Day 12 of the 25 songs in 25 days challenge and I’m going to have to say “no”
[or, being a Brit, “sorry, I won’t be able to do that”]
I’m listening to demos at the moment, getting ready to work things up with the band, so I’d be breaking my own rule that I wouldn’t use this exercise to promote my own music.
A song I just heard… Well, I was listening to some stuff in the car this morning on the school run, but that wasn’t by choice
[radio selection is often down to my girls these days]
and on the way home I was listening to… you guessed it, my demos for the Grope record.
I know – I’ll just look at what was playing the last time I had iTunes open…
Oh, what a treat.
Yesterday, I was writing a little, working a little, getting myself lost in that inner flow of connecting thoughts, ideas and audience – trying to make sense of it all. As I posted recently, I often use music as both backdrop to, and route into, the muse. So it was yesterday, listening to Mark Hollis‘ eponymous solo record and, the last track I listened to, Westward Bound.
Hollis was the singer for Talk Talk, who emerged in the early 80s before disbanding a decade later. Talk Talk were tagged in the new wave/new romantic movement alongside bands such as Duran Duran and Tears For Fears, however differed in that, as their career progressed, they moved away from mass appeal and late-80s access, turning inward towards more opaque musical textures and landscapes, culminating in their masterpiece, Spirit of Eden.
I only learned that Mark Hollis had made and released a solo record in the past year or so
[and there’s a good chance you may not have heard it either]
I always loved his singing, the tonality and timbre of his voice. And after falling in love with Spirit of Eden, I had high hopes for his solo record.
I was not disappointed.
Crystalline, spare, perfect.
Aching, yearning, reassuring.
In a world of immediacy and rush to be elsewhere, this is a record that compels you to slow down, take a rest, and sit by a still pond. It’s a record that hints at what may be below that surface, that encourages you to slide into the water.
Allow yourself to drift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Im9ekz_uxs
Love-peace-trust
