Falling Leaves

 

Today marks the start of October and with it the regular time between summer and winter. The leaves turn into a play of colors and finally fall, it gets cooler and rainier. The days when you could go out without a jacket are over for the time being. 

I was looking for a song for today that featured October, but couldn't find one that really fitted the bill. So I switched to autumn and came up with a song by Yo La Tengo from 1997. Autumn Sweater is from her album of the same name and is a song that divides opinion. For some, it is perhaps the only indie rock song that lasts more than five minutes without a guitar and creates a hypnotic atmosphere with organ, strong drums and tempered bass. For others, it will simply be too boring. For me, the former is true. 

Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater

You Remind Me Of You

 

Summer is gone and we have the meteorological autumn right now. I planed to feature some song with the name September in it's title but found nothing worth to be featured as September by Earth Wind And Fire. So I thought what kind of music could be right for the upcoming season and I remembered an artist that accompanied me during the last decades and one I come usually back to in the second half of the year. For those who didn't know him, Robin Hitchcock was the leading figure of the Soft Boys, a proto punk band of the late 70s who released with Underwater Moonlight the link between psychedelic folk and the upcoming new era of punk. During the decades since then he moved into a singer/songwriter genre and released a couple of great records. Many of them are worth to be listened but Luxor, released 20 years ago shows him at the peak of his career. An album filled with great songs and instrumentals that could warm you when it is cold and rainy outside. 

Laid-back Sunday

Now summer is certainly gone and autumn is coming to take over. Temperature dropped about 15 degrees and more relaxed days will come. More time to read the books I wanted to read for several weeks and even more time to listen to music. During the past week I listened a lot to John Martyn again. I still like the way he picks the strings of his guitar and the way he uses his voice as an instrument. Solid Air, his record from back in 1973, is still a monument and I can't get tired playing it from time to time. This record is named by many people for his best one but for is Glasgow Walker from 2000 on the same level. Maybe because there are a lot of melancholic, soft and intimate songs on it. If you deal with John Martyn you ought to take a look on some edits and remixes of his songs. There you can see that a lot of his songs are timeless. Unfortunately I've never seen him live.

John Martyn - Over the hill