Bookmarks is an fortnightly series of recommendations, recent addictions and subjects for further study.
I happened upon Les Retro Stars French version of the Kinks classic A well respected man while searching for Petula Clark‘s Un Jeune Homme Bien. Their version appears to come from a cheap late nineties nostalgia compilation, and it’s perfect.
Michael Kiwanuka‘s approach is very much “more is more” — recall the roiling 8 minute grooves of Love and Hate, still my record of 2016. Here he piles Congas, easy-listening “la la la” backing vocals, growling fuzz guitars and clapping Ronson drums; his mournful but energetic voice perched above it all.
Common‘s theme has been love ( love as solidarity and as compassion as much as romance) for as long as he’s been worth listening to. And in Show Me that You Love , it’s love as fatherhood. Special mention to Jill Scott for organising the rambling, sprawling beat into four discreet, lovely melodies from chord to chord.
Boy they sure did love their groovy spaceman messiahs back in the early 70s, huh? Space Captain is saved from curio status by it’s gorgeous arrangement, horns and backing vocals (S/O to 20 Feet from Stardom) and, as ever, Joe Cocker‘s mad conviction (“this lovely planet caught my eye”).
I thought my first ever blog post was going to turn out to be a defence of Chance the Rapper‘s The Big Day — sadly I concluded the haters were right, it was spotty, too long and chock full of unearned sentimentality. Do You Remember is one of the tracks that initially convinced me (chuck this, Handsome with Megan Thee Stallion and Five year plan with Randy Newman on your Chance “best of” playlist, and you’ve probably got the album covered) — perhaps because it’s early enough that it’s sweetness, prettiness and warmth hadn’t curdled into treacle yet.
Oh yes, I’m bursting into the party 25 years late to announce that D’Angelo is fucking incredible — he gets two songs, bookends from one end of his career to the other, by way of apology.
My Little Brother review may have given the impression I didn’t love modern hip hop. I should clarify; the genre is in rude health, and it has more to do with Sampa the Great, (whose sweet sweet Freedom is here) Ill Camille, Megan Thee Stallion, Noname and Rapsody than any group of blokes I could name. Women have, obviously been great at rap since there’s been rap to be great at — from Roxanne Shante to Bahamadia to Jean Grey to Nicki to shit, should I just put a playlist together…? Apologies for the Rapsody repeat from a few weeks ago; it’s just a) Ibtihaj the most joy a single song is giving me at the moment and b) the easiest song to sever from the surroundings of her magnificent new album Eve.
I thought Liam Gallagher had given me everything I needed from him by roughly 2000 — but it’s not just that video of him chatting to school kids that proved me wrong; One of Us, his new single, finds new uses for that raspy whine of his.
I should announce I know Ah Trees a little, and would recommend their driving, moody groove regardless.
The Vanguards are a lost soul group who’ve finally gotten an anothology out (It Glowed Like the Sun) while I dive into that, catch up on their dusty melodrama masterpiece Somebody Please.
Dancing to Architecture 