Tír Na HiFi

DaveF wrote:I seem to play ever other Tom Waits album except this one of late.

I used to think it was a badly recorded album but as my system improved I realised it was a sublime recording. I'll dig it out in a minute! That was my first Waits album. Never tired of it since 1976!

Listening tonight to Alela Diane's beautiful About Farewell.  A sadly reflective record documenting the messy breakup with her husband and former musical collaborator.  An intimate recording with sparse instrumentation, it's a cathartic listen that gives of its gifts gradually, requiring repeated close and attentive listening to absorb all it has to offer. ("Some things are better kept in darkness, only true before the dawn".) These are beautifully crafted songs that succinctly and eloquently express the feelings of betrayal, loss, rupture and, finally, self-renewal that accompany any breakup.  There is pain here but, strangely not much anger - instead, there is a sense of compassion towards the man who has betrayed her ("I heard someone say that the brightest lights cast the biggest shadow, so honey I gotta let you go"). Diane has an utterly unaffected and wholly natural singing voice which intensifies the emotional purity of this deeply moving work, barely thirty minutes in length but which stays with you.  A very special record.

Ivor wrote:

DaveF wrote:I seem to play ever other Tom Waits album except this one of late.

I used to think it was a badly recorded album but as my system improved I realised it was a sublime recording. I'll dig it out in a minute! That was my first Waits album. Never tired of it since 1976!

My first Waits album too. Bought it after seeing him on the whistle test performing small change got rained on. Tom singing while leaning on a prop lamppost accompanied by a tenor sax player.
Marvellous stuff.
Mark.

markof wrote:

Ivor wrote:

DaveF wrote:I seem to play ever other Tom Waits album except this one of late.

I used to think it was a badly recorded album but as my system improved I realised it was a sublime recording. I'll dig it out in a minute! That was my first Waits album. Never tired of it since 1976!

My first Waits album too. Bought it after seeing him on the whistle test performing small change got rained on. Tom singing while leaning on a prop lamppost accompanied by a tenor sax player.
Marvellous stuff.
Mark.

I bought it after a Whistle Test performance as well. He did Tom Traubert's Blues. I went into school the next day and a few of the lads were talking about "that oul' lad" that was in the telly last night.... "Yeah, wasn't he fuckin' brilliant!" says I breezing past. Sometimes you hear a piece of music that just changes your perspective on everything else you hear. For life.

I think this is what I remembered:

This is guitar freakout at it's brilliant best. They're German and, by God, do they rock out! Ax Genrich we salute you....

DaveF wrote:

What's it like Dave? Wonder if it ever came out on vinyl?

cybot wrote:

DaveF wrote:

What's it like Dave? Wonder if it ever came out on vinyl?

I've liked pretty much everything she's done Dermot. Perhaps just short of the first 3 Mazzy albums but still a worthy purchase. Never seen it on vinyl anywhere.

DaveF wrote:

cybot wrote:

DaveF wrote:

What's it like Dave? Wonder if it ever came out on vinyl?

I've liked pretty much everything she's done Dermot. Perhaps just short of the first 3 Mazzy albums but still a worthy purchase. Never seen it on vinyl anywhere.

Pity....