Adam Stafford
Music In The Mirabel (Wiseblood Industries)
You have to hand it to Adam Staford, he does like to keep himself busy. When not directing award-winning films or working with Y’All Is Fantasy Island, he’s off on some tangent or other – usually his solo career, which following an a cappella / looped album in … has gone on to take in this 7 track collection of covers of some of his favourite tunes.
As a prolific songwriter he probably deserves the time off even if not every track here comes up to the mark set by his own releases.
Again, the tracks are pretty much reduced to bare bones, so while Daniel Johnston’s ‘Blue Clouds’ – something of a showstopper in live, looped mode – is recognisable in all its genius, the cover of Devo’s ‘Big Mess’ is something of a revelation, and adds a decided new dimension to the song and makes you wonder why Johnny Cash ever covered it.
’Tin Foil’ is a Handsome Family cover and is as lovely as the original, with fiddle, pedal steel and harmonious backing making for the album’s peak – in fact, with an Adam Bissett recital sitting incongruously in the middle, and a densely-orchestrated but vocals-only Jandek tune that follow… well, we’re certainly getting variety. And we’ve not even got to the Sting-penned ‘Invisible Sun’. The album winds up with a version of The Twilight Sad’s ‘Walking For Two Hours’ which is rather lovely, and, as it happens, completely unrecognisable from the original or indeed as anything connected to the Kilsyth noisemongers.
This album’s free and while it is has its highs and not-so-highs, it has several towering peaks that will if nothing else encourage you to investigate the original artists – or, more crucially, track down YiFi if you haven’t already.
Donald Bush
