'Here I Am To Worship' by Tim Hughes

‘Here I Am To Worship’ is surely one of the most significant British worship albums of the last couple of decades. Tim Hughes’ (pretty much) debut was the point at which he emerged as a major voice within the world of Christian music, but it also seemed the point at which Matt Redman’s monopoly of the market was broken. (I should point out – that’s not a criticism of Matt Redman, but for a long time, it seemed like there was no-one else around).

The difficulty of this album was that by the time of its release, a lot of the songs were already quite familiar through Soul Survivor live albums, and so on. Hughes sidesteps this familiarity well by presenting fairly different arrangements of the better known songs – ‘May The Words Of My Mouth’ is a little faster and upbeat than previous versions had been, ‘I’ll Always Love You’ and ‘Jesus You Alone’ are raised a little higher through the pitches. String arrangements are provided, and there is a liberal sprinkling of drum loops (which now sound a little dated, but you can’t always predict these things). The key weapon in the arsenal is his voice – the backing tracks to the album are decent enough, but the voice soars over the top of them. Hughes can go from anthemic to gentle with ease, and his use of multitracked harmonising mark him out from his peers.

It’s the very end of the album which is maybe the most interesting. Covering Matt Redman’s ‘The Eyes Of My Heart’ is a brave move, as comparisons to Redman were inevitable anyway. Still, he chooses one of Redman’s lesser known songs, and it’s a very good version. The final track is his own ‘My Jesus, My Lifeline’, one of the first songs he shared with the world through a Soul Survivor album a few years earlier. Judged against the rest of the album, it’s not the strongest of his songs, but it’s a touching ‘back to basics’ moment that ends the album well.

'Here Be Monsters' by Ed Harcourt

Ed Harcourt’s first album (unless you count the shortened ‘Maplewood’, bought in the days when I listened to xfm and made a real effort to stay up to date. Harcourt came along at the wrong time, really – a few years on from the release of this album, the male singer-songwriter was very much in vogue, but his career never reached the heights of many less deserving artists.

‘Here Be Monsters’ is a very solid debut – relaxed, confident, and highly enjoyable, though not without its flaws. Harcourt is at his best when he’s having fun. ‘Hanging With The Wrong Crowd’, ‘Birds Fly Backwards’ and ‘Shanghai’ are testament to this. The crowning moments of the album are near the beginning. ‘God Protect Your Soul’ is wonderfully atmospheric with its rolling bass piano notes and murky trumpet lines, and it contrasts brilliantly with the more straightforward ‘She Fell Into My Arms’. These two tracks together are possibly the best he’s ever been.

The album suffers a little when Harcourt downplays the fun. ‘Beneath The Heart of Darkness’ suffers from a noisy and extended coda which lends more weight to the song than it deserves to carry, and ‘Wind Through The Trees’ becomes very skippable after the first couple of minutes – they’re the clearest sign of the album’s debut nature. Never-the-less, he can do the heartfelt stuff – the album closes with ‘Like Only Lovers Can’ which is fragile but very lovely. So considered as a whole, the album is a success, and a real springboard for a career that should have reached greater heights than it ever did.

'Helplessness Blues' by Fleet Foxes

An easy and recent purchase. After loving their eponymous debut, this was a release-week buy earlier this year, and I don’t make any were as many of those as I used to. No regrets either – it’s a more than worthy follow up to their first record; similar enough to be readily identifiable, but different enough to be worth having. On balance, it’s more delicately constructed than the first. The acoustic guitar dominates to a larger degree than it did beforehand, and the vocal arrangements are allowed to shine through more clearly – whether as layered harmony or stark solo. The album also feels more like it’s been stitched together like a tapestry of segments – the songs (and pieces of songs) flow from one to the other with gaps you barely notice. As a result, it’s difficult to pick out highlight tracks, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

'Hedonism' by Bellowhead

From one album of folk-type music to another, but it’s very different. Whereas Iona present a highly polished and slick album (even though it’s recorded live), Bellowhead glory in their slightly shambolic approach. Of course – this is very much an act. The band know exactly what they’re doing, and despite the air of chaos, they’re a very tight outfit with years of experience. Listen to the details: the slight timing break at the end of ‘New York Girls’, the intricate arrangements of, well, everything – they know exactly what they’re doing. This isn’t a disappointment – the members of Bellowhead all put the legwork in before they came together, so there was little need for them to improve. They’ve found their niche, they’re comfortable inside it, and with the entire history of English folk to draw on, they’re not about to run out of music. The only real difference between ‘Hedonism’ and its predecessors is the sheer amount of rudeness on display. That’s folk music for you – ‘The Handmaiden and the Weaver’ and ‘Yarmouth Town’ in particular are downright filthy. I don’t mean that in a bad way.

Sat in the middle of the album is ‘Cold Blows The Wind’. In many ways, it doesn’t stand out, but its magic is worth analysing. Jon Boden’s vocals are a treat – not for any technical reasons, but because he tells the story so richly. Underneath them, the folkish backing music sits unobtrusive, building slowly to a cacophony of horns which provide the gaps between verses. It’s completely infectious, and it’s quintessential Bellowhead. Listen to it, love it, love them. Long may they continue.

'Heaven's Bright Sun' by Iona

This is an album that’s been lurking on my shelves for a good long time. I bought it when I was about 14, at a point in my life when I was listening almost exclusively to Christian music (‘OK Computer’ rescued me from this eventually). Iona were a big name in the genre at the time – their Celtic sound made them largely immune from the criticism routinely thrown at other Christian artists, and they have a reasonable amount of crossover appeal and respect, if not genuine mainstream success.

I’ve not listened to ‘Heaven’s Bright Sun’ for a long time. At the time I bought it, I remember having a number of opinions that still ring true. There’s no doubting the talent within the band. The standard of musicianship is extremely high, and the mix works well. There are times when the music drifts for too long into noodling territory, but when the different strands of the band come together, they make a beautiful sound. Iona’s vocalist (I can’t remember her name, and I’m in hospital with no internet connection. Matt, you’re probably the only person who’ll ever read this, and you know how to use Wikipedia) has a glorious voice which grounds the music behind her – this album is at its best when her voice is allowed to genuinely drive the music. During ‘Treasure’, for instance, or ‘Irish Day’.

The thing I most remember about listening to Iona half a lifetime ago is the feeling that I wasn’t really ready for them. They were too mature, too sophisticated for me – I imagined that if I returned to them five years down the line, I’d appreciate them more. Fifteen years on, I feel the same way, which probably says more about me than it does about them.

'Heathen' by David Bowie

When post-Tin-Machine Bowie albums were reviewed, they’d always be referred to as his best since ‘Scary Monsters’, only for their reputations to quickly slide down the scale a bit. Much of his work in the nineties and beyond was seen as interesting rather than good, but Heathen is generally seen as an exception to this, and rightly so. It’s a wonderful album – genuinely wonderful, and anyone who likes Bowie on any level should hear it if they haven’t done so.

I say this as a big fan of his later output. I think ‘1.Outside’ in particular is hugely underrated, and I enjoy ‘Hours’ and ‘Earthling’ a great deal as well, but I recognise that ‘Heathen’ is better on most levels than all of these. It’s an album which reflects Bowie’s age and status without being restrained by it making full use of the vocal register Bowie had at the time. It’s also a massive success for Tony Visconti, the quintessential Bowie producer who had been away from the fold for so long. Songs like ‘Sunday’ and ‘Slip Away’ ooze texture and warmth – ‘Slip Away’ in particular is a beautiful track, displaying a gentleness and melodic strength that runs through much of the album. A number of songs on the album contain more complexity than you pick up on first listen – ‘5.15 Angels Have Gone’ and ‘Everyone Says Hi’ in particular - but nothing on the album is inaccessible. Even the more experimental sounds of ‘I Would Be Your Slave’ and ‘Took A Trip On A Gemini Spacecraft’ are easy to listen to.

There aren’t really any true weak spots on ‘Heathen’. Only his version of ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ feels unnecessary (especially since it’s one of three cover tracks), but even this runs along in decent fashion.

Perhaps the best thing about ‘Heathen’ is how complete it sounds. It isn’t an album full of content which feels like it could have come from other Bowie albums. Even at this late stage in his career (he’s only released one album since, and there are precious few signs of any more on their way), Bowie could still create something worthwhile and special. That’s why he’s great.

'Have You Fed The Fish?' by Badly Drawn Boy

It’s funny how sometimes an album changes your view of an artist for reasons that turn out to be somewhat unjustified when they’re properly thought through. ‘Have You Fed The Fish?’ is one of those albums. I followed the career of Badly Drawn Boy not from the very beginning, but certainly from album number one. I enjoyed the debut, in spite of his lack of coherence, and I thought his ‘About A Boy Soundtrack’ was very strong, so I had high hopes for this, his third. In some ways, those hopes were met. In other ways, not nearly so much.

The instrumental beginning is a chirpily confident start, but the title track which follows is emblematic of all the album’s problems. There’s a good idea buried away within it, but it’s overblown, rambling, and full of lyrical strings that appear to have no meaning. The next few tracks are better – ‘Born Again’ has a real punch to it, ‘All Possibilities’ retains its sense of fun despite the best efforts of Comet’s advertising department. ’40 Days 40 Fights’ is an interesting one. It’s a good listen, but it’s also the track which put me off Badly Drawn Boy to an extent I’ve never quite recovered from. Not because of the album version, but because of the horrible leaden version he and his backing band of the time plodded out on Later as part of the album’s promotion. The pairing of ‘I Was Wrong’ and ‘You Were Right’ works well enough, though the latter hovers dangerously close to outstaying its welcome. The problem is compounded by the fact that the lyrics are reused later in ‘Tickets To What You Need’ which (almost) finishes the album in an unfortunate ‘will this do?’ fashion.

Elsewhere, ‘Counterpane’ is a nice instrumental which would have sat happily on ‘About A Boy’. ‘How?’ mixes gentle acoustics with stirring orchestrations quite nicely and ‘The Further I Slide’ and ‘Imaginary Lines’ have a playfulness which Badly Drawn Boy had seemed to excel at so well up to this point. ‘Using Our Feet’ does to, in a sense, though less successfully. ‘What Is It Now?’ is a perfectly competent, though unremarkable closer.

So all in all, ‘Have You Fed The Fish’ is by no means a terrible album, it just manages to be somehow far less than the sum of its parts, and I’m not sure why. The side effect of this is that although I own a copy of the follow up, I’ve barely listened to it over the years. If I ever reach ‘O’, I’ll give it a go.