#282 The Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

Not making the same mistake again - following up on the other well-regarded Small Faces album.

Man, what a weird album, and again, I kind of can't believe I've never heard of it. Though, to be fair, this one smells more like a cult classic than a classic-classic. The first side is all experimental, vaguely garagey, highly unpredictable stompers and swervers, each catchy, and each responding to its zig points with 30% zags - just enough to keep you on your toes. Its anthemic and pop and catchy, but its also full of starts, stops, structural turns, late resolutions (musically and lyrically), and a bevy of production tricks and stereo maneuvers. And, yeah, it just straight up rocks at places.

The second side is something unto itself. A narrative concept album, complete with the most madcap narration I've ever heard, delivered in a dialect bent at right angles at all the offbeats, pretzeled into knobly lumps in some hyperbritish fasion. The songs themselves continue to be great, though that narration does kind of get in the way. I'm not wholly sure what to make of it. The closest comparison point is The Who Sell Out, with the mix of catchiness and inanity that all kind of swirl and unbalance.

I would argue, at very least, this is a must hear. Its up there with Oracle and Odyssey, Village Green Preservation Society, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway level pantheon of great British albums that nobody in America (and maybe not so many people in England?) know about. This isn't quite as good as those albums, but I sense that its even less well-known. It's probably not even as good as the Small Faces' previous album* but its probably more of an achievement. I felt immediately afterwards like I had had my mind expanded, maybe even blown, and that's pretty cool 4.5/5

* At least in the American form I listened to, that album was a complicated release situation with myriad versions and overlap therebetween.

#281 The Jam - Setting Sons

AMG'd. How do I keep doing this? I really liked Sound Affects, and really liked All Mod Cons, but somehow missed the (equally acclaimed) album in between.

This feels for me like an interesting missing piece. While the other two albums were enjoyable, they were comparatively messy and rough and punk, while this is hookier, a bit more cleaned up. As a result, it serves more obviously as a bridge between punk and new wave, between punk and mod revival (as inspired by none other than the just-discovered Small Faces, I'm told!); and between the late 70's and modern bands like Bloc Party (see Private Hell) and late-era Green Day (see the shoutalong chorus on the way-ahead-of-its-time hit Eton Rifles).

This is, to overuse the word yet again, catchy, falling somewhere between The Clash and The Buzzcocks, with a good balance of showmanship and bile, and plenty of inventiveness for good measure. There's nothing quite as confrontational as Down in the Tube Station at Midnight here, nor anything quite as smooth as That's Entertainment, but it's awfully unpredictable across the board. The downside of all that swerving in style and angle was that it didn't feel overly cohesive, and I found the experience a bit disorienting. I think, once I get used to it, this album it could be my favorite of The Jam's, but for now I'll hedge with a 4/5

#280 T. Rex - The Slider

AMG! Man, there are a lot of bands who I said, years ago "I think I'll check these guys out", so I got their acknowledged best album, loved it, and then never followed up. So many also-good albums that I've never heard. Electric Warrior is great, and I hear this one's up there too.

Well, I don't know that I agree. This album's a lot more repetitive, a lot more homogeneous than Electric Warrior. In some ways, this works to its favor. It leads to a hypnotic, psychadelic experience as a whole, alternating strummy, croony meanderers and bigassed stompers, which somehow follow surprisingly similar structures. There's some core hook or riff or lick or sentiment, and that's the backbone of the song, and it will be there from the front to the back, with everything branching from it. Again, sometimes it works. Buick Mackane is an over-indulgent, but kinda enjoyable jam, and Metal Guru builds a real nice communal, hypnotic stomp from its main line and its endless repetition. But so much of the rest just comes across as kind of uninspired, sounding like late-era Supergrass (that's, Diamond Hoo-Ha excluded, a bad thing). The swagger is there, but it just isn't enough.

In some ways, its the opposite of The Small Faces' album. For every time TAb4SF swerves, this repeats its groove stubbornly. That's not such a bad thing, this is probably a great late-night album, but I'm finding it a little unimpressive, and certainly no peer to Electric Warrior 3/5

#279 The Small Faces - There Are but Four Small Faces

AMG is totally paying dividends. Lots of good stuff coming out of there. I hear these guys and The Zombies are two of the biggest British 60's bands to never make it in the US, and heck, I like The Zombies.

This is a really good album. Its got the easy hookiness of Something Else/Arthur/Village Green-era Kinks, the psychedelic veneer of the Zombies, and the garagey crunch of The Creation and a hundred Nuggets bands. That's a potent cocktail.

There's also something immediate and unpredictable about it, with the song structures taking unexpected turns, the vocals cracking and overloading in places you wouldn't expect, and with a hint of Zappa-esque bent-retro madness in the edges. I'm Only Dreaming and I Feel Much Better, in particular, illustrate these patterns brilliantly, and are two of my favorite new songs I've heard in a long time. The transition at 2:45 of the latter is stunning (1967!). There's a lot going on here, and I need more time with this album, but I am willing to call this album criminally underrated. That someone as musically voracious as myself took this long to come across this album is goddamn insane, and makes me aimlessly annoyed at myself and the world, both. This album is good as hell 4.5/5

#278 Husker Du - New Day Rising

Another AMG rec, plus I'm on something of a Minutemen kick, and those guys helped get these guys signed. I have their debut, Zen Arcade, and in theory I've heard it, but man, I've got no memory of it. So lets start/continue here.

I think I somehow got the idea that these guys were Depeche Mode-esque mopers. My appologies to Husker Du fans. Instead, its a pretty nice, fast, catchy punk album, providing raveup on the title track, GBV lo-fi hookiness on Celebrated Summer and Terms of Psychic Warfare, and plenty of Pavement-esque moments, especially the madcap schememaking on How to Skin a Cat. Those tracks are all brilliant in their ways, and the rest of the album is a lot of intense, inventive fun, with a great buzzsaw guitar sound and some excellent basslines. Some of it is a bit too repetitive, with the shoutyshoutyshouty overanoveragain of I Apologize nearly derailing my opinion of the album early on, but across the board I feel drawn to it, and will certainly revisit it. Could see it being a grower; for now 4/5

#277 Parliament - Funkentelechy vs The Placebo Syndrome

AMG says its good, and I've liked all the Parliament/Funkadelic stuff I've heard so far.

I don't know if there's an established stylistic difference between Parliament and Funkadelic, but I think I tend to prefer the latter. This seems a lot less heavy, more about having a goofy, lighthearted good time than the deep grooves of Maggot Brain or One Nation Under a Groove, which are my Clinton-cabal favorites. This splits the disc between long loseyerselfinable jams and shorter pop stabs, but its missing some of the deep near-psychadelic edge of the best jams, and doesn't quite do pop as well as previous short songs. Funkentelechy and Bop Gun in particular are just a bit too pop-bass, a bit too electronic-tinged, a bit too cheesy on the horns, a bit too messy. The organ break at 5:20 on bop gun is the biggest offender, its just...not cool.

Don't get me wrong, the album's good. There's some fun songs, and Placebo Syndrome is a unique, trippy swirlaround. If this was the only P/F album out there it would be a huge hit for me, but I just don't like it as much as a lot of the other stuff I've heard in this vein, and I can't ignore that well enough to be higher than 3.5/5

#276 The Band - Music from Big Pink

Another well-known classic that I've never sat down and listened to before.

I can see this one being a grower. At first blush, it comes across as a bit meandering, and the vocals, strained as they are, get a little old after a while. In general, it kind of mushes together, and I found myself having a hard time focusing on it. It's vaguely Dylanesque (he wrote/co-wrote 3 songs), with organ twitters arising, a shuffle-stomp rock beat, and a pervasive lack of hurry permeating the crannies. But I could see a weary, dusty comfort arising from it as I spent more and more time with it over the years. Will it find its way into the headphones over said years? Hard to say. I'm going to hedge for now - at first listen its a bit boring, but not without something special somehow 3/5

#275 Graham Parker - Howlin' Wind

Another AMG pickup. Trollin for the classics!

Apparently this album got Mr. Parker labeled an "angry young man". Man, people's threshold for anger was a lot lower back then, this sounds like Barry Manilow, or Randy Newman, or Queen's You're My Best Friend. It's all kind of smooth and well-produced, and only angry relative to, say, Randy Newman. If Randy Newman wrote these songs, I might go, man, Randy sounds angry.

But I come at this having listened to genres that weren't even invented at the time, decades of thrash metal, punk rock, noise rock, rap, and a dozen varieties of pan-genre instrumental menace. This shit is weak as hell. I know that this predates punk and new wave and all that, but my listening experience does not, and this time I couldn't unlearn what I've heard. Without being able to buy into the attitude, musically there wasn't anything I really cared to listen to here. There's some history to it, so it was useful in that regard, but as far as actual first-listen enjoyment? Honestly? 2/5

#274 Mott the Hoople - Brain Capers

Another AMG find - liked their previous one pretty good.

Here they move from sounding like Bowie to sounding a bit like everyone in the 70's. Sometimes its a good thing: there's some Zeppelin crunch, some Dylan drawl, and some (in fact, a lot) of Stonsey swagger. Sometimes its a bad thing, as it all gets a bit overblown and sounds like Kiss or Meat Loaf, boasting more bombast than it's actually earned. Centerpiece Journey is probably the best example, sounding really awesome, and really cheesy, alternately, several times throughout the song - though I think its 9 minute running time eventually earns the swagger it was mortgaging and it comes out ahead.

I'll have to see on this - if I get get over the stigma of this kind of overkill (as I did for, say, Rush and Boston) I could see this being a winner. But it also might just end up annoying me. Will revisit 3/5

#273 Nick Lowe - Labour of Lust

Another band/artist where I thought I'd heard all their best stuff, and it turns out there was a well-regarded album I'd never heard (in this case, again, recommended by the AMG). I love Jesus of Cool, so lets roll (caught up! this is finally a recent listen).

Man, this guy is awesome. So pathetic, but so cool. The whole album has a sleazy, desperate slither, so uncool it's cool, no apologies. Lots of good hooks, good delivery, just enough interesting turns, like the curious drums in Big Kick, Plain Scrap!, the bass counterline of Born Fighter, and the bent throb of Endless Grey Ribbon. It goes on a bit long, and lacks the late-game punch of a surefire winner like Marie Provost*, though Without Love is a nice, simple, late rollicker. Its an agreeable set of songs, if not spectacular. It lacks the diversity and excitement of his debut, but good enough for 3.5/5


* At least as sequenced on Jesus of Cool, as opposed to the criminal early-disc placement on the Pure Pop for Now People sequencing

#272 Big Star - Third / Sister Lovers

Another one out of the Allmusic guide. But this project kicked off with a Big Star album, might as well keep working through their noteworthy albums. Children by the millions sing for Alex Chilton.

Wow, this is really a weird turn. Brief flashes of pop, but they're pushing to the surface through a sea of defeat. The whole thing reminds me a bit of Elliot Smith somehow, its the kind of album you expect to later find out was written while the bandleader contemplated suicide. The song Holocaust, while having nothing to do with the holocaust as far as I can tell, is one of the most harrowing rock songs I've ever heard, sounding as stripped naked as John Lennon's solo work, with the stark sentiment of Xiu Xiu, and the delivery of Thom York at his most plaintive. If it came out today it might be embarrassing, but with the benefit of a less jaded time it comes of as pretty brutal.

The rest isn't quite so intense, again, there are pop moments, but they're all anchored. The strings on For You, the overblown vocals and upright bass buzz of Blue Moon, moments abound. In the end, it's like a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, worth experiencing once, stark enough to be glad to be done with it 3/5

#271 Yellow Swans - Going Places

Also got good buzz on the end of year lists.

Speaking of buzz, you got it. Some of the electronic albums I've heard over the last 270 albums have evoked movement through space, like there is a humming, repeating place that doesn't change, and that the progressions you hear in your headphones are occuring via your movement through different places in that space. Here, the feel is more narrative, like you are standing still while the situation evolves around you.

There's a theme of clausterphobia and unease here. The ambient crackles are ever-varied and ever-present, while huge, overloaded sounds rise and fall. The song titles talk about Limited Space, trying to Opt Out, being Foiled, and even the last two tracks' promise of a New Life or Going Places seem desperate. There is a sense of being surrounded and in unknown peril, from the industrial revolt of Limited Space, to the metal cyclone of Foiled, to the waking gargantuans of Going Places. Throughout there is recurring dull throb that reads more as your own heartbeat than the song's beat, a recurring noise like roaring crowds that implies anarchy through blood-pulsed ears.

Do I like it? Its evocative. The noise is aggressive, but generally listenable, more shoegaze than glitch, more Aphex Twin ambient than Aphex Twin drill-and-bass. Its not a pleasant listen, but its not too unpleasant, and its interesting. But it falls, like so many electronic albums I've heard over the last year, into a kind of anonymous space, crowded by other albums vying for my ears the rare occasion they want something like this. An interesting encounter, not likely to revisit much 3/5

#270 The Move - Shazam

Another one from the AMG run.

I kind of can't believe I haven't heard this before. Its pretty great. It reminded me of ELO, and then sure enough, its got some of the same guys. A perfect combination of rollicking, rolling pop moves and dense near-orchestral lushness, coming across as planned and spontaneous at the same time. Tricky trick. The spontaneity is aided by their series of man-on-the-street impromtu interviews, which actually help to tie the album together, giving it a live feel in a way Sgt. Pepper's couldn't dream of*. The whole thing is well-paced, diverse, interesting front-to-back, with excellent production and melodies front to back. Easily good enough for 4.5/5

* This abum is no Sgt. Pepper's, but on this particular front, this album has a better 'keepin it real' maneuver.

#269 The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack

This got some buzz on someonernothers 2010 list.

The first track is deceptive, and kind of works against the first-time listener's experience. It's a catch, jaunty, 90's tumbler, tripping over its own rolling energy; 'Hey! This is gonna be fun!' you think.

The rest of the album though is repetitive, catchy songs of frustration. The band finds some riff they like, some hook, some beat, and pulse it over and over and over again, using repetition as a device. Its an ur verse/chorus/verse structure, with little difference between the two, little movement within them, and almost no tempo changes to be found. It reiterates where you expect it to swerve, which is actually kind of surprising in its own way. Its a masterpiece of inventiveness in structure by steadfastly subverting adventurousness in structure.

At first its a little annoying, the grinding repetition, the relentlessness. But on an album that combines Gang of Four's seething frustration with helplessness and hopelessness, its kind of perfect. It's an album of inertia, each riff churning, bursting, but with nowhere to go, every measure promising a counter-melody that's never going to come. By the end, it actually kind of works. Maybe its just bad songwriting, and I'm giving it too much credit, but I think its actually kind of brilliant.

Part of the appeal, though, is that there's more here than that gesture. It's more post-punk than post-rock, it's still invested in the energy, in the music. The hooks, repeated and frustrating as they are, are actually pretty good, with catchy basslines and well-honed tetanus riffs around every corner. The bassline on closer Parasites in particular is a dangerous earwig that will haunt your post-listen thoughts. Even the shouty sentiments are well-chosen and well delivered. I enjoy it a fair amount, admire it a bit more than I enjoy it, and generally had a groove-laden, mind-changing listen. Around here, that's at least good for 4/5

#268 The Smashing Pumpkins - Teargarden by Kaliedyscope Vol. 2

Sure, lets hit the other one, while I'm at it. (Remaining batch of old reviews getting writ up on 1/16)

This is, at least, a bit better than the first volume. The lyrics are still trite, and some of the synth gestures are still awfully tacked on, but there's a better anthemic chug here than there was in the first volume's lot. Freak's guitar juggernaut is particularly irresistible, and in theory I like the retro organs/mellotrons on Spangled, shame there's not more song there. Closer Cottonwood Symphony, the vinyl-only track I had to do some extra work to hear, is probably the standout here just because of its ragged production and inflected guitar sound - its really damning for the rest of the album really, drawing the other four songs' overproduction excesses into sharp relief.

Cue further wondering about what's happened to these guys. I should really try to revisit Mellon Collie with fresh ears and see if I would even like stuff that sounded like their old stuff today. In the meantime, 2.5/5

#267 Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love

Again, plucked from my trip through the Allmusic guide, the only one of the big 3 JHE albums I'd not heard. Maybe this is criminal that I'm just now hearing these albums, but sometimes you've heard the singles so many times that you think you've heard the albums, your assumptions about what they sound like filling the space of actual potential memories, until you finally snap out of it.

This one has a lot less critical/social heft than Are You Experienced? or Electric Ladyland, and has almost none of his best-known songs, but its frankly no worse for it. In fact, maybe because its newer to me, I found my first experience with this album fresher and more exciting than my encounter with AYE?, and certainly more streamlined than my exposure to the epic-length Ladyland.

The songs are short, catchy, propulsive and enjoyable - this is probably the most fun of his albums, and that counts for a lot. And of course, it goes without saying that the guitar sound is blisteringly ferocious, the playing occasionally blindingly deft - though I was especially taken taken by Spanish Castle Magic and Little Wing. Its hard to rate an album like this, by an artist that is such an established god. How do you escape the gravity of the achievement, the context of then, and the context of now, to just give it what you thought. Like this, I guess 4.5/5

#266 Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes

The title track had been kicking around on the classic rock station on the TV, and then a favorable AMG review spurred me to check out the album proper.

Bowie had a big hand in this album, so its no big surprise that it sounds like a Ziggy-era Bowie album, lots of glammy, T-Rexey turns, plenty of Queen Bitch / Jean Genie guitar crunchalong riffs. Its a lot more one-dimensional though, starting to all sound the same after a while, lacking Bowie's touch for variety and pacing. The title track is the main standout, though Sea Diver is curiously powerful in its way, sounding (a lot) like a classic Bowie closer, which isn't a bad thing. Its no Bowie album, but the moments that it sounds like one are its finest, and are abundant enough for 3.5/5

#265 X - Los Angeles

Man! I have been busy and distracted. Have a long backlog of albums from early this month (these next 7 or so are dated around the 5th, since that when I put the entry stubs up, but the actual review-writing dates will be noted for full-data's-sake - in this case, January 15th).

This was one of those well-regarded punk albums that I'd never heard, gotta catch em all.

I don't love this for a number of reasons. The main one is that I just can't get behind the female vocalist, who just sounds annoying. Almost as important, the overall sound isn't quite melodic enough, nor quite rough-edged enough, lying in some dissonant, churning middle ground as a punk goes. Some of the bass parts are nice, and the overall tone of the album jells as it goes on, and I kind of like the exploding hearts-esque ugly retro thing they glance off, but those are silver linings on a lumbering cloud 2.5/5