Mark Gardener (with Goldrush)

These Beautiful Ghosts

UFO Music

            Ex-Ride guitarist/songwriter plys his trade with a new backing band (Goldrush.) Great album, but the material sounds little or nothing like Ride though. Which, I suppose, is the entire point of the whole doing a solo album in the first place.

Morrissey

Ringleader of the Tormentors

Attack! Records

            Where would I be today without Morrissey’s dark, biting wit to inspire me? I shudder at the mere thought! Brrr! (Who else can get a childrens chorus to sing “There is no such/ thing in life as normal” on one of his songs?) 

            A new home base (
Rome) and a third guitarist has opened up Morrissey’s horizons somewhat. However, while “Ringleader…” is a much better album than his “comeback” triumph, “You Are The Quarry,” there is something still lacking in his sound that I still can’t quite yet place my finger on. Maybe previewing the entire album on myspace before the release date was a bad idea. Because I listened to it a hundred times before I went out and bought it on the day of its release, so that it actually sounded old and tired to me, when in actuality, it was brand new.

Belle and Sebastian

The Life Pursuit

Matador Records

            A big deal by was made by hardcore Belle and Sebastian fans about the early 1970’s glam rock direction that some of the songs on this album went down. I don’t see what the problem was, to me, those glam songs sounded like your typical Belle and Sebastian song but with their guitars cranked up to 11 in the studio. The special edition with the DVD from a live BBC TV session shows what the album would’ve sounded like if their amps were turned down to normal levels in the recording studio. So don’t get all upset about it.