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.

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Little Roy: Battle for Seattle (Ark recordings)

Album Review: Little Roy - 'Battle For Seattle'
I must admit that all the other reggae versions of rock bands have left me rather cold - i felt they added nothing new to the originals (few of which i cared about in the first place anyway) so the chances of this being any different were pretty slim. After hearing a couple of tracks online i became more intrigued so decided to take the chance and get the album, and fuck me did i make the right decision.

Little Roy and gang have turned these songs into something completely unprecedented - they actually sound like original reggae songs rather than covers, the lyrics fit the genre beautifully and the change in rhythms suit them perfectly. The Welson organ that is all over this album lends the whole thing a mellow roots feel and the horns inject life in all the right places. I knew these songs so well before hearing these versions that i thought it would be hard to mess with the memory but my perception has now been completely skewed and, as such, i will never hear the originals in the same way again. Recommended for reggae fans, non blinkered nirvana fans and just about everybody else.

Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)