Album: Solid Air
Artist: John Martyn
Born: New Malden, Surrey
Released: February 1973
Genre: Electric Folk
Influenced: The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Beth Orton, Portishead, Gomez
John Martyn's run of 70s albums from Bless The Weather to One World is one of the crowning musical achievements of the decade. Backed by what was essentially Fairport Convention, he made a huge creative leap forward on Solid Air and would continue to experiment even further on follow-up album, Inside Out. The light and breezy jazz feel of Solid Air is most obviously influenced by records such as Pharoah Sander's 1971 album Thembi (check out Astral Traveling), while there's also a strong blues feel to some of the tracks. This ability to fuse folk with jazz and blues is also reminiscent of Tim Buckley, but the guitar playing and slurred singing style is very distinctively John Martyn. For all these reasons, as well as the quality of the songwriting and the blissfully relaxed sound of the record, I would say Solid Air is John Martyn's masterpiece.
May You Never is one of the highlights, a heartfelt ode to friendship enhanced by dense and harmonic guitar playing. Title track Solid Air is another of Martyn's most famous recordings, notably written for his depression-afflicted friend Nick Drake, full of spectral chord shifts and tremolo piano ("I know you, I love you / And I can be your friend / I could follow you, anywhere / Even through solid air"). The meaning of the lyrics is opaque but the impression it summons up in my mind is of someone who didn't live life in a light and easy fashion, as though Drake was weighted down by a heaviness he couldn't shake. Solid Air is offset by the exuberance of Over The Hill, which is enhanced by Richard Thompson's mandolin playing and Simon Nicol's autoharp. Both sides of the record end with blues reworkings, I'd Rather Be The Devil being the most innovative of the two, enhanced by Martyn's use of echoplex tape delays. Not to be confused with Go Easy from Bless The Weather, Go Down Easy is a beautiful love song, while Dreams By The Sea has an incredible sound (lifted by Tony Coe's saxophone) and The Man In The Station is eerie and autobiographical. Everything on this album is pretty much perfection, well suited to a late night with a good bottle of single malt.
John Martyn's run of 70s albums from Bless The Weather to One World is one of the crowning musical achievements of the decade. Backed by what was essentially Fairport Convention, he made a huge creative leap forward on Solid Air and would continue to experiment even further on follow-up album, Inside Out. The light and breezy jazz feel of Solid Air is most obviously influenced by records such as Pharoah Sander's 1971 album Thembi (check out Astral Traveling), while there's also a strong blues feel to some of the tracks. This ability to fuse folk with jazz and blues is also reminiscent of Tim Buckley, but the guitar playing and slurred singing style is very distinctively John Martyn. For all these reasons, as well as the quality of the songwriting and the blissfully relaxed sound of the record, I would say Solid Air is John Martyn's masterpiece.
May You Never is one of the highlights, a heartfelt ode to friendship enhanced by dense and harmonic guitar playing. Title track Solid Air is another of Martyn's most famous recordings, notably written for his depression-afflicted friend Nick Drake, full of spectral chord shifts and tremolo piano ("I know you, I love you / And I can be your friend / I could follow you, anywhere / Even through solid air"). The meaning of the lyrics is opaque but the impression it summons up in my mind is of someone who didn't live life in a light and easy fashion, as though Drake was weighted down by a heaviness he couldn't shake. Solid Air is offset by the exuberance of Over The Hill, which is enhanced by Richard Thompson's mandolin playing and Simon Nicol's autoharp. Both sides of the record end with blues reworkings, I'd Rather Be The Devil being the most innovative of the two, enhanced by Martyn's use of echoplex tape delays. Not to be confused with Go Easy from Bless The Weather, Go Down Easy is a beautiful love song, while Dreams By The Sea has an incredible sound (lifted by Tony Coe's saxophone) and The Man In The Station is eerie and autobiographical. Everything on this album is pretty much perfection, well suited to a late night with a good bottle of single malt.
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