Hung up

Dear Nora - Mountain Rock (2004) ***

Nominated by: Alex

Music club: MNAC

MNAC playlist addition:  You Are A Bear (For A New Friend)

I'm trying to resist the obvious impulse to retitle the band as Flaming Nora. It's not without merits, but suffice to say I struggled to play this album three times without skipping ahead. It seems a very long album as well which also made it tricky to navigate. 'Seems', because many of the tracks are under a minute. Maybe they are draft sketches? Whatever the purpose, they flit by quickly without embedding themselves deeply in my consciousness, but that also paradoxically stretches the album out so there are 17 songs.

Dear Nora is really Katy Davidson and the band is her plus others in various guises/formations. She's the main musician/vocalist on this album.

The subject matter seems to be fairly bleak throughout (I don't know the back story) and the music (anti-folk) is deliberately (?)/ suitably austere and discordant at times which suits the purpose but I may have mentioned before that 'I'm a daaay person'. I prefer feel good moods rather than being confronted by negativity so this all added to the challenge of replaying Mountain Rock.

She gets a bonus point for the hilarious album title. This is not monolithic heavy metal by any means! I also like the way some songs are short and to the point like You Are a Bear. She doesn't faff around until Love Song to My Friends.

All up - I wouldn't buy a physical copy of it and I probably will not have a repeat listen, but as with all of our AOT fortnight albums, I'm glad I heard it/ was introduced to it because I never would have listened to it otherwise. So, thanks, Alex!

Rolling on

Peter Wolf - A Cure for Loneliness (2016) ***

Nominated by: GK

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: Rolling On

Peter Wolf was the voice of the J Geils Band (John Geils being their lead guitarist) until the early eighties. So he has a very recognisable voice, which comes in handy, but can also be a problem if he sings rock songs (like the Rolling Stones sounding 'live' track - Wastin' Time) or a bluegrass version of Love Stinks because it's easy to compare him to his time with J Geils et al.

Sensibly, he takes on Americana shapes throughout this album, with loping drumbeats, acoustic guitars, fiddle, pedal steel, harmonica (not by Magic Dick though), mandolin, and lap steel guitar all contributing to a very non-rock tapestry for his easy vocals.

Rolling On is a great opener and the rest of the album's next seven songs are all pretty good. But then the end of the album kind of unravels thanks to another live song - a country tonk version of J Geil's Band's hit Love Stinks and then Mr. Mistake. Those songs are the kind of songs I know GK loves, but it riles up the flow and ambience too much for me, especially as it's followed by two weepy songs - Tragedy and Stranger.

All up - a very pleasant listening experience and good to hear him in another genre with that smooth delivery.

I know it's not forever

There's A Tuesday - Blush   (2025) ****

Nominated by: KS

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: Margo

There's A Tuesday are on to something mighty fine with Blush even if the cover of the album and the band name are not great.. 

Band names sidebar - it's a tricky thing naming a band or these days naming yourself as a solo artist. It needs to be a catchy name, original, and it should encapsulate your sound/genre for recognition and sales (in this case the genre is indie rock like The Beths). Some examples of names that sum up the correct approach: The Rolling Stones; Raspberries; Th'Dudes; Hello Sailor...

So, There's A Tuesday to me sounds like a post rock band like Explosions in the Sky and that's not indie rock and that's therefore a potential barrier.

Cover image sidebar - what is going on here? A sleeping dog and a tiger mural? Some reference to let sleeping dogs lie or Life of Pi? Whatever - it doesn't scream indie rock of the quality of Blush. 

That brings me to the band members and the vocalist. The fab foursome is Nat Hutton and Minnie Robberds (both on guitar and vocals), Joel Becker (bass) and Gus Murray (drums). Minnie's vocals in particular are spectacular. At times she sounds like Elizabeth Stokes but the music isn't as spiky as that other fab foursome - The Beths. The Tuesdays (a better name) lean towards synth-pop as well which was pretty cool most of the time.

The album was best experienced by me this week as a kind of background sound while I marked and did some lesson planning. Not too many songs stood out even though I played the album every day. However, Margo and The City were two standouts.

Excellent introduction KS - another Kiwi gem with Minnie Robberds emerging as a star in the making.