Lennon and McCartney go head-to-head yet again.
Ram was McCartney’s second solo album, released in 1971, and is a prime example of how popular music, on its release, is adjudged by so many factors other than music. Macca was in disfavour in 1971, regarded, wrongly, as the man who broke up The Beatles and also as the politico-spiritual lightweight of the quartet (Ringo has always been given a pass on these matters!). 50 years later, disconnected from all such blather,
Ram is a jolly thing, scrappy but fun, with an unpretentious thrown-together quality, songs such as lo-fi Beach Boys pastiche “Dear Boy” rubbing up against the entertainingly silly, music hall rockin’ ode to marjuana “Monkberry Moon Delight”. It does, indeed, sound like a man decompressing after the monumental, generational expectations placed on his previous band. In gatefold, it also comes half-speed mastered so sounds great. Lennon’s first solo effort, the
Noel Gardner
, April 20th, 2021 09:12
From a read along sci-fi Italo/prog epic to rebooted darkside rave and juke via earthy Cornish analogue electronics, Noel Gardner is back once again with more tantalising sounds from the UK sonic fringes
Yazzus
I should probably draw up some sort of officially worded disclaimer for each intro to these columns, a kind of inverted pledge of allegiance, but to reaffirm: while it is fun and nice to write, every other month, about a pile of music whose ‘Britishness’ is its main common factor, I would erase every word of it from existence if that could somehow be a tradeoff for ‘Britain’ also ceasing to exist, conceptually. Shit, they can take me full stop if necessary.