Alison Moyet's Hometime LP is a masterpiece

As I am always yearning for Alison Moyet to make an album that does justice to her considerable talent, can anybody here corroborate Panagiotis's claim? It would be so great if Moyet had actually crafted a masterpiece.

Hoodoo and Essex were both quite good, she's much better at singing Broudie-y tracks than he is himself. I heard the new album only once, thought it was bit duller than I expected, alas. Agree with J0hn that she is capable of MORE. The track she did on Tricky's Nealy God thing was fucking awful, though.

i should like to point out that i picked Alison Moyet on blueski's Brit Award predictions thread over a week ago!

Yes, you're quite right - Hometime IS a masterpiece. Like all the greatest albums, it has to be lived with, but the quality of the production, vocals and the sterling songwriting all make up my favourite album of the year by miles.

Jusatice, too, that she was yesterday nominated for a Brit Award - a lovely slap in the face for Sony, who harboured her creativeness for years with flimsy pop then refused to let her record for years unless it was - get this - with a boyband producer. Talk about cloth ears...

I, too, liken Hometime to Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain - mainly because many of trhe musicians are the same - how we love Bristol (centre of the musical universe? You bet!).

The Beth Gibbons album..... a bit doodly in parts, but the first 2 tracks are beautiful.

does russ thomas have a vested interest in this record?

...if I like something, I'm most passionate about it, as you'll find out. I'm equally as passionate about things I hate, too. Again, as you'll discover.

Hometime, for me, signalled the return of, IMO, Britain's finest living voice, who had emerged from a record company-enforced exile (Sony told her if she wouldn't write and record another hit album with a team of boyband producers, they wouldn't release anything she made. They didn't. And refused to release her from her contract for 8 years) with a classic record. So, yes, I'm passionate about it. But no, I have no vested interest in it.

And Bristol, like it or not, constantly breeds exciting, new acts ... for the past decade, all the most challenging, interesting new music has emerged from Bristol - Goldfrapp, Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead, Alpha, Kosheen, Roni Size, Way Out West.... and those are just the ones who sell records.

I live in Bristol, but I'm Welsh - and the same can hardly be said for there! In a world of Stereochronics and Manic Street Screechers, thank God for Shaky and Bonnie, I say.....

russ, cool, yr passionate - we all are, that's why we're here. it's just yr condescending posting-style put my back up. i disagree that "all the most challenging, interesting new music has emerged from bristol" a claim that is, frankly, bizarre and yr list backs me up more than it does you. so we disagree, but that's fine - people disagree, "as you'll discover". welcome to ilm anyway.

Michael -
i can only presume you haven't heard the Goldfrapp album and leave it at that. Absolutely enough said.
What, in your opinion, constitutes challenging,interesting, enjoyable music? And do you honestly dsislike every act I have named in the list in my post?

do not feed the troll.

...trolls should be seen.
But not heard.

Goldfrapp, Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead, Alpha, Kosheen, Roni Size, Way Out West

all made some great stuff...but you forgot Earthling, and really its hard to believe there's some magical quality to Bristol that enabled this music and these acts to emerge from there specifically. i suppose its not as irritating as banging on about London, Manchester, Liverpool or Glasgow though eh?

True. But there is a massive (no pun) music scene here... and with the large Jamaican community, a strong reference point is reggae, which is the genre that runs through most of the Bristol bands.Merged with hip hop I think the resluts are superb. And if you saw Christchurch Studios (where all this stuff is made, and at the end of my street), you sort of get a feeling where albums like Dummy and Mezzanine are born.... it's a really gothic, brooding, eerie type place that looks like a church out of a Dickens novel.

Who's the troll?

I will back up the claim that Hometime is Alison's finest work to date. The lyrical quality alone is superb. Though I agree with Russ T. you do have to live with it and should listen more than one time, to understand the full jest of it.
I clip and paste a review that was printed January 2nd in the sydney daily telegraph whicj is quite spot on for Hometime;

Yes, it's that Alison Moyet, the woman with the skyscraper-sized voice who
soundtracked the '80s - first with Yazoo then with a solo career that
started impressively with Love Resurrection. And while many of her
generation have faltered when attempting a comeback, Moyet has taken her
time to make an album that's been hailed her best yet. And that's not just a
handy tag to sticker on the record.

The story behind Hometime is almost as interesting as the music it contains.
Moyet started the album two years ago, working with underground production
team The Insects, who'd worked on the acclaimed Goldfrapp record. But when
the results sounded closer to modern diva does chill-out than Celine Dion
bland out, Moyet lost her record deal. Now Hometime has arrived on her own
terms and is selling through that powerful tool: word of mouth.

All you need is the voice and the tunes and Hometime has both in spades,
with some edgy, modern production (plus a stirring string section to boot).
Yesterday's Flame could double as Portishead or Massive Attack's comeback
single, with all the drama, mood and emotion that entails. Should I Feel
That It's Over mixes plaintive but gorgeous guitar pop with an orchestral
punch while the desperate If You Don't Come Back To Me shows the power of
strings and a big voice.

More mixes strings and electronic weirdness while Moyet sounds like she's
singing directly in your ear, and Hometime recalls the smokey jazz she
flirted with in the '80s, sounding retro yet modern. In a perfect world this
would render Dido irrelevant, but at the very least, it instantly becomes
the coolest '80s diva comeback ever.

Cameron Adams
The Daily Telegraph
January 2, 2003

As I said It is spot on, buy Hometime you will understand then!
Best-
Brenton

Great review.... even though it mentions bloody Dido!

'alf' 's a classic too.
kind of.

this album is dreary, dreary, dreary. her voice has aged terribly, the songs are thin and unmelodic, and the production makes a terrible job of polishing an already stinking turd. RIP alison moyet's career.

as for her lightning seeds collaboration...ugh...