A few weeks back, while grappling with the earthshattering business of a new Coldplay album, I kicked off a discussion about Brian Eno’s recent track record. I was confounded by his taste for generally working with giant and, to my ears, fundamentally quite conservative bands. After literally decades of hitching his wagon to the likes of Coldplay, U2 and, lest we forget, James, I found it fascinating that Eno still retained a profound avant-garde cachet. Have we been letting him get away with a lot of mediocre music, just because he talks cleverly about it?
I’m not, as a rule, fixated on the idea of ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ music, but still, the arrival of the third Brightblack Morning Light album last Friday was incredibly well-timed. I can’t think of a band who make such profoundly horizontal music, who create a soundtrack for being happily paralysed by extreme heat. Or, I suppose, by other stuff.
Morning, all. Just playing the excellent Telepathe album one more time, as I file the playlist from the last couple of days. I should get round to filing a review of that one next week, all being well. In the meantime, here's this week's pretty handsome selection. Don't forget to download the free Bob Dylan MP3 from http://bobdylan.com. A tantalising first taste of "Bootleg Series No 8: Tell Tale Signs", I'd say.
