'tache.