Apparently, I buy too many records

My wife Helen, like every other woman i've ever lived with, believes that I buy too many records.

Which, as every record-buying man knows, is a ridiculous belief.

I will concede, however, that I do indeed buy a lot of records and that I don't afford them the same amount of listens and attention that I did 20 or 30 years ago.

To this end, I have decided to blog about the records that I buy, in order to help my appreciation of them - and perhaps to show Helen that I don't buy that many records after all.

Because i'm crap with deadlines the blog posts will be sporadic and probably be about a month or 2 behind but that's just the way i am! The posts will not necessarily be actual reviews (most likely comments, at best) and will generally be pretty damn short due to the reasons outlined above. As a writer in a previous existence i have decided not to worry about writing as art in the pieces but, instead, to attempt to convey feeling over semantic (and often grammatic) perfection.

And 'OCRB'? It stands for 'Obsessive Compulsive Record Buying' - a little known mental health affliction that is potentially damaging to the bank account but ultimately life-affirming. It is sad.......but a nice form of sad.

Friday, 28 January 2011

The Decemberists: The King is Dead (Rough Trade)

Their last album was quite widely slagged for being 'prog-folk' and overblown, but i thought it was a really brave, and rather bold, step forward and i always like it when musicians take risks. Unfortunately, they all too often follow this risk taking with a return to 'the norm' or even an attempt to bury the experiment by going all out for commercial success. This album is a bit of both, and will probably be the one that really puts them on the World map, which is good for them commercially but is often followed by a negative sliding scale of artistic quality. Don't get me wrong - this is a very good, occasionally great ('This is why we fight' particularly) album but a little obvious, a little clichéd (check the photo on the back - "we are serious folk musicians") and a little too much REM at times. And having Peter Buck on the album just adds weight to the accusations. Enjoyable though, in a comfy familiar kinda fashion.
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