Tuesday 3 April 2007

If I could talk I'd tell you

I haven't updated this for a while as I haven't been feeling very eloquent recently,my head is too clouded with thoughts and feels very woolly at the moment.Last week was spent in something of a gigs frenzy so that is worth commenting upon.I find it hard to share my thoughts on live music though as I find such things fleeting and hard to describe.I will at least mention who I saw.My first two attempts at live reviews happened last week courtesy of The Shins and Polly Paulusma.I saw The Shins live last year and enjoyed them a lot,but this time there was no spark for me at all.The songs didn't inspire me and from the moment the gig began I was itching to get out of there.The reason for this reaction may be circumstantial as I'd had a pretty long and quite stressful day leading up to the gig,but overall it was a big letdown with few lasting impressions.The review was a hard one to write as a result too.Thankfully Polly was a more vibrant gig meaning the words for the review danced across the page for me.Now I am impatient for her new album and hope I can get an advance copy.

The most notable event of last week though was seeing Damien Rice.I am rather besotted with his music and had been looking forward to the gig massively since I booked the tickets way back in October.Sometimes such experiences can be crushing in their dissapointment but this wasn't at all.I watched in awe and every second was amazing.His banter was non-existent so the songs came thick and fast in an onslaught of wonder.Greedy as I am I left incredibly thankful I booked tickets for his next tour a few months ago,obviously very assured that he would be worth repeated viewing.

Elsewhere I have been listening to the new Laura Veirs record.I'm a big fan of hers and the album certainly has the likeability factor so far,I'm not sure if it will progress beyond that though.I also visited Fopp again,I should have learnt the error of that particular decision by now.This time I left with Richmond Fontaine's 'Post to Wire' and Calexico's 'Garden Ruin', and very nice they are too.Perhaps I will share further thoughts on those albums after repeated listens,but for now I am absorbed with trying to determine my top 10 albums based on lyrics alone,which a friend asked me to come up with.As soon as it is determined I will post the list here,exciting eh?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm the opposite: I find it really difficult to write about albums, but rarely struggle when it comes to live music. I don't know why that is: maybe I just can't quite find the words for the personal experience that listening to an album is over the shared, less open to interpretation flow of most gigs.

But yes, write more! Send me your stuff! I think I've guessed which site you're writing for actually, so shall go investigate.

I hope you enjoy Richmond Fontaine - the boyfriend has recently began converting me. "Two Broken Hearts" from Post To Wire is a ragged, beautiful, perfect song.

Sentimental Geek said...

Yeah it can be difficult to write about albums that mean a lot,a lot of the stuff I write about I don't have very strong feelings on though.

I write for Room Thirteen,a site I imagine you've seen already via Jo.

I enjoyed the Richmond Fontaine album a lot so I'll be looking out for more by them.