CD Reviews

John Cunningham | 1998 - 2002

Ashmont Records (2010)

By JONATHAN DONALDSON | July 20, 2010

3.5 Stars

This reissue compiles two out-of-print albums from British songwriter John Cunningham — 1998's Homeless House and 2002's Happy-Go-Unlucky.

Although he failed to establish an audience the first time around with these records, Cunningham has built a cult following in recent years in the sort of musical circles that revere both the formal beauty of the Beatles and the twilight melancholy of Canterbury-scene/British-folk greats Robert Wyatt and Nick Drake. Compared with most musicians nowadays who are caught up in the album-tour-rinse cycle, Cunningham's ethos is refreshingly civilian. A music teacher who lives in very rural Northern Britain, he's as reflective in his nature as he is particular about every detail of his songs.

Homeless House is the starker of the two albums here, an enigmatic collection of piano-and-guitar-based songs that flow and ripple like a darkly personal short story. Happy-Go-Unlucky, by contrast, is a tour-de-force of production. Here Cunningham really lets loose in the studio, with majestic orchestrations, surprising changes, and cunning melodies. Philosophical but never ponderous, reflecting both sides of an unusual and rare coin, these albums are extraordinary cases of what can still be done in the folk/pop medium.

Related: Robert Wyatt | Box Set, Slow emotion, Is 2010 the Year of the Girl?, More

Robert Wyatt | Box Set
Emerging from the progressive cradle of Soft Machine and the late 1960s Canterbury scene, Robert Wyatt began his career as a solo artist after a freak accident left him paralyzed from the waist down in 1973.
Slow emotion
Whatever happened to good old-fashioned reflection?
Is 2010 the Year of the Girl?
Many have argued that the descriptor "indie music" means nothing more or less than "bands Pitchfork reviews" these days, and the claim was never more true than last year
Sick sense
We've been told there's no such thing as a new idea, but that may well be bullshit. The new ideas are out there, they just need bands like Bunnies to root them out.
The Big Hurt: The decade ahead
As a new decade dawns, it's time to cast a curious eye toward the future.
Fresh legends
Nine out of 10 rap legends prefer People Under the Stairs. (The holdout is a crackhead.) That's no joke — in my hundreds of interviews with dudes who brought the noise and funk before the big ship sunk ( circa 1997), California underground heroes Thes One and Double K have been as popular a subject as the exploitation of old-school luminaries.
Fusionists
Nobody likes labels — except maybe critics. And we all want to live by Duke Ellington's measure of quality: beyond category. Beyond names and borders, that is, in a post-racial society. And yet, the word "fusion" — at least in music — has a pejorative connotation, suggesting bland pastiche and commercial opportunism.
Super 8-Bit Brothers | Brawl
It's easy to forget how annoying certain pop-culture artifacts were in their heyday.
Behind the Red Curtain
On Saturday, four singer/songwriters will perform "in the round" at the North Star. Nothing necessarily unusual about that.
Getting to know Audrey Ryan
Though she's primarily Boston-based at this point, Audrey Ryan grew up on Mount Desert Island and he's clearly retained some of that rough-and-tumble independence streak.
The Devil's stomp
While the Lost Cause Desperados might be monickered like a bad alt-country band doing Eagles covers, they have managed to create on Desert of Broken Glass , the band's first full-length with bassist Stu Mahan and drummer Brian Higgins, as frenzied a high-plains drifter as you're ever likely to find.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Robert Wyatt, More

| More

ARTICLES BY JONATHAN DONALDSON

POMEGRANATES | HEAVEN | May 29, 2012
Although the songs on Heaven might not be uniformly good, the Cincinnati-based Pomegranates bring the charm via killer guitar sounds, creative keyboards, and the girlish vocals of twin tenors Isaac Karns and Joey Cook (whose lighter-than-air musings buoy this collection).

EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROS | HERE | May 22, 2012
Maybe I'm feeling the ghost of Levon Helm, but it's hard to find many flaws in this new disc from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

OUT: RICHARD DAVIES RECONNECTS HIS CARDINAL ROOTS | May 15, 2012
Last Thursday was full of surprises at Cambridge's Plough and Stars, as Australian singer/songwriter Richard Davies and one very lucky pick-up band were set to perform the music of Cardinal — the legendary duo whose 1994 homonymous LP was perhaps the most influential baroque-pop revival record of the 1990s.

CRAFT SPELLS | GALLERY | May 15, 2012
Craft Spells certainly live up to their name on this six-song EP, with the charm of its effortless, pixie-light production and the warm, plangent harp sounds of their major-key melodies.