Tears - Paul Bley

Advantages: Emily Haines' astonishing, mesmorising voice; the backing
Disadvantages: The plainness of a few songs, towards the end especially, be bad

...fantastic. Sure, everyone loves "Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl" - it's a brilliant song (why don't you know what I'm talking about? Go download it!) But aside from that and the odd song from her time as front woman of Metric, she hasn't got that much on her side in terms of quality. It's also quite a departure from her previous music, throwing out the electric guitars and replacing them with piano and hushed orchestration. As a result, "Knives Don't Have Your Back" is a haunting, ethereal album. It's dedicated to her father, the Canadian poet Paul Haines, as evidenced by the plain album cover which references his work as a songwriter with Carla Bley, on the album "Escalator Over The Hill". This isn't a depressed, angry sounding album in any way though, and it surprisingly doesn't focus on the death of her father, or death in general... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic display of Jazz composition
Disadvantages: Jazz isn't for everyone

...with Paul Bley on piano with rolling snare in the background. The piano sets a slow mood for around a minute but then is blown away by a mass introduction of six other musicians. This is obviously the beginning of the reincarnation. This formula is then repeated through the song, a slow part followed by a fast part followed by a slow part again… Vassarlean is the first really slow track of the album. It makes full use of Eric Dolphy on the Bass clarinet setting the sombre mood and the slow, purposeful steps taken by Mingus on Bass. This song could feature as the soundtrack to a depressed, drunken, falling-up-the-road scene in a fifties movie. Track four, "Stormy Weather", is the longest track of the album sitting at 13min 25sec and includes a three minute long bass solo that is quite different to most bass solos. It is slow and plodding... Read review

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Advantages: A couple of excellent tracks
Disadvantages: Most of this album washes over you

...I am a huge fan of The Beautiful South & have all their albums, but this one - 0898 -is not one of their best, in my opinion. There are twelve tracks on it, but the only ones that I listen to repeatedly are 'Old Red Eyes Is Back' & 'Bell - Bottomed Tear', both of which are excellent, but the rest of the album pales into insignificance in comparison to these two outstanding tracks. Of course, Paul Heaton & Briana Corrigan have beautiful voices & are always worth listening to, but if you were only going to buy one of The Beautiful South's albums, this is not the one I would recommend.... Read review

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