The Beatles - The Beatles (1968)

Forty-five years ago this month The Beatles released the double-album The Beatles - their ninth in six years. More commonly referred to as ‘The White Album’ (due to artist Richard Hamilton’s minimalist sleeve cover), it was the follow up to their ground-breaking magnum opus Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  

In February 1968 The Beatles, their wives and entourage flew out to India to stay at the Maharishi Yogi’s meditation camp in Rishikesh following a meeting in London. They then travelled to Wales for a 10 day conference on Transcendental Meditation. Other guests in India included members of the Beach Boys and Donovan. 

Perhaps most significantly, following The Beatles truly heroic intake of illegal narcotics over the last few years the band were now virtually drug-free.  This allowed them to take in the Himalayan air and relax, while armed only with their Martin D-28 acoustic guitars the group returned to England in April with around 40(!) new songs.     

Starr left after ten days complaining of home-sickness while McCartney left after four weeks due to other commitments. Lennon and Harrison both stayed for around six weeks when they left abruptly following accusations of inappropriate behaviour by the Maharishi to Mia Farrow. The song 'Sexy Sadie' was initially called 'Maharishi' and Lennon not wanting to become embroiled in a court case renamed the song on Harrison's insistence.  

The Beatles in India

In truth when the album was recorded the band was in turmoil - it being the first album released since the suicide of the group’s manager Brian Epstein.  Ringo Starr briefly quit the band leaving Paul McCartney to play the drums on a few songs, with Macca putting in a particularly ebullient - if initially stiff performance on 'Dear Prudence', building the track to a particularly cathartic climax.  As well as tensions between bandmates, the Abbey Road sessions were also coloured by the presence of John Lennon’s new muse: Yoko Ono.  

Of the 30 songs featured on the album only 13 featured all four members performing together, with the chief writer usually taking care of his own composition - indeed The Beatles were now beginning to work as solo artists, exploring their own talents.  Indeed, the working title of the album was (rather appropriately) ‘A Doll’s House’ (presumably after the Ibsen play), however, by coincidence the band Family released their album Music In A Doll’s House in the same year.    

Such was the prolific output of the group during this period several compositions didn’t make it onto The Beatles.  Here are three songs written in India that didn’t make the cut, yet found themselves on future solo albums following the breakup of the band.

Child of Nature (Lennon)

'Child of Nature' was recorded along with 22 other songs on a two-track recorder at George Harrison’s house in Esher before the band returned to Abbey Road to work on The Beatles.  The song, along with McCartney’s 'Mother Nature’s Son', was inspired by a lecture given by the Maharishi about a ‘son of nature.’ Interestingly, despite the acrimonious end to The Beatles stay in India Lennon sings fondly of India:

Underneath the mountain ranges
Where the wind that never changes
Touch the windows of my soul
Touch the windows of my soul

I'm just a child of nature
I don't need much to set me free
I'm just a child of nature
I'm one of nature's children

Following a change of lyrics and a tighter chord sequence, the song eventually became on of Lennon’s most famous solo compositions 'Jealous Guy', appearing his 1971 album Imagine. 

Junk (McCartney)

Also recorded at Harrison’s house in Esher, this McCartney demo (initially titled ‘Jubilee’) is virtually identical both musically and lyrically to the version released on his debut solo album McCartney (1970).   

Not Guilty (Harrison)

While an acoustic demo features on the Esher demos, this full band version of Harrison’s Not Guilty was recorded at Abbey Road took around 100 takes over three days to get to this stage.  Such was the complexity of its arrangement the band struggled to cope with its aggressive chord changes, awkward time signatures and erratic rhythm.  'Not Guilty' is perhaps the most Lennon-like song Harrison wrote (see Lennon's 'Happiness is a Warm Gun' from The Beatles), but its problems were never fully overcome. A less appealing version of the song (with an extra verse) had to wait until 1979 for its official release on the author’s eponymous solo album. A heavily edited version of the track appeared on Anthology 3 the 1990's television documentary series and its accompanying three double albums of unreleased - yet widely bootlegged music. 

Elliott Smith: 6th August 1969 - 21st October 2003

Lucky Three is a mini profile of the singer-songwriter Elliott Smith.  Directed by Jem Cohen it was shot between October 17-20th in Portland, Oregon and released in 1997.  The film shows footage of Portland with performances from Smith shot in a bedroom.

Track listing:

1. Instrumental version based on what became "Baby Britain", at the beginning and between the “Thirteen” and “Angeles,” studio version appears on the album XO (1998).
2. "Between the Bars" (take 3), studio version appears the album Either/Or (1997)
3. "Thirteen" (Big Star cover), a version appears on the posthumous compilation album New Moon (2007).
4. "Angeles" (take 1), studio version appears on Either/Or (1997)

Elliott Smith died on this day in 2003 at the age of 34.

Burning Bridge - Kate Bush (1985)

On this day in 1985, Kate Bush released 'Cloudbusting', the second release from her finest and most successful album: Hounds of Love.  The song concerns the relationship between psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and his son Peter (whose perspective the song is told from).

The single, which peaked at number 20 in the UK singles charts was backed by the track 'Burning Bridge' - a startling piece of music that wonderfully encapsulates a women’s plea to her lover to intensify his level of commitment to their relationship.  Rhythmically akin to most of side A of Hounds of Love, 'Burning Bridge' is the perfect companion to the magnificent 'Cloudbusting', with which it also shares a similar layered vocal effect.

Listening to the song it seems odd that 'Burning Bridge' was left off Hounds of Love - it would've made a great ending to the first side of the album (Hounds of Love is split into two suites - side A: 'Hounds of Love' and side B: 'The Ninth Wave', a seven song conceptual piece).  That it was omitted simply demonstrates the rich vein of creativity Bush had struck.  

Hard to imagine then that earlier in that year the music press was awash with rumours about Bush - who seemed to be languishing almost in pop obscurity. Speculations touted about her situation were that she had possibly gone mad, ballooned in weight while others suggested she'd even retired from music altogether.

Her previous album, 1982’s The Dreaming left many fans baffled, “It’s my she’s gone mad album,” Bush remarked years later.  In hindsight however, this has just gone to prove how much ahead of the game she really was.

In fact in the August 1985 issue of the NME Bush was mentioned in the ‘Where Are They Now’ section of the magazine.  This may have been in part due to her previously prolific output, in the fact that between 1979-1982, she had released four albums.

  

A mere two days later after the NME article was published Bush made an appearance on Terry Wogan’s talk show to perform 'Running Up That Hill' - the first single from the album which peaking at #3, turned out to be her second best selling single (after #1 debut release 'Wurthering Heights').   

Actually Bush had been working from her home studio in Kent and as such was able to work at her own pace experimenting with new sounds and instruments.  She was also afforded complete creative control over the project.  Indeed synths, drum machines and driving bass lines were incorporated with traditional Celtic music that coloured much of her first three albums.  It turned out to be the perfect marriage of Bush’s unique lyrical delivery and epic sonic soundscapes.      

Though she has continued to release music of outstanding originality and quality, Bush has so far been unable to scale the dizzying heights of 1985. 

Furthermore, the song also represents a quainter time in mainstream music history when a B-side was quite often worth flipping the single for while remixes were saved for the 12-inch.

London: The Modern Babylon - Julien Temple (2012)

London - the Modern Babylon is a two-hour history lesson of this famous metropolis through a collage of meticulously edited archive footage and music.

Opening with a blistering montage of historical moments as the Clash’s 'London Calling' plays, the sheer volume of imagery bombarding the screen becomes almost overwhelming. And there’s plenty more to come.

Compiled by legendary documentary maker Julien Temple, the epic voyage begins in Victorian London at the height of British colonialism. The journey ends in 2012 as London is preparing to host the Olympics - waiting to welcome the world.

It’s the skilful juxtaposition of sound and image that really colours the film. In one of the most energetic scenes the news footage of Suffragettes rioting is set to the X-Ray Spex’s 'Oh Bondage, Up Yours!' Temple follows this scene with the siege of Sidney Street in 1911, giving a clear indication of the film’s main theme: oppression.

Though the footage of Edwardian London is fascinating, the first half an hour or so of the Modern Babylon does feel rather slow. However, it soon gathers pace after the WWII, when the first influx of Caribbean migrants arrive in London when the City’s racial tensions begin.

These musical archive sequences are broken up with talking heads, some archive, some newly shot. These moments also provide a chance for the viewer to catch their breath. 

Interviewees include, among others, Malcolm McLaren, Molly Parkin, Tony Benn, Ray Davies, Suggs and Barbara Cartland. Though it’s 106-year-old lifelong Hackney resident Hetty Bower’s contribution that really brings the film to life, giving a first-hand account of how London has evolved over her lifetime.

Julien Temple

The city’s iconic landmarks are largely ignored; instead London is shaped through the eyes of its people and their individual experiences. Though Michael Gambon’s familiar voice gets the film underway, the absence of a main narrator allows London to take centre stage.

Temple selects clips that show both the best and worst of the city simultaneously. He uses Michael Powell’s 1960 film Peeping Tom to accuse London of being a voyeur, while Tony Hancock in The Rebel mirrors the burgeoning cultural freedom and experimentation of swinging London.

London is shown almost as a living creature - with a life cycle. But it’s a fragile life, occasionally brought to the brink as a result of strained relationships between conflicting groups. Often these are racially motivated, but there are also class tensions – and these usually boil over into rioting. Yet, each time London emerges wiser and stronger.

Continual links between times of unrest are constantly hinted at, while the film concludes that London is a richer place with its wealth of cultures, detached from the rest of Britain, almost a country in its own right.

In the end Temple shows London as an ever-evolving city, constantly re-inventing itself, while the film concludes that the Londoners themselves - well, they never really existed.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson (1972)

Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas is the semi-autobiographical account of Hunter S Thompson and his friend, the political-activist and attorney, Oscar Zeta Acosta.  It chronicles the two's drug induced visits to Nevada in March and April of 1971. Originally published over two parts in Rolling Stone magazine, Fear and Loathing has rightly come to be regarded as the author’s pinnacle achievement as well as a vital document that helped jump-start Thompson's gonzo journalism legacy.

With the Republicans in the White House, and as Thompson points out, it's no surprise The 1970s began with Heroin as the drug of choice.  The radical sub-cultures that coloured the 1960s are now a distant memory.  That once optimistic decade burnt out alongside LSD crazed hippie enthusiasm: “It is worth noting, historically,” Thompson dryly remarks, “that downers came in with Nixon.”

Working for Sports Illustrated magazine Raoul Duke (Thompson), is summoned to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 500, a free-for-all dirt-bike race. Armed with a boot-load of narcotics, booze and a .357 magnum they soon abandon the race and are gorging on cocktails of mind-bending substances. Insteaf Duke and his Samoan attorney Dr Gonzo begin a drink and drug fuelled trip to Vegas, now in the vague hope of uncovering the ‘American Dream’ – whatever that may be. 

Las Vegas is the perfect location for the book: a symbol of American vulgarity and consumerism - loud and brash and repulsive: “This is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted.”

Throughout the mayhem they terrify a young hitch-hiker and become embroiled with the police, tourists, casino and hotel employees. More carnage ensues when a drugged-up Duke is called to cover a Cop convention on narcotics, observing first hand the police's hysteria and delusion when the book boils over into some bizarre psychedelic farce.

Throughout Fear and Loathing as the reader you're never wholly certain on what events are real and what events are hallucinations. Artist Ralph Steadman provides - a now iconic, harrowing accompaniment to the proceedings with his unique monochrome illustrations that capture the nausea and despair of Duke and his attorney’s twisted visions.

“It was dangerous lunacy, but it was also the kind of thing a real connoisseur of edge-work could make an argument for. Where, for instance, was the last place the Las Vegas police would look for a drug-addled fraud-fugitive who just ripped off a downtown hotel? Right in the middle of a National District Attorneys’ Drug Conference at an elegant hotel on the strip…”

Slaughterhouse-Five: The Children’s Crusade – Kurt Vonnegut Jr (1969)

Personally acknowledged by the author himself as one of his finest achievements, Kurt Vonnegut's semi-autobiographical Slaughterhouse-Five tells of the fire bombing of Dresden, Germany just before the end of the Second World War.

Chaplain’s assistant (and eventually optician) Billy Pilgrim is captured by the Germans during The Battle Of The Bulge and is transported as a POW to Dresden.  It is on that slow trip to Dresden where Billy first becomes “unstuck” in time.   

Narrating through various time periods, Vonnegut employs a mosaic of genres, particularly science fiction and realism to preach of the futility and absurdity of war.   By using sci-fi as a device he's is able to chronicle the protagonist’s life via a non-linear time plot yet keep the suspense the traditional linear narrative - no, this is not a typical war novel.

Billy neither a war hero nor soldier lives various parts of his life randomly, so in one paragraph Billy will be in Dresden, then Chicago twenty years later – occasionally several times on a single page. An author without the requisite literary skill risks bamboozling the reader, but this is Vonnegut at his mercurial peak.    

Jumping from one time place to another, the memories of Dresden never leave Billy (and probably Vonnegut), he is forced to re-live them for eternity.  But this guarantees Billy a certain, if albeit, bittersweet immortality. 

In an extraordinary twist Billy is abducted by a race of aliens, known as Tralfamadorians – as he always known he would be.  He is taken away to the planet Tralfamadoria and placed in a sort of intergalactic zoo.  It is there where he is placed with pornographic model Montana Wildhack and “forced” to mate.  During a conversation with the Tralfamadorians, Billy challenges the notion that all events are preconceived but is rebuffed with the response that everything has happened and will continue to happen.

Exploring the concept of fatalism, that is that no man has power to influence the future and therefore his own actions, the Tralfamadorians explain to Billy that events - specifically war, is an inevitability (just as the end of the universe is, and always will be, caused by a calamitous Tralfamadorian).

Vonnegut cunningly uses the Tralfamadorians to give an outside perspective of the human race, while the idea of ‘free will’ is exclusive to earth – “only on earth is there ever talk of free will.”

Though the novel sounds confusing, Vonnegut manages the consistent time-travelling jumps skillfully, without the reader becoming disoriented - a real achievement for a unique concept.

Despite Slaughterhouse-Five depictions of horrific atrocities it's a deeply satirical and humorous black comedy (as his books tend to be) resulting in a wholly satisfying read.  Very few books deserve the hype surrounding them – this one does. 

So it goes.

“All time is time.  It does not change. It does not warm itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.”

Note:  Vonnegut uses David Irving’s inaccurate claim in The Destruction Of Dresden that 135,000 people were killed in the fire bombing – actually the figure was somewhere between 24,000- 40,000. 

Ravelstein – Saul Bellow (2000)

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

Saul Bellow’s Ravelstein was the Canadian author’s final novel before his death in 2004 and tribute to American philosopher and friend Allan Bloom author of The Closing Of The American Mind. Bellow taught alongside him at the University of Chicago.

On his friend Chick’s insistance, Abe Ravelstein has written a book based on his musings.   After the book becomes a number 1 best-seller, Abe finds himself a millionaire.

Much of Ravelstein consists Abe and Chick engaging in philosophy, politics and their favourite vaudevillian routines. Homosexual Abe, who we soon discover is dying of AIDS, asks Chick to write a biopic of his life as an atheist (and somewhat of a nihilist).  It is Abe’s passage to immortality.

Chick, though constantly teased about his “idealism” holds an unwavering admiration for Abe. Discussing death the best they can imagine is that there are “no more pictures.”

One may claim that Abe is elitist, but his raucous basketball parties – without irony, betray such claims while his lover Nikki defuses the accusations further through his obsessession of Bruce Lee films. Abe too unashamedly courts gossip and fame in his newly begun extravagant lifestyle. At 6ft 6 he's a giant physically as well as intellectually, a cult leader and matchmaker, Abe is as well, fragile and sensitive: human.

The second part of the novel jumps forward to six years after Abe’s death and chronicles Chick’s own brush with mortality, or as he puts it “rehearsal for death.” With the loss of the colourful Abe the book slightly staggers towards the end and occasionally loses rhythm but the mood of the (still) mourning Chick remains appropriate.

Ravelstein is insightful and wonderfully humane, exploring the typical Bellow themes: mortality, friendship and American-Judaism. Perhaps at first glance one may get the impression Ravelstein is a book about two cantankerous elderly gentlemen indulging in candid conversation- and it is, but it's also a loving tribute to a friend.

Saul Bellow

“A human soul devoid of longing was a soul deformed, deprived of its highest good, sick unto death.”

Ghost World – Daniel Clowes (1993-1997)

Serialised in Daniel Clowe’s comic Eightball, Ghost World was released to (generally) positive critical acclaim. Since its 1997 release in graphic novel form it has amassed a large cult following and even spawned a credible movie adaptation.

The novel revolves around the lives of two inseparable, pseudo-intellectual misfits Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca Doppelmayer who have just graduated from high-school. Embracing and mocking the ‘weirdos’ and ‘freaks’ in equal measure they refuse any participation in the conventional and find popular culture passe.

Enid and Rebecca play merciless pranks on the unwitting whilst teasing their secret crush Josh relentlessly. As the story progresses the girls come to realise that maintaining a relationship so intense and intimate into adulthood isn’t possible. Macabre and occasionally misanthropic, Ghost World is darker and more complex than a typical coming-of-age narrative.

The dialogue between the girls in particular is convincing and their cynical teen angst never descends into cliché. Clowes’ says: “I still think in the syntaxes of an inarticulate teenager and that apparently the leap to a female version is not so distant.”

Daniel Clowes self portrait

Daniel Clowes is not just an incredibly talented artist, he is also a skilful story teller and his witty observations of American subcultures stand him apart in his field.

Certainly Ghost World deserves to be thought of within the context of other great modern novels (graphic or otherwise) – indeed this is literature that is emotional, evocative and socially relevant with a heartbreaking yet poignant ending.

Solar – Ian McEwan (2010)

WINNER OF THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION

Michael Beard is a Nobel-Prize winner, whose done FA for years, just living on his past glories. A short, overweight, ageing, serial philanderer whose fifth marriage to the beautiful Patrice is disintegrating.  Yep, he's a real catch.

Told in three parts over nine years Solar deals specifically with the selfishness and fallibility of human nature - with climate change as its backdrop.

Purely because other incomes are not feeding his lavish lifestyle, Beard accepts a position at a British government facility researching possible renewable energy sources. It is here he meets young physics prodigy Tom Aldous and his unpolished, and unpublished theory.

A freak event involving Aldous that Beard deals with ruthlessly and clinically changes the whole complexion of the book in an instant. Beard is suddenly revealed as a man of conscience so threadbare it becomes almost sickening. The repugnant and selfish protagonist shows no remorse in framing his wife’s paramour and plagiarising the work of his former colleague.

The book’s comic highlight comes when the unfortunate Beard is caught short on a trip to the Arctic Circle. The womanizer faces the ultimate irony when his penis succumbs to frostbite, convinced it has fallen off!

The story comes to ahead nine years after chapter 1 in New Mexico with misdemeanour’s past and present hurtling towards him.  Just as Beard is about to get his comeuppance though, the book comes to a rather abrupt end.

Solar is a darkly comical novel, and surprisingly it is McEwan’s first foray into the world of comedy.  Michael Beard encapsulates the weaknesses of the human condition: greed, narcissism and selfishness. Though critics might find the novel a little preachy, Solar’s strength lies in the blending of the serious subject matter into a black comedy that is both satirical and ironic.

“… he felt unusually warm toward humankind. He even thought that it could warm to him. Everyone, all of us, individually facing oblivion as a matter of course, and no one complaining much. As a species, not the best imaginable, but certainly the best, no, the most interesting there was.”

Hollywood - Charles Bukowski (1989)

“The credits rolled. Then there was my name. I was part of Hollywood, if only for a small moment. I was guilty.”

Hollywood is the fictional account of Charles Bukowski’s involvement in writing the film Barfly as told through his alter ego Henry “Hank” Chinaski. Hollywood gives a fascinating insight into the darker side of the movie business.  Who better to tell such a story than the master of grot?

The book Begins with the newly married Chinaski being asked to write a screenplay – which eventually becomes The Dance Of Jim Beam. The story follows the setbacks, the wine, the oddballs and the gamblers all the way though to way to the première.

To those familiar with previous works it becomes clear that marriage has mellowed the usually temperamental Chinaski, but his romance with booze and horse racing remains passionate. Finally “enjoying” success he feels in danger of losing his identity, just like, he says, the actors around him have lost their's by spending careers pretending to be someone they’re not.

“Now, after decades, I was a writer with a desk. Yes I felt the fear, the fear of becoming like them.”

Really this book is best read by those who are familiar with Bukowski’s earlier prose and not the ideal place for novices to start. Ham On Rye, Post Office and Factotum in particular offer more insight into the real Bukowski/Chinaski world, where Bukowski's true Hollywood is East Hollywood, rather than the locale of the movie industry,  where he details the escapades of American low-life.

While Hollywood somewhat betrays Bukoswki’s gritty reputation, he still manages to retain his sardonic, nihilistic, misanthropic charm and is just as self-deprecating and indeed humorous as ever.

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson (2003)

WINNER OF THE 2004 AVENTIS PRIZE FOR BEST GENERAL SCIENCE BOOK* AND 2005 DESCARTES PRIZE FOR SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

“Of the billions and billions of species of living things that have existed since the dawn of time, most – 99.9% it has been suggested – are no longer around.”

American-British writer Bill Bryson is probably best known for his travel writing (Notes Of A Small Island, A Walk In The Woods). In A Short History Of Nearly Everything Bryson embarks on his most ambitious trip yet - without having to set foot out of his house. Hidden away in his Yorkshire home, Bryson submerged himself in science texts, books and journals researching for this project for almost three years.

In A Short History Of Nearly Everything, Bryson takes the reader on a journey through time and space - from the big bang to quantum theory as well as the achievements of Newton, Einstein and Darwin - and a few lesser known characters.

What makes this adventure so successful is Bryson’s engaging style which ensures a thoroughly readable book.  Perhaps his biggest accomplishment is conveying complex, mind-boggling and often incomprehensible facts into easily digestible nuggets of information (the whole thing may leave you feeling rather insignificant!).

It's a cohesive, insightful read, literally bursting at the seams with information, even those with only a shred of interest in science will surely find putting this book down pretty darn tough. Full of jaw dropping, breathtaking and even terrifying facts, A Short History Of Nearly Everything is literally an achievement of Encyclopedic proportions.

*Bryson donated his £10,000 prize to the Great Ormond Street Hospital

Note: Bryson makes no claim that the book is completely error free, in fact in 560 or so pages there several errors, details of which can be found at:http://www.errata.wikidot.com/0767908171

Wild Nothing - Nocturne (2012)

The second offering from Wild Nothing, the vehicle for songwriter Jack Tatum following 2010’s bedroom masterpiece Gemini is pretty much what you’d might expect from the Virginia based solo artist.  That's to say anyone who's familiar with Tatum's debut would have hoped for more of the same yet more polished.

With a producer and with access to more instruments it's exactly that.  With his new toys (well, synths, sequencers, effects pedals and a live drummer) Tatum is able to experiment a lot more in the studio - and now touring with a live band will have to write enough parts to keep new band mates amused.  This is visible straight from the start as opening track and first single 'Shadow' even has a string section.  Similarly, while previously relying on very basic drum loops the inclusion of a live kit also gives the songs some real guts. There are sequenced drum machines throughout many of the tracks but these are punchier and mixed across the stereo spectrum gives a dimension Gemini lacked.

   

Yes, the influences are obvious (My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Cocteau Twins, The Smiths etc), but there’s something quite refreshing about Tatum's dream-pop/new wave throwback sound.  While Nocturne may appear bereft of an immediate hit - 'Only Heather' and in particular 'Paradise' - which features some rather nimble Smiths style bass playing do a pretty neat job, the album is more mature and a real grower. In fact Paradise just might turn out to be Tatum’s 'How Soon is Now?'  
  

Though Nocturne isn’t as immediately gratifying, and perhaps even as consistent as Gemini, its real strength lies in the sonic feel each track creates - somewhere between laid back fashionable dream-pop and late 80s/early 90s indie.    

Whereas Gemini’s fillers were often little more than a couple of looped riffs which were pasted together, they were nonetheless riffs which most songwriters would kill for.   However, this time around  one might occasionally find themselves reaching for the skip - at first (The Blue Dress, Rheya). But don't let that deter, give it a little time.  Nocturne is a certainly a more mature outing - a definite grower that enhances Tatum’s reputation as one of indie-pop’s most talented songwriters.  

    

Key tracks:  Shadow, Only Heather, Paradise, Counting Days.