Imaginary albums was one of the topics for many years in the blog
before the re-start early 2022. It was based on the "Debut album game"
that was making its rounds around bulletin boards and blogs over ten
years ago. The idea was to create an album cover for a fictional band
(anything that came up in the random Wikipage generator) with a
fictional title (the last four words of the very last quote of the page
generated at the Random quotations site) and a cover image found by
searching for a random Flickr Explore photograph. I have been trying to
find out who had the original idea, but so far no success.
I
made a few changes to this procedure: I opted to take any four words
(although preferably the final ones) of a random quotation to give me
the album title. Moreover, also because of copyright constraints, I
decided to choose suitable images from my own Flickr streams for the
cover. Finally, to spice things up a bit, I added a fictional review for
these fictional albums.
Be Asleep All Day by Gordon Beard
It
has taken a while, but Canada has finally given us a new Leonard Cohen.
His name is Gordon Beard, and this 23 years old Torontonian has now
released his first album. With a tongue-in-cheek reference to the style
of Cohen, which has been described as sleep inducing by his opponents,
he named this record "Be asleep all day". You will find 15 self-penned
gems here, slow ballads dealing with life in the modern city. And to
round it off, a beautiful cover of Cohen's Sisters of mercy - and kudos to Beard for staying away from Hallelujah
in this respect. Warmly recommended - a treat.
Quote by Anonymous: Better to get up late and be wide awake than to get up early and be asleep all day.
Some Reason in Madness by Shut up!
Tribute bands are generally very successful on the road, especially if the original band no longer performs, but records tend to do less well. Somehow the situation is reversed for the Liverpool band Shut up! Named after a single of their heroes, those late seventies and early eighties' chart huggers Madness, they have not succeeded to get a large following in their concerts so far, but their first album entered the charts last week at #42. Sixteen of Madness' greatest hits, including Grey day, Baggie trousers, and One step beyond, sung in a style that is astonishingly close to the original versions, be it with superior recording quality. Still, it beats me why buyers would select this over the original. To which the band would undoubtedly reply: Shut up!
Quote by Friedrich Nietzsche: There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
A Fairly Good Time by Pink-In
The latest greatest band from China. Pink-In, a trio from Shenyang, won the very first Chinese National TV Pop Idols conquest and are ready to conquer the world with their first album in English, with the delightful title A fairly good time - makes you wonder whether someone botched a translation there. The album itself is a pleasant surprise. Make no mistake, these girls can really sing and have decent pop material to work with. Especially Nanjing nights and Love me forever are strong tunes that should get a lot of air play here as well. Not essential, but good pop music.
Quote by Edith Wharton: There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there's no reason why you shouldn't have a fairly good time.
We Practice To Believe by Lispkit Lisp
You may have seen them on TV in America's Evangelical Idol, where they came third even though they were a huge crowd favourite. This quintet from Boston, who go by the ill-adviced name of Lispkit Lisp, have lost no time in recording their first album. This is your typical middle of the road Christian rock, with titles such as Help me Jesus, The Lord watches over me, Seeing is believing, and so on. Decent playing (especially on the drums and the organ), decent singing, but nothing to stand out from the crowd. If you liked them on TV, you can safely order the CD. If you have not seen them yet, I would recommend listening to it first.
Quote by Laurence J. Peter, misquoting Scott: Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to believe.
The Leaves of Autumn by Bob Brechtel
Saxophonist Bob Brechtel is a household name in modern jazz, but his latest album will surely raise a lot of eyebrows. In what comes dangerously close to looking like a Kenny G project, he recorded 16 songs loosely arranged around the theme of autumn, supported by the Bronx Quartet, and featuring a number of guest vocalists. Some songs work very well, and none better than the album's opener, Autumn leaves sung in the original French version by Madeleine Peyroux (the album's closer is an instrumental version of this classic). Not all guests are as famous as she is, but some are well worth hearing. In particular Matt Robbins, who takes care of great versions of U2's October, and Justin Hayward's Forever autumn. The most surreal track is without doubt Sean Connery's parlando rendition of the Guns 'n' Roses anthem November Rain, although paradoxically this features some of the most beautiful saxophone playing on the album. The absolute highlight is the cover of Earth, Wind and Fire's September. Unsupported by a singer, Brechtel showcases his perfect technique and feeling in a 16 minutes delight, full of improvisations that keep the listener spellbound. An essential disc.
Quote by John Muir: Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
Weather Forecasts and Ecomonists by List of Jehovah's Witnesses Publications
This is the weirdest CD that has landed on my desk this year. According to the brief press release package, List of Jehovah's Witnesses Publications is a new band from Debrcen, Hungary, consisting of four conservatory students in their early twenties. How they got their bizarre name, or the equally bizarre title for their first album, typo and all (Weather forecasts and ecomonists), is a mystery. Their web site, the link to which is courteously included on the back of the CD, contains neither photographs nor text, except for one line in capital letters: WE DO NOT KNOW EITHER. After all this, it is probably stupid to expect any connection between their music and the strange cover art - and indeed, I could not find one. Anyhow, to the music. You guessed it - bizarre. Although their basic music patterns fall under the instrumental post-rock genre, every so often they go off on a tangent. Fragments of czardas dances, a string quartet playing Schubert, a brilliant impersonation of Pavarotti singing Puccini's Nessun dorma, and samples of Russian speeches by Brezhnev - to name a few. In the end, all this madness works surprisingly well, and when the album had finished, I just had to play it again. Weird, absurd, yet fascinating stuff.
Quote by Kelvin Throop III: Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists? (Yes, I made a typo, but in the context it worked well enough not to change it).
A Season of Hope by Claudette Lali
Chances are that you have not heard of Claudette Lali yet - but she has become a sensation in her native France over the past few weeks courtesy of her success in the TV talent show Presence. The parallels with Britain's Susan Boyle are obvious - Mademoiselle Lali is not exactly an attractive appearance but she does have a marvelous voice. The record companies have tried to cash in as quickly as possible by releasing her first album last week just 4 days after starting the recordings. There is of course a reason for this rush, as they have controversially opted for a Christmas album as debut. Sixteen traditionals, surprisingly all sung in English, whereas one would have expected that cashing in on her fame in France with a French album would have made more business sense. The album itself is OK, but nothing special, and I honestly can't see this make any impact on the international market. One can only hope that Claudette Lali will be given a second chance with less traditional material.
Quote by Robert Veninga: Human pain does not let go of its grip at one point in time. Rather, it works its way out of our consciousness over time. There is a season of sadness. A season of anger. A season of tranquility. A season of hope.
A Pile Of Junk by The Macedonians
There was a time in the sixties that the Macedonians were mentioned along the likes of the Hollies and the Fortunes. This Birmingham based quartet scored six top40 hits in the UK within two years, with the 1967 summer hit A pile of junk the most successful, topping at #12. And just as quickly as they came up, they went down again, and virtually disappeared altogether before the end of the decade. Even their hits are never played on the radio anymore. This compilation collects their 12 singles (including the 6 later ones that did not chart at all) and to be honest, they do sound hopelessly outdated. The real interest for me was in some of the 12 B-sides which are included as well. To my surprise, these included three covers of Dutch hits from that decade: That day by the Golden Earring(s), Russian spy and I by the Hunters, and I see your face again by Sandy Coast. The informative booklet explains the connection: their bass player Ron Jenkins was married to a Dutch girl and picked up these songs via her. All in all, an important CD from a historical point of view, but not one you need to have in your collection.
Quote by Thomas A. Edison : To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
A Man is Interesting by Kelly Harms
The debut album of the young Vancouver based singer/song writer Kelly Harms is a fascinating one. Sounding like a cross between Alanis Morissette and Sarah McLachlan, Kelly is equally at home in tender ballads and rocking songs. Fifteen high quality self-penned gems all around the theme of broken relationships - but she is not pining after what might have been, just shrugs her shoulders and moves on. The sixteenth song is a fascinating cover of Garbage's Cup of coffee - and she gives Shirley Manson a run for her money here! Will this album sell millions? Unfortunately not, especially since in spite of her good looks she has refused to do a video clip for one of her songs. But ten years from now, when the likes of Lady Gaga will have been reduced to a footnote in music history, people will still be playing Kelly Harms.
Quote by Marlene Dietrich: Without tenderness, a man is uninteresting.
The Universe is Winning by Hispanic Paradox
We have had four cellos combining to play metal music to great effect in the band Apocalyptica, and now we have eight king-size synthesizers in the band Hispanic Paradox combining to play space music to, well, not quite as great effect. This octet from San Jose plays it safe on their first CD, and selected well-known space songs to cover with their electronic beasts: the likes of David Bowie's Space Oddity, Pink Floyd's Interstellar overdrive, Elton John's Rocket man and Radiohead's Paranoid Android. The inclusion of a medley of Star Wars themes also is hardly surprising, and the only perhaps more striking choice is an amalgamation of classical music themes as used in 2001 A Space Odyssey, from Strauss to Ligeti. The end result is always somewhat entertaining, but honestly too much to take in one session. Pick and choose, and put 1 or 2 on the MP3 player.
Quote by Rick Cook: Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
The Shame of Art by Knockatallon
Would you expect that the next big thing in Death Metal would come from Ireland? Well, the five young men (age 20-22) who named themselves after their home town of Knockatallon might be just that. Their concerts in Ireland and the UK have been sold-out for the past year, and they finally released their debut album last week. The shame of art is not an eye opener, but for fans of this death grunt style metal, a must hear. Best songs: Cadaver, and the album closer, a flabbergasting version of Genesis' Blood on the rooftops.
Quote by Izaak Walton: Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art.
Art for Art's Sake by Delgado
A fascinating experiment. Delgado, a successful progressive rock band from Bilbao, Spain, have released a concept album unlike any other for their fifth studio CD. They have taken seven UK chart hits from the seventies, made by artists who flirted with prog but never fully got there, and gave these songs a full-blown prog rock treatment - none of these covers last under 10 minutes. And no matter which one you try, you have to admire their musicality and good taste - and enjoy the result. On this album you will find their versions of 10CC's Art for art's sake, Bowie's Heroes, ELO's Rockaria!, Queen's Somebody to love, Supertramp's Dreamer, Roxy Music's Angel eyes, and Alan Parsons Project's Lucifer. My favourite record of recent months.
Quote by E.M. Forster: Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don't believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art's sake .
I could not believe my eyes that this one actually came up.....
Copyright statement: all imaginary album covers are based on my own photographs. Copyright Hennie Schaper.
