Sounds Like Summer
“July she will fly and give no warning to her flight,” Paul Simon wrote in the days before his legal separation from melody some time in the 1990s.
He wasn’t wrong. As August waits in the wings, we must face the fact that summer is well and truly here (whatever the weather may think). August is many people’s favourite month of the year, but for the dedicated music fan it can also be the dullest. The new release schedule dries up like a Mexican river bed and even worse for us, the re-release schedule is a parched landscape that taunts our thirst for the cool elixir of music.
To this end, the Some Music Matters Online Magazine has scoured the scorched soil for our top five albums to help us survive the next month.
No. 5 – The Duckworth Lewis Method by The Duckworth Lewis Method. Reviewed earlier on this very site, if your collection still lacks this mini-masterpiece then now is the time to get your whites on and pick up a copy. It’s a beautiful album which mixes hints of the Beatles, the Zombies and ELO to create something wonderfully original. It’s more fun, enjoyable and damn right tasty than anything you’ll get off the barbecue this summer. And it won’t give you food poisoning.
No.4 – No season is complete without the Beatles. While many of us are waiting for the second coming that will be 09/09/09, try taking Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with you. Not only because it’s the ultimate statement of that ultimate summer of 1967, but because it’ll give you one final chance to marvel at just how terrible the 1987 mastering was. Few other albums could still sparkle after such a digital drubbing.
No.3 Desire by Bob Dylan – the subject of a future review – but for the time being it’s an album full of summery images from sandcastles via Mozambique to Romance in Durango. It’s ragged, loose and strangely mysterious. A perfect antidote to all those flight delays.
No.2 – Axis: Bold as Love by Jimi Hendrix. A near-prefect album with so many great tunes, it’s almost embarrassing. Castles in the Sand, If Six Was Nine and the peerless Little Wind make for perfect summer listening, especially through headphones while on the beach. Also great for playing loud to counter your neighbour’s addiction to Beyonce.
No.1 – Legend by Bob Marley. It’s a cliché yes, but reggae seems to the sun-starved among us to be made for the summer and nowhere – ever – has a compilation album so successfully caught the essence of an artist. Yes, it lacks Marley’s more overtly political songs and yes, it may favour the ballads, but just listen to those songs. A wondrous, shimmering evocation of the power of music. The addition to the CD of Easy Skanking makes this the definitive summer album. Essential.
So there we have it. Five albums to help you make the most of your summer.
After all, as Paul Simon also wrote, “August, die she must.”
He was a cheerful soul.
