Tag Archives | Music

I’ve been listening to The Planets by Holst for a long time. I finally got to hear it live on Friday being played by a real orchestra. Went to a concert in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast to hear the Ulster Orchestra perform the whole Planet Suite and several other pieces. I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t as good as my favourite CD version of the suite performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This is not a reflection on the Ulster Orchestra. They were excellent. I just think it’s easier to get into the music without an audience of several hundred people round you.

Well worth the experience to hear it live though. It was broadcast live on BBC Radio Ulster and I was able to record it via my Radio Shark and Audio Hijack Pro. So I’ve got it in iTunes and on the iPod which is good. It’s also available via the BBC listen again feature as a RealPlayer stream via this link. This link will only work for about 7 days though.

The Darkness return. One Way Ticket to Hell…and Back. It’s good stuff. Musically it’s very good indeed. Lots of layering of vocals and guitars, à la Queen. Not surprising since this album is produced by Roy Thomas Baker who did the early Queen albums. I think the falsetto vocals are a bit overdone here. It works better using this a counterpoint to normal singing. Justin’s voice is good enough to sing normally more of the time.

They are playing Belfast on 5th February 2006. Oh Yeah! I’ll be there. Last time they played Belfast they were brilliant. Indoors next time. Probably best given the bloody weather! Be interesting to see if they are still as tight as a live unit with the new bass player.

That they’re printed on. I’ve never got the point of page long, or longer, reviews of music. What’s the point of reading about somebody else’s take on a particular album or track. If they like it it doesn’t mean that you will. if they hate it it doesn’t mean that you won’t like it. I’ve lost count of the number of times I read in a music album review that a certain track was the “worst” on the album, only to discover that they are referring to my favourite track. What music you like is very subjective. It doesn’t matter at all what others, like reviewers, think of it. Music reviews should consist of the following:

1) X has a new album/song out.
2) Here are the details. Title, label, etc.
3) I like it/don’t like it. But so what. YMMV.
4) Go listen yourself. Here’s where you can hear samples.

The chances of this happening are about the same as the chances of a whelk in a supernova. Most music critics seem to be full of themselves.

I’ve been listening to Aerial almost continuously since I got it yesterday. For about 80% of the time I’ve been playing the 2nd disk, A Sky of Honey. It’s brilliant. The singling is incredible. I’ve said it before, but what a voice. The instrumentation and arrangements are good as well. Who said concept albums were dead? good to hear Rolf Harris on there as well. Still have to get into the A Sea of Honey disk but that’s okay. It’ll be like getting another new Kate Bush album next week when I listen to that in detail.

I’m really happy. After 12 years this could have been a disaster, but it’s not. It’s bloody marvelous 🙂

Well. It’s finally here. Aerial from Kate Bush. Picked up a copy in Tesco at lunchtime. When I was going through the express checkouts one of the till operators and few checkouts away saw my copy and said to one of her colleagues, “That new Kate Bush CD has sold loads this morning”. So thats all good then. I haven’t really had a chance to listen to it from start to finish yet.

It’s split over two CDs. The first is called A Sea of Honey and the second is called A Sky of Honey. I have listened to the second disk more, both in the car and at home tonight. I really like it. There is a track called Sunset that is very, very good indeed. And Nocturn is also excellent. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about this over the next while, but first impressions are good 🙂