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crime and the city solution

  • under the worldUnder the World - Harry Howard with David McClymont (Monorail Music)

    Like many break-up albums, “Under The World” mirrors our fears and losses. Unlike most albums in this genre, “Under The World”effortlessly avoids mopey me-me-me whining. Its lack of self-pity raises the bar of such experiences to the magisterial, touching on aspects of memory and forgiveness. Simple, powerful stuff which you can instantly relate to. 

    No, I'm sorry, but this is one break-up albums which doesn't reference the bombastic and horribly overblown likes of Ronnie James Dio or Tina Arena. Because “Under The World” is like that David Lynch close-up of the white picket fence and the ideal home that you shudder at as soon as you see it. 

  • slight pavillionsHarry Howard Presents: Slight Pavilions – Harry Howard (Cranes Records)

    If you'd made this LP, you'd be bloody proud. It's a triumph, as far as I'm concerned. 

    How to get your attention?

    Ah.

    Remember those “Nuggets” compilations when they first came out, tipping what we knew of the 1960s upside our heads? How so many of those tracks had such a unique joy of life, such a moving intimacy?

    “Slight Pavilions” sounds nothing like those “forgotten” independent records of the 1960s, but it certainly does have that joy of life, a profound intimacy, and more than a touch of the backyard rebel. It also echoes that strange late 1970s and early '80s period when so much experimentation was taking place... Technologically, the difference between then and now is profound and borderline unbelievable.