When I Was Born For The 7th Time Review

When I Was Born For The 7th Time was the CD for my commute, the 1997 album by Cornershop. A break through album to use the modern term as this was the album that contained by far their most well known song in Brimful Of Asha, the tribute to Asha Bhosle, and to playback singers in general.
The album is hit and miss on the whole, the full and proper songs with lyrics and melody are perfect, but as I have mentioned previously, Cornershop do these little interludes mainly made up of beats and and odd bursts of sitar etc. This falls flat for me, I like songs and the tracks that I consider “songs” make up a pretty good album.
We have the original un fatboy slimmed version of Brimful of Asha, a slightly slower pace to it and less reliant on loops, not to say I like the fatter version, I have the single, its a great, great pop record, think about this for a second, that was 13 years ago!! Also we have the marvellous, Sleep On The Left Side, Good Shit, Candyman, Funky Days Are Back Again, a fair to middling version of Norwegian Wood and my favourite track on the album, Good to Be on the Road Back Home, which features Paula Frazer.
The songs with lyrics are so good it does make up for the other songs but as someone that hates all of these interlude things on records, I never understand how they come to be released? What’s the benefit, as an artist it’s not really getting something worthwhile out, it doesn’t release your tortured soul or even give fans something they are desperate for, its merely a cynical album filler. What good, what purpose, what benefit to listener and artist is 3 minutes of drum loop with recorded effect and bongo over the top? At the record company meeting who was it that piped up, THAT has to go on the album? I don’t know, I don’t understand I don’t think, but I do know 13 years later I can buy the MP3’s I want and not feel cheated at the end of it by buying into Cornershops. musical masturbation. 5 out of 10.



Sleep On The Left Side by Cornershop

Ferment

The next CD for my commute was the Catherine Wheel’s album Ferment. The debut album by the band, released in 1992.
I once met Catherine Wheel, they played Lion Street Cultural Centre where I volunteered during the nineties. They were fairly pleasant men and put me and a friend on the guestlist of a gig they were doing the following night in Shrewsbury, as it was supporting Levitation, I didn’t bother.
The current Mrs D liked them immensely when she was a lot younger, and it is her album that soundtracks the A roads of the Midlands, the abundance of CD singles and 12”s by this band are also down to her. She had a thing for shoe gazing bands, Moose, Lush, My Bloody Valentine etc, I didn’t. That’s why I greeted Ferment with a heavy heart and the knowledge that todays journey was going to be as good as yesterdays.
Or at least that is what I thought, you see that’s the reason why I am listening and relistening to all my CD albums. I prejudge things and do not give them a chance. This album contradicted my preconceived notion and you know what, although it was of it’s time, it wasn’t half bad.
The 1992 me was a big fan of bands that were not by any stretch of the imagination, I liked bands that had witty T-shirts, not serious bands like Catherine Wheel.
Ferment though is rather pleasant, even with the bandwagon jumping shoegaze sound, it has depth and songwriting that appears to have stood the test of time, even if the music style it is part of hasn’t.
There was a familiarity to the songs though, I was obviously aware of them as some of them were moderate indie hits, Black Mettalic certainly rings a bell and it is Rob Dickinson’s (cousin of Bruce) voice that adds to that familiarity, a soulful voice that I may have been quick to judge.
The melodies through out make it an enjoyable listen, where Coheed and Cambria failed yesterday was that the songs were lengthy and lacking melody and structure. Here Catherine Wheels songs are far from short but this is not important as they do have the melodies and structure.
All in all, I kept listening, I listened and liked what I heard and I think the current Mrs D may be surprised. Unsure if I could take another album by them though, I suspect time will tell on that. 5 out of 10.



Black Metallic by Rob Dickinson

Gordon

Friday approaches but tomorrow will be a bonus disc due to Aston Villa playing at home, but for now, the debut album by Canada’s Barenaked Ladies, Gordon.
Let me tell you a little story about the album Gordon. When I first purchased this album, possibly 93 or 94, I took it home and played it and was convinced that it was the greatest album ever written. I played it a lot and with each play it got better and better and better. I wanted to share this great album with my friends, it was so good, they needed it in their lives. The next time my very best friends came round I played them this album and to put it bluntly, they thought it was shit, and told me so. Its shit Peter. As a result of this criticism, I asked them to leave. I kicked them out of my house.
So here we are some 15 years after that incident, for the main part those friends are still my friends and potentially it has been around 10 years since I listened to Gordon. If I have heard it recently, I can’t recall.
It hasn’t weathered well in all honesty, I would be reluctant to side with friends summary of it, but it isn’t the greatest album in the world that the 20 something me though it was. It seems very heavy on ironic name dropping, Madonna, New Kids On The Block, Milli Vanilli etc, and I don’t really like irony. At times its almost like Harry Hill on You’ve Been Framed where he implies that hapless man on video clip is John Noakes or Simon Le Bon. This album is very quick to make comparisons, Brian Wilson or even Yoko Ono.
The songs though are fun and in the main upbeat, borderline comedy on Be My Yoko Ono and If I Had $1000000, considering my love of Tenacious D and Flight Of The Conchords, you may think that I find this side enamouring, you would be wrong, it is these sort of songs that have spoiled this album for me, and that so far is without mentioning the sleeve.
Let me mention the sleeve, its absolutely ghastly, it is dated, “wacky” and awful, I would not by this album now if I was judging it by it’s sleeve, it lends itself to the “zany” songs contained within, but doesn’t hint at the more serious side to this album, a side which has stood the test of time.
As I said, not a bad album, an average album, but if I had a $1000000 I would buy Vampire Weekend. 5 out of 10.



Brian Wilson by The Barenaked Ladies

Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant

Today should have been Abbey Road, but it appears that all of my kosher copies of Beatles albums, barring the White Album are unplayable in my car, Let It Be I got to play as I keep a copy in the car. It’s a pain, it probably would have got 8.
That’s neither here nor there though and you will never know my thoughts on Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.
Next along was the 2000 album by Belle and Sebastian, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant.
Today was the first time I listened to this album as a whole, I can’t recall buying it either, most of the tracks were new to me it has to be said. I am unsure why I hadn’t listened to it, but its possible that I won’t listen to the CD again.
The best thing that I can say about this album, a disappointing album, is that it is very derivative, derivative of Belle and Sebastian, it sounds like Belle and Sebastian, it sounds like every other Belle and Sebastian album and a lot of the songs sound like watered down versions of other Belle and Sebastian songs.
Its quite a downbeat album and if I didn’t know better I would say as a band they were in turmoil as no one appears to be trying, the strings on one of the tracks are a direct lift of the strings on another Belle and Sebastian album, and this is the pattern for many of the tracks on the album.
There is a particular string sound, there is a particular way of singing, the whole sound of Belle and Sebastian is the sound of a band treading water and cheating their fans, it’s the sound of a band running out of steam. A very poor and a very generous 5 out of 10.



The Wrong Girl by Belle and Sebastian

Sugar Sugar

An Archies retrospective today, Sugar Sugar is its name, after their biggest and pretty much only hit. The Archies weren’t a real band as they were a cartoon, a 60’s cartoon that was pretty lightweight to be honest, this isn’t Raw Power. It is ok in a 60’s exploitation pop kind of way, there are more bandwagons on this album than John Waynes entire film career. That all said it is executed perfectly because Jeff Barry was the main songwriter and amongst other things Jeff Barry was responsible for Leader of the pack.
The album then, an enjoyable journey, background music is what it could be described as, I wasn’t craning an ear as it is pop after all, get in, get out and if you can do it under 2 minutes that would be excellent thank you.
I recall buying this album when I worked at Virgin, I think I bought a ridiculously expensive Lesley Gore album at the same time, this wasn’t ridiculously expensive. That all said a straight down the middle 5 out of 10.

Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology Disc 2

Disc 2 today and its shaping up to be better, the 80’s rock quotient is still high, but its Aerosmith so its like complaining that there is cheese in a cheese sandwich. They are heading for a little later career fodder on the second disc, Crazy, Eat the Rich and a faithful cover of The Doors love me two times, I think vocal duties on the latter are given over to Joe Perry as it doesn’t sound too much like Steven Tyler. Yesterday they did Hangman Jury which tellingly has been the best song so far, but you know as it goes, 5 out of 10 for this disc so for the album, an average of 4.5 out of 10.

Waking The Fallen

Todays trip down the CD lane came courtesy of metal band Avenged Sevenfold, that’s METAAAAAAAALLLL!!!!!. Their 2003 album Waking the Fallen, an album that I utterly adored when it was first released and in a nutshell, take away the truly metal lyrics, its still a pretty damn fine album, considering that they briefly turned into Poison on a later album, thank heaven for small mercy’s. But every staple has a yawn and although it is a pretty good album, it does, like most of its genre, age very badly, the screaming vocals that were very VERY popular in 2003, seem altogether misguided now and the best vocals are the ones that M Shadows delivers straight. That’s said it’s a minor annoyance.
I didn’t think to much of the follow up, I may have it, the forthcoming weeks will tell me that, and I think I am hitting a bit of a rock patch with the CD’s. I digress, I saw Avenged Sevenfold at Reading Festival one year, they really disappointed me and so I kind of stopped listening to them after that, it is therefore nice to listen to this one. Also its the first CD that I never finished on my commute, that said I did shave 10 minutes off the time. 5 out of 10.

The Apples In Stereo Live at The Black Cat Washington DC 2000

I don’t own many bootlegs, I think really they are a souvenir of a concert but if you were not there it's basically a ropey recording of a band. That leads me nicely to todays commute CD, The Apples In Stereo at The Black Cat Washington in 2000. I wasn’t at this gig and the sound is ropey. The songs are pretty good though, I did like The Apples In Stereo at one point, they were borderline Dawsons Creak/OC but I forgave them for that as they did display the odd flash of genius, it’s difficult to tell on this recording as it isn’t the greatest, and then if you put that on the speakers of a ford car its even less great. To be honest though after The Avalanches yesterday most things sound good.

So its not bad, if I had the studio recordings of the tracks on the live set it could be pretty excellent, but as it’s a bootleg with ropey sound of a gig I wasn’t at, it’s a straight down the middle 5 out of 10.