After the excitement of the election – and the inevitable tension – here’s a tiny quiz, to relax the fibres and massage the cortex.
As before, here’s an extract from a review in the NME. No clues: no year, no journalist name…
Which album do you think is being reviewed?
“This is not a bad album. There’s just no point in listening to (…) being anything less than brilliant. Here (…) is just drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe.”
Strangeways Here We Come
Now there’s a thought – I would have assumed that the NME would have praised everything by The Smiths on principle…but maybe not!
Tom Waits, Nighthawks at the Diner.
It’s the second Johnny Hates Jazz album.
Paul Young – The Secret Of Association
Controversially…The Next Day?
Ooh, that IS controversial…
Half expected Mystic Tiggs to pop up and refute this utterly…NME seem to have had a variable attitude to Bowie over the years.
Cliff Richard – Wired for Sound
Cliff Richard – Christmas With Cliff
It’s got to be one of the two. Personally, I preferred the remix album – Cliffmas with Christ.
I’m prepared to break with tradition and state at this point that the album being reviewed in the quote is NOT by Cliff Richard.
Sorry.
Let’s get Dollar out the way and move on…
Not Mud then, is it?
See below…waaay below…
In The Wee Small Hours?
That’s an intriguing thought – the NME reviewing Frank’s LPs…
Didn’t the NME start up in the early ’50s?
Good point: and of course I can neither confirm nor deny etc etc…
But ‘Richard’ could be a clue as the reviewer ‘borrowed’ the lyric from ‘The Last Time I Saw Richard’ in their review.
I wonder if the original draft title was ‘The Last Time I Saw Cliff Richard’…
@craig42blue
Did the “Richard” clue lead you to any conclusion?
Possibly a review of ‘For the Roses’ by Joni Mitchell.
What with this and the Jay Slater case going on at the same time, I think I’ll have to quit my job.
What job? I thought you lived a life of leisure.
I decided some days ago I might be willing to accept employment as a surrogate. I imagine it’s difficult work, having to surrogate. After I’ve finished surrogating I’ll probably be too tired to do anything else.
I suppose standing in for someone else is mentally exhausting.
I’ll have to stand???
Some of the time.
Well that settles it. I’m off to Tenerife to investigate this NME review.
Another Side Of Bob Dylan
A thoughtful guess…
Well as Cliff Richard has been emphatically ruled out I decided to cheat and my computer’s internet reckons the line “just drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe” is from The Last Time I Saw Richard by Joni Mitchell. So I’m going to guess Thursday by The Weeknd. Or maybe Wednesday by King Creosote. Could be Saturday by Ocean Colour Scene.
Maybe “Wild Things Run Fast” by Joni Mitchell?
Or Dog Eat Dog?
You both think it’s a Joni album because of the quote?
I’m getting distinct ‘Young Ones try to play Botticelli” vibes. Is the answer Paul Squire(s)?
If not, it has to be Magic Hotel, the tragically forgotten follow up to Onka’s Big Moka – Toploader, obvs.
Serious guess: Blood on the Tracks?
Neil Young On The Beach or Tonight’s The Night
The “drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe” line comes from The Last Time I Saw Richard. It’s not Joni’s Blue, is it?
I think later. Maybe Hejira or Mingus?
(I have no real clue, except for recognising the lyric) 😉
What’s your thinking, oh Mystic one?
Is the reviewer comparing old folkie Joni with new jazzy Joni – OR
Is the reviewer using the quote from Blue as a metaphor for “innocent, clean 60s vs alcoholic, druggy ‘70s” (eg, After the Goldrush vs On the Beach/Tonight’s the Night) – OR
Is the reviewer being literal about a drunk in a corner (mikethep suggested Nighthawks… above) – OR
None of the above?
I thought it unlikely to quote a Joni lyric in a review of someone else’s work.
Interesting…
The NME really like Richard Hawley & I could imagine them reluctantly giving a review like this. There’s also Richard Ashcroft who has released some less than stellar stuff.
Well if it isn’t Joni’s “For the Roses”, then my next guess is James Taylor’s “One Man Dog”.
Nothing – NOTHING – has been ruled in or out yet (with the exception of Cliff Richard)…
On reflection, no-one wants these daft little brain teasers to drag on too long: so I’ll give one big clue now and the correct answer later this evening.
Those of you who thought that the NME were reviewing a Joni Mitchell album were correct.
The question is: which Joni album would the NME think was a) “less than brilliant” and b) sound like a drunk boring someone in a café?
Taming the Tiger?
I now think the reviewer had cloth ears and that this was a review of “Travelogue” by Joni Mitchell.
I think it’s Joni’s “Both Sides Now” orchestral album.
Mostly “Great American Songbook” covers.
And the reviewer is right to point out she’s not at her best here.
Could be Travelogue, I suppose, which does contain a version of “The Last Time I Saw Richard”. In that case the reviewer is indeed suffering from cloth-eared syndrome.
I’ll postpone the big reveal until tomorrow, 12:00 GMT, give or take…
Having slept on this, my final stab is The Hissing of Summer Lawns….
My final guess? Shadows And Light.
The big reveal:
Writer was Emma Forrest, reviewing in the NME, 05/11/1994
Album was Turbulent Indigo
Some very close guesses – but no bullseye, so the magnificent prize rolls over until the next time.
Would our very own Joni experts agree with the NME assessment?
I’m not a Joni expert by any means. I have a few but nothing after Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter.
However to say “This is not a bad album. There’s just no point in listening to Joni being anything less than brilliant” is a dumb comment, whether applied to her or any other artist of similar standing.
(Cue comments that there is no-one else of similar standing).