reallyrather is grateful to the BBC for streaming the new Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album in it's entirety so helping confirm this blog's gut reaction having read the print reviews - ie. no thanks, Billy. Certainly, it's an OK listen but hardly compelling. Wolf among wolves and Lessons from what's poor got a repeat listen but not much else. Hard life sounds a bit like a '70s Paul Simon cast off; were they to cover it, The Be Good Tanyas could probably make me warm to it a bit more...

'So what should I listen to instead?,' you cry. Well, there's this. Before going further, an apology of sorts is in order. In the course of this blog's year-end round-up the new Shearwater album was blithely tossed into the box marked 'Disappointments'. In the intervening days this record has crept back into player and is presently holding off much of the competition. Hey, Everybody makes mistakes (for that is it's title).
What to call this sort of music? Melancholic folk-pop, maybe; predominantly dowbeat but bouyed by an irrepressible melodic sense. Like a lot of other albums which find favour round here, Everyone... hasn't had the life produced out of it; both lyrically and sonically, space is left for the listener to move in. Just reading the instrumentation in the sleevenotes gives a big clue you're in the right place: upright bass, vibraphone, Wulitzer, accordian, etc. Their sound comes together best on tracks like Soon, Room for mistakes and Safeway where drowsy (but definite) melodies play over keyboards/acoustic guitars and fat, soft notes drop from the upright bass like a dripping tap filmed in slo-mo. The muted warm tones are broken up just twice with the one-man-band-style stomps of Well,Benjamin and Mistakes where we head off into Mendoza Line/Trouble With Sweeney territory. Vocals are a boys club - Will Robinson Sheff & Jonathan Meiburg, also of Okkervil River, alternate - 'til near the end when Kim Burke's pastoral air lets the light in (even tho' the song's called All the black days!). Yep, if you prefer bric-a-brac to shiny 'n' new, sketches to the full-blown easel job, you should definitely dip your toe into Shearwater...

...instead of not just that BonniePB but also the Devics album, The stars at Saint Andrea. Like Shearwater, vocalist Sarah Lov and multi-instrumentalist Dustin O'Halloran have gone for an organic, haunting sound but unlike Shearwater, often resort to synthesized beats and sounds. In the song In my room Lov sings, 'And you, you never change / And I, I never change,' which, sadly, is so true. You've got to the bottom of this record in the first 3 tracks; thereafter, it goes nowhere rather slowly...

Hem head back over for some dates in the Spring:
Tue Apr 29 Isle Of Wight, Quay Arts Center
Wed Apr 30 London, Borderline
Thu May 1 Bristol, St Georges Hall
Sat/Sun May 3/4 Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots Festival
Like the Tanyas playing the Festival Hall, the Borderline for Hem seems a bit of a mismatch. Seven or eight players with a sound that's hardly likely to let rip - Bush Hall or (maybe) the Union Chapel, surely? Still, reallyrather will be there with the throng (tickets going pretty swiftly even though the show's months off and has barely been publicised)...

Philadelphia-based producer Brian McTear (Mazarin, Bigger Lovers, Matt Pond PA, etc) has called on a bunch of his clients/friends to help out on his own new album, released next week under the name Bitter, Bitter Weeks. He talks about this and the day job here...

Oranger resurface! San Francisco's smart but not quite clever-clever power-pop combo have just whacked out a 6-track EP on Susstones. Apparently going from inception to release in 4 days, sample track The Writer (''He was a writer of historical fiction / A heavy lifter when it came to his diction/etc') slips down v. nicely, mellowing their sound into a breezy, Harry Nilsson-like swing complete with a liberal dose of la-la-las. There's also a new album ready to roll, with Going under dishing up more of those pathetically pleasing thick chugging guitars and swirling synths. Juicy, indeed...