Pale Mother

Comète étincelante dans les cieux de la country music, Hank Williams régna seulement quatre années, avant une tragique disparition prématurée le 1er janvier 1953, à l'arrière d'une Cadillac. Ce fut largement assez pour nourrir des regrets au c?ur de ses fans, mais également pour édifier le destin incisif de l'un des pères fondateurs de la musique populaire. Ses compositions alimentent régulièrement les catalogues de standards (« Jambalaya », « Hey Good Lookin' », « I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry »), et son influence s'étend désormais à des domaines aussi divers que le gospel, le folk, le rock, et la pop.

Are you in a dark, semi-hopeless mood due to end of the year deadlines, the pressures and conflicts of the holiday season and the decidedly return-of-the-robber-barons state of politics? Oh, we're sorry - are we making it worse? Allow us to suggest there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is, in fact, a Pale Lights. And what are Pale Lights? Well, as longtime readers of this blog know they are one of the best and criminally under-exposed guitar pop bands in the United States. Purveyors of melodies and lyrics masterfully crafted to last the test of time, the Brooklyn-based band has just released new LP The Stars Seemed Brighter with ten tracks that will make you smile and put a bounce in your step. Worries? What worries?

This is a great guitar album that conjures the spirit of 1975-76 rock. In particular, it echoes the sound of Wishbone Ash and The Who. This is what rock music sounded like on the brink of The Sex Pistols and The Clash. And just so you know, I was (sort of) tough guy/security at a Wishbone concert. And that’s pretty cool for an old retired English teacher. More about that later.

Tipped by many to become one of the most exciting and unique British guitar bands of the decade off the back of rapturous critical acclaim, Pale | Seas, on the eve of the release of a long-anticipated debut album, simply disappeared. No hiatus announcement, no press release, nothing. For the following three years the band, led by enigmatic frontman Jacob Scott alongside Graham Poole (Lead Guitar), Matthew Bishop (Bass) & Andrew Richardson (Drums), emitted no signal, instead embarking upon a period of prolonged isolation, rejecting the industry and the outside world to hole themselves away inside a medieval abbey in most remote Isle of Wight.

Best-selling author Pia de Jong’s vivid memoir about her newborn daughter’s battle with leukemia and the startling decision that led to her recovery.

Only compilation for the British synth pop act, digitally remastered 32-bit. The bonus third disc features 7 tracks 'Change' (extended version), 'Pale Shelter' (long version), 'The Way You Are' (extended), 'Mother's Talk' (US remix), 'Shout' (US remix), 'Calling Out' & 'Soul Board'. Digipak. Mercury Records. 37 tracks in all. 2003.

Japanese vibraphonist and marimba player Masayoshi Fujita returns with Migratory, his masterful new solo album, where his sonic explorations into the unknown continue.