Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day – Kelly Jones
It seemed a few years back that the art of the live album was gone – superseded by the live DVD or Blu-Ray. Thankfully, the trend now seems to have reversed with several artists committing live recordings to audio release again.
Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones has cherrypicked 21 performances from his 2019 solo tour for the Double CD release of Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day. Combining Stereophonics and his own solo tracks, the release is a living, breathing document of music energy from the tour.
Jones not only sings from the heart, he speaks from it too. Regaling anecdotes between songs, from the humour of how the ‘phonics could have been named after late drummer Stuart Cable’s mother – Mabel Cable to the heartbreaking but moving inspiration for the hit The Boy In The Photograph.
Many familiar tracks such as Dakota, I Wanna Get Lost With You and Mr Writer are present, all beautifully rearranged by Jones and his band of multi-instrumentalists, adding an extra dimension of raw intimacy to the proceedings.
A treat of a real singer/songwriter at work, Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day is a warm open door of musical intimacy for troubled times.
Available on 2xCD, 3xLP & Digital Formats
Isle of Dogs – She’s Got Spies
Shes Got Spies release Isle of Dogs is both contagious and wonderful. A travelogue of melody, the release was written as lead singer Laura Nunez spent time in various countries such as Russia, Vietnam and Italy as well as Laura’s home base of Wales and London.
The album has an overall sense of late 70s lo-fi new wave combined with melody and surrealism. Super Sniffer Dogs is undoubtedly a wondrous creation mixing pop with music hall while Wedi Blino and Mariah Pariah are reminiscent in presentation of edgier moments from Altered Images albums
Laura’s reflective vocals on All Outta Tears and prayerful double tracking on The Fear remain outstanding moments of the album and show a music creativity that will no doubt bear further fruits in the future.
Another Miracle – Steve n Seagulls
Do not underestimate the country stylised look of Finland’s Steve n Seagulls. Another Miracle is the bands fourth long-player and my introduction to them.
Fast, furious and fun, the band combine the bluegrass originality of songs like Master of Puppets and Joes Little Baby with a countrified twisty twang on covers such as My Sharona and Carry On My Wayward Son.
The band clearly know how to have fun while maintaining a professional and original approach to music and what’s more they take the listener on the journey from start to finish.
Reviews by Andy Howells