A Journey through Texas - Mothers Heaven

It's time for the second entry in my meander through Texas' back catalogue in the run up to the release of the new album on May 20th.

Today, though, saw the release of The Conversation - and we can finally hear a studio recording of a song which has been played by the band at the odd few concerts they have actually played over the past couple of years. The single version has a more poppy sound than this version, although it does still have the country twinges. To be honest, I'm not sure what to make of it at this point, but have purchased it for multiple listens and further digestion. I suspect it will work better in the context of the album. It's not getting a physical release, but it is available on iTunes et.c if you want your own copy...

Texas' second album, after Southside, was 1991's Mothers Heaven. Much less successful here, their continued popularity in France and the Low Countries ensured the band survived to record a third album before the triumphant return to the higher reaches of the UK charts with White on Blonde in 1997... but that's getting ahead of myself.

Mothers Heaven kicks off with the title track which in some ways echoes I Don't Want A Lover at the start of Southside. The long instrumental intro (in this case an accordion playing a French-sounding tune) gives way to familiar guitars and Sharleen Spiteri's voice-as-instrument as she sings two lines beautifully, hauntingly, purely. The (then) trademark Texas' guitars and drums are launched - although there is a hint of the keyboard effects that would become Texas' staples on future albums.

It's a great opener - especially for a second album - reassuring the listener that the band hasn't gone off in a wacky direction*. The solidly familiar sound (although again with hints of what was to come) continues with Why Believe In You.

Dream Hotel is less rocky than the first two tracks - and takes the pace down, giving Spiteri a chance to demonstrate her range with her voice carrying a sultry tone. It's a low-key track whose impact is more felt by its immediate absence when it fades to silence in the end. It is followed by This Will All Be Mine in which Spiteri is accompanied by little more than a slide guitar and the faintest of backing tracks with only a couple of pieces of punctuation from the drums.

For all they may well be regarded as firmly "Middle of the Road", Texas have often tried to experiment within the confines of what they do. This hasn't always been successful - but it has enabled them to re-invent themselves and regain previous successes when they have been in danger of disappearing up cul-de-sacs. 

At 6'46" Beliefs is longest track on the album. Somehow, though, it manages to be less than the sum of its parts. Heavy guitars, solid drums, a catchy chorus and Spiteri's vocal all combine to create a track that is enjoyable but transient. It's followed by Alone With You (the second track in the above video) which I suspect is the track I'll be singing for the rest of the week.

Next is In My Heart which starts with electronic introduction before the more familiar Texas sound re-appears for what is almost an anthemic song about choosing between reality and dreams.

Waiting is this album's "Southside": an instrumental track to reduce the tempo and to lead into the understated but beautiful Wrapped in Clothes of Blue. Return has more than the usual country tinge to it, and limited instrumentation - it's a simple track which revels in its simplicity. Finally the plaintive Walk The Dust finishes the album in a pretty low key way. 

 

The album is oft overlooked in Texas' canon - probably because of the lack of commercial success. The 2001 Greatest Hits album did not feature any tracks from it although "In My Heart" did appear on the 2005 package "The Collection".

 

I've always thought that Mothers Heaven was somewhat unjustly overlooked - but having re-listened to it, with a critical ear - and frame of mind - I fear I may have to concur with those who feel it lacks substance, coherence or a stand-out track.

 

Musically, Mothers Heaven is similar to Southside, although the album as a whole is more downbeat and subdued; the bass drum that characterised much of the first album is less evident and there is a softer sound in evidence. 

 

That said, the album is of a piece with their debut - some of the future developments, even if foreshadowed, were still very far away - but we shall come to those in future weeks.

Andrew

* This will be covered when we get to "Careful What You Wish For"...

A Journey through Texas - Southside

8 weeks today*, Texas' 8th studio album 'The Conversation' will be released. In anticipation, this series will look at each of the proceeding albums in turn - charting the changing sound and developing image of the band. 

I've conducted this exercise (re-listening to back catalogue in order) in the past but it is still interesting to consider the album as part of a larger body of work - and seek to identify the common features and where the changes in sound occurs. From memory of past exercises, this isn't where it's normally assumed to be. It'll be interesting to see if past conclusions still hold true for me.

The one real constant in Texas' œuvre are the lyrics and without Spiteri's song-writing skills - and Johnny McElhone's musical abilities - I doubt that Texas would have survived the lacklustre performances of their second and third albums, even given the success of these in continental Europe. But more of that in due course, I'm sure. 

We'll start, logically enough, with Southside from way back in 1989...

I still remember making the trip from Dunfermline to Cowdenbeath to spend Woolworths gift vouchers that my Aunt and Uncle had given me for Christmas, the Woolworths in Dunfermline having closed sometime before. I had three options - Depeche Mode's 101, Pet Shop Boys' Introspective and Southside. Texas won out and those precious 12 inches of vinyl started a life-long love affair.

The album starts with what is probably still Texas' best known track: I Don't Want A Lover. The first sound you hear is the twangy guitar solo with a heavy beat kicking in after 30 seconds. Lyrically, it heralds what is Texas' stock-in-trade - songs about relationships from a strong female viewpoint. Sharleen Spiteri may have resisted attempts to market her rather than Texas as a band but there has never been any doubt that the band's voice is hers.

The heavy beat and Country and Western guitars continue through Tell Me Why and Everyday Now - although to my ears there's a hint of the more soulful aspect of Spiteri's voice on the latter which would appear on later albums, and on her solo album, Melody.

 

Southside itself is a short instrumental - something which became a feature of future Texas albums - adding the work as a whole whilst being slightly incongruous in their own right. In this case it provides a more mellow counterpoint to the proceeding numbers - ideal for the gentler sound of I Say A Prayer with it's softer guitar-led rhythm.

Back in the late eighties it wasn't unusual for CDs to feature additional tracks as the music industry sought to encourage the format in preference to Vinyl. The next song on the album as I listen to is is, therefore, such a track - Faith ups the tempo again before one of my personal favourites: Thrill Has Gone. If one track were to epitomise this album (other than, perhaps, I Don't Want a Lover) then this is the one: it has the beat, it has the guitars and it has the lyrics that tell of a post-break-up blame game:

(I know the visual quality is lower than I would normally prefer for this blog, but thought it would be interesting for you to see the styling of the band way back then!)

The next couple of tracks - Fight the Feeling and Fool For Love - continue in much the same vein, with Fool For Love succeeding at being pleasant but relatively forgettable. The penultimate track, One Choice, though, is another highlight of the album in the mould of the lead track and Thrill Has Gone.

The album rounds off with another downbeat track, Future is Promises. The guitars are brought back to being front and foremost and the Spiteri's voice has an almost-haunting quality with more hints of the soulful sound I mentioned early. It's another favourite:

Listening to Southside is like having a drink with a long-lost friend. You pick up where you left off and engage in the same conversations as you always have. It would be foolish of me to claim it was a great album - but it is a good album, albeit very much of its time. The band clearly had aspirations of Stadium Rock but with a Country Music twist. Whilst this is distinctive it wasn't right for long-term commercial success - but more of that in the coming weeks...

Andrew

*Erratum: The album is actually released 10 weeks today, I seem to have been getting ahead of myself. I shall use the extra two weeks afforded by this error to provide comment on the Greatest Hits and Live at the BBC albums...

Sunday Sounds 31 - Across the Universe

This week's Sunday Sound was inspired by me listening to a podcast of The Beatle's Biographer Hunter Davies being interviewed for Radio 4's Bookclub. In it he discusses the process of writing the book and tells anecdotes of his time spent with The Beatles.

He also tells how the various bits of memorabilia that he collected when writing the book - including handwritten lyrics - would have been chucked had he not sought permission to take them. He has since lent (and willed) these to the British Museum as he doesn't feel it would be right to profit from items he came into possession of through accident or luck. You can find the programme here.

One of the stories he tells concerns the genesis of Across the Universe, which was partially inspired by the cadence of sirens on an emergency vehicle. Here's Sharleen Spiteri with her version:

#

Enjoy,


Andrew

An A-Z of my CDs: S (Part 2)

Pretty much anyone who knows me will know that one of my favourite bands (if not the favourite) is Texas, fronted by Sharleen Spiteri. But "T" is next week's entry, so here's Sharleen going solo with "All the Times I Cried":

and here's "Stop, I Don't Love You Anymore":

Enjoy, I did!

Andrew

Must be the Music

As most people know, I'm a bit of a fan of reality TV shows, although I don't watch them indiscriminately. With most, a healthy dose of cynicism is required. There's always an element of pantomime in such shows, and hyperbole is rife.

Last night, Sky's new talent show "Must be the Music" started. Heavily billed (as was Five's lacklustre "Don't Stop Believing") as being a different type of talent show which was less about the judges and all about the acts, it had a lot of it's own hype to live up to. Did it succeed?

Yes, I think it did. The programme's unique selling point is that it is open to Singer-Songwriters, Bands and  Musicians irrespective of age or genre. Artists can perform a cover version or their own material. In fact, unlike singing contests such as The X Factor, original material is positively encouraged. After the acts perform the votes judges' decisions are announced before with the feedback following rather than having a long drawn out section during which the judges comment and then vote.

The biggest difference, though, is that although the show isn't about the judges in a sense it is. All the publicity material has featured pictures of the three judges - Dizzee Rascal, Jamie Cullum and Sharleen Spiteri. All three have reached the top as Singer-Songwriters and Performance and been rewarded with both commercial and critical success - including (variously) the Mercury prize, Brits and Ivor Novello awards. As such, their feedback carries more weight than it would if they were, say, a pop artist and is more empathetic than that of a producer who is interested in the commercial potential.

Having high profile judges is also a reason to watch the show. Without the involvement of Spiteri, I think this would have passed me by. As it happens I'm glad I didn't. Earlier this year Sky has a big success with Got to Dance - with Must be the Music they've done it again.

Andrew

P.S. Don't get me wrong, when The X Factor recommences next Saturday, I'll be cheering and booing along with the best of them!

Happy New Year...

One of the things I'll be looking forward to this year is the new Sharleen Spiteri (lead singer of Texas) album "The Movie", due out in early March. It's an album of covers of songs from films, including this version of Xanadu, performed on Graham Norton's New Year's Eve show:





Andrew