Revisiting records has always had it's benefits, often with the case of an initial spin of an artists 2nd album not quite capturing the feeling you had when first hearing said artist.
Big one for me was Boards of Canada's second album Geogaddi, whereas Music Has the Right To Children had the chance to grow organically, latching onto peoples minds and spreading by word of mouth without the standard these days of flashes of Internet hype, Geogaddi dropped with the press and public eagerly awaiting it.
I found it initially dull, an identikit of the first, with a darker pallate of sounds, so ,I kind of ignored it and went on my way. Close to ten years later and the album found itself on heavy rotation, I was now hungry for the twisted sounds and reading commentary on it (after the fact) found the basis of the tracks, the source of the samples and the thoughts behind it fascinating.
Like wise Beth Orton's 1999 album Central Reservation, gathering bigger stars for the remixes (EBTG's Ben Watt on the title track) again made it seem too forced, the expectation raised from her debut Trailer Park a few years earlier, which kind of just happened. Listening to the album again some of the more 'dance' orientated tracks seem trapped in an amber of the era, leaving the simplistic folky numbers sounding as fresh as anything out at the moment. Stand outs amongst these are the superb Pass In Time, with Terry Callier providing a suitably mellow counterpoint to Beth's introspective song about the passing of her Mother, and the haunting Blood Red River.
It's been over six years since her last release, The Comfort of Strangers (her fourth) so it's quite timely that she's set to return later this year, recording now for Anti, the home of Tom Waits and Jolie Holland amongst others. File under eagerly awaited......
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