Deezer Discoveries: April 2021
Fairport Convention, The Libertines, and Grace Slick & The Great Society
Deezer’s Flow feature has been great for music discovery. For passive listening (while I’m working on something, doing household chores, etc.) I have Flow running in the background. If I hear something I like, I add the track to a “triage” playlist. When I have free time for active listening, I pick tracks from this playlist, open the albums they’re from and listen to them.
Here are three great albums I discovered this way in April.
Liege and Lief by Fairport Convention
This was my first introduction to the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. This album, released in 1969, has some great mellow tunes that are well-suited for a Sunday evening listen.
Were I to pick a favourite track from the record, I would go with #2, Reynardine. I later learned that this is an old English ballad from the 1800s. Fairport Convention’s evocative rendition will move you. There are more “covers” of old folk songs in this album, and they hold their own.
The Libertines by The Libertines
The Libertines had a short-lived career in the late 90s and early 2000s. This self titled album was released a few months before they disbanded in 2004. The tunes here will have you wallowing in nostalgia for the signature 2000s rock and post-punk sound. Tracks like Can’t Stand Me Now, What Katie Did, and What Became of the Likely Lads quickly became my favourites.
Grace Slick & The Great Society by Grace Slick, The Great Society
Before she was headlining with Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick was the voice of The Great Society, a band that had a very short career (they only ever released one original single). This is a compilation album of a few recordings with the band before she left to join Jefferson Airplane.
Owing to its roots in the acid rock scene in San Francisco at the time, this album features a number of tracks I thought were trance-inducing, even without any help from Alice. Slick’s siren-esque voice complements the wailing guitar with poise. Even though the recordings are not the best quality, the other instruments don’t hold back. The band was also inspired by The Beatles, and this is immediately apparent in the music.
