Rubbish Recommendations #2 – Genius

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The word ‘genius’ gets banded about a lot, especially by music scribes. Sometimes it is well placed, 99% it is completely off the money.

This month, the word ‘genius’ has been thrown in my face a lot by employees of Apple Incorporated: “I’m sorry sir, you’ll have to see a genius” or “hold on a second, I’ll get a genius to see you.” Really, it doesn’t take an Einstein to replace a fan in a laptop or replace an iPhone with a dodgy headphone socket that seems to dub all my music. On the other hand, it does take an Einstein to figure out why Apple don’t seem to be able to make a product that doesn’t break within seconds of its warranty running out.

But credit to Apple, their geniuses managed to replace my phone and a jet engine-aping Macbook fan with zero cost to me, they also provided me with a clean iPhone free of any music whatsoever.

What this has done has given me the opportunity to simply put on my iPhone the music I want to listen to that day. When I first get an iPod or similar portable music player, I fill it to the brim with as many records as I can squeeze on, this is generally based on what I like, but also includes records I intend to listen to at some point, but never manage to get around to. For the three weeks since my new iPhone arrived, I had one record on it: that being the new Paul Hawkins record Apologies to the Enlightenment.

Paul is one of those artists who I have no idea why more people aren’t at his shows or buying his records. I very rarely see the same people at his gigs, but at every single one the crowd goes mental. His songs are phenomenal, some better than others, but what great artist doesn’t blow hot and cold in the most exceptional way?

The new record bedazzled me like the first single of his I got did two years ago, albeit for very different reasons. His first singles as Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences were absolute pop nuggets, with a marmite voice that only seems to go down well with men (I suspect there’s a bizarre gender specific appreciation separation going on with Hawkins), tracks such as ‘You Can’t Make Somebody Love You’ and ‘I Believe in Karma’ were only matched by the brilliance of some of the b-sides, such as ‘Gentlemen on Crutches’ and the electronics twisting ‘The Substitute’.

Unfortunately, the debut Awkward Silences album We are not Other People was something of a disappointment. Although great, it missed the tremendous highs that Hawkins had reached on the singles.

But this time, the new record is something else altogether. Something of an opus as a two disc LP, Apologies to the Enlightenment marks a massive maturity in the Awkward Silences’ sound. Just listening to the opening track ‘The Beasts In The Upstairs Bedroom’ sets a haunting scene, with a dirge reminiscent of something you’d get on a Sunn O))) record (yes, really). And it moves on from there, with a rollercoaster of amazing and questionable tracks, all of which have an incredible musical maturity about them. It’ll probably be my one to buy in April, but spend the time between checking out the back catalogue.

Incidently, since last week there have been two records on my iPhone. The other being the new Joanna Newsom record Have One on Me. I don’t really want to use this space to promote a record that will sell a bucketload anyway, but it’s pretty much impossible for the lady to release a record that isn’t astounding. Clearly it’s not a grand and insanely brilliant as Ys but then again, Van Dyke Parks isn’t involved. It is though, over two hours of music that rarely dips beneath the fantastic, so buy it, it’s genius.

www.myspace.com/theeawkwardsilences

Record to buy in March: Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me (3xLP on Drag City, released 1 March)