Top Moon Tunes 2019 Volume 1
Johnny Longstaff
Another year and so another yearly round of monthlyish Top Moon Tunes for 2019 begins.
It is one of the more eclectic editions and also bit gruesome. It has a brilliant version of a traditional folk song about death and a brand new classic folk song which also features a death, a bit of soul and a great slice of Top Pop Soul, some traditional and modern Americana, a top slice of Welsh Psychedelica, some brand new London Britpop and more "folk", including the last track about the death on a hill in Spain of a 1930s Oxbridge Communist.
As usual there is a bit of guff on each artist beneath the embedded Playmoss playlist, plus a lot of guff at the end on The Moon album of last month from the Young'uns and the remarkable life of Johnny Longstaff.
On Spotify you can find a 16 track version of the playlist, as it includes the final track from The Young'uns album.
1. Our Native Daughters - Mama's Cryin' Long
Our Native Daughters is a combination of Amythyst Kiah, Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell as a sisterhood "to communicate with their forebears. Drawing on and reclaiming early minstrelsy and banjo music, these musicians reclaim, recast, and spotlight the often unheard and untold history of their ancestors, whose stories remain vital and alive today." I had come across Ms Giddens before, thanks to Folk Radio UK (FRUK) but had found her style to be a little MOR. However, this track is wonderfully stripped back and sounds like a traditional folk classic, but is a song she wrote a couple of years back that has now found an appropriate home in this project. It is an early contender for the song of the year. See more info on the project on the Folkways site, with a link to a video on the making of this track.
2. Lizzo - Juice
A top slice of Top Pop from an artist who first appeared on The Moon with the last track of A Best of 2015 part 2 from a cracker of an album. I have been looking forward to a new LP since and one may be on its way this year, but I have also only recently realised that she has released an LPs worth of tuneage since 2015.Water Me should have made it onto A Best of 2017 on The Moon.
3. Daniel Knox - Cut from the Belly
Mr Knox is a Chicago based musician and a projectionist at the historic Music Box Theatre. This is his fourth studio album which was released in December when it was brought to my attention by God Is In The TV. It is a fine album which is like a combination of the best bits of Nick Cave and The Divine Comedy and it features two top tracks with guest vocals from Jarvis Cocker and Nina Nastasia.
4. Ural Thomas and the Pain - No Distance (Between You and Me)
This is from an album released back in September, but only brought to my attention by The Finest Kiss best of 2018. They first belatedly appeared on The Moon by kicking off A Best of 2017 part one, also thanks to The Finest Kiss round up of the previous year. I am now following them on Spotify and so will hopefully find their next release in my new release feed that I can find buried beneath a load of useless algorithm generated feeds "created for me". Like the 2016 album it is more very fine, if unashamedly retro, soul with soul that also rocks n' rolls.
5. Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
Ms Van Etten first appeared on The Moon with the release of her last excellent LP back in 2014 and with the release of this new LP it seems she is getting the recognition her talent fully deserves. She has pushed the envelope with her sound on this LP to be more electronic, but it is thankfully the kind of electronica inspired by Nick Caves last LP or Portishead and her songwriting is as strong as ever. She has also allowed herself to be more produced by John Congleton which has resulted in Comeback Kid being transformed from a mournful ballad into her most poptastic moment.
6. Steve Mason - Stars Around My Heart
Mr Mason first appeared on the Moon back on A Best of 2013 with a track from his excellent Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time LP. Since he has released another fine LP in 2016 and now has just released his 4th solo LP. Unlike Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time it is his most un-Beta Band like, with a sound that is far less too cool for school and has a more organic and fuller band sound. But, as with this track, it works rather well.
7. The Deep Dark Woods - Babes in the Wood
The Deep Dark Woods are a Canadian Americana band who first appeared on A best of 2017 thanks to FRUK. This is a gorgeous collaboration with Kacy & Clayton of what I think is a traditional tune that they released in December. It is not quite a Christmas song and I have no idea if more collaborations are to follow but I hope they do.
8. Jeff Tweedy - I Know What It's Like
The prolific Mr Tweedy is a multiple offender on The Moon
This track is from his first "Jeff Tweedy" album of original material, although his son is on drums just as he was for their Tweedy album from a couple of years ago. The sound is also very similar and also like the more easy listening tracks from early Wilco albums, like this track, or from Mermaid Avenue - their Billy Bragg collaboration of previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie songs. The Red Brick is the only track that is reminiscent of the more experimental Wilco, but given a bit of chance the songs will worm their way into you.
9. Zac White - Spent On You
Mr White is a young man from Cardiff , Wales and was brought to my attention by GIITTV. This is his debut single on Spotify from late last year and is from a 5 track EP. It belatedly takes The Moon award for debut single of the year. It is rather like a Syd Barrett track created with Graham Coxen - and so is rather like a top Blur B side from 1992-3.
10. Northern Flyway - Curlew
This is from an album released back in September and from a project championed by FRUK as a"companion to a remarkable live audio/visual project – Northern Flyway. Conceived and performed by Inge Thomson (Karine Polwart Trio, Da Fishing Hands) and Jenny Sturgeon (Salt House, Jenny Sturgeon Trio) Folk Radio reported last year on this enthralling 75 minute live performance; a multi-dimensional exploration of birdsong, ecology, and folklore through a blend of music, field recordings, song, and interviews; all presented before a stunning visual backdrop."
This track is a highlight and highlights its gorgeous but very progressive folk sound.
11. Better Oblivion Community Centre - Dylan Thomas
This is hot of the press and is a product of the relationship between the very talented Ms Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst. Ms Bridgers has already appeared twice on The Moon, once on A best of 17 with a track from her debut LP and then as part of Boy Genius on Top Moon Tunes 2018 part 10. Mr Oberst has only featured as a guest vocalist in the First Aid Kit track on A Best of 2012 on The Moon, which is a bit odd as he is a bit of a noughties Ryan Adams..
12. Eamon O’Leary - Marina Blue
Mr O'Leary is a New York based Dubliner brought to my attention by FRUK
It is not easy to find much about him online. On Spotify there is just one more LP which is a collaboration with a Jefferson Hamer of traditional and original folk songs and then on Bandcamp there is another solo LP. But he has spent the last 20 years working with a range of artists and the FRUK post had this quote from Joan As Policewoman:
“Eamon O’Leary’s songs, no matter how familiar I am with them, make me well up each time I hear them. This is not because they are sad or tragic or miserable but because they so perfectly capture the moments that are not usually noticed, the moments that make life precious and worth it. He sings with a gentle modest knowing that everything is like it is because it is that way. He doesn’t sound like Leonard Cohen but I feel the same when I listen. What he does is timeless and classic; some of the best music I’ve heard in a long time.”
13. Sorry - Starstuck
Sorry are a new band from London and are a GIITTV top tip for 2019. They have released a few interesting singles already that have be promisingly melodic if a bit shoegazey, but this latest single is rather like a more poptastic Elastica and bodes well for a varied future.
14. Molly Burch - Every Little Thing
Ms Burch is from LA but has relocated to Texas to produce music that NPR well described as a blend "between Angel Olsen and Patsy Cline". This sublime closing track is her at her most Patsy Cline and highlights her fantastic voice. The rest of the album is less retro and is a strong set of songs.
14. The Young'uns - David Guest
The Young'uns released one of The Moon albums of 2017 and now they have released the album of last month on this Top Moon Tunes. It is an album of songs from a show they have put together, and are currently touring, about Johnny Longstaff - a working class man from their home town of Stockton-on-Tees. He was a veteran of hunger marches to London during the Great Depression, the Battle of Cable Street, The Spanish Civil War and as a "Desert Rat" in North African and Italian campaigns of WW2. The raw material they were inspired by was from his son and from interviews he gave as war veteran in 1984 which are all available via the Imperial War Museum
What is striking in this day and age is that this very young working class man could see clearly what was happening. In the Young'uns promo you can hear him talk about knowing that the child refugees coming to the UK parents were in concentration camps and he says "the world was saying we didn't know of these things, of course they knew of these things! We knew in 1935." In contrast, this excellent review of Nein! from the late Paddy Ashdown's the Germans who stood up to Hitler, ends with this:
"Ashdown quotes the final report written by Nevile Henderson, the British ambassador in Berlin, on returning to London as war began: “It would be idle to deny the great achievements of the man who restored to the German nation its self respect and its disciplined orderliness … Many of Herr Hitler’s social reforms, in spite of their complete disregard of personal liberty of thought, word or deed, were on highly advanced democratic lines.” Hitler’s “labour camps”, Henderson thought, showed how “a benevolent dictatorship” works."
Lions led by donkeys - plus ça change.
David Guest is the penultimate track, and is one of two songs about Oxbridge Graduates and fellow Spanish volunteers that Mr Longstaff fought with but who sadly did not survive. Mr Guest was a Trinity College alumni and the son of an MP, who had been to study in Germany and was apparently the first Englishman to be imprisoned by the Nazis. The album and the Spotify version of this playlist ends with The Young'uns and Mr Longstaff's rendition of a song sung by the International Brigade veterans.
As a whole the songs on this new LP are not as strong as on their excellent last LP, and two of the best had already been released on that LP, but it is an album that does have to tell a story like a musical, but it thankfully does not get too Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is also very much enhanced by the addition of Mr Longstaff's fantastic voice between each track and within a couple. It might make you cry but should definitely make you laugh, and if you are lucky enough to see them live then you are probably likely to shed a tear, but also laugh your tits off. My favourite line is in Trench Tales and the part about a Mule being christened Chamberlain as it always "trots towards the Fascists".
On Spotify you can find a 16 track version of the playlist, as it includes the final track from The Young'uns album.
1. Our Native Daughters - Mama's Cryin' Long
Our Native Daughters is a combination of Amythyst Kiah, Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell as a sisterhood "to communicate with their forebears. Drawing on and reclaiming early minstrelsy and banjo music, these musicians reclaim, recast, and spotlight the often unheard and untold history of their ancestors, whose stories remain vital and alive today." I had come across Ms Giddens before, thanks to Folk Radio UK (FRUK) but had found her style to be a little MOR. However, this track is wonderfully stripped back and sounds like a traditional folk classic, but is a song she wrote a couple of years back that has now found an appropriate home in this project. It is an early contender for the song of the year. See more info on the project on the Folkways site, with a link to a video on the making of this track.
2. Lizzo - Juice
A top slice of Top Pop from an artist who first appeared on The Moon with the last track of A Best of 2015 part 2 from a cracker of an album. I have been looking forward to a new LP since and one may be on its way this year, but I have also only recently realised that she has released an LPs worth of tuneage since 2015.Water Me should have made it onto A Best of 2017 on The Moon.
3. Daniel Knox - Cut from the Belly
Mr Knox is a Chicago based musician and a projectionist at the historic Music Box Theatre. This is his fourth studio album which was released in December when it was brought to my attention by God Is In The TV. It is a fine album which is like a combination of the best bits of Nick Cave and The Divine Comedy and it features two top tracks with guest vocals from Jarvis Cocker and Nina Nastasia.
4. Ural Thomas and the Pain - No Distance (Between You and Me)
This is from an album released back in September, but only brought to my attention by The Finest Kiss best of 2018. They first belatedly appeared on The Moon by kicking off A Best of 2017 part one, also thanks to The Finest Kiss round up of the previous year. I am now following them on Spotify and so will hopefully find their next release in my new release feed that I can find buried beneath a load of useless algorithm generated feeds "created for me". Like the 2016 album it is more very fine, if unashamedly retro, soul with soul that also rocks n' rolls.
5. Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
Ms Van Etten first appeared on The Moon with the release of her last excellent LP back in 2014 and with the release of this new LP it seems she is getting the recognition her talent fully deserves. She has pushed the envelope with her sound on this LP to be more electronic, but it is thankfully the kind of electronica inspired by Nick Caves last LP or Portishead and her songwriting is as strong as ever. She has also allowed herself to be more produced by John Congleton which has resulted in Comeback Kid being transformed from a mournful ballad into her most poptastic moment.
6. Steve Mason - Stars Around My Heart
Mr Mason first appeared on the Moon back on A Best of 2013 with a track from his excellent Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time LP. Since he has released another fine LP in 2016 and now has just released his 4th solo LP. Unlike Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time it is his most un-Beta Band like, with a sound that is far less too cool for school and has a more organic and fuller band sound. But, as with this track, it works rather well.
7. The Deep Dark Woods - Babes in the Wood
The Deep Dark Woods are a Canadian Americana band who first appeared on A best of 2017 thanks to FRUK. This is a gorgeous collaboration with Kacy & Clayton of what I think is a traditional tune that they released in December. It is not quite a Christmas song and I have no idea if more collaborations are to follow but I hope they do.
8. Jeff Tweedy - I Know What It's Like
The prolific Mr Tweedy is a multiple offender on The Moon
This track is from his first "Jeff Tweedy" album of original material, although his son is on drums just as he was for their Tweedy album from a couple of years ago. The sound is also very similar and also like the more easy listening tracks from early Wilco albums, like this track, or from Mermaid Avenue - their Billy Bragg collaboration of previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie songs. The Red Brick is the only track that is reminiscent of the more experimental Wilco, but given a bit of chance the songs will worm their way into you.
9. Zac White - Spent On You
Mr White is a young man from Cardiff , Wales and was brought to my attention by GIITTV. This is his debut single on Spotify from late last year and is from a 5 track EP. It belatedly takes The Moon award for debut single of the year. It is rather like a Syd Barrett track created with Graham Coxen - and so is rather like a top Blur B side from 1992-3.
10. Northern Flyway - Curlew
This is from an album released back in September and from a project championed by FRUK as a"companion to a remarkable live audio/visual project – Northern Flyway. Conceived and performed by Inge Thomson (Karine Polwart Trio, Da Fishing Hands) and Jenny Sturgeon (Salt House, Jenny Sturgeon Trio) Folk Radio reported last year on this enthralling 75 minute live performance; a multi-dimensional exploration of birdsong, ecology, and folklore through a blend of music, field recordings, song, and interviews; all presented before a stunning visual backdrop."
This track is a highlight and highlights its gorgeous but very progressive folk sound.
11. Better Oblivion Community Centre - Dylan Thomas
This is hot of the press and is a product of the relationship between the very talented Ms Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst. Ms Bridgers has already appeared twice on The Moon, once on A best of 17 with a track from her debut LP and then as part of Boy Genius on Top Moon Tunes 2018 part 10. Mr Oberst has only featured as a guest vocalist in the First Aid Kit track on A Best of 2012 on The Moon, which is a bit odd as he is a bit of a noughties Ryan Adams..
12. Eamon O’Leary - Marina Blue
Mr O'Leary is a New York based Dubliner brought to my attention by FRUK
It is not easy to find much about him online. On Spotify there is just one more LP which is a collaboration with a Jefferson Hamer of traditional and original folk songs and then on Bandcamp there is another solo LP. But he has spent the last 20 years working with a range of artists and the FRUK post had this quote from Joan As Policewoman:
“Eamon O’Leary’s songs, no matter how familiar I am with them, make me well up each time I hear them. This is not because they are sad or tragic or miserable but because they so perfectly capture the moments that are not usually noticed, the moments that make life precious and worth it. He sings with a gentle modest knowing that everything is like it is because it is that way. He doesn’t sound like Leonard Cohen but I feel the same when I listen. What he does is timeless and classic; some of the best music I’ve heard in a long time.”
13. Sorry - Starstuck
Sorry are a new band from London and are a GIITTV top tip for 2019. They have released a few interesting singles already that have be promisingly melodic if a bit shoegazey, but this latest single is rather like a more poptastic Elastica and bodes well for a varied future.
14. Molly Burch - Every Little Thing
Ms Burch is from LA but has relocated to Texas to produce music that NPR well described as a blend "between Angel Olsen and Patsy Cline". This sublime closing track is her at her most Patsy Cline and highlights her fantastic voice. The rest of the album is less retro and is a strong set of songs.
14. The Young'uns - David Guest
The Young'uns released one of The Moon albums of 2017 and now they have released the album of last month on this Top Moon Tunes. It is an album of songs from a show they have put together, and are currently touring, about Johnny Longstaff - a working class man from their home town of Stockton-on-Tees. He was a veteran of hunger marches to London during the Great Depression, the Battle of Cable Street, The Spanish Civil War and as a "Desert Rat" in North African and Italian campaigns of WW2. The raw material they were inspired by was from his son and from interviews he gave as war veteran in 1984 which are all available via the Imperial War Museum
What is striking in this day and age is that this very young working class man could see clearly what was happening. In the Young'uns promo you can hear him talk about knowing that the child refugees coming to the UK parents were in concentration camps and he says "the world was saying we didn't know of these things, of course they knew of these things! We knew in 1935." In contrast, this excellent review of Nein! from the late Paddy Ashdown's the Germans who stood up to Hitler, ends with this:
"Ashdown quotes the final report written by Nevile Henderson, the British ambassador in Berlin, on returning to London as war began: “It would be idle to deny the great achievements of the man who restored to the German nation its self respect and its disciplined orderliness … Many of Herr Hitler’s social reforms, in spite of their complete disregard of personal liberty of thought, word or deed, were on highly advanced democratic lines.” Hitler’s “labour camps”, Henderson thought, showed how “a benevolent dictatorship” works."
Lions led by donkeys - plus ça change.
David Guest is the penultimate track, and is one of two songs about Oxbridge Graduates and fellow Spanish volunteers that Mr Longstaff fought with but who sadly did not survive. Mr Guest was a Trinity College alumni and the son of an MP, who had been to study in Germany and was apparently the first Englishman to be imprisoned by the Nazis. The album and the Spotify version of this playlist ends with The Young'uns and Mr Longstaff's rendition of a song sung by the International Brigade veterans.
As a whole the songs on this new LP are not as strong as on their excellent last LP, and two of the best had already been released on that LP, but it is an album that does have to tell a story like a musical, but it thankfully does not get too Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is also very much enhanced by the addition of Mr Longstaff's fantastic voice between each track and within a couple. It might make you cry but should definitely make you laugh, and if you are lucky enough to see them live then you are probably likely to shed a tear, but also laugh your tits off. My favourite line is in Trench Tales and the part about a Mule being christened Chamberlain as it always "trots towards the Fascists".
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