The Driving Test
A Musical Car Ride
Whilst we would love to give every album/EP/single a full indepth review,we are only human and don't have a time turner so we aren't able to give every release the time and attention it deserves.
In the past that would have ment that we either reviewed a release or we didn't, but now we have a third option, a middle way.
The solution here has been a simple one. Rather than review individual artists' CD's at length, we play them one after the other on a long car journey. The simple listening test is: "are they bearable in the car - interesting, enjoyable, not distracting". This may not be how the artists want us to hear their work, but it's how a lot gets listened to for the first time and at least raises awarenes! The rating system is simple and provides a shorthand for reference.:
David Lewis - Among Friends ***
davidlewis3.bandcamp.com/album/among-friends
Whilst London based singer-songwriter, David Lewis, may not the most prolific releaser of songs, averaging roughly five years per release, "Among Friends" came at a particularly in opportune moment, hitting the metaphoric shelves just before the outbreak of covid and the disruption of no being able to tour in support of the album. Fast forward a few years and it feels right to give it another push. It's hard to fault the logic, Americana(esque) I n nature and dedicated to friends everywhere, "Among Friends" is an album that deserves a second chance. David Lewis knows how to put a song together, there's a lot here that entertains and is definitely worth the time to check out and who knows, grab a copy? AI
The Tenementals - Glasgow: A History (Vol. I of IV) ****
www.facebook.com/tenementals
One of the trends that seemed to have sort of slipped by in 2024 was the number of releases that were based on places and geographical features like cities, rivers and canals. One of the best of these being "Glasgow: A History (Vol. I of IV)" via the Tenementals and commissioned by Glasgow City Heritage Trust. Fashioned amongst songs of rebellion and post punk imagery, this may or may not be the first release of four, though it would be a shame if it was. Written jointly by David Archibald and Simon Whittle, this is a proper people and places album, littered with the previously unsung taking their places amongst the alleged great and good. This is the music of the people and whilst, arguably, the music ain't folk, it adopts the feel for an album that I can highly recommend you explore as thoroughly as the writers explored the city. NK
Art Block - Stones And Fire ***
www.artblockmusic.com
Hands up, I was surprised to discover "Stones And Fire" is Art Block's debut album, having first discovering him back in 2017 with the launch of an EP, "Borderline". That was followed by series of Eps, before finally biting the metaphorical and delivering a full blown album. Whilst contemporary in both delivery and production, "Stones And Fire" is very much a songwriters album. This is an album of life aspects, songs that are obviously very personal and yet give you the space to swap yourself into and share that common bond albeit, celebrational, dark or simply heartfelt. This is an album of strong words and feelings and yet it can seem the perfect accompaniment to soundtrack some of the more mundane aspects of life and whilst it can work like that, do take the time to sit down and listen to the sentiment, it doesn't over indulge, it simply presents the work of it's creator.
The Kearns Family – Together And Alone ****
www.thekearnsfamily.bandcamp.com
Comprising the cracked, dry and dusty Neil Young-like vocals of Mojave Desert singer-songwriter Pat Kearns with artist wife Susan on stand-up bass, this is their debut album as a duo, one steeped in 60s/70s cosmic country. With vague hint of Nilsson’s ‘Coconut’ to the guitar intro, it opens with the mid-tempo jog of ‘The Dust’, a song that uses the cleanliness and maintenance of the narrator’s home as a metaphor for their mental well-being (“ When I was younger, my mind was sharp/The paint wasn’t peeling and I had a loving heart/Now the dust keeps creepin’ in the corners/I keep sweeping it in the pan”). Outlaw mythology looms large, ghostly harmonica introducing the steady strum of ‘Bandito’ (“It can be deadly crossing the wrong man/Oh, amigo, is that a gun in your hand?/The wind is whispering you took a stand…I can’t catch you but the wind and sun/Will stop you dead”) while, travelling across America, the slow loping near seven-minute ‘The Funny Thing About Keeping Moving’ tells the story of an outlaw's life from childhood to the grave, betrayal (“never again I thought I’d see that old lover/It never occurred to me she was a spy”) and redemption to death (“The funny thing when an outlaw does stop running…That’s the moment they don’t expect to die”).
Storytelling is at the album’s heart, dark and haunted on things like the waltzing frontier injustice ‘You Got No Claim To The Mine’ and the spare picked ghost-themed ‘Daytime Moon’, and while loss and regret stain ‘The Old Days’ with its musing on mortality (“I’m getting to be that age/When dad’s maker came-a-calling/I think I now understand/‘Cause I did my own falling”), there’s a wry note to memories of a rascally old friend on ‘Charlie’ (“You can’t be straight to hang with Charlie/‘Cause Charlie’s always high and drinking…I was once at the beach with Charlie/Charlie buried himself in the sand/That’s the last time I seen Charlie/The very last drink poured from his hand…Charlie never said goodbye”). And, of course, there’s love, captured on ‘That’s Not What I Thought It Would Be’ (“There will always be the good times and the bad times as well/We have a past but now you’re standing there in front of me”) and the strummed break up and make up ‘Love Will Win In The End’.MD
Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Corsair is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.