The 60's keep on rollin. A covers album most unusual, by the read of it.
This would be a fun one to put on without seeing the tracklist, as you see how far you can wander into (spoiler alert) Ticket to Ride or Elanor Rigby before you recognize them. They're both actually pretty cool covers, legitimately weaving through some of the songs' main touchstones, while drenching them in organs, length, and generous indulgence. It's a little obnoxious, but kind of brilliant in its way, expertly done, beating Girl Talk out by a solid 40 years.
The other tracks, I'm less familiar with the originals, so I'm forced to take them at face value, and they hold up pretty good. People Get Ready is goddamned euphoric, benefiting massively from being sloppy and unhinged to the core, She's Not There features basslines gallop like besstung horses and the organs lick like hellfire, while Bang Bang turns it over completely and is stark, desperate and taut. The overall result is a band aflame, as if frenetically striving to outplay the devil, with souls on the line. Original songs or not, well-structured or not, I am into that stuff 4/5
You might like this if: You like organs, psychedelia, and the general sound of the 60's in its most densely, desperately writhing throes.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
#377 Humble Pie - As Safe as Yesterday Is
I'm kind of on a 60's kick here, and my continued interest in The Small Faces lead me here, to Steve Mariott's jammier post-faces gig.
So jammy that some review I read (allmusic?) quipped that it was a shame they hadn' written any songs. I don't know when that was written, but that strikes me as unduly glib - there were certainly less well-formed bands out there, and here, sure, the songs are pretty organic, but there are backbones, basslines, and hooks to spare. And, I have to admit, some pretty sweet Frampton solos.
I also hear a lot of Zeppelin on here. The timelines are a bit too close for me to say with any certainty who inspired who, or if there was just some common ancestor, but there's plenty of riffs, proto-metal yowling, and flecks of mysticism. And I think I actually like it better than the early Zeppelin, its a bit freer, a bit more sincere, if less focused, with some experimental twists here and there. Has been good Somerville walkin around music, if nothing else 4/5
You might like this if: Easy answer? If you like Led Zeppelin and don't mind if things are a bit looser, this is probably a good bet. More broadly: 70's style riffs, straight outta 1969. Come'n get em.
So jammy that some review I read (allmusic?) quipped that it was a shame they hadn' written any songs. I don't know when that was written, but that strikes me as unduly glib - there were certainly less well-formed bands out there, and here, sure, the songs are pretty organic, but there are backbones, basslines, and hooks to spare. And, I have to admit, some pretty sweet Frampton solos.
I also hear a lot of Zeppelin on here. The timelines are a bit too close for me to say with any certainty who inspired who, or if there was just some common ancestor, but there's plenty of riffs, proto-metal yowling, and flecks of mysticism. And I think I actually like it better than the early Zeppelin, its a bit freer, a bit more sincere, if less focused, with some experimental twists here and there. Has been good Somerville walkin around music, if nothing else 4/5
You might like this if: Easy answer? If you like Led Zeppelin and don't mind if things are a bit looser, this is probably a good bet. More broadly: 70's style riffs, straight outta 1969. Come'n get em.
#376 The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies
My continuing quest to shore up the holes in my Kinks' experience.
This is such a cheat, when I first started to review this I wrote:
This might be the end of it. This was the last of their remotely-well-regarded albums I hadn't heard, and it didn't wholly blow me away.
But then I set it aside for a week, and in the midst of a second listen, I'm much more impressed. It's almost like first-impression review's aren't the most valid form around.
I still definitely don't like this as much as any of the previous big-4-or-so, and it's not even up there with Lola/Powerman, but it has it's charms. Speaking of Lola, if that album was Exile on Mainstre-y, this one is doubly so, mimicking Exile's more stripped-down half, down to the delta blues slide, down to the buzzrattle acoustic spine, down to the roadworn vocals. It is a distinctly American album, which is odd given how obsessively British these guys were just a few albums ago, and how much they clearly inspired britpop like Blur: even here you can hear future echoes of Parklife in tracks like Complicated Life.
The album, I think, throws you off the trail with a dismal 2-3 punch of Holiday and Skin & Bone, but the next few songs are rich, nuanced, and soulful to spare.
It's an odd bird, reminding me somehow of The King of Limbs (an album it sounds nothing like) in the way that it so fully embraces a style flirted with by its predecessors, resulting in something largely unrecognizable to a longtime follower. I don't see this working for me in the long term: if I want the grit I'll go Exile, if I want the pop genius, I'll go earlier Kinks. But it's an interesting one 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like americana-tinged britpop, and need something slightly adventurous, but downhome simple and light. Contradictions abound.
This is such a cheat, when I first started to review this I wrote:
This might be the end of it. This was the last of their remotely-well-regarded albums I hadn't heard, and it didn't wholly blow me away.
But then I set it aside for a week, and in the midst of a second listen, I'm much more impressed. It's almost like first-impression review's aren't the most valid form around.
I still definitely don't like this as much as any of the previous big-4-or-so, and it's not even up there with Lola/Powerman, but it has it's charms. Speaking of Lola, if that album was Exile on Mainstre-y, this one is doubly so, mimicking Exile's more stripped-down half, down to the delta blues slide, down to the buzzrattle acoustic spine, down to the roadworn vocals. It is a distinctly American album, which is odd given how obsessively British these guys were just a few albums ago, and how much they clearly inspired britpop like Blur: even here you can hear future echoes of Parklife in tracks like Complicated Life.
The album, I think, throws you off the trail with a dismal 2-3 punch of Holiday and Skin & Bone, but the next few songs are rich, nuanced, and soulful to spare.
It's an odd bird, reminding me somehow of The King of Limbs (an album it sounds nothing like) in the way that it so fully embraces a style flirted with by its predecessors, resulting in something largely unrecognizable to a longtime follower. I don't see this working for me in the long term: if I want the grit I'll go Exile, if I want the pop genius, I'll go earlier Kinks. But it's an interesting one 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like americana-tinged britpop, and need something slightly adventurous, but downhome simple and light. Contradictions abound.
Monday, July 4, 2011
#375 The Kinks - Lola Vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround Pt. 1
I came across someone's list of favorite albums, seemed like a good bunch: good Bowie, good Zombies, and then this one. Huh. Never heard it. I love the Face to Face/Something Else/Village Green/Aurthur arc but, for some reason, I've spent years assuming their decent output ended there. On further investigation, looks like this one, and Muswell Hillbilliesdeserve a look. First up!
It's an interesting turn, backing off of the pastoral nostalgia of Village Green and the epic scope of Aurthur, without abandoning either, and rekindling a certain early-kinks ramshackle punk attitude. It smells, by all accounts, like a farewell - a homage to the band and a fuck-you to the record industry. It sounds like a band that has stopped giving so thorough a shit - the songs aren't as carefully groomed as on the precursors, with rough edges, boisterous guitars, and more of the uncaged Davies vocals we heard on Victoria, Aurthur's raging opener.
It all reminds me a bit of Exile on Main Street, actually: there's pieces of honkytonk flair, the guitars are bluesy, the vocals a bit wrecked, the ballads mournful and rejected: the sound of a band on the outside. There's also hints of Jesus of Cool's wry sneer.
Highlights include the well-known Lola, which really does succeed in many small ways, and the jaunty, joyful, mournful, irrepressible This Time Tomorrow. I'm not moved by the (intentionally?) messy and obnoxious Moneygoround, and I'm not quite sold on Rats, which seems a bit out of place on the record. That's a great little bassline though. Otherwise, though, there's a great flow, a hint of narrative, and a great piece of structure with the bookending Got to Be Free refrains: a winning addition to my growing list of loved Kinks albums 4.5/5
It's an interesting turn, backing off of the pastoral nostalgia of Village Green and the epic scope of Aurthur, without abandoning either, and rekindling a certain early-kinks ramshackle punk attitude. It smells, by all accounts, like a farewell - a homage to the band and a fuck-you to the record industry. It sounds like a band that has stopped giving so thorough a shit - the songs aren't as carefully groomed as on the precursors, with rough edges, boisterous guitars, and more of the uncaged Davies vocals we heard on Victoria, Aurthur's raging opener.
It all reminds me a bit of Exile on Main Street, actually: there's pieces of honkytonk flair, the guitars are bluesy, the vocals a bit wrecked, the ballads mournful and rejected: the sound of a band on the outside. There's also hints of Jesus of Cool's wry sneer.
Highlights include the well-known Lola, which really does succeed in many small ways, and the jaunty, joyful, mournful, irrepressible This Time Tomorrow. I'm not moved by the (intentionally?) messy and obnoxious Moneygoround, and I'm not quite sold on Rats, which seems a bit out of place on the record. That's a great little bassline though. Otherwise, though, there's a great flow, a hint of narrative, and a great piece of structure with the bookending Got to Be Free refrains: a winning addition to my growing list of loved Kinks albums 4.5/5
Saturday, July 2, 2011
#374 Samiyam - Sam Baker's Album
Dust'd.
The review there pointed out how this album was adventurous because it used instruments in different ways than they are normally used in instrumental hip hop. I guess I agree. Fact is, those conventions were in place for a reason, thwarting them for no reason isn't, in and of itself, valuable to me.
Here, the samples blur and slur, like they're drunk, you're high, and a thick oilslick fog is embundling the room. Its a bit like the Russian Futurists / Tough Alliance "smothered in blankets" model, except instead of smothering something that is sharp and bright enough to show through (catchy power pop), you're smothering something round and dark (atmospheric instrumental hip hop). That's too indistinct. The result is sludgy, cassette-warped, pitch-bent not very pleasant, and not actually that interesting.
I hate to keep flogging the dubstep comparisons, and I'm sure I'm casting that term too widely, but the speed-changes, wallowing, and general fuckery-for-its-own-sake that characterize the worst of the dubstep world is on full display here 2/5
You might like this if: you're looking for a new flavor of experimental music or instrumental hip hop, and don't mind if the result isn't especially pleasant or listenable.
The review there pointed out how this album was adventurous because it used instruments in different ways than they are normally used in instrumental hip hop. I guess I agree. Fact is, those conventions were in place for a reason, thwarting them for no reason isn't, in and of itself, valuable to me.
Here, the samples blur and slur, like they're drunk, you're high, and a thick oilslick fog is embundling the room. Its a bit like the Russian Futurists / Tough Alliance "smothered in blankets" model, except instead of smothering something that is sharp and bright enough to show through (catchy power pop), you're smothering something round and dark (atmospheric instrumental hip hop). That's too indistinct. The result is sludgy, cassette-warped, pitch-bent not very pleasant, and not actually that interesting.
I hate to keep flogging the dubstep comparisons, and I'm sure I'm casting that term too widely, but the speed-changes, wallowing, and general fuckery-for-its-own-sake that characterize the worst of the dubstep world is on full display here 2/5
You might like this if: you're looking for a new flavor of experimental music or instrumental hip hop, and don't mind if the result isn't especially pleasant or listenable.
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