This week’s album-length playlist with artists including Cat Power, Polyphonic Spree and REM

This is the ‘Gems’ playlist #9, curated by Ian Sharp of ‘LP’

Welcome to ‘Gems’, my weekly playlist, the length of a vinyl album/one side of a C90, featuring tracks I’m currently enjoying. These may be new, or they may go back years. One of the tracks is from the album I’m writing about in next week’s ‘Glimpse’. This week it’s REM’s ‘Up’.

Each ‘Gems’ playlist includes Listening Notes (below), giving the source, release dates, and a little background into the song or artist.

‘Gems’. Albums, not algorithms. Created on Spotify and never by Spotify.

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Side 1 (22 mins)

D’Virgilo, Morse & Jennings - ‘Tiny Little Fires’ (from ‘Somophore’, out now)

This is Nick D’Virgilio (Big Big Train), Neal Morse (Transatlantic and more) & Ross Jennings (Haken) with a track from their second collaboration. Once again they are using vocal harmonies on their excellent song writing. Given the bands these three are associated with, the music they make is unexpected - and refreshing. Some prog keyboard fleshes out a lively track.

The Polyphonic Spree - ‘Section 44 (Galloping Seas)’ (from ‘Salvage Enterprise’, out 17/11/2023)

I first met The Polyphonic Spree when Peter Gabriel released a remix of ‘More Than This’, from ‘Up’. No other band sounds like the Spree, with their mix of choir, unusual instrumentation, and innovative song structures. This Section has a mini-version of the climactic strings heard on The Beatles ‘A Day in the Life’, leading into the Spree’s version of a chorus. Looking at the song titles (they’re all ‘Sections’) we could be in for a concept treat. 

Jenny Sturgeon with Alice Allen & Grant Anderson - ‘Beyond the You and I’ (from ‘Wintergreen’, out now)

Jenny Sturgeon is a Scottish singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and sound artist. She writes about folklore, nature, and the connection to the wild. This is a beautiful folk song; her vocals remind me a little of Kate Rusby - always a positive.

Trevor Horn (feat. Lady Blackbird) - ‘Slave to the Rhythm’ (from ‘Echoes: Ancient and Modern’, out 01/12/2023)

Producer Trevor Horn’s latest project is a collaboration with some of his favourite singers on songs he loves. Lady Blackbird’s vocal here is outstanding - a slower and more melodic approach than the one taken by Grace Jones (her reading is outstanding too, of course). Horn has been described as the producer who invented the 80s - for better or worse - and his influence has echoed throughout pop music ever since.

REM - ‘The Apologist’ (from ‘Up: 25th Anniversary Edition’, out now)

‘Up’ was the first REM album to be recorded after the departure of drummer Bill Berry. This live recording is from the TV show ‘Party of Five’ and is the sound of a band reinventing their sound, and no less enjoyable for that. One of the hazards of including live recordings in a playlist is that spoken announcements tend to interrupt the flow, and then we don’t hear the next track anyway. It would be a shame to exclude fine live recordings entirely though - this starts a run four in this playlist.

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Side 2 (21 mins)

Bob Dylan - ‘The Man in Me’ (from ‘The Complete Budokan’, out 17/11/2023)

A great concert, now reissued as a complete boxed set - expanded from the previously released double album. This is Dylan complete with full band and backing singers, playing live for the first time in Japan. As we know, Dylan can be a variable live experience and, when he’s fully on, a uniquely brilliant performer.

Cat Power - ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ (from ‘Live at the Royal Albert Hall’, out now)

I included a track from this project previously, and now the album is out here’s another one. Cat Power really does this song justice, capturing it’s barely restrained anger and giving it the energy it deserves. This song fits Power’s voice perfectly.

The Kinks - ‘New Victoria Suite - Everybody’s a Star (Starmaker)’ (from ‘The Journey Pt. 2’, out 17/11/2023)

‘The Journey’ is an alternative way of compiling a compilation album; a sort of jukebox musical on record, with the songs shoehorned into a narrative. That leads to some odd choices if you’re expecting a straightforward canter through the hit singles, but there are plenty of Kinks compilations around if that’s what you want. Ray Davies anticipates the cult of celebrity.

Steely Dan - ‘Aja’ (from ‘Aja’, out now)

This album is currently making a splash in hi-fi circles with a release in an ultra-high definition vinyl version. It already sounds great, and I don’t have the equipment to here what difference the new pressing makes. That doesn’t matter because it’s the perfect excuse to include ‘Aja’ in a playlist.

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Bonus Video

Too long for the playlist, yet not an album - here’s the incredible version of ‘Supper’s Ready’ performed by Steve Hackett with Todmobile and SinfoniaNord in 2015. So far as I know, it’s not available other than on YouTube, so we need to keep sharing it so the file is digitally preserved. Or something.

See you in a few days with the REM Glimpse.

Enjoy the music,
Ian

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