NATURAL CHILD - Hard In Heaven

 

 

 

Natural Child is the latest in a line of Nashville-based garage rock acts that includes JEFF the Brotherhood and PUJOL, but Natural Child has the distinction of being the sleaziest of the bunch. Their sleaze is an earnest sleaze— blues-rock in the vein of Beggars Banquet-era Rolling Stones, played with the sloppy grit of garage outfits such as the Oblivians. Hard in Heaven is Natural Child’s third LP (their second of 2012) and their most entertaining selection of songs to date.

 

 

So ... if you miss the sounds of the early 70s ... or the US punk scene of the mid-70s .... then this album is most definitely for you

 

 

Laid, Paid and Strange

 

 

 

 

Rock Bottom

 

 

 

 

B$g P$mp$n

 

 

 

 

Hard In Heaven

 

 

 

 

THE GREEN PAJAMAS - Death By Misadventure

 

At the outset, I am quite prepared to accept that this band is an acquired taste, but it is a taste I came to love fairly quickly.  When sorting this into my collection (for, as a true geek, I categorise all of my albums), I decided after much thought to file it in the section marked "The Decemberists meet The Flaming Lips in a Rumanian tavern" - a little-used category, it has to be said .... indeed, this is the only album in it so far!

 

 

This, in itself, is a surprise, as this is the THIRTIETH (yep!) album by the band under this and other guises. Hailing from Seatlle, Washington, Death By Misadventure, is built around the epic song cycle, starting with The Fall of the Queen Bee. This peculiar assortment of songs  takes place in her colony and includes the ultimate death of The Queen and her court by decadent misadventure. This is, of course, a fictional work, and any resemblance to real people living, dead or otherwise, is completely intentional.

 

 

As I said, an album you have to live with a while, but one that pays real dividends with repeated listens

 

 

The Spell

 

 

 

 

The Queen's Last Tango

 

 

 

 

The Queen Bee Is Dead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BALTHAZAR - Rats

 

To think that I almost gave up on this album after one listen!  Balthazar are from Belgium and released a rather jolly, jaunty, indie-punk-pop album back in 2010 called "Applause"; an album I spent a lot of time listening to and enjoying.

 

 

I was thus rather excited when this was released but, during the first playing, was convinced that this must be another band with the same name. However, I checked, and it was the very same band. The jolly, danceable, songs of their debut and had been replaced by what I initially thought was a rather dour, somewhat po-faced, collection of songs.

 

 

Over the next few weeks, when I had the iPod on random, the odd track would come on which would have me reaching to see who the band was because the track sounded great. Every time, I was surprised to see it was this lot. 

 

 

So I listened again, and again, and again, and with each play the album opened up for me. In fact, to such an extent that their debut started to sound a little ... shallow.

 

 

I strongly urge you to give these tracks a couple of listens because this album is the very definition of a "grower" ... an album that gives you more and more with each successive playing. I now rather regret not including it in my top 10 albums of last year

 

 

You can download the album here

 

 

The Oldest Of Sisters

 

 

 

 

Sinking Ship

 

 

 

 

and this is simply stunning ....

 

 

The Man Who Owns The Place

 

 

 

I WAS A KING : You Love It Here

Proving that the English and Americans do not have all the good tunes, I present for your delectation the wonderful Norwegian band I Was A King. Now, let me say at the outset, you'll never guess at their Scandinavian origins by listening to any of the tracks on this wonderful CD.  You are much more likely to guess they come from the sunny west coast of America ... probably more San Francisco than LA .... because this is perfect west coast pop music

 

Don't take my word for it, though .... grab a listen!

 

The album is available to download here 

 

Leave

 

 

Frozen Disease

 

 

Fire (Toast To Life)