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.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
#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
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
Sunday, January 23, 2011
#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
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
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
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
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
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
#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
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
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