R.I.P. Mark Lanegan, Welcome Back Tears For Fears…and a few other little topics…
Friday is For Music + bonus playlists...
I’ve mostly written the weekly music newsletter on one single topic – a particular artist, a favourite album, only sometimes straying to talk about a bunch of upcoming releases or something like that. I like the single focus, but today I’m mixing it up – because there are a couple of things I want to cover. And to do one and ignore the other doesn’t seem right. To not talk about Mark Lanegan this week doesn’t feel right. But there won’t be easy segues. Anyway, let’s see where this goes…
So, first up. R.I.P. Mark Lanegan. What a shock. He was just 57. If you click that link you can read my eulogy post, I put this up yesterday on Off The Tracks. It will also take you to my absolute and all-time favourite Lanegan solo album. But the gravel-throated heart-and-soul singer was more than just a solo artist. He was a frequent collaborator. He was in bands, he made cameo appearances, he allowed his work to be remixed, he created several brilliant duet records with Isobel Campbell (Belle & Sebastian) and many people know him and care mostly about him for his work with either Screaming Trees and/or Queens of the Stone Age. That’s some legacy. But I’m a fan of the solo records in particular. And I really love his cover versions. I enjoyed his songwriting too, don’t get me wrong. In fact at the moment, I am moving through his collected lyrics and reading both of the volumes of memoir he released in the last couple of years. He was a brilliant writer.
Lanegan battled many demons and has lost so many friends (Kurt Cobain, Anthony Bourdain). He was a devil on the booze and drugs by the time he started his teen years. He was lucky to be here by the end of that decade. So maybe in Mark Lanegan Years 57 is a little bit more than regular human years. It still feels far too soon.
I have made a playlist of some of my favourites. This is not for you to moan about what’s not there, just a sampler – maybe you heard the news or read it first here and don’t know much about him. This can be your intro. Maybe you’re a huge fan and just want to hear a bunch of his music in a different order and context. We’ll always have his music. He left us with many great gifts.
R.I.P.
In much happier news, today is the day we finally get to hear the brand new album by Tears For Fears. Their first record together in 17 years. It’s there for you to check out in that link. I’m listening to it as I write this – first time in. I’ll be playing it a bunch over the weekend and the coming weeks.
Tears For Fears are one of those bands that have travelled with me right through my life. I was a kid when the first two albums made an enormous impact. They’ve come to mean even more in recent times. The band’s first three albums are basically perfect as far as I’m concerned. There’s a few nice things to hear on the albums that followed. But they had done enough on three masterpieces – from synth-pop to sophisticated stadium rockers with singalong choruses and then to the symphonic quest of a Beatles tribute. All of them brilliant. And all albums I’ve been playing as much in 2021/2022 as I ever have.
So I’m pumped about this new TFF record. So much so that I haven’t done any reading about it, I haven’t listened to the singles. I have wanted to hear it as a whole.
So I’ll leave the record here for now – and maybe return to write more about it here next week or sometime soon. But I’ve also made a wee sampler playlist to build you up to the new record. Or if you were never a fan maybe you can give this a whirl and see if I can win you over with my selection.
When I shared a poem as part of Wednesday’s newsletter someone sent me a message asking for more poetry.
I’ve been having a bit of fun over on my site taking things that started off as poems and turning them into music-commentary blogposts. This piece about Marc Cohn’s Walking In Memphis for example. It is on the site now in paragraph form but started, almost word for word the same, as a poem. (The song is an all-time favourite for me by the way).
Another example, is this piece about Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions – specifically about my discovery of that wonderful music. Click that link and you’ll read it as a short, succinct blogpost. But it started as a wayward poem. And if you’re a regular reader you’ll notice the continuation of a theme from the short story (Eclipsed) I shared in this recent birthday newsletter.
And just to illustrate that this rearranging of the form can go both ways, this poem I just wrote about Pearl Jam is basically my review of the Unplugged album – with references to that record removed – and the words rearranged to scan and read as a poem now.
Anyway, a bit of fun…
I have just started reading Begin By Telling by Meg Remy. Remy is a multi-discipline artist, but music fans will know her by her recording/touring moniker, U.S. Girls. I bought the book (it just arrived this week) after seeing it on a few Best of the Year lists for 2021. It’s a short, poetic volume of essays. With Remy’s own illustrations.
It's brilliant. Just like so much of her music.
And speaking – as we are – about brilliant music, I wanted to mention Lionel Loueke’s latest album Close Your Eyes. I haven’t been writing many record reviews so far this year. But it’s a hard habit to break entirely. So if you click that link you’ll be able to read my thoughts on this amazing slice of modern trio jazz. All expert players. Absolutely brilliant.
Album is here below too – please give it a whirl.
Well, that’ll do for this week – a few topics there. A few thing I wanted to cover. And most devastating and crucial of course was to acknowledge the passing of Lanegan. Heart breaking. Were you a fan? What was your favourite album or collaboration?
Finally, I haven’t forgotten. Along with the other playlists and album links above there’s also our regular business of A Little Something For The Weekend. That link or the embed below takes you to Vol. 53 by my count. This one is very synth-y. I like it a lot. And hope you do too.
Happy Weekend and thanks for reading. And all best for your listening.
Love the Pearl Jam poem. I can totally relate, except I couldn't go as far as ever saying I hate Pearl Jam. I have such nostalgia and love for Ten from my teenage years (so many good songs! So many memories!), which will always trump my feelings about their awful music since.