Sunday, February 22, 2009

Things sounding new and fresh.

I listened to Television's Marquee Moon today for the first time in quite a few years.

OK, it is one of those albums that is on every "Must Hear" and "Classic Albums" lists but it really does deserve to be there.

I hadn't forgot how good it is but I had forgotten exactly how good it is. It sounds simply STUNNING.

I recently bought a new CD deck, a Cambridge Audio one, and the output quality is fantastic. I am hearing things I haven't heard before, or if I had, I've forgotten about.

I had been thinking about changing my speakers, thinking they were on the way out, but I think it was my old CD deck giving up the ghost, slowly. Once the "Play" button went, my hand was forced. So it was off to Richer Sounds and some credit card abuse.

As I write, I am listening to McAlmont and Butler's 2002 album Bring It Back and this sounds amazing too, brilliant wall of sound production. Bernard Butler is a great producer, as well as a great guitarist.

I suspect that no one would be bothering with Duffy if BB wasn't twiddling the knobs and sliding the faders.

4 comments:

Luke-sensei said...

Good call on Marquee Moon! One of those albums that I listened to because I thought I should, but wasn't impressed at all.
But, when myself and Mrs Japanther moved in together it was in her vinyl collection and I listened again, and again....and it suddenly clicked! Now I think it's amazing and it gets a regular outing in the Japanther household....great stuff! Actually, with this drizzle and blanket of grey covering the sky, I might stick it on now......

Anonymous said...

Now I've never really understood the level of awe shown towards MarqueeMoon, but DoubleDonds for BernardButler's GuitarGreatness & ProducerPerformances . . . People Move On is a perennial DsD fave album, particularly "Stay".

In fact I think I've just chosen the musical accompaniment to my first stint at catching up on the last two weeks; thanks for that, Carole.

sourpus said...

I just wanna say something about Marquee Moon.

I joined a band when I was about 27 (18 years ago now) and they had a single out which impressed me mightily at the time. I had been searching for 10 years for the right band of my own and had failed parlously to achieve this aim, so I was certainly nervous about taking a back seat in someone else's.

My list of qualifications for membership of this band was a small collection of records that the other guys had been listening to over and over again for years (they were all older than me) to the exclusion of everything else. I had a MUCH wider variety of musical tastes than the rest of the band, but because I was intimate with albums like 'Hunky Dory', the first Stooges album, and was more than familiar with Burt Bacharach, I was in.

One from that small collection of albums was 'Marquee Moon', which I had only started to listen to a couple of years before that. It was my homework for learning to play with them (I started out on bass with them, then moved to guitar).

Overfamiliarity always sets in in these circumstances and I needed a long break from it, which still isn't over. A powerful love of The Strokes brought me back to it for a while a few years back, but im back on that 'MM' sabatical at the moment.

Nevertheless, like 'Remain in Light', 'Marquee Moon' will never be too far from me - its actually on my iPod right now, waiting for me to welcome it back to my heart.

Carole said...

I know what you mean about music that is never far from you, sourpus.

There are a few albums that I know so well and have played to death over the years.

I have holidays from listening to them, then I really miss them and give them a turn in the CD player again.

It is a nice idea for a thread, I think I'll start one.