Listening Club - 25th November 2012

Greetings and slight bleurgh,

Listening club intro this week is a little wobbly, as the pub lunch I had yesterday has spent the last 24 hours waging war with my insides, so last night's plans went out the window, and the purchased Sunday feast stays inside the fridge, as I consume a light broth and await the settling of the insides whilst typing this out at a 90 degree angle to usual. Que sera and all that. At least it's not raining.

Last week, in happier, weller times (as opposed to Weller Times, the mod periodical), @samsmitter finally broke Listening Club's reggae duck with his selection of The Congos' legendary Lee Perry produced "Heart Of The Congos", which worked a treat with all concerned. A fine, fine choice, as was Sam's pick of the snoozing @JimMcCauley to step up to the plate this week. And here he is...

"Well, this was unexpected.

Honestly. There I was on Sunday night in a somewhat relaxed state after the evening’s roots fun, watching a bit of telly but not really taking much in, and I had a quick look at Twitter only to discover I’d been nominated to pick this week’s LP.

Actual panic. Possibly exacerbated by my relaxed state. You know what I’m saying.

After a bit of shortlisting and auditioning a couple of possibilities, this one came to mind on Tuesday evening just as I thought I was going to pick something that sits at a sort of halfway point between shoegazing and Britpop. Maybe another time.

Instead you get something more recent. I’ll level with you. It’s a concept album. It has guitars. It's a bit, ahem, prog. 

Still with me? Good! It’s the work of a band I’ve been aware of for a while and who definitely have their moments, but this is the first thing of theirs that has properly grabbed me. It’ll doubtless garner comparisons to other bands, especially the long track that forms the centrepiece of the album, but it carries it off well without ever being too pastichey. 

Enjoy!

(A handy note: the main body of this album consists of tracks 1-14, about 55 minutes. There are another four tracks afterwards, but they’re more in the way of bonus tracks. Feel free to skip them if you’ve had enough.)"

Verily, there you go... Download is here (UPDATED DROPBOX link - Mediafire police killed the first one) or you can takes your chances with the increasingly infuriating Mixcloud here.

Start time is 8pm GMT. Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow@listeningclub for the admin.

Hoping I'll be seeing you at eight!