Guitars and Life

I've bought a few albums lately - so here is a quick catch up review on all of them. John Mayer - Paradise Valley Ok this has been out a while but I listened to on Spotify and I have to be honest I wasn't initially smitten with it.  However I did pop back to it a few times and it grew on me, so when I saw that it had dropped to about £6 for the CD on Amazon and with their terrific AutoRip service (see below) I bought it and I have to say, it's been on big rotation on my car CD player.  So what is this?  John at his country rock best frankly.  Well crafted songs with great singing and some stonking strat guitar work.  If you liked 461 Ocean Boulevard era Eric Clapton try this - like I say though give it a few listens.  Who You Love and Paper Doll are my top picks off this. Oysterband - Diamonds on the Water Any of you old enough to remember "Day trip to Bangor"?  Yes that old oddity hit from 1979. If you do then here's a tricky one to swallow......

It has been a while since I posted any reviews on here... so a catch up on the latest purchases, actually probably better this way as they have been in the car a few days now so this is a considered review rather than one after the initial listen. Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys I absolutely loved their last album and was turned on to them only after that had been out a while and I saw them on a TV show with an orchestra. This one I'd not heard much off, only a couple of tracks on a Jools Holland show but thought I'd give it a shot. Brilliant. It took a while to grow - at the end of the first listening I was taking it out the player thinking, "Hmm - didn't really listen to that closely" and I worried it wasn't up there. After listening a few more times it is right up there now in contention for CD of the year. Beautifully crafted songs, great vocals with lyrics that are way beyond the average. Some are wistful little ballads others huge athemic tunes crying ...