Bruce Springsteen, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.

Bruce Springsteen, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973-Columbia)

The Boss has made some great music but I have to say this could well be one of his best. As a debut goes it is pretty much solid. Great tunes and a really cool mix of music from all out rock to a more folk/country style. But near half the album was recorded just Bruce and a guitar and rest was the full band. But it all seems to mix in so well and that is where the Boss gets his name.

This album has sold well now but I feel many record collections may have this to complete an artist. I do the same my self, it is more an OCD sort of thing. But it really is an amazing album.

Recorded on a shoestring budget the idea of the acoustic tracks is more from having no choice as their was no budget. Here is when pressure makes someone write better.

Single "Blinded by the Light" was not a hit or even played on radio but I can see why it is a little too loose for the pop market and I mean loose in a fun way. It is a little bit of a mixed song is it country or rock. Some blues and that saxophone is digging it as well. It really is a song for all radios and I bet record shops in 1973 had no clue what section to put it in. Classic live Springsteen and a style he will use forever.

One of my favourite songs by Bruce is "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" So simple and catchy I think he wrote it more as a kids song at the start but it really does catch your imagination as all children's music should. You are living this song, a bus ride in NY in the early 70s is not much of a subject. But I feel the song is a kind of positive intro to "Lost in the Flood" and again he really can pen a tune. Amazing lyrics and his voice is so clear and concise here giving the picture of the songs contents perfectly. Back in 73 songs of Vietnam war veteran was simply not the sort of thing that would be ok in the mainstream. But he got away with it and again he crafts it into something so much bigger and better than the cheap studio ever provided.

All out rock track "Spirit in the Night" gives the listener a chance to look back at times when they were young as a very loose story of some kids goofing off and enjoying being teenagers. I think finding the right musicians was key in this album. Three of the musicians here went on to be in the E Street Band forever.

The album had a tune for everyone and I mean everyone with the inclusion of a classic ballad song in "The Angel" some old school rockers may not be into a ballad but this one has a nice auto mobile theme to it that I bet would get the presenters on Top Gear sniffing about wondering who it was.

As first albums go for me it is near perfect and I think made his career as failure needs to happen for someone to truly get it. Selling only 25,000 units in a year the record label would have been very much licking their wounds. But as bad as the labels can be they did stick by him. A rare album in my blog a second by one artist but as I say people may well have overlooked this gem and with the reissues and live tour all ongoing it is well worth a listen again.

Twitter: 29xthefun

Cobalt, Eater of Birds

Cobalt, Eater of Birds, (2007-profound lore records)

Had a good listen to this bands two albums, first in this album and the second in near matching in quality "Gin" from 2009 and I have to say I am shocked upon looking at the net near no real coverage of the band at all.

So here we have another entry to the band that should have gigantic but is not. But here we have a problem the band consists of two people. Yup so no real live presence at all and also they seem to really keep themselves to themselves. But in music world and more so music fans that really does not matter. Remember PIL in the 1980s with the Album, Single, 12" stuff they done many fans had no idea who was on the tracks at all.

Much like PIL this is pretty much as far from Top of the Pops as you will go, the band are in the Black Metal area of the shops but I feel it can be listened to by many alt music fans. Yes it is heavy and at times very much making the filling rattle but the feel of the music is so amazing. When the first track 'When Serpents Return' really puts this album where it is happy. Starting out with an all out BM blast of drums vocals and guitars so much so my lunch is moving with the music due to how loud I have it.

But that is why I have it here it is so well done the riffs are here and grab you like the first track bounds into a very repetitive style of riffs much like a punk band would do. Little bits of lead guitar sweep over the two speakers to move the music about. It is not so much a metal feel but a punk maxed out sludge sound.

Second track has that great into blast beat drum start but the band love to speed up and it seems to move into a kind of old school metal feel near like Iron Maiden when they do the galloping feel in their older stuff. Heavier and louder of course.

It is not all out metal and 'Witherer' finds the band in a kind of ambient mood, with the drummer used as a kind of orchestra conductor dictating where it all should go. It really is amazing stuff. And we are not at my personal highlight yet. 'Androids, Automatons and Nihilists' the track mixes acoustic and electric guitars really well with haunting vocals from Jarboe of Swans fame. This really is a stand out track it has to be heard, only Jarboe could make the album come into this area of real scary music the mixture of acoustic and the heavy distorted guitar has been done so many times but she really makes this her own.


Prepare to look over your shoulder.

The band ends pretty much as it started in all out excessive noise but all fitting in the right way to make the listener want more. Many heavy albums can really be hard to listen to more so when they are 40m or so but this is shear pleasure, it really does show what the style of music can provide and as I say where does it fit in? It is metal but it is punk and for me it is art. Much as PIL made Album and have people scratch their heads as to its content... this is the same.


Twitter: 29xthefun 

Oh I must say the album has bits of Phil McSorley's 29 minute long acoustic/ambient song "Ritual Use of Fire." This song is available in its entirety on the Landfill Breastmilk Beast EP