First impressions...

["Nathaniel Mumford" <nathanielmumford@ho...com>]

I'm old-fashioned, & rushed down the shops for my copy at the first 
opportunity.
And i like it, i think..

The first shock is that there is no rodney solo spotlight; in fact, he's 
hardly on there at all if you look at the credits, maybe lending credence to 
rumours of a bit of a to-do between them? Especially given that his putative 
solo album has never seen the light, it seems a bit odd that not even one 
solo effort has made it onto this album.
Nor is there a credit for Wojtek, which must be another first. Although he's 
been looking after the kids for a good few years now, in fairness.
But once you get past these shockettes, and if you can pass over its 
relative brevity - 10 songs - i think it might be a sound addition to the 
canon. It's no vintage rocking aeroplanes record; there are very few big 
tunes to which one might bare one's chest in the Borderline's moshpit. Only 
Up in a Down World, Surreal Thing, Raise the Roof and possibly Bright Star 
Catalogue get above mid-tempo, and there's certainly no And Stones or 
suchlike to get the blood really flowing.
But nor is there an 'Open' or similar misdemeanour, which can only be a good 
thing. And at the production is significantly improved on the 
shed-at-the-end-of-the-garden lo-fi of 'Record Player'.
What it does seem to consist of is a clutch of more plangent, downbeat, mood 
pieces, where the vocals wash into and out of focus. He seems to be 
increasingly reflective and less declamatory - and adulthood is an explicit 
statement to this effect. Tree full of starlings, Hexanal, star below & 
multinational, plus the bookends, all seem to derive much more from the more 
impressionistic music of 'Cavaliers' than from the classic rock 
riff/verse/chorus/big production major label albums, but i get the distinct 
impression that this is the direction he's heading these days, and that this 
is maybe no bad thing.
I don't know whether Richard Bell is still on this list, but either way - 
'Beautiful Is' is the easy favourite so far. though anything with angelo on 
runs it close.
The only other thing it makes me wonder is - and maybe lisa can tell us - 
whether there are more songs written/recorded, or whether that's it for 
another five or six years? Given that at least a couple of the songs on 
there date from the early nineties, does he have a wardrobe full of newer 
things to unleash on us...?
This should keep us going for a little while, though.

nat


> From: <peter@in...co.uk>
> Reply-To: The Blue Aeroplanes Mailing List <blueplanes@st...net>
> To: "The Blue Aeroplanes Mailing List" <blueplanes@st...net>
> Subject: Re: [Blueplanes] Altitude advert
> Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 10:29:53 +0100
>
> got altitude delivered to me this am - already ripped to me pc so dont 
> panic.
> first listen is good and think it will be a grower too
> .
> tree full of starlings is luverley - but it so reminds me of the wateryboys
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: gordon
>   To: The Blue Aeroplanes Mailing List
>   Sent: Sunday, April 02, 2006 9:22 PM
>   Subject: Re: [Blueplanes] Altitude advert
>
>
>     Somebody put up a site here a little while back, showing the Altitude 
> cover.
>     I took it for granted as a work of Ann Sheldon, but apparently not.
>     In any case, it's Classic Blue Aeroplanes.
>     Pity EMI couldn't stretch to a vinyl release.
>
>     T.Rex
>       ----- Original Message -----
>       From: Lisa Ash
>       To: The Blue Aeroplanes Mailing List
>       Sent: Sunday, April 02, 2006 2:15 AM
>       Subject: Re: [Blueplanes] Altitude advert
>
>
>       The cover for Altitude was taken from a painting by one of Gerard's 
> friends. He liked the way the plane is exactly at right angles/follows the 
> lines of the streets. EMI thoguht it was cool too and it reminded all of us 
> in the meeting of a similar, very famous photo... I DID find out what that 
> was but Ive forgotten again now! (Imagine it as a photo and in black and 
> white and THATS the photo Im thinking of!)
>       No 911 references, I think G has only just got the artwork for, it 
> as his mate was still finishing it when the EMI deal was signed...
>       Sommin like that anyway! I can't quite remember now, but this is the 
> kinda thing that I want to put on the MySpace site. :) Little bits of 
> trivia-ry info like this.
>       blueaeroplanes.com will be live by the time Altitude comes out - 
> they better get a wriggle on tho eh?! I think it's gonna be more of a 'chat 
> about the albums' site rather than any kind of detailed and specific BA's 
> place. Hence (again!) my ideas for MySpace.
>       We really DO need a proper 'place' for all this stuff. ...and Pete, 
> I will email you re: your offer! Thank you! :)
>       Lis
>       x
>
>
>       On 2 Apr 2006, at 01:11, Nick White wrote:
>
>       There's a big, well-placed advert in yesterday's Guardian guide.  
> Well done EMI.  Shame about the bizarrely inserted apostrophe in 
> Aeroplanes, though, and who decided to quote the 7/10 in NME? - I thought 
> that was quite a low rating.
>       The cover seems to be of a plane flying low over Manhattan - note 
> the distinctive Chrysler building behind the title line.  A deliberate 
> September 11 reference, a composite city, an old painting, or of no 
> significance at all?  You decide....
>       Yours controversially,
>
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