Anthony Phillips – "Wise After The Event" (1977)

The reason I bought this album was, as wasn’t unusual back then, the sleeve. I think I was around 20 years old and I remember the curiosity that aroused when I saw the sleeve’s painting. What kind of music could it be on an album with this rather odd cover? I had no idea who Anthony Phillips was. Surely it was a pretty low price asked, it used to be when I in my younger years bought albums based on sleeves. In addition, my album is a cut-out. Wikipedia explains cut-outs:

When LPs were the primary medium for distribution or recording, manufacturers would physically cut the corner, punch a hole, or add a notch to the spine of the jacket of unsold records returned from retailers; these "cut-outs" might then be re-sold to record retailers or other sales outlets for sale at a discounted price.

A relic from the past, but you often comes across these cut-outs today in the stores for used vinyl records. I was ambivalent to the music when I listened to the record the first few times, and this duality has continued.
Anthony Phillips was the guitarist in Genesis until 1970 when he quit the band, allegedly because of stage fear. Genesis had just recorded their second album Trespass. Anthony then started to study classical guitar and began a solo career.

Wise After The Event is Anthony Phillips second solo album, following the initial The Geese And The Ghost. It is a soft and gentle sound on the album with, in my opinion, very kind and non-provocative songs. Maybe too kind. I miss some mean guitars, groovy drum rhythms and a driving bass. I miss auditory challenges. Phillips instead offers lots of acoustic guitar, soft, cottonlike soundscapes and a kind voice. The individual songs are pretty good, but in the long run, it all sounds a bit similar. After a while, I’ve had enough of Phillips soft and gentle soundscape and lose concentration.

This is the only album where Phillips alone accounts for all the singing. A number of songs didn't end up on the album, these were intended to be on an accompanying EP, but this never became reality. Instead some of these songs were released as singles. One of these songs is Squirrel which explains the squirrel on the cover.

I can’t say this is a bad album, but it's not an album that ever belonged to my favorites. It gets a little boring since I miss variation.

　
Tracklist

Side A
1. We’re All As We Lie 4:34
2. Birdsong 7:30
3. Moonshooter 5:52
4. Wise After The Event 8:45

Side B
1. Pulling Faces 4:32
2. Regrets 5:15
3. Greenhouse 3:00
4. Paperchase 5:28
5. Now What (Are They Doing To My Little Friends?) 8:30

Lee Hazlewood - "Movin' On" (1977)

Lee Hazlewood is always a safe bet when it comes to music. Dark, psychedelic, humorous, twisted country is never wrong. And Lee always delivers. Or does he?

Well, barely. Looking at his career, Movin 'On is not Lee's best moment, but contains enough gems to justify a spin on the turntable. The album was recorded at the end of Lee's stay in Sweden, he would later move on to Germany and Spain. Contributing to the album is the famous Swedish guitarist Janne Schaffer, he says of Lee (quote stolen from Acerecords website):

"Lee was a good guy," says Janne Schaffer, one of the guitarists who appeared on the record. "I'd previously played on another session for him [possibly 1976's "20th Century Lee "] and admired him a lot because of his work with Duane Eddy. He was a very cool guy, very sophisticated. He didn't speak Swedish so everything was done in English but I don't recall him saying a lot. He had a special kind of charisma - let's say an authority - and that's my abiding memory of working with him."

The album contains, as usual, lots of songs that had appeared on previous records (to be exact, half of them). Of the album's twelve songs, Lee has written two, the rest are covers. Movin 'On has the dubious quality to include many fairly ordinary country songs, without that dark twist Lee usually has the ability to create. The opening song Mother Country Music might as well have been sung by Kris Kristofersson.

The album's highlight is the closing number on side A, the druggy Let's Burn Down The Cornfield, written by Randy Newman. It's For My Dad is also a nice song, a song that in my dream world my children are singing in my honor after my death.

There's a man who always stood right by me

Tall and proud and good when times were bad

Too much heart, is the only fault that I see

This song's not for you folks

It's for my dad

Almost too cheesy.

Another cool song is Kung Fu You, mainly thanks to its more humorous character. But the biggest reason for me to own Movin 'On is not primarily the music. It is the fact that the LP was only released in Sweden, making it fairly unique in Lee's discography, and probably more desirable on the international market. Personally, I found it in Gothenburg, but has also seen in now and then in the record shops here in Uppsala. This is an album with a lot of valleys but also a few peaks. On the sleeve it says "Whatever your listening pleasure, you'll find something on this album you like." And I guess that's the way it is, out of twelve songs with Lee Hazlewood, I would be damned if you didn't find one you like.

In summary, a barely OK album, and not the one I would recommend spontaneously when it comes to Lee Hazlewood. Personally, however, I can bear with the music's somewhat lacking quality. The vain joy of owning a Hazlewood album which is a bit of a rarity, internationally speaking, outweighs.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Mother Country Music 2:34
2. I've Got To Be Movin' 3:29
3. The Rising Star 4:06
4. Come On Home To Me 2:35
5. It's For My Dad 3:07
6. Let's Burn Down The Cornfield 2:39

Side B
1. Hello, Saturday Morning 3:16
2. Wait For Next Year 3:35
3. L.A. Lady 1:59
4. Paris Bells 2:40
5. Kung Fu You 2:30
6. It Was A Very Good Year 4:14

Leonard Nimoy – "The Touch Of Leonard Nimoy" (1969)

It is both beautiful and reassuring with an album that defines itself as an ultra high fidelity recording and was recorded by none other than Mr. Spock, or Leonard Nimoy as his real name is. I found this album a month ago in a second hand store with a brilliant selection of LPs, at really nice prices. I actually had no idea that Leonard Nimoy also had a musical career, but I have to my surprise now understood that he recorded about a dozen albums. Although his acting career was far more successful than his musical.
A couple of the songs on the album are written by Nimoy himself, a couple are a collaboration with George Tipton who arranged the music, and the rest are covers. This was Nimoys fourth album.

Before I had listened to the record, it was difficult to know which category it belonged to. Was it recorded by a man with serious musical aspirations? Was it a record company who wanted to milk money out of a famous name? Was it a joke? Was it the character Mr. Spock who was singing? Shall the cover give any clue it's undeniably Mr. Spock one is thinking of.

However, it doesn’t take many seconds before the listener realizes that this is an album seriously recorded by Leonard Nimoy, and not by Mr. Spock. Nimoy’s dark voice sings nice little melodies with plenty of strings, some harmonica, female choirs, and it resembles somewhat of Lee Hazlewood. There is a certain seriousness and a pinch of melancholy in the songs. My wife, whose musical knowledge, one must say, has a potential of development, associated spontaneously to just Lee Hazlewood and also Leonard Cohen.

One song that stands out is Contact, one of the cooperations between Nimoy and George Tipton, with a perhaps not entirely successful result. Here we hear Nimoy talk about weird cosmic things with a sound background of a more psychedelic kind. Reminds me of some musical experiments Timothy Leary did at the same time, with a spoken-word theme. This is probably the only time one can wonder if it is the character Mr. Spock that’s being used. However, I am forgiving toward this odd bird on the album, the year was 1969 and I guess it was hip to be experimental.

The song that stands out in a more positive way is I Think It's Gonna Rain Today, written by Randy Newman. This is the album’s highlight and a really nice creation. The other songs on the album are OK and definitely worth listening to, even if some other artists in the same genre are better. Obviously the factor Leonard Nimoy / Mr. Spock makes the music more interesting and fun to listen to, not least for Star Trek fans. But even if it wasn’t Nimoy who had recorded the album, I had given it full approval.

From what I have read on the net, this album is considered to be one of Nimoy’s better, if not the best.

　
Tracklist

Side A
1. I Search For Tomorrow 2:20
2. Maiden Wine 1:42
3. Now’s The Time 2:38
4. Cycles 2:52
5. I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today 2:58

Side B
1. I Just Can’t Help Believin’ 2:37
2. Nature Boy 2:10
3. Contact 2:50
4. The Man I Would Like To Be 2:50
5. A Trip To Nowhere 2:42
6. Piece Of Hope 2:42