Sometime in the summer of 2011, I spent a pretty amazing Saturday morning at a small recording studio in Green Lanes, North London. When I walked in, a hesitant but beautiful piano line was coming through the speakers, and one of the most emotionally compelling voices I’ve encountered in the past few years was singing a song which, it transpired, would be called “Never Ending Happening”.
A couple of weeks ago, I read an interview with Scott Litt about working on “Tempest”, in which he mentioned how Dylan’s voice now reminded him, positively, of Louis Armstrong. Dylan, Litt suggested, should have a go at “Hello Dolly” sometime (The full piece is stuck behind the paywall at http://www.newyorker.com/, unfortunately).
Emmett Kelly has been making records as The Cairo Gang for a good few years now but, if he’s known at all, chances are it’s for his unusually enduring role in Will Oldham’s band: the amazing Royal Stable site suggests he’s been in on most Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy projects since 2006.
Beck is set to release his brand new album in the form of individual pieces of sheet music.
Song Reader will be put out by publishers Faber and Faber in December and will consist of the notation for 20 unrecorded and unreleased songs.
Don’t spread it about, but, yes, I’ve heard the new Dylan album. And four or five tracks in, what I was thinking was: how much better is this thing going to get?
Pondering what to write about this morning, it occurred to me that there were more things to say about my favourite albums of 2012 so far, following up from this Top 40 that I posted last week. For a start, a bunch of records that I forgot to include:
A serene beginning this morning, with a new Terry Riley album, “Aleph”. Over on my 40 Favourites Of 2012 Thus Far blog, however, things became a little less genteel yesterday, as you can see in the comments thread at the bottom of the chart.
To accompany this month’s Uncut (Take 181, June 2012), out now, which features the Bonnie “Prince” Billy/Palace icon fielding questions from fans and musicians, here’s an illuminating Album By Album piece with Will Oldham, talking to Andrew Mueller, from Uncut’s April 2009 issue. “I feel more confident about things now,” he says. “Which frees up space for me to feel insecure about a whole new range of stuff…”
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Plenty to be getting on with here, but a couple of things before I run this week’s list. First up, after all the talk (plugs own blog once more), Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s “Oh Susannah” is out there. Video after the jump.
The new Uncut is on sale from Thursday, and we’re blushingly pleased with it. Dexys are on the cover, and we have an exclusive interview with Kevin Rowland in advance of their keenly-awaited comeback album, the astonishing One Day I’m Going To Soar.
