Audio Journal : 15/06/2009

I’m writing this from a hotel room in Canary Wharf, listening to my wife’s iPod on a Bose Wave system (I’ve been nagging on about getting one of these for years, a plea which has, to date, fallen on deaf ears). We’re off to see Kings of Leon at the O2, just a short distance across the water from where I’m sitting, but a complex series of DLR trains and water taxis will likely be employed just to get us there. As much as I’m looking forward to seeing the band this evening, I know already just how good they’re going to be, and so don’t really feel the need to write to write anything about them.

Last night we watched Keep On Running, the BBC Four documentary charting the fiftieth anniversary of Island Records, a label which I’ve never particularly rated or considered as anything other than purveyors of that high-brow, purist rock music that people of a certain age think to be the best sort of music ever made. Watching the documentary didn’t particularly change my mind, though I did think Chris Blackwell came across as a thoroughly nice bloke, and the space and time afforded to the artists clearly created benefited the outputs.

Nevertheless, I’m not a fan of much of the label’s purportedly classic roster, beyond King Crimson’s In The Court Of The Crimson King, Roxy Music’s eponymously-titled album, the occasional U2 album, The Orb, Brian Eno… Actually, perhaps I like more of the artists than I previously thought. In that case, Pulp circa ‘Disco 2000’ as well for good measure just for the memories those songs evoke of the tail end of my first year at university.

Then there’s PJ Harvey. I first listened to PJ as a guest vocalist on Nick Cave’s ‘Henry Lee’, then picked up her New York-referencing 2000 album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, principally because of the involvement of Cave’s (red) right hand man, Mick (no relation) Harvey. We don’t listen to a lot of women singers in our house as my wife has always had something of an aversion but that seems to have changed of late. We bought PJ’s other classic album, To Bring You My Love recently and it’s rarely been off the car stereo since.

The other thing we’ve both been listening to of late are the first and third albums of Rough Trade band The Veils which my wife bought from iTunes after the same Rough Trade documentary which inspired me a few weeks back. I know nothing about them beyond a cursory glance at a Wikipedia entry, and the first album doesn’t do anything for me. However, the third, Sun Gangs, is a much more complete affair, vocalist Finn Andrews’ voice landing somewhere between Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley. Key tracks to check out are the opener, ’Sit Down By The Fire’, ’It Hits Deeper’ and my personal favourite ’The Letter’.