The Last Flight

Introduction

Public Service Broadcasting are one of the bands I always buy whatever they release, and I have seen them live three times so far.

All their releases are both great music and give you an education. I have written about them here and often use their music to accompany my Vocal stories.

When I heard that their new album was about Amelia Earheart's last flight I was excited because my good friend Les had written a brilliant horror story about the final demise of Amelia that you can read here:

J. Willgoose, Esq. felt that their work was always male-dominated so wanted to take a woman admired by many as the subject for this album. The album features female singers and lots of sound samples possibly from Amelia herself.

These are the author's notes from the album which gives you a full background into the making of the album. The CD insert is very detailed, crediting everyone involved. I could have just bought the MP3 version but I am glad I bought the physical version.

This is what J. Willgoose, Esq. (Public Service Broadcasting's main man) has to say about the album.

The Last Flight is our version of the story of Amelia Earhart's final, ill-fated journey in 1937. Having successfully navigated over 20,000 miles and 5 continents on her round-the-world trip, her aircraft, the Electra, vanished without a trace near Howland Island. Her whereabouts, and those of her navigator, Fred Noonan, remain a lingering mystery to this day. Rather than focus exclusively on the flight itself, the record is as much an examination of Earhart's remarkable character. She was an extremely rare blend of grace, composure, technical aptitude and fortitude that the rest of us mere mortals can barely dream of, all enveloped by the soul of a poet. She was possessed of a seemingly unquenchable thirst for life - in her words, 'to find beauty in living... to know the answer to why I’m alive... and feel its excitement every moment'. That thirst for the abundance of life, the sheer joy and privilege of living, long outlasts her disappearance and death. It should serve as an inspiration, almost an instruction, to the rest of us; this record is our attempt to translate that inspiration into music.

I will now share some of the songs from the album, with a few notes on each. It gets better with each listen but I think it will take me weeks to appreciate it, and I will be playing this quite a lot.

The album consists of nine pieces but I will just share a few, and if you like though I would suggest you get a copy yourself.

Some bits remind me of "The Race For Space" and others "Every Valley" but this is a wonderful forty minutes of amazing music.

"Towards The Dawn"

This reminds me of "Go" from "The Race For Space" and after the opener "I Was Always Dreaming" which was ponderous, this kicks in with a fast instrumental peppered with quotes and soundbites. Amelia did things because she wanted to, often brushing close to death but always cheating it.

"The Fun Of It" ft. Andreya Casablanca

The reason Amelia did what she did.

"Why Do I Do It? I Do It Because I Want To. I Do It For The Fun Of It"

So heavy riffs and Andreya's voice is perfect, integrating with the Amelia loop, and incredibly positive song.

"Howland"

This is a beautiful nine-minute finale to the album featuring a recording from Howland Island supplied by the US Fish and Wildlife Services.

This is taken from the final page of the CD insert.

Thank you for reading and listening.