Dave Stewart And The Spiritual Cowboys - Dave Stewart And The Spiritual Cowboys

Holy shit this is some chilled out stuff. I'm not talking dubby or ambient or anything, just nice and laid back rock'n'roll with easy, soft vocals and a purring bassline. I would never have bought this myself, mainly because I have never heard of Dave Stewart before; it was a gift from my old man (as the Americans say), who sometimes randomly sends a record my way, which is awfully kind of him. Apparently on a recent holiday my parents took, my father was mistaken for a retired Dave Stewart by the hotel staff. When I was told this story it became apparent that I had never heard of Dave Stewart, and a few weeks later this 12" landed in my possession. Ha!

As I opened up with saying, track 1 is chilled as feck, but track 2 "King Of The Hypocrites" brings all of the funk in the universe, chicken-grease guitars and all. The song that follows it, "Diamond Avenue" has a whole fast-paced abstract lyrical approach that reminds me of something that Bryan Ferry might have done at some point (think "Street Life" or "A Hard Rain's A'Gonna Fall" (that title might not be strictly 100% correct!)). The remains of the A side are fairly lackluster compared to these first three songs.

Side B opens up all guns blazing, with all sorts of shit going on; trumpets popping up left right and centre for the lively yet very rubbish "Party Town". In fact, "Party Town" is so goddamn awful that I call the listening a day right here. I've gotten an over-all feel for what's going on here! Ha ha! No doubt I'll spin this again soon but for the purposes of this review I have heard more than enough Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys. Mega recommends if you're into classic rock and/or roll, otherwise I wouldn't bother clicking.

Anathema - A Natural Disaster

I've recently been playing catch up with Anathema. They are a band I have now known about for years, but I only own a very small amount of their albums. Thank Zombie Jesus then, for the Amazon marketplace with it's sometimes insanely cheap prices. A used copy of A Natural Disaster ended up costing me almost next to nothing. And to be honest, I'm really glad.

The first thing that surprised me about this record - often regarded I think as one of Anathema's best - is that it's an absolute disjointed mess. For the first few songs, I don't think anybody really has any idea about what is going on; the band just drift from one song to the other with what seems like no real drive at all. It's like it's acoustic and floaty for the sake of being acoustic and floaty, and it goes nowhere until the start of track 3, "Closer", just cuts in clumsily. Here at least, the album starts properly. "Closer" is a hell of bloody good tune, making (for once) good use of a vocoder or harmonizer, that builds and builds until it explodes in a post-rock-esque orgasm of sound. Good stuff!

"Are You There?" on the other hand is probably one of the worst things I have ever heard. "Childhood Dream" is almost as pointless, and then bam - another rocking track just cuts in rudely, the thankfully excellent "Pulled Under At 2000 Metres A Second", which isn't dissimilar in writing style to "Panic" from the previous Anathema record, A Fine Day To Exit. This album reminds me of Swans' Soundtracks For The Blind, in the way that dreamlike ambiances and floaty acoustic passages mesh awkwardly with heavy-hitting, full-band pieces. It just doesn't flow at all, in my opinion.

Thankfully though, things are a-okay from here on out; every track is a belter. "Flying" is an Anathema favourite of mine, with a chorus that has a through-the-roof sing-a-long factor. "Electricity" is a lesson in post-rock swelling and building done far better than by many of the restrictive genre's current participants.

All in all, there are some brilliant songs here, it's just this album suffers from a whole bunch of filler crap as well. Couple that with the "flow" issues and you really have one disappointing record, which is really inexcusable for a band with such passion, integrity, and musical dexterity as Anathema, especially on an album that is only 10 tracks long. I'm glad I bought this, as I can now move on with finishing my collection, but unless you really love this type of music, I'd look for my Anathema kicks elsewhere. That's exactly what I'll be doing, at least.