This months post of music comes with some joy as it features a lot of my all time favourite bands who have released new albums this month that I have managed to listen over and over to on my car drives and absorb and firm my own thoughts and opinions.
But alas there is also sorrow as my inspiration for these musical posts has hung up his blogging fingers and decided to call it a day, I'm talking of course of Musodad who was a fantastic blogger and was very talented. I of course wish him all the best and hope he stops by and offers his opinions and insights.
So without further delay and dilly dallying ( I love that phrase) here are my musical highlights of the month:
1/ Bruce Springsteen:
You might have seen at the start of the month one of my pictures in my 366 series was dedicated to the Boss. This was due to his new album, Wrecking Ball being released. It is a fantastic album, 4 out of 5 stars in my book. It is again a sign of the Boss writing fantastic songs with clever lyrics coupling it with insightful musical rhythms. Take track 4 for example my favourite track called jack of all trades. The Boss sings about being able to do anything and everything in a quite mellow song and then at the end lets the guitar do the talking itself in a total contrast to the rest of the song that really works. Then there is track 1 the single from the album, we take care of our own, it's a song that makes you think and feel that because you're a fan of the boss you're in his inner circle and a sense if community that builds during his shows that everything is ok and indeed you're part of the Bosses gang and we indeed do take care of each other. The album is a shift away from the recent magic and working on a dream, it is a Bruce Springsteen traditional American album but it is a masterpiece at that, the two songs I picked out there could easily have been any other 2 on the album, they are all worthy of an individual mention and breakdown but I don't want to bore you as I could write a dissertation on this album I love it that much.
2/ Cast
A blast from the past. I remember I was around 11 the time I was bought casts first album all change for my birthday from my older sister. I had kind of asked for it because I liked walk away the song but mainly because they were from Liverpool, my favourite place in the world and they also supported Liverpool my team. As they years went on all change became one of my favourite albums and Cadt cemented a place in my history. In 2010 I managed to see them live as the toured a special tour where they had rejoined to celebrate the anniversary of that album. As I stood and watched them memories of my childhood and that birthday came flooding back, as did my love of Cast. Then early this year I heard they were releasing a new album. I rushed to the shop to buy it in release day in march and once more found the brilliance of what I feel is a hugely underrated band who should have had more success than they did. It saddens me that this album won't make them a big success even though it is fantastic. The catchy cast songs are there like see that girl whilst there darker songs are also there like INSERT. Cast I do hope are back for good and don't walk away ( see what I did there) again, John Power is a great song writer and doesn't get enough credit in my eyes, they are a lost gem from the generation that gave us Oasis and Blur who I feel if they got as much attention would have wrote and given us songs of equal calibre as both those bands the only reason why they weren't given the same limelight is that they opted out of such shenanigans as both bands and thus had no tabloid headlines to help market them, they focused purely on the music.
3/ The Horrible Crowes
If you're looking for a new band to fall in love with then I'd suggest these. If you read my musical post for February you'd have noticed I recommended a band called Gaslight Anthem, well the horrible Crowes is the lead singer, Brian Fallons side project. They released there album last year and I've just got my hands on it. It's again a great album of well balanced songs written by Fallon. Each song is well written and has a great ensemble of instruments that fit the mood for every song. Its different from The Gaslight Anthem as with their records alot of the songs are heavily influenced on Springsteen. This time gallon writes songs in a differing way, each song is well placed on the album which has a very mellow feel. It's very easy listening and would be perfect to listen to if having a bad day to help calm you down or get over your hangover. I'd hugely recommend listening to this album, the album is called Elsie and my favourite track is Behold the Hurricane, which was the lead single from this album. This song is a very Gaslight Anthem sounding song, but the rest of the album takes a different picture from this. Behold the Hurricane however is a fantastic song in my ears as it to me is very powerful and gets me thinking, it also had a great and very apt video to accompany it.
But alas there is also sorrow as my inspiration for these musical posts has hung up his blogging fingers and decided to call it a day, I'm talking of course of Musodad who was a fantastic blogger and was very talented. I of course wish him all the best and hope he stops by and offers his opinions and insights.
So without further delay and dilly dallying ( I love that phrase) here are my musical highlights of the month:
1/ Bruce Springsteen:
You might have seen at the start of the month one of my pictures in my 366 series was dedicated to the Boss. This was due to his new album, Wrecking Ball being released. It is a fantastic album, 4 out of 5 stars in my book. It is again a sign of the Boss writing fantastic songs with clever lyrics coupling it with insightful musical rhythms. Take track 4 for example my favourite track called jack of all trades. The Boss sings about being able to do anything and everything in a quite mellow song and then at the end lets the guitar do the talking itself in a total contrast to the rest of the song that really works. Then there is track 1 the single from the album, we take care of our own, it's a song that makes you think and feel that because you're a fan of the boss you're in his inner circle and a sense if community that builds during his shows that everything is ok and indeed you're part of the Bosses gang and we indeed do take care of each other. The album is a shift away from the recent magic and working on a dream, it is a Bruce Springsteen traditional American album but it is a masterpiece at that, the two songs I picked out there could easily have been any other 2 on the album, they are all worthy of an individual mention and breakdown but I don't want to bore you as I could write a dissertation on this album I love it that much.
2/ Cast
A blast from the past. I remember I was around 11 the time I was bought casts first album all change for my birthday from my older sister. I had kind of asked for it because I liked walk away the song but mainly because they were from Liverpool, my favourite place in the world and they also supported Liverpool my team. As they years went on all change became one of my favourite albums and Cadt cemented a place in my history. In 2010 I managed to see them live as the toured a special tour where they had rejoined to celebrate the anniversary of that album. As I stood and watched them memories of my childhood and that birthday came flooding back, as did my love of Cast. Then early this year I heard they were releasing a new album. I rushed to the shop to buy it in release day in march and once more found the brilliance of what I feel is a hugely underrated band who should have had more success than they did. It saddens me that this album won't make them a big success even though it is fantastic. The catchy cast songs are there like see that girl whilst there darker songs are also there like INSERT. Cast I do hope are back for good and don't walk away ( see what I did there) again, John Power is a great song writer and doesn't get enough credit in my eyes, they are a lost gem from the generation that gave us Oasis and Blur who I feel if they got as much attention would have wrote and given us songs of equal calibre as both those bands the only reason why they weren't given the same limelight is that they opted out of such shenanigans as both bands and thus had no tabloid headlines to help market them, they focused purely on the music.
3/ The Horrible Crowes
If you're looking for a new band to fall in love with then I'd suggest these. If you read my musical post for February you'd have noticed I recommended a band called Gaslight Anthem, well the horrible Crowes is the lead singer, Brian Fallons side project. They released there album last year and I've just got my hands on it. It's again a great album of well balanced songs written by Fallon. Each song is well written and has a great ensemble of instruments that fit the mood for every song. Its different from The Gaslight Anthem as with their records alot of the songs are heavily influenced on Springsteen. This time gallon writes songs in a differing way, each song is well placed on the album which has a very mellow feel. It's very easy listening and would be perfect to listen to if having a bad day to help calm you down or get over your hangover. I'd hugely recommend listening to this album, the album is called Elsie and my favourite track is Behold the Hurricane, which was the lead single from this album. This song is a very Gaslight Anthem sounding song, but the rest of the album takes a different picture from this. Behold the Hurricane however is a fantastic song in my ears as it to me is very powerful and gets me thinking, it also had a great and very apt video to accompany it.
