well, after not much post for a bit (the public holiday on September 24 took the South African Post Office by surprise, even though it seems to have been on every calendar in the country), my PO Box was parcel city yesterday. one of the packages featured the 'special edition' of The World Is Yours by Ian Brown!!!
the rather lavish packaging and effort put in to the detail gives a strong case for CD's never ever going away, really. downloads are easy and convenient for people, and to a degree the record labels (in regards of legal downloads i guess), but nothing beats buying an actual product instead of a data file. that's my view at least, but then again i still buy 7" singles when they are available. the kids today probably see storing things on CD and what not as cumbersome and annoying when you can just shove it all straight on to the ipod or device of choice. ho hum, their loss.
whilst on the subject of 7" singles, here is my set of The World Is Yours opened out, along with the two vinyls of the lead single, Illegal Attacks.
i know Gillian over in New Zealand is going to be thrilled to see all of this!!
if you have a record player, may i suggest you purchase the 2 x 7" set of Illegal Attacks from Record Store. they ship everywhere on earth at a good price, and as one 7" features an awesome live version of Keep What Ya Got with Noel Gallagher, it is well worth it.
as nice as it all looks, you ask, what about the content of The World Is Yours? is the music on it any good? well, i am not likely to give Ian Brown a bad review, am i??
that said, this is not his masterpiece - of his solo albums, Unfinished Monkey Business and Music Of The Spheres remain the best of the best. but that does not mean this is bad, far from it. whereas those two albums were quite introvert and reflective, this one sees Ian comment on a whole range of things which are annoying him, a destination he has been creeping to of late and illustrated in recent interviews, one of which was posted here not so long ago. as major concerns of Ian are the homeless and soldiers dying for little or no reason, it's difficult to fault him for his views, but Mr Brown is never subtle in delivering a message.
the album is easily his best defined in terms of structure - you are never abruptly jolted, the whole thing plays in one sitting very nicely indeed. if the function of a work of music is to inspire dance then this does it, Mr Brown may have adopted a more overt political view than usual but he has not disowned his sense for a bangin' tune in doing that!
this special edition features the entire album recorded by an orchestra. no, Gillian, Ian does not sing on that version of it. this alternate reading of it is rather ambitious, and more or less works in the translation.
OK, stop reading this, go off and buy this album in whichever way works best for you!!
be excellent to each other!!!!!
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