An Otherwise Negative Situation. Geoff Palmer

With 'Charts And Graphs' Geoff Palmer in my book hit an awesome high. The album is filled to the brim with fantastic powerpop hits that made me dance and sing through the my living room. With An Otherwise Negative Situation Palmer comes very close to this level of musicianship.

What gets me most when listening to Geoff Palmer's music is how upbeat it is. He presents the kind of music that makes me feel good and puts a smile on my face. Undeniably American rock music, he plays like The Beach Boys on speed, enter The Ramones. What do you get from that mix? 'Surfin' Nebraska of course.

The comparison is too easy because Palmer's trump card is the pop dose he infuses his songs with. They all have (t)his touch of pop that makes you want to sing along and makes the songs turn around and around in your head. I'm sure I've written it before, but just like his former band mate Brad Marino, it's like writing a good song does not take any effort. Most likely it is the opposite, that it takes a lot of effort to make it come out so nice. Whether pure talent or hard work, it shows on An Otherwise Negative Situation. Let me give you two examples.

Take 'Dark Thoughts'. The song starts like a Powerpop song. All pretty straightforward, after the melodic intro. Slowly but surely the song expands with a guitar overdub, and another and another one. More and more melody is let. There's even a place for a poppy bridge, culminating in a great and effective guitar solo. This is what Geoff Palmer is capable of.

'FOMO' starts with a drum rhythm and a few little musical exercises. Then a The Ramones style song kicks in. The tight punky rhythm tells you all. And then Palmer starts to throw his magic in the form of a chorus that no The Ramones song ever held. Just like the guitar solo comes from another musical universe. It's this playing with different aspects of rock music that make his music so rich and a pleasure to listen to.

With An Otherwise Negative Situation Geoff Palmer, again, created a very positive one for his fans. Rests for me to give an apology. It turns out that I was on the guestlist of a Kurt Baker show in Tokio last month. with Palmer on guitar, most likely with thanks to Geoff Palmer by way of his record label. My account was blocked and I only found out after being able to open it again once at home. To my regret, I did not show up because of this. I would have loved to be there and shake hands. Next time here in NL?

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order An Otherwise Negative Situation here:

https://geoffpalmer.bandcamp.com/album/an-otherwise-negative-situation

Laugh Track. The National

A few weeks ago, out of the blue The National dropped a second album this year. To get the album physically, we had to be patient for a few more weeks but on 17 November it was possible to buy it. I did, and to my delight.

No longer to my surprise but had you asked me a few years ago whether I would buy two albums of the band in one year, I would have asked you, what are you thinking? Somehow the band totally eluded me from the very start. I have no explanation. The only one I can give you is that reviews must not have attracted me in any way. Somewhere in the previous decade the band, to me, all of a sudden was presented as an important band to follow. I did not get the excitement listening to whatever album.

Somehow that changed, slowly, and mostly because singer Matt Berninger's solo album found its way into my home. So, the step to the previous The National album, 'First Two Pages Of Frankenstein', album was not that big anymore. And then I checked the blog and found a review of 'Trouble Will Find Me' from my hand. Recognising the cover, I checked some more and found I had a cd in my home, I had forgotten all about.

Something changed. In my review from 2013 I wrote that despite having listened many times to the album, "I do not know what to write about this new album of The National". That's happened to me for a few weeks now with Laugh Track. No longer, as the album has so much atmosphere and warmth. This is more than enough to convey to you. Like the track with Bon Iver, 'Weird Goodbyes'. (The first song actually I like by this singer!) Not much appears to be happening, yet it all falls into place.

The two songs in which one of the usually fairly anonymously operating Davendorf brothers goes berserk behind his drum kit, are as strange as they are fascinating. In 'Turn Off The House' a somewhat faster ballad, but aren't all The National songs ballads of some kind?, where the drums are all over the place while all else is subdued and atmospheric. It's almost estranging, but works so well. Slowly the song turns into a cooker with an electric guitar soaring in the background. One of the great tracks on Laugh Track this is.

In one of the reviews I read of Laugh Track, it was mentioned that the album did not compare to all albums from before 'Alligator' with the two loud endings as faint recollections. It is the sort of review I usually have some trouble with, as it is written by a reviewer who forgets that he has become older as well and does not allow "his" band to evolve. It is something that happens to most people I suppose, as it did to me over thirty years ago, until I found I did not have to look back exclusively to music. This was when the world opened, allowing me to discover albums like this, even if it is well into the career of The National.

I can't tell why I did not like 'High Violet', the album my 2013 review referred to. It's time I give these older albums a chance and see what happens. Laugh Track and "Frankenstein" are albums that certainly give rise to do so. Having listened to Laugh Track many times by now, I can say I like it even better than its predecessor. It looks like The National has a new fan.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Laugh Track here:

https://thenational.bandcamp.com/album/laugh-track

Living With The Moon. Karamelien

Duo Karamelien, Léanie Kaleido and Mark Foster, presented its debut album last month and now finds it way to the pages of WoNoBlog. This may not surprise our avid readers, who will have encountered several singles in our weekly post on recent singles. For others this may be a completely new name.

The introduction is justified as Karamelien presents a delightful form of pop that will enthuse those who like their pop included with a more serious and grown up undertone. The music is a mix of influences spanning several decades, from 1960s to trip hop. The lyrics show a life lived with the highs and deeper lows and everything in between. From searching for rainbows, battling dark thoughts and come up again. Léanie Kaleido leads her listeners through it all. The music shares the moods, yet remains serious always.

Kaleido and Foster are lifelong friends who decided to make music together. Multi-instrumentalist Kaleido plays most instruments, with Fisher playing, mostly, guitar. There are a few guests playing bass or piano and Kaleido's late father's, Top Topham, guitar playing is sampled into 'Ascension Heights'. Except for most bass parts, Lee Pomeroy and Morris 'Mo' Pleasure in 'Ascension Heights', this is all played by the duo. The music shows their age in a very positive way. There's no pretending being something else and this is one of the graces of Living With The Moon.

The album starts with the title track and a previous single. The choice to start the album with this song is totally the correct one. 'Living With The Moon' has a great pop feel, an oh so nice chorus that everyone seeing a show by Karamelien will want to sing along to and that kind of bittersweet attraction that makes the song unavoidable. Almost a song that could have participated in the Eurovision Songcontest, once upon a time that is, and may have come a long way. At the same time you will notice that Karamelien was not content with the song working on one level. A counter vocal melody is there and then some more as well. This a beautiful and mature song.

Promo photo: Nick Thompson

The already mentioned 'Ascension Heights' comes next and is a Philly Soul track with trip hop influences worked in. Léonie Kaleido's voice works really well with this soul pop track, where the music is spread out like peanut butter on a slice of bread. Listen to that little guitar melody that keeps returning in combination with that synth sound to understand what I mean. The music is so smooth and sophisticated.

'Digital Imogen' tells the tale of social media, how a person cannot relate to reality anymore. "I don't believe the mirror...I'm going to smash the mirror". A topic that I cannot relate to. For me the two worlds are still totally separate. Not so for many young people today. Again, a so smooth flowing pop song.

This is the story of Living With The Moon. From here on I could only present you with a similar story to each of the six songs that follow. There's no need. Every single one has a special touch somewhere in them. Léonie Kaleido is a sophisticated songsmith who together with her musical partner Mark Foster has made a beautiful album.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Living With The Moon here:

https://karamelien.bandcamp.com/album/living-with-the-moon-2

The Beatles 1962 - 1966, 1967 - 1970

50 years down the line, that is the rather confronting number of years staring me in the face. 50 Years since "the red" and "the blue" album were released, giving an overview of The Beatles' career. In 2023 the album get their first major re-release, polished up with the most modern digital tricks and expanded to three albums each. On top of it all there is a new single, and lets face it a fantastic new single, that closes it all, 61 years after the release of that first single, 'Love Me Do', the b-side of the, ridiculously priced, 7" single.

I am reviewing the new version of the albums. I do not have them and may never have. What I'm wondering is whether it really adds to the experience I've had a long time ago. What I'll do here, is try to explain what the two double albums mean to me.

In 1973 I got the red album with St. Nicolas and one month later the blue for my birthday. The two albums opened and deepened the band's music to me. I've written this before. For my age I was early where 1960s music is concerned. Thanks to two then teenage girls, Tineke and Yvonne, I heard all the singles they had as a very young boy. Although I knew there was something called an LP, I had no patience for them and did not know that songs, only the singles. Not long after, I discovered the pirate radio station Radio Veronica and got to know more and more songs and still well under 10 years of age. My first self-bought single was 'Hey Jude' in October 1968, still my favourite Beatles song.

'Abbey Road' was released not long before my parents moved, with me in protest. I remember that the elder brother of my friend downstairs announced that he would have the new Beatles album on a Friday. We younger kids all sat ready to listen to it when he would get home. I always see the album sleeve in my mind, but thinking about writing this post, I wonder if he played it from a tape recorder, a big one. 'Come Together' I knew from the radio, a song I remember not liking a lot at the time. That changed over time, in fact, I'm playing it myself with my band Sweetwood for years already. After 'Come Together' there were all songs we did not know and lost interest very soon and started playing.

We moved, The Beatles called it quits and fast forward to 1973. The albums were released and were something I really, really wanted to have. First came 1962-1966. For the first time I heard the first three singles and some early album tracks like 'All My Loving'. Then all the biggest hits that I, nearly, all did know from the singles. But then there were album tracks, which I all did not know. And this is what really was mindblowing when I listened to 1967 - 1970. A whole world opened there with songs like 'Back In The USSR' and 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'.

The red one always sold better than the blue. My take is that this one was bought by the girls, now ten years older, girls that had dropped away when the band became more experimental. The second category are the parents who liked a lot of the early songs anyway. The blue is the album for the boys and men. The first Beatles albums I bought myself when I started to have my own money were 'Abbey Road', 'Sgt. Peppers' and 'The Beatles'. The rest I all bought second hand a bit later. With the first one mentioned here as my absolute favourite.

The blue one expanded my musical universe. The red catered my little boy brain. In 2023 I like them both because the music is absolutely fantastic. To imagine these four young men from Liverpool created this huge body of music in just seven years, is something that can't be comprehended anymore.

I played the blue one last week. It took some polishing with a wet cloth but the sound was certainly good. Of course the blue, I'd might add. Again, I noticed how incredibly good the music is. Starting with one of the best double a-side singles ever released, 'Penny Lane' - 'Strawberry Fields Forever', the 'Sgt. Peppers' tracks and the great singles that follow it, not on an album, singles. A song that has become one of my absolute favourites, 'Magical Mystery Tour', an incredible song and on and on until it stops with 'The Long and Winding Road', not my favourite, but I can certainly listen to it now.

The blue album is a musical trip, not down memory lane. It's a lane containing the best pop music ever made by a combination of four men who called it quits before their 30th birthdays, to start more or less successful solo careers. Two are still alive and still playing. Paul to huge stadiums and Ringo at a lower level but still incredibly active.

Out of the blue there was 'Now And Then' two weeks ago. I've already written about it in the singles section. I have bought the cd version this week and have played it many times over the stereo. Yes, it is more a John Lennon song than a The Beatles song, I cede that. Yet, it is so beautiful and it works so well. The sound is The Beatles in a mix of then and now. There's a rhythm guitar part that did not exist in the 1960s, the strings did and the George style solo that Paul plays is phenomenally Beatles. Now And Then is a cherry on the cake. A cake that is more cherries than cake, yet is allowed to top it. It tells all, doesn't it?

It was 50 years ago today. Man, time flies when you're having fun. And this music certainly is a part of that fun!

Wout de Natris

No Ordinary Crown. Will Johnson

Will Johnson trekt helaas niet heel veel aandacht met zijn soloalbums, maar het onlangs verschenen No Ordinary Crown is een mooi en veelzijdig album, dat ik inmiddels best sensationeel goed durf te noemen.

Will Johnson, de voormalige voorman van onder andere Centro-Matic en South San Gabriel, maakte de afgelopen jaren al een aantal uitstekende soloalbums, maar hij overtreft ze moeiteloos met zijn nieuwe album No Ordinary Crown. Het is een album dat wat gevarieerder klinkt dan zijn voorgangers en dat ook wat voller en spannender is ingekleurd. Het is een album dat zowel invloeden uit de Amerikaanse rootsmuziek als uit de indierock verwerkt en beide genres vloeien op het album prachtig samen. Het klinkt allemaal prachtig en Will Johnson is goed bij stem, maar hij schreef voor No Ordinary Crown ook een aantal fantastische songs. Geweldig album!

No Ordinary Crown van Will Johnson verscheen jongstleden september bijna geruisloos en ontsnapte in eerste instantie daarom ook aan mijn aandacht, maar het is wederom een weergaloos album van de Amerikaanse muzikant. Dat komt zeker niet als een verrassing, want Will Johnson staat inmiddels al heel wat jaren garant voor uitstekende albums. Die maakte hij in de jaren 90 vooral met zijn band Centro-Matic en in de eerste jaren van dit millennium met South San Gabriel, maar sinds 2002 maakt de muzikant, die Denton, Texas, inmiddels heeft verruild voor het eveneens Texaanse Austin, ook soloalbums.

Het zijn albums die ik niet allemaal heb opgepikt en als ik ze wel oppikte deed ik dat vaak met enige vertraging en dat is dit keer niet anders, ondanks de hoge kwaliteit van de vorige twee soloalbums van Will Johnson, Wire Mountain uit 2019 en El Capitán uit 2021. Will Johnson trad eerder dit jaar toe tot The 400 Unit, de band van Jason Isbell, maar laat op No Ordinary Crown horen dat hij ook als solomuzikant met de allerbesten mee kan.

Will Johnson heeft sinds de begindagen van Centro-Matic wat meer ingetogen Amerikaanse rootsmuziek gecombineerd met richting indierock opschuivende klanken en dat doet hij ook weer op No Ordinary Crown. Toch is het nieuwe album van de Amerikaanse muzikant zeker niet meer van hetzelfde, want op No Ordinary Crown kiest Will Johnson in een aantal tracks voor nieuwe wegen. In de meeste tracks op het album kiest de muzikant uit Austin voor een wat voller geluid, waarin aan de ene kant ruimte is voor een wat steviger gitaargeluid en aan de andere kant wordt geëxperimenteerd met soundscape achtige klanken.

Wanneer de gitaren mogen uitpakken hoor je op No Ordinary Crown echo’s van de muziek van Neil Young en Crazy Horse en dat klinkt bijzonder lekker, zeker wanneer er een lekker gruizige gitaarsolo tegenaan wordt gegooid en Will Johnson met veel gevoel zingt. Je hoort het direct in de openingstrack, wat mij betreft een van de prijsnummers op het album, die goed laat horen waartoe Will Johnson in staat is.

Wanneer de gitaren nog wat ruwer klinken begeeft de Amerikaanse muzikant zich op het pad van de indierock, maar in veel tracks zoekt Will Johnson vooral de grenzen van de Amerikaanse rootsmuziek op. Dat doet hij op steeds wat andere wijze, waardoor No Ordinary Crown een lekker veelzijdig album is. Wat niet varieert is de kwaliteit van de songs, want die is zonder uitzondering hoog.

Omdat het ook nog eens songs zijn waarin Will Johnson zijn grenzen opzoekt, is het niet overdreven om te stellen dat hij op No Ordinary Crown dicht bij zijn beste werk in de buurt komt, of dit zelfs overtreft. Ik vond de vorige albums van Will Johnson vooral degelijk, maar zijn nieuwe album is meer dan eens verrassend spannend. Ondertussen strooit de Amerikaanse muzikant ook met bloedmooie songs, die opvallen door betoverend mooie klanken en verrassend goede zang.

De lekker ruwe songs gaan er in als koek, maar ook de met soundscapes verrijkte en fraai beeldende songs maken makkelijk indruk, zeker wanneer de pedal steel wolken met prachtige klanken laat overdrijven. Het is daarom doodzonde dat de muziek van Will Johnson zo weinig aandacht krijgt, want de mix van Amerikaanse rootsmuziek en een vleugje indierock doet niet onder voor het beste dat vooralsnog in 2023 is gemaakt in het genre. Laat je verrassen door het prachtige No Ordinary Crown. Grote kans dat je genadeloos voor de bijl gaat.

Erwin Zijleman

Je kunt No Ordinary Crown hier luisteren en bestellen:

https://willjohnson.bandcamp.com/album/no-ordinary-crown