Aldous Harding - Party (2017)
This is probably the first album I got into through Twitter and Instagram. Having stopped buying music magazines (unable to abide the monthly fetishism of artists who first became famous before I was born), my only in-roads into new music have been 6 Music, friends' recommendations and whatever social media throws at me. I follow 4AD on both of the above and noticed the increasingly positive propaganda for Aldous Harding filtering through just before the summer last year.
Rather than do my research via YouTube or Spotify, I reverted to my old 1990s and 2000s default of blind buying this album. This tactic has not always borne fruit in the past with my record collection littered with musical turds as a result, however this gamble was an exquisite and exemplary win.
A skim through the sleeve notes would have confirmed the quality of this record before I even listened to it with John Parish's presence as producer and instrumentalist almost always a sure-fire mark of excellence. Yet I didn't bother to look at these until a few months after I first listened (after reading an interview with PJ Harvey in which she referenced his involvement).
This album stuns because of Harding's voice and lyrics. What in another artist's hands could have been a twee homage to Vashti Bunyan is startling. Although many of the tracks seem to leave a first impression of melancholy and darkness, the record is overwhelmingly positive and affirming. In interviews, she has explained that there is no irony to the title and that, with her first album being created in the midst of a nervous breakdown, 'Party' was to be a celebration.
I have since done my research via YouTube and she has become a source of fascination to my daughters, living every single syllable of every single song. Her movement during 'Horizon' is now performed on the back seat of the car with considerable accuracy.
This is a record to give your full attention to.
Chris
This is probably the first album I got into through Twitter and Instagram. Having stopped buying music magazines (unable to abide the monthly fetishism of artists who first became famous before I was born), my only in-roads into new music have been 6 Music, friends' recommendations and whatever social media throws at me. I follow 4AD on both of the above and noticed the increasingly positive propaganda for Aldous Harding filtering through just before the summer last year.
Rather than do my research via YouTube or Spotify, I reverted to my old 1990s and 2000s default of blind buying this album. This tactic has not always borne fruit in the past with my record collection littered with musical turds as a result, however this gamble was an exquisite and exemplary win.
A skim through the sleeve notes would have confirmed the quality of this record before I even listened to it with John Parish's presence as producer and instrumentalist almost always a sure-fire mark of excellence. Yet I didn't bother to look at these until a few months after I first listened (after reading an interview with PJ Harvey in which she referenced his involvement).
This album stuns because of Harding's voice and lyrics. What in another artist's hands could have been a twee homage to Vashti Bunyan is startling. Although many of the tracks seem to leave a first impression of melancholy and darkness, the record is overwhelmingly positive and affirming. In interviews, she has explained that there is no irony to the title and that, with her first album being created in the midst of a nervous breakdown, 'Party' was to be a celebration.
I have since done my research via YouTube and she has become a source of fascination to my daughters, living every single syllable of every single song. Her movement during 'Horizon' is now performed on the back seat of the car with considerable accuracy.
This is a record to give your full attention to.
Chris
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