The Magical World of the Strands

Submitted by Katrina Dixon on 17 February 2013 - 9:43pm

Cover:

Artist:

Michael Head & The Strands

album-ID:

a_120

Nationality:

Year:

1 997

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

Queen Matilda*Something Like You*And Luna*X Hits The Spot*The Prize*Undecided (Reprise)*Glynys And Jaqui*Its Harvest Time*Loaded Man*Hocken's Hey*Fontilan

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_45

Now-num:

Grooveshark-URL:

The+Magical+World+Of+The+Strands/8114422

Short-title:

michaelHead

nominator-ID:

u_26

Meeting-date:

Wednesday, 1 August 2012

MusicBrainz-URL:

1e74537e-5cfa-3c38-8a27-3178c8522111

Discogs-URL:

Michael-Head-The-Strands-The-Magical-World-Of-The-Strands/master/347388

Allmusic-URL:

the-magical-world-of-the-strands-mw0001170632

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reviewers-IDs data

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74

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

X Hits the Spot, over and over again.

2-4

This album has a wonderful rich and mellow sound and songs which are still growing on me; it's the kind of sound that I can put on the stereo and leave on repeat, and it will never get annoying. Overall I find it a little too nice; after the first four tracks I'm finding it lacks any real hits, but at the same time there's no bad tracks. Sometimes I want them to just let go a bit and make some noise.

The highlight is 'X Hits The Spot' which is simply a masterpeice, an absolute beauty, which I could play forever.
74

reviewed by

Katrina Dixon

I’ve tried writing this without saying the words ‘if you don’t like this album, you’re an idiot’ but listening to it again I have to. I’m not really annoyed. I just have to drill this album into your skulls until you understand that it’s an unsung gem because it really is an unsung gem. Cards on the table, no bluffs, no need to say ‘fact’: Michael Head & The Strands is the best album made in the past 20 years. Easily. It’s not just the 60s and early 70s influences (Love and English folk music most obviously), or the gentleness of it, the way the production’s lush but never overblown or pompous, with lots of subtle layers and space for strings or harmonies and lovely entwining guitar lines, and then lyrics that are plainly heartfelt, all the more so because they’re not dressed up in flowery language. It’s the way the whole album wraps around you, the whole sound of it. It’s a vision of another world, but grounded in day-to-day reality, and a grim one at that - an idyll day-dreamed in a crappy bedsit. But with belief running through it. It does that light and darkness balancing act, beauty seen in the desolation, in the gutter looking at the stars, ripping your heart open while making it soar, and asking nothing more than to be listened to. Isn't that enough?
58

reviewed by

Richard Norbury
46

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

2-6

4-7-11

It's a pretty, gentle and delicate sound that dominates this one. It is well executed but I think that sort of sound creates a burden on the singer to be very precise and emotional, which I don't think he achieves - he is a bit flat tonally, dynamically and even lyrically, with none of the few phrases I could make out particularly catching my imagination. In other settings I would think his singing would be fine, but this kind of 60s - early 70s influenced picked / jangly guitar style with gentle washes of strings leaves no room to hide. The first two songs are strong, particularly Something Like You, which is terrific, but after that it drifts off into a run which is largely too unimaginatively retro and one-paced for my taste.
35

reviewed by

Matthew Baker

The Unmemorable World of the Strands

I can remember listening to it, but can recall none of the songs. Scored accordingly!