LaRM day 36 (Belle & Sebastian-George Benson)

OK, so after the sad demonstration of the effect that time can have on talent, we go back a page or two in the Belle and Sebastian book with the BBC Sessions compilation which was released in 2008. It covers all the sessions that the band recorded for BBC radio between 1996 - 2001 and for the most part is great. The first few songs show that the band had feet of clay technically when it came to performing but the sincerity of the performances of those lovely, fabulous songs just shines. As the years and the recording sessions progress so does their proficiency but along the way, as with the studio albums, the magic drifts away. By the time of the final 2001 session there's little left to be excited about, however, the session does have more passion than I would have expected, and perhaps that's because they all knew that it would be the last time that Isobel Campbell would record with the band. Also, for the completist it's an interesting session because they "did a Pavement" and only played songs that had never and would never appear on record. Coupled with the BBC Sessions is a recording of a live show in Belfast from 2001. It's a spirited performance and the old songs are given a decent outing, but the fact that it all kicks off with a cover of 'Here Comes the Sun' speaks volumes about just why things were going wrong by this point.

Next is Belly, starting with their debut EP Slow Dust (1992). These are four great songs, and although Tanya Donnelly's songs never quite sat comfortably on the Throwing Muses albums, when they aren't contrasted with Kristen Hersh's, they work really, really well. Donnelly's pop sensibility was really acute and although she made determinedly indie-rock, the hooks in these songs are fantastic. 'Dusted' and 'Slow Dog' are two of her finest songs, and the versions on the EP is much better than the re-recorded versions on first album Star (1992). Star is a lovely album, and when the songs are good, they're really good, but there's a sense of filler about some of the songs, and the fact that three of the songs from the EP are reprised here suggests that maybe she didn't have that much material. However, on the whole this is a lovely and odd record, which feels in an old-fashioned sense like an album - it flows, it sounds like it was constructed with a view to being coherent. Every one of the big songs brings back memories and hearing those indie-disco bothering songs 'Gepetto' and 'Feed the Tree' is always a joy, and they aren't the best tunes on the album by any stretch. Second album King (1995) has an even greater emphasis on pop hooks, and while these are all great pop songs, the album as a whole has a slightly hollow feeling, and I get the feeling that not bouncing ideas off of the more unconventional Hersh meant that Donnelly drifted maybe too far away from the idea of alternative rock. It's still an album that I really love though, and 'The Bees' is for me the best song she ever wrote.

Right, let's get some revivalism on the go with musicologists and arch-traditionalists Belshazzar's Feast and their album, Find the Lady (2010). As far as trad English folk goes, this is an interesting piece of work, because although there's no room for studio trickery or any new folk styles, they do play fast and loose with the old songs they tackle on Find the Lady. There's a great, and slightly odd, arrangement of 'The Wild Rover' and really lovely interpretations of 'Thresherman' and 'Turtle Dove', and a lot of the time they're playing around and they really just spend the whole of 'Primus Hornpipe' pissing about. For the most part though the album is a respectful selection of accordion and violin folk dances and ballads and on the odd occasion that anybody else appears (Jackie Oates makes a nice appearance on one tune), producer Jim Moray (who I'm going to see on Friday btw) makes the most it.

Now I know that many people find Ben Folds massively annoying but I've never minded his Joe Jackson meets Billy Joel schtick. Nobody have a go at me for putting these records under B for Ben Fold Five, the man himself will come under F later. So, the first two Ben Folds Five albums. The eponymous debut (1995) is chock full of clever-dick musical phrasing and wordplay and occasionally falls beneath the weight of its own ambitions and pretensions, but on the whole it's a really interesting bit of work, not least because the idea of a kind of indie craftsman appearing in the world of slacker half-arsedness was pretty refreshing (if a bit irritating). Follow up Whatever and Ever, Amen (1997) is a better recorded, better produced and better crafted record, but although the songs are a step up again from the first album, there's something slightly more smug about the album generally. I think maybe it's because there's no sense that this is a sort of singer-songwriter/indie crossover, it's just a smart-arse singer-songwriter's album. Nonetheless I really rate it and think there are some really decent mature pop tunes on it.

And so finally for the day we really are having to do George Benson. Once again, this came about as a result of taking pretty much anything when we used to get loads of records come into work. A five album boxset of Benson. What possessed me? Anyway, I took it, therefore I have it, therefore I have to sit through it for this project. And we start with 1976's Breezin'. It's called Breezin'. Do I have to say anything else? It's as smooth as a jazz knife entering jazz flesh. Honestly, what is this nonsense? Have I really got to listen to five albums of this navel gazing jazz cheese? If I throw the lot out tonight I won't have to listen to the last three. The weird thing is that, like many jazz guitarists, he's technically fantasic - the problem is it sounds like you're in a really, really bad clothes "boutique" in the early 80's. Or your phone call to the bank has been put on hold. Next is 1977's double live Weekend in LA. This is a brutally extended dose of more smooth jazz/soul guitar workouts (a ten minute 'On Broadway' anybody? No? Nobody?). It's actually not as ghastly as Breezin' simply because the live format doesn't lend itself so well to hold music. Don't get me wrong though, it's still ghastly.

See you tomorrow for more beautiful Benson. Jesus.