Music means different things to me now than it did before. Listening to say, the Nuggets Box Set now is a very different experience for me than it did when I first heard it as a teenager. Then, Nuggets (a box set of once obscure and now iconic 60's American garage pysch rock) was an 'authentic' soundtrack to my teenage hedonism. It sounded like the real deal. And within it I felt there was some psychedelic cypher waiting to be decoded. Now when I listen to those same songs I consider the musicians, then American teenagers with terrible trousers and lots of attitude, but now old men fading into horizon of middle America. Their passions and anger left behind like a forgotten hangover. It is, for me now, a rather more melancholic affair.
As the summer is now finally disappearing fast and I settle in the for long haul of winter, the choice of what to music to play is also changing. Spring and summer for me is about getting outside and living with the sun overhead and grass under my feet with my kids at my side. I love England in the spring and summer. My choice of music these past few months reflects this and has been psych folk, pastoral country and chiming guitars; the likes of which I have on occasion posted here. But now I feel myself looking for something harder and processed. Recent choices have been 'Satan's Circus' by DIV, and the Knife album. I've even been playing one or two Radiohead tracks.
However, one album I know I am far from finished playing is the Findlay Brown album 'Separated By The Sea'. It is in essence the psych folk blues of spring and summer but it is also more than the soundtrack to my bucolic daydreams. It is an album which I am told is very specifically a collection of love songs. To me it ducks and rolls and buzzes with life. It is occupied with temporary loss and yearning. It is also a record that affirms life and hope. It is a wonderfully sung and performed album. The production is perfect. Findlay's voice is close, almost as if he singing just for you. The arrangements both classic and modern. A truly remarkable record. The best album of the year so far and possibly the best British album in years.
I saw Findlay outside Niketown in Oxford Street two weeks ago. I went up to him and congratulated him on such a great record. He was a nice bloke, a little taken aback by me, a big skinhead extolling the virtues of his album back to him, but hey what's to be done ?
Check out Paperman, one of my fave tracks from 'Seperated By The Sea'. You can get a copy here - http://www.mediafire.com/?0zskzzyhtcy
Go here for more Findlay - http://www.findlaybrown.com/
T
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