Alfie Firmin - Further Listening Playlist
Alfie Firmin's latest solo album, This Time Around, has just been released and is our record of the week. To coincide Alfie has made us a Further Listening playlist, which you can listen to and read his words on each track below
This Time Around was recorded with a stalwart group of collaborators from the Southend-on-Sea music scene and beyond, expanding the scope of Alfie’s sound to include storied grand pianos, vintage synthesizers, and lush multi-tracked harmony vocals alongside his usual blend of Beatle-esque folk-rock.
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Wings - When The Night
I was listening to the album Red Rose Speedway by Wings a lot during the writing and recording of This Time Around. It’s considered by some to be one of the worst Beatles solo records but I think it's got a lot of great songs on it, the backing vocal arrangements were a big influence.
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Harry Nilsson - Pretty Soon There’ll Be Nothing Left for Everybody
Harry Nilsson is one of my favorite artists, this song is from his 1976 album Sandman. It's a really great groove and the lyrics seem as prescient as ever.
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Van Morrison - Angelou
Van Morrison is big for me as well, I love the live and loose feeling of a lot of his music. This is taken from his 1979 album Into The Music. The production and the horns on this are great!
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Nick Lowe - Lately I’ve Let Things Slide
I think Nick Lowe does a great job of blending Folk, Country, Soul and 60’s pop influences together in his songwriting, I find that inspiring!
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Todd Rundgren - Can We Still Be Friends?
This Todd album Hermit of Mink Hollow informed my decision to use a few synths throughout the new record. This is the album where he starts trying to sing like Daryl Hall after producing Hall & Oates.
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The Beach Boys - Our Sweet Love
Sunflower by The Beach Boys is one of my favorite albums. The songs are so great and it’s fun to hear all the different band members' contributions, this is a Brian song that was finished off by Carl. It was played at my wedding earlier this year!
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John Cale - Adalucia
I was listening to Paris 1919 a lot when writing for the new album, I think this song is beautiful. Cale would move away from this kind of thing as his career went on but I think he’s really great at it!
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The High Llamas - Ill Fitting Suits / Literature is Fluff
Hawaii is such a great record, I’m a big fan of the harmony and arrangements found in The High Llamas music. I’m looking forward to the potential reissue of this coming soon as second hand copies are pricey!
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Randy Newman - Marie
Randy is just one the best to ever do it, not only is he a master lyricist but the music and string arrangement on this song are devastatingly sad. Good Old Boys is definitely a north star album for me when it comes to songwriting, production and arrangement.
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Martin Newell - Grenadine And Blue
I saw the documentary about Martin called Jangling Man last year and this song really left an impression on me. I've been lucky enough to see Martin both times he’s played in Southend since and he was brilliant!