Best Ever Albums

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Sun, 2 Jun 2019 19:23:20 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 06/02/2019 23:23

Songs For The Gentle Man

I may have heard this before and forgotten it, because I apparently had St. John confused with Buffy Sainte-Marie going into this. Lesson learned, I suppose.

This one was somewhat akin to Bunyan’s, but instead of Vashti’s sweet, pigeon-y cooing, we get Bridget’s smoky, Nico-esque contralto. The songs are really just as lovely, but I’d point out that St. John’s guitar technique and songwriting are superior. Great album.

Death And The Lady

Another gem. Mills has an incredible voice and does a fantastic job with these ballads. And set against Raven’s flamenco guitar, it’s a killer blend. “The Queen Of The Night” is especially gorgeous.

There’s a lot to get into with Raven, too. Apparently, he’s appeared on about 50 albums. Incredible.

—————

Okay! My rankings:

1. Visions Of The Country
2. Stargazer
3. Morning Way
4. Death And The Lady
5. Just Another Diamond Day
6. Bryter Layter
7. Frost And Fire
8. Bryter Layter
9. Teulu Yncl Sam
10. The Blue Trees

2-9 are fairly interchangeable. I can’t cast my vote for Visions Of The Country or see the results, so I’ll just assume that my pick won.

Great chart, Jimmy. I’m sure that at some point I’ll get around to listening to most or all of the other 90 albums...peace!

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Sun, 2 Jun 2019 13:04:43 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 06/02/2019 17:04

Visions Of The Country

Basho must have had great visions of the country from atop his perch on Mt. Olympus, because the man sounds like Zeus himself, regaling us mere mortals from on high in the clouds. I was foaming at the mouth to get to this album after learning of his connections to both Fahey and Ali Akbar Khan...I knew it was going to be special. But, I wasn’t expecting this; this is the kind of music you dream of finding. And at no point could I accept that I was listening to the performance of a mere mortal. His picking is excellent...his voice too...his hand at the keys...the man even whistles like he’s practiced for centuries.

Thanks for including this; what a fantastic record. It’s got a commanding lead, but I still have two albums to give a fair shake.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Sat, 1 Jun 2019 23:11:56 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 06/02/2019 03:11

Frost And Fire

This was a picturesque rememberance of times past and another style of music that I had little exposure to (outside of FC, perhaps). I found a site which has catalogued The Watersons discography and provided full lyrics and the liner notes from the original LP (I’ll post a link below for anyone interested). That was something a Yank such as myself desperately needed, given the somewhat archaic language used. It meant spending longer with the album, but it made a for a more rewarding listen.

My favorite thing about this record is the fact that they collected these related songs and arranged them to present the passing of seasons and, ultimately, an entire year. It was a nice touch, and they really did a masterful job of breathing life back into a way of life that is mostly gone. You can smell the salt from the sea and feel the cold at your back as you carol.

I’ve had a passing interest in these old ballads collected by Child, Sharp, etc. for some time, and this was a good step down that path. I had listened to Anne Briggs just a few days ago (which I’ll have to revisit), and this album got me looking around for similar artists. John Langstaff is a great balladeer that I found, a baritone that sung solo either unaccompanied or with piano. He was American and did sing some American tunes, but mostly secular English ballads, as far as I can tell. I’m sure I’ll dig up more at some point. It’s just a fascinating style, and I’d like to learn more about the ballad structure and better survey some of the topics used (some of the ballads Langstaff sung were grim). There seemed to be many that you just don’t hear in song anymore.

Here’s the link for anyone needing help digesting this album:

https://mainlynorfolk.info/watersons/songs/index.html

Just Another Diamond Day

This was the only album on the list that I’ve previously heard. I thought it was phenomenal then, and even more so on second listen. Vashti walks such a fine line between banality and mawkishness, and manages to keep out of either the entire way. Except for “Lily Pond”...she zig zags on that tune.

Anyways, this is a one-of-a-kind record, and it’s a shame she (Briggs and Shelagh, as well) withdrew from recording. A few more albums like this would have been incredible, but I do have her latest two to check out.

————

This is a really tight race. Stargazer might still be in the lead, maybe not.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

baystateoftheart — Fri, 31 May 2019 21:09:06 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 06/01/2019 01:09

dihansse wrote:

Funny, I thought we were on the June 2019 poll and was wondering why I already had missed so much reactions... until I discovered this was the June 2018 thread.
My memory is really not what it used to be :wink:

Just added years to all the thread subjects going back to the beginning so that it will be less confusing for bumped threads going forward.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Fri, 31 May 2019 18:04:39 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 05/31/2019 22:04

The Blue Trees

After reading their bio, I was anticipating hearing more psychedelic material than what’s found on the album, but I’m sure earlier albums were probably being referenced. “Foot And Mouth ‘68” was the only psychedelic track, and given my bias, it was my favorite. That track really paints a nice little dreamscape. “This Summer’s Been Good From The Start” (and a couple of the others) has a soothing Appalachian folk flavor that I adored. My only complaint with this album is that it steers towards indie rock with “Fresher Than The Sweetness In Water” and “Face Like Summer”, and I’m not big on indie. They felt a bit misplaced on the album.

I’m also listening to Spanish Dance Troupe as I write this, due to this album being so short and also their first release without a founding member. It’s a slightly different listen, and I can hear more of the psychedelia. “Hair like monkey teeth like dog!” Gah, what a freaky gem.

Morning Way

I don’t know if I can say enough good things about this album. It was similar on a couple of levels to one of my favorite albums, Blows Against The Empire. McAuley and Dyble have a dynamic that is reminiscent of Kantner and Slick, and Morning Way also carries along with the same sort of eclecticism that makes Empire so great. I was hooked on that alone.

The real sparkler here is “Down And Out Blues”. Dyble’s singing is so far out of this world, I really question whether folk was the right avenue for her. Her voice is perfectly suited to blues, and I haven’t heard another track from her with the same level, the same quality of tone and nuance. I think it may be that for the most part she sang outside her natural range, because this song is definitely within it. What a track.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Thu, 30 May 2019 23:51:10 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 05/31/2019 03:51

I know that power that music holds in its homeland. I was born not far from towns that can claim guys like Robert Johnson, and the feeling down there’s the same. If you’ve ever been down a dusty back road in Mississippi, you can feel the blues in the River, the fields, the hill country, the road. You even have Delta Blues festivals down there much like the eisteddfodau in Wales.

I’m honestly pretty ignorant of Welsh culture at large; I’ve never even met anyone Welsh. The music goes with that, and if their choral music is at the heart of their music, I’ll need to hear more to get closer to its power.

Thanks for painting such a vivid picture, I needed the perspective.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jimmy Dread — Thu, 30 May 2019 16:59:17 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 05/30/2019 20:59

So some more about Sidan. One of my best friends is a native Welsh speaker and throughout my university career spent most of his time trying to promote all things Cymraeg on a College Radio programme ("The Pleasant Radio Show") we used to host. Super Furry Animals, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci (more on them later) and even Welsh language hip-hop made an appearance... in fact the latter is so hilarious I'm going to post it here although it has no bearing on anything else in this thread:

Link

Anyway, this fascination continued into the 00s with the discovery of this LP:

And it's from this I first discovered Sidan - 5 lasses from Yr Wyddgrug (or Mold to you English speakers - just over the border in North Wales, about 20 minutes from JoD-land) who take Welsh choral music and wrap it round everything from folk to pop to something that sounds like Suzi Quatro nicked. I spent years trying to track this LP down having heard a handful of tracks, and finally found it courtesy of a record shop in Altrincham a few years back.

Personally, and as someone who spent many years driving backwards and forwards to North Wales for work (especially down the North Wales expressway, or the A55 if you prefer), it was always the album I stuck on as soon as I crossed the border. Something that always amused me was the bilingual sign for Flint, which I felt was an example of dual language signage gone overly PC (its Welsh name being "Fflint"). Anyway, I digress.

Driving through the North Wales countryside, with the Liverpool Bay on your right and Snowdonia in the distance gives this album a whole new level of meaning. Released during the 70s on Sain Records - a dedicated Welsh-language label also home to Meic Stevens, Daffyd Iwan and Huw Jones - and despite being released during a time when Welsh nationalism was on the rise (which saw protests for Welsh-language radio and TV stations, as well as the birth of Meibion Glyndŵr, a militant pro-nationalist movement who burned down holiday homes owned by the English), Teulu Yncl Sam is as far from a protest record as you could get. However, what it does do is draw on Welsh tradition (language, choral harmony, traditional folk - "Ble'r Ei Di", for example, is a Welsh nursery rhyme and folk standard), and in doing so absorbs various 70s musical forms (pop rock, ballad, even a little funk ("Ar Goll") thrown in) to produce something that whilst not 100% "folk" has that otherworldly quality to seem completely out-of-kilter with anything else that was going on in the rest of the UK at the time.

Like all Welsh language music in the 70s, Teulu Yncl Sam never found an audience outside its homeland (although it might have done in Patagonia, but I don't have the stats). In a time when Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams and the rest of the Wales Rugby Team were winning Triple Crowns year after year, this new-found sense of identity found a natural home in self-produced music, of which I'm yet to find a more enchanting and beautiful example of than Sidan's debut.

For me, the two key tracks are "Gwnyt Yr Haf" (Summer's Wind) and "Yr Haf" (Summer). The harmonies are some of the most gorgeous I've ever heard, like you're gate-crashing choir practice for an Eisteddfod show (look it up). But the tranquility belies the fact, especially with the latter, that you're standing on a hill-top overlooking sheep grazing on an unspoiled Denbighshire hillside with a Force 8 gale blowing your pac-a-mac off your shoulders. The album is one of the most innocent and intimate I own, despite "Ar Goll" having an opening drum beat which would make a killer sample and "Di Enw" having some mean choppy wah-wah guitar running through it. Oddly, for an ostensibly folk LP, they both fit in quite nicely.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jimmy Dread — Thu, 30 May 2019 13:53:17 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 05/30/2019 17:53

Nothing wrong with a bump. Personally I’m glad someone’s taken the trouble to interact, as not only has it forced me out of semi-retirement on the forums but it’s also meant I get to wax lyrical about some possibly obscure albums I bloody love the socks off, including Sidan’s which I’ll come onto later after I’ve had my tea.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Thu, 30 May 2019 13:44:17 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 05/30/2019 17:44

dihansse wrote:

I realized this after I bumped the thread. Hopefully people don’t post in the wrong one.

———

Updated my post on the Sidan record. Stargazer is still in the lead.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

dihansse — Thu, 30 May 2019 12:58:47 GMT

Author: dihansse

Posted: 05/30/2019 16:58

Funny, I thought we were on the June 2019 poll and was wondering why I already had missed so much reactions... until I discovered this was the June 2018 thread.
My memory is really not what it used to be 😉

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Thu, 30 May 2019 05:00:50 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 05/30/2019 09:00

Teulu Yncl Sam

This is going to be a difficult album for me to assess, given its peculiararity. I’ve never listened to anything in Welsh, so I’m gonna take a track by track approach, otherwise they’re all going to blend together and muddy my thoughts.

Helo - Hello to you, too. It’s a fine introductory track, but I feel as if I’m listening to a Welsh Sesame Street compilation.

Y Rhwyd - This one’s a keeper...lovely and dreamy.

Carol - Not quite as lovely, but even dreamier. Another keeper.

Doli Glwt - Pop rocker. Can take it or leave it.

Gwynt Yr Haf - This is fine, but musically it’s pretty unremarkable. Sounds like a Christmas carol.

Ble’r Ei Di - Great harmony.

Dwi Ddim Isio... - Catchier pop rocker. Do do do do do do 24 track!

Dyn Yr Eira - Good folk rocker, I just wish the drums weren’t so bland.

Paid â Deud - More great harmony. Perfect for napping in church.

Gwyll - Another keeper. The harmonized vocals over what sounds to be a singer-songwriter guitar tune. Unique.

Di Enw - A pop number, but I dig it. The tempo changes are a nice touch.

Canaf Gân - This album is starting to wear on me.

Yr Haf - Nice piano tune, but not much to sink your teeth into.

Ar Goll - More soft funk rock.

Ffarwel - Another dreamy tune, I wish there had been more of these. Keeper.

What a roller coaster. There’s some really gorgeous folk numbers mixed in with mediocre pop numbers. It’s not a great album overall for me, but there are some really strong tracks that I’d love to hear again.

Context would also go a long way here, but I can’t track down much information on the group or the album. It’s a bolt in the blue, and I have no idea what the source of inspiration was for this record. And, is there any idea of what’s being sung?

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Thu, 30 May 2019 03:48:51 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 05/30/2019 07:48

Well said, and I can appreciate the powerful sway an album can hold over you. I’ve only listened to BL just once, so there’s a strong possibility that its power over me will grow. I just didn’t hear anything as Earth stopping as “Horn” on this first listen.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jimmy Dread — Thu, 30 May 2019 02:41:45 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 05/30/2019 06:41

Oh I’m all about the quixotic sentimentalities. Especially if I’m playing Scrabble.

On topic though, I think BL and FLL have an air of English romanticism about them, at times even (dare I say it) a little quaint and parochial, which resonates more with me than the starkness of PM. As someone who’s travelled throughout England for work with his music for company, and who by his own admission will always be a hopeless dreamer with his head in the clouds (as well as the eternal optimist) I find it virtually impossible to take any personal sentimentality out of an assessment of Nick - I associate his first two albums with happy times, memories of my late Mother (who loved his music too), a personal awakening of my creative spirit and my quest to find the perfect folk angel in a floaty skirt that I never met but would have gladly taken for a picnic. Whilst I love PM (and even his four post-PM tracks, “Black-Eyed Dog” especially), it’s an album that doesn’t fire my imagination like his first two do.

As the source of my pastoral epiphany Bryter Layter will always hold a place in my heart. No objective critique or star rating could ever quantify that.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Wed, 29 May 2019 22:15:58 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 05/30/2019 02:15

@ Jimmy Dread

I try not to involve quixotic sentimentalities in my appraisal of music, though I suppose it can be hard to do in a case such as Drake. I really just think he was getting better with time. He was only 23 when he recorded Pink Moon; the room for growth was staggering. He had the talent to compile a discography that would have overshadowed the one he left behind, given a chance.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Skinny — Wed, 29 May 2019 18:43:48 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 05/29/2019 22:43

Everything Jimmy said re: Nick Drake's discography is pretty true. It is the closest to perfect. Any one could be the best. Depending on day or season. But BL and PM are usually the top two.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Hayden — Wed, 29 May 2019 18:30:44 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 05/29/2019 22:30

Jimmy Dread wrote:

Personally, I'm always puzzled by all the adulation Pink Moon gets compared to Bryter Layter and Five Leaves Left. It's an outstanding album, true - but then all of Nick's albums are.

Regardless of your take, Nick has what I consider to be the most perfect discography of any artist, and for me personally Bryter Layter is the absolute epitome of it. I think it should be required listening for anyone who yearns to escape from a Home Counties cul-de-sac.

I've often thought of replacing Pink Moon with Five Leaves Left on my overall simply because of this. All of his albums get a perfect score for me, and my favourite changes from time-to-time. Pink Moon certainly has this psychedelic mistiness to it that garners a draw over his earlier work, but by all means his songwriting was equal across the board.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jimmy Dread — Wed, 29 May 2019 17:17:44 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 05/29/2019 21:17

One thing I've learnt from these threads is that unless the chart maker engages they quickly get buried, so a lesson there for all. But I'm really glad someone's taken the trouble to leave such a deep analysis on a couple of these albums, both of which mean a lot to me for various reasons. I've always been proud of this folk chart - a true labour of love, much like my reggae and indie-pop ones (the latter long overdue an update) - which has changed a little since this thread last featured, specifically with the inclusion of...

Cruel Sister by Pentangle

But back to Bryter Layter. I could write and write about this album and what it's done for me over the years, and whilst it wasn't the first Nick album I listened to in its entirety (the first CD I got was the Way To Blue compy, and I purposely went for the studio albums after that in order of release) it's the one that contains my all-time favourite Nick moment, as well as the song that first exposed me to his genius in "Northern Sky". For a teenage townie, it was always the album that always transported me away from the humdrum of a Surrey suburb and into the countryside; into a rural - but not archaic - world of nature. A world of daisy-filled meadows and ploughed fields, of playing pooh sticks in streams under moonbeams, of the church down some winding single-track road ringing out wedding bells, of the village shop that only stocked loose tobacco and homemade produce, of simple times and wind chimes, of a childhood long since forgotten, of beauty. Daft as it is to say I've always seen it as his most English album, and perhaps that's why it resonates with me more than anything else he ever did. The instrumentals are all outstandingly atmospheric, "Fly" sounds like a hymn, "Chime Of A City Clock" sounds like a Soho pre-the strip bars with clouds of smoke coming out the myriad of jazz clubs that perhaps you could almost imagine "Poor Boy" emanating from. And as for "Northern Sky" - well, it's quite possibly one of those 'perfect' songs us mere mortals only dream about writing, as well as illustrating the dichotomy between a hopelessly romantic and romantically hopeless Nick. The line "would you love me through the winter/would you love me 'til I'm dead" could possibly be - aside from "now we rise/and we are everywhere" - the most poignant lyric he ever wrote.

Personally, I'm always puzzled by all the adulation Pink Moon gets compared to Bryter Layter and Five Leaves Left. It's an outstanding album, true - but then all of Nick's albums are. Does it get the postmortem kudos reserved for 'that tragic final LP' considering his passing? Possibly - and especially when one considers the lyrics to "From The Morning". Does an unaccompanied Nick sound more pained and possibly a more engaging, intimate listen? Almost certainly - but I personally adore Robert Kirby's arrangements. Or - controversially - is the fragile, depressed, pained Nick of Pink Moon a bigger draw than the contented, driven and optimistic songwriter of his previous two albums? Maybe us human beings are just a bunch of shits. And fuck knows it's far harder to write a happy song than a sad one.

Regardless of your take, Nick has what I consider to be the most perfect discography of any artist, and for me personally Bryter Layter is the absolute epitome of it. I think it should be required listening for anyone who yearns to escape from a Home Counties cul-de-sac.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

Jameth — Wed, 29 May 2019 15:32:21 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 05/29/2019 19:32

Reviving this thread because this is a chart that I’ve been wanting/meaning to thoroughly go through for a long time now. If I’m not mistaken, this chart is how I discovered this site, as I was searching for some recs to really delve into folk. I never got around to it, since my listening seems to fly around all over the place, but I’m coming back to this and plan to stay awhile. I might be talking to myself here, but that’s okay.

Bryter Layter

I’m glad this one was included. I’ve owned all three of his records for years, but never listened to this one. I think deep down, I enjoyed the thought that I always would have a new Drake album to listen to. But, it was time.

My initial, overall impression of the album is that the production by Boyd was heavy handed. On some tracks, it’s mildly distracting, but on “Hazy Jane II”, it verges on infuriating. Drake’s guitar is all but completely buried, and Pegg and Mattacks are...I don’t know what they’re doing. Pegg is playing the same sort of plodding bass line that he’d play on Fairport tracks. It’s a disappointing track, but the album gets much better from there.

Tracks 3-5, each one seems lovelier than the last. Pegg really nails his bass parts on “Hazy Jane I”. The title track seems like an unfinished piece that never goes anywhere. I read that Drake originally intended for an instrumental to open and close both sides of the album, but one was cut. Maybe this piece would have played off the one that was cut, I don’t know.

The album finishes strong after that. Maybe the jazz treatment given to “Poor Boy” could have been better done, but it works. “Sunday” is gorgeous, and probably my favorite track on the album.

There are some great tracks here, but I don’t think this album is going to overtake the other two for me. It’s obvious why Drake told Boyd that he just wanted to record his guitar when he went back to Island to record Pink Moon. As for Drake’s part, he probably spent the next two years honing his craft, because his guitar work here doesn’t seem to be as sophisticated as it is on Pink Moon. Maybe it’s just because I can’t hear him half the time.

Stargazer

Fantastic album. “Lonely King”, “Dowie Dens Of Yarrow”, “Canadian Man”, “Odyssey”, and “Stargazer” are some of the best folk songs I’ve heard. “Dowie Dens Of Yarrow” is actually the closest I’ve ever heard a track get to sounding as if it’s off Liege. It probably helps that it seems to be Mattacks playing in the same style he used on tracks like “Reyardine”, but McDonald’s delivery is superb.

She really does have an excellent voice, and I get the Denny comparisons. Though, on the first side she seems to sing more in Joni’s range and style, before sounding closer to Denny as the album progresses. It’s also interesting to see two albums at the top that are prominently backed by members of Fairport.

This one’s a must buy, and my favorite so far. Still eight albums ahead.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

RoundTheBend — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 18:35:23 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 06/26/2018 22:35

baystateoftheart wrote:

See post above with image of all ten

Doh!

I saw that earlier, but it's been like a month. Must be fantastic through your setup!

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2018 Thread - Jimmy Dread

baystateoftheart — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 17:42:11 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 06/26/2018 21:42

sethmadsen wrote:

You have any of this on wax? I imagine all of those records would sound amazing on a good setup.

See post above with image of all ten