|
|
S PageContents: The 2nd Chapter Of Acts, Ron Sexsmith, Shift, Sigur Ros, Paul Simon, Simon and Garfunkel, Slint, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Smiths, Solace, Split Enz, Bruce Springsteen, Squeeze, Steeleye Span, Steely Dan, Cat Stevens, Sufjan Stevens, Stephen Stills, Sting, Stone Temple Pilots, Straitjacket Fits, Sugar, Sun Kil Moon, Matthew Sweet2nd Chapter of Acts have their own pageRon SexsmithWhereabouts(1999)According to surname lore, Jimmy Page's ancestors presumably included a cute little servant boy. Robert Plant is possibly descended from a horticulturist. We don't have any room for moral latitude at The Fyfeopedia, so when the dubiously named Ron Sexsmith came to my attention I naturally subjected his moniker to some stringent tests. Actually I don't give a crap, but I was mildly pleased to discover that his ancestors were good wholesome sickle-smiths rather than pimps or obsetricians. Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith would certainly pass any moral tests with flying colours, (check the religious reference "God so loved the idiot world/He gave it his only son to kick around") but on the whole he seems like a glum sort of chap. It is surprisingly, therefore, that producer Mitchell Froom seems determined to channel the morose Sexsmith into more upbeat territory; Froom's tasteful textural contributions enhanced albums by Crowded House and Richard Thompson, but Sexsmith is a completely different kettle of fish. With a little guidance and ambition he could be this generation's Leonard Cohen; his voice heads in that direction, but is warmer and less idiosyncratic. Attractions' drummer Pete Thomas provides some nice understated accompaniment, but poignant compositions like 'One Grey Morning' and 'Fellow For You' get buried beneath mid-tempo arrangements that are too fast and too processed for the material to sink in properly. Aspects like the melodic bridge of 'Still Time' and the bouncy chorus of 'Every Passing Day' occasionally spark, but the winners on Whereabouts are dour moody pieces like 'Riverbed'. It seems evident from Whereabouts that Sexsmith is a talented, charismatic and likeable figure, and I'd really like to enjoy this album, but it doesn't have the emotional pull that it should. Apparently my bargain bin hunting ways have caused me to stumble upon one of Sexsmith's lesser efforts; my friend (who has since sent in a comment form; see below) recommends the 1995 self-titled debut and 2001's rawer Blue Boy as his best efforts to date. 
Feedback: from Your Friend (email: sex@smith.com) Shift have their own pageSigur Ros have their own pagePaul Simon and Simon and Garfunkel share a pageSlint have their own pageThe Smashing PumpkinsMellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness(1995)Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness sold by the bucketload, as well as sparking an obsession among several of my friends that I've never seen another band capture. One paid several hundred dollars for an obscure Australian single to complete his discography, while another paid tribute to the group by devoting a school photography assessment to pumpkins in various stages of deconstruction. At least this album has the entire "group" playing on it; drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was the only other Pumpkin allowed to join domineering frontman Billy Corgan on 1993's Siamese Dream. Like many double albums, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness is loaded to the gunnels with filler. It's also mega-pretentious, a conceptual effort about the passing of a day (the fourteen tracks of the first disc cover the daylight hours, analogous to XTC's superior Skylarking, while the second disc is titled Twilight To Starlight) that begins with Corgan twinkling away on his pinot-noir on the pseudo-classical title track. Factor in Corgan's unpleasant voice (sub-Dylan, sub-Neil Young, sub-Geddy Lee......), and you'd be questioning why The Smashing Pumpkins are worth listening to at all. In fact, if you're my mother, you may be wanting to know when someone's going to hurry up and smash them properly. But while lots of the songs on Mellon Collie are tuneless hard-rock or corny ballads, hidden among the 28 tracks are some mighty fine compositions. The singles 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings' and the blasphemous 'Zero' are fantastic rock songs, as is the overlooked 'Muzzle' dominated by Chamberlain's powerful fills. Corgan also attempts some progressive rock epics and they come off startlingly well with the group riesling to the challenge; the multi part 'Thru The Eyes Of The Ruby' is easily among my favourite songs of the past decade, while 'Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans' doesn't have the same number of musical ideas but plenty of atmosphere. Some of the best moments on the album come when the Pumpkins abandon brut force altogether; guitarist James Iha's vocal spotlight 'Take Me Down' is appealingly humble (especially in comparison to Corgan's bombast), while 'To Forgive', 'Galapogos', 'Thirty-Three' and 'By Starlight' are all nice in their own fashion. In other words, if you can stomach Corgan's voice you might find them quite pretty. While I've given Mellon Collie a moderate rating, The Smashing Pumpkins tend to have a polarising effect. Chances are you'll either think that Corgan is a genius or a pretentious meglomaniac fascist. If you're in the former category, I'd like to console you by pointing out that if you took the above mentioned songs along with decent efforts like 'Tonight, Tonight' and 'Bodies', you'd have a truly excellent single album. As a double album, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness doesn't hang together conceptually like The Wall or The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and it doesn't have the same proportion of great songs as The White Album. If you're a neutral like myself it's worth picking up, but you'll risk incurring RSI on your track skipping finger. I'm afraid that I've been indulging myself in an obscure joke throughout this review with references to varieties of whine, something that Mr. Corgan's voice does alarmingly often. Apologies for my aimless gratuity.
 The Smiths have their own pageSolaceSend And Transmit(2002)You may think that it's bad Form to Detour through so many obscure New Zealand Christian bands, but you can take Solace in the fact that they are actually worthwhile. Brian Platt's Solace come from the same church as Form, and fit in approximately the same place on the pop/rock spectrum. While the two groups are similar, Form are a more straight ahead rock band, while Solace are more likely to explore texture and atmosphere. While Form's Dean Rush has a strong arena rock voice, Platt's is more vulnerable with a lovely upper register. It is an interesting exercise to qualify why Solace are so competent, when most of their secular counterparts (Matchbox 20) are boring and clichéd. Solace have a degree of originality on their side, as rock/pop has seldom been performed so classily by a Christian group. Whatever a Christian band does, it inevitably has a distinct Christian sound about it. For once, this works in Solace's advantage as it gives them flavour to distinguish them from secular contemporaries. Their tasteful sense of guitar tones and spacious arrangements lend more depth to the material on Send And Transmit. The lyrics are also accomplished; economical but genuinely worshipful and bearing a stamp of personality. The outstanding track is 'Day 3', with an atmospheric verse exploding into a propulsive chorus. The song compresses the message of salvation (Day 3 is a reference to Jesus' resurrection) into a delectable tune; "You can take a broken life/Make it into something new." 'Angels' is a lovely slice of Brit-pop (Platt wears an Union Jack t-shirt when he plays live), with an original yet familiar pre-chorus section. Elsewhere, the best songs are when Solace crank up the atmosphere; 'Higher' exploits the longing in Platt's voice ("Higher and higher/ deeper and deeper/ Wide as the oceans span"), while 'Holy One' and 'High Above' both show it's possible to build an atmosphere of worship without resorting to female backing vocalists, strings or cheesy synthesisers. 'Holy One' in particular uses a spare arrangement to its advantage, with nice gentle piano. Send And Transmit isn't wall to wall brilliance, as some of the rock songs are nondescript, but it's still staggering that New Zealand can produce a second rock/worship band this good. It sure puts a lot of our mediocre secular bands (Stellar(most erroneous name ever), Tadpole(fitting name, but dung beetle would be even more appropriate)) to shame.
Split Enz can be found on the Finn pageBruce Springsteen has his own pageSqueezeSingles - 45s and Under(1982)It is interesting to observe a group directing their artistic sights as low as British new-wave popsters Squeeze. While they are doubtless capable of making much more profound music, Squeeze seem content to shuffle out songs in their own humble style. Their lyrics, written by guitarist Chris Difford, cram rhymes together that would be laughable individually, but are humourous in their sheer volume and rapidity: "He saw her in the morning/Out with his sister Pauline/She felt all shy and soppy/He acted cool and cocky/He said tonight at Charlie's/There's going to be a party/I'll meet you at half seven/She visualised her heaven." My favourite line is from 'Tempted': "Your body moves much closer/I reach for the clock/Alarmed by your seduction." Squeeze's music, written by vocalist/guitarist Glenn Tilbrook, is nice but the arrangements are pleasant rather than innovative. While they sometimes float dangerously close to mainstream blandness, Squeeze remain listenable precisely because they are gently funny and unassuming. Excepting debut 'Take Me I'm Yours', which oozes an unpleasant 1978 stylistic sheen rather than solid melody and harmony, Squeeze's run of singles is highly enjoyable. Early singles 'Up the Junction' and 'Slap and Tickle' emphasise Difford's clever wordplay, while the group stretch out later with the smooth ballad 'Tempted' (with Paul Carrack on vocals) and the lengthy 'Black Coffee in Bed'. The keyboardist for much of Squeeze's initial 1978-1982 tenure was Jools Holland, famous for later fronting a TV show, who slips a memorable solo into the excellent 'Pulling Mussels(From The Shell)' and generally displays all round virtuosity. There's also a new song for the compilation, 'Annie Go Get Your Gun', which is as good as anything else on Singles. While Squeeze don't bring anything new to the pop canon, they do twist the genre into a distinctive and attractive form.
Some Fantastic Place(1993)I set a new benchmark for fuss budgetry with Some Fantastic Place, liberating it from the bargain bin for a mere $1(= approximately US 47c). And while I've heard far better albums, Some Fantastic Place was nevertheless a bargain. Some Fantastic Place is exactly what I would have expected from Squeeze, picking the story up ten years after Singles - 45s and Under, only substantially less lame. Come 1993, Squeeze consist of Difford, Tilbrook, Carrack (back for the first time since 'Tempted'), bassist Keith Wilkinson, and Attractions' drummer Pete Thomas. They are less quirky and have less personality than previously, so that Some Fantastic Place is even closer to mainstream pop/rock anonymity. Countering this, Squeeze's songwriting is relatively accomplished, while the underrated Tilbrook and Carrack put in solid and varied instrumental performances. Furthermore, all the bad songs are clustered together, meaning that if you programme out tracks four through six, Some Fantastic Place is generally an enjoyable listen, even if it's admittedly often dull. Carrack gets a vocal spotlight with 'Loving You Tonight', an attempt at rehashing the success of 'Tempted' that is as bad as its formulaic title suggests, but Wilkinson contributes the surprisingly grooving 'True Colours'. Meanwhile Difford is strangely absent; he doesn't sing any leads, and doesn't play any guitar on half of the songs, although his droll voice is often audible on background vocals. The best songs are generally the least lethargic; 'Third Rail', 'Images Of Loving' and 'Talk To Him' are satisfying upbeat, while 'Pinocchio' is an infectious pop/rock song that closes the disc on a high. 'Jolly Comes Home' and the title track are more languid, but they are both really pretty, with Tilbrook firing off an effective solo on the latter. While Some Fantastic Place is a capable enough effort, it is easily overshadowed by Tilbrook's excellent 2001 solo debut, so if you're interested in a late-era Squeeze album I'd recommend that instead. If you find Some Fantastic Place cheap, however, it's a harmless and inoffensive disc.
There is a review of Glenn Tilbrook's The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook on the T Page Steeleye SpanNow We Are Six(1974)Originally a Fairport Convention spinoff, formed by Fairport bassist Ashley Hutchings, it's not too difficult to categorise Steeleye Span as a slightly less credible version of the former. A mirroring line up to Fairport's classic Liege And Lief sextet (vocalist, two guitars, violin, and rhythm section), and fronted by Maddy Prior, a Sandy Denny soundalike. The main difference in sound is Steeleye Span's use of a cheesy and crunchy electric guitar at the forefront of the group, played by Robert Johnson (not the Delta bluesman who sold his soul to the devil), which is a marked contrast to the fludity of Fairport's Richard Thompson. It's not hard to imagine Johnson giggling with embarrassment in the studio as he laid down picket fences of chunky guitars all over the record. Most of the group are multi-instrumentalists; bassist Rick Kemp gets a lead vocal, drummer Nigel Pegrum plays oboe, flute and keyboards, while violinist Peter Knight has a turn on mandolin, banjo and piano. As well as referring to the number of personnel in the group, the title Now We Are Six reflects the nature of the material; many of the songs are children's tales, or even straightforward nursery rhymes like Mozart's 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. The exception, and easily the album's biggest misstep, is the bizarre version of Phil Spector's 'To Know Him Is To Love Him', featuring David Bowie on saxophone, which closes the album. The light-hearted atmosphere of fun that pervades the album can be somewhat distracting, but this group are quite capable in their own way. Perhaps the highlight is the instrumental 'The Mooncoin Jig', a kind of folk hoe-down. 'Drink Down The Moon' is a pretty ballad, while 'Edwin' and 'Two Magicians' are the more epic sounding tracks, a la 'Matty Groves' with less profundity. 'Thomas The Rhymer' is a nice opening track; in fact all of the songs on the album where Steeleye Span take themselves seriously are perfectly enjoyable. It's only when they indulge in the Phil Spector cover and the nursery rhymes with St. Eleye Primary School Junior Choir that the album loses its way. Based on Now We Are Six, I wouldn't place the band on quite the same level as Fairport Convention, but if you're a fan of traditionally based folk-rock they're worth an investigation.
Steely DanRemastered(1993)With their series of perfectionist studio recordings, replete with cynical witty lyrics, virtuoso musicianship and sophisticated jazzy arrangements, Steely Dan are a strong contender for the title of best American band of the 1970s. They preceded the Talking Heads and Radiohead with their ability to walk the fine line between intellectualism and accessibility, obtain critical acceptance, and retain an audience as they explored increasingly esoteric territory. Keyboard player/vocalist Donald Fagen and bassist/guitarist Walter Becker led the band through a progression from crafted pop/rock on 1972's Can't Buy A Thrill to perfectionist jazz rock on 1977's Aja and 1980's Gaucho, changing from a democracy to a fascism in the process. Named after a giant steam powered dildo in a William Burrough's novel, Becker and Fagen exemplified seventies excess with their carefully crafted material, even as they skewered American society with the lyrical barbs of satirical efforts such as 'Haitian Divorce' and the sharebroker suicide fantasy of 'Black Friday'. If anything, one CD isn't enough to cover the group's output sufficiently, while it's also a shame that the album isn't chronological, as the group's progression is interesting to follow. This collection also weigh too heavily on their early work, with four selections from their debut - while 'Dirty Work' and 'Midnite Cruiser' are decent, they are one dimensional in comparison to the group's more sophisticated later work, and it would have been logical to substitute a couple of tracks from their underrepresented mid seventies albums in their stead. Early highlights include 'Do It Again', with black humour lyrics and an atmospheric bed of percussion and electric piano, and the bizarrely grooving 'Bodisvatta' where the group sound like they're letting their hair down and moving into more improvised territory. From their middle period, 'Black Friday' and 'Kid Charlemagne' both hit with funky grooves, infectious keyboard riffs and witty lyrics, an almost perfect compromise between artistic exploration and accessibility. Later Steely Dan cooled down and became more languid, but the songs are still there; 'Peg' is filled with hooks and is a favourite for samplers, while 'Babylon Sisters' is about has a bizarre chorus and subject matter. 1978 non album track 'FM' proves that the group hadn't lost their bite, with lines like "Nothing but blues and Elvis/and somebody else's favourite song." Most of the song lengths do tread dangerously close to the five minute danger area, but these are mostly justified with some absolutely stunning solos featured in most of the tracks. Becker and Fagen were both highly competent, and they surrounded themselves with virtuosos who spin out some impressively memorable performances. Steely Dan were great and are well worth exploring, but this album isn't an ideal summary of them; it's probably better to just pick up their original albums, or the nice double CD retrospective Showbiz Kids. They've also reformed relatively recently for a couple of new albums, even controversially winning a Grammy for Two Against Nature ahead of Eminem (presumably a belated consolation for never receiving recognition during their seventies heyday).
Cat StevensTea For The Tillerman(1970)In my review for The Very Best Of Cat Stevens (see below), I suggested that it was probably a better to idea to check out his individual early seventies albums than take the compilation option. Approximately five years later, I've actually followed my own advice. While I don't think Tea For The Tillerman is exactly on the same level as contemporary singer-songwriter albums like Joni Mitchell's Blue or John Prine's eponymous debut, at least one doesn't have to sit through dreck like 'Matthew And Son' and 'Remember The Days At The Old School Yard' in order to get to his better songs here like 'Where Do The Children Play?' and 'Into White'. Although he's generally classified as a singer-songwriter, and his stripped down songs from the early seventies are his best remembered, Stevens earlier and later work betrayed a strong pop influence, and songs on this record like 'Wild World' here are far more rooted in Brill Building pop than in English folk. With his pop roots, Stevens was capable of writing a great crossover single, which is why he entered into popular consciousness a lot further than most of his singer-songwriter contemporaries. And to be fair, about half of this album is greatest hits worthy - 'Wild World' found a new lease of life in a reggae cover version, while 'Father And Son' and 'Where Do The Children Play?' both hit popular consciousness with respective meditations on growing up and on environmentalism, which is a nice way of saying that they've both been used in TV advertisements. Meanwhile 'Into White' and 'Sad Lisa' are elegant and elegiac. Of the album tracks, it's only the awkward 'Longer Boats' that really doesn't work with its awkward a capella chorus, although Stevens' vocal is somewhat overwrought in 'Miles From Nowhere'. Despite excellent individual songs like 'Where Do The Children Play?' and 'Into White', Tea For The Tillerman doesn't feel entirely substantial - there are plenty of stronger and more idiosyncratic singer-songwriters from the same era, but Stevens is a master of accessibility and deserves credit for that trait alone.
The Very Best Of(1990)Cat Stevens became prominent during the singer songwriter era of the early 1970s, but his background was less authentic than his contemporaries. He made an initial impact as a good looking pop idol in the mid sixties, scoring hits with 'I Love My Dog', 'Matthew And Son' and 'The First Cut Is The Deepest' before he was stricken with a severe case of tuberculosis. When he recovered, he re-launched his career as a thoughtful and circumspect singer songwriter. While Stevens is part of the same era as James Taylor, Arlo Guthrie and Jackson Browne his background is less rootsy and his music is stripped down pop with sensitive lyrics. His indisputable peak came in the form of his first three seventies albums; Mona Bone Jakon, Tea For The Tillerman and Teaser And The Firecat. Most of the songs on this compilation, and all of the good ones, come from that sixteen month period. Stevens' earlier material retains some appeal, although it is a worrying sign that Rod Stewart's take on 'The First Cut Is The Deepest' improves on the original by a wide margin. The last two tracks recorded, 'Another Saturday Night' and '(Remember The Days Of The) School Yard', finds Stevens back in the overproduced pop vein of his early days, but devoid of any charm whatsoever. It wasn't much of a loss to pop music when he converted to Islam and renounced his previous career. While about half of the compilation is virtually a write-off (although 1974's 'Oh Very Young', which sounds like it could have come straight from one of his early 70's records, makes the cut), the other half is really enjoyable. While Cat Stevens isn't the most authentic of singer songwriters, he has a knack of connecting to the wider public with lyrics that deal with universal themes. 'Where Do The Children Play' and 'Father And Son' are perhaps his two most effective compositions; the former's lyric a Kinks-like meditation on urbanisation ("When you crack the sky, scrapers fill the air/Will you keep on building higher 'til there's no more room up there?/Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?/Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?"), and the latter a reflection on growing up. Both are musically impeccable, as is the nursery rhyme of 'Moonshadow' and the delightful cover of 'Morning Has Broken'. 'Rubylove', 'Peace Train', the gorgeous piano ballad 'Sad Lisa', and 'Hard Headed Woman' are wonderful too. The only failure from this period is 'Lady D'Arbanville'; Stevens is best working in the real world, and he doesn't pull off the mystical elements of the song very well. Judging by this compilation, Stevens' catalogue is so uneven that the best way to approach it is to buy Mona Bone Jakon, Tea For The Tillerman and Teaser And The Firecat and ignore the rest. Stevens definitely hit a strong creative patch in the early seventies, and it's well worth investigating, but everything else seems generic and uninspired. While The Very Best Of represents a reasonable career overview, chances are that his key albums are more consistent and contain lots of hidden gems.
Sufjan Stevens has his own pageStephen Stills can be found on the Crosby, Stills and Nash pageSting can be found on The Police pageStone Temple PilotsPurple(1994)This band aren't too bad, but it's pretty hard to get excited about them; if I'd been indoctrinated with them at an earlier age I'd probably like the Stone Temple Pilots more, but there's nothing on Purple that hadn't been explored by the group's grunge contemporaries or by mainstream rock in the seventies. From a historical perspective, 1990s alternative wasn't the most exciting era in rock; a lot of the groundwork was done by groups like Husker Du and the Pixies, carrying the torch from punk through the over productions of the 1980s with little more than cult appeal, before Nirvana's Nevermind struck big. When the Stone Temple Pilots surfaced at the right time with the right balance of grungy disdain and mainstream appeal, they became a commercial success and a target for frustrated critics; less dangerous than Nirvana and Alice In Chains, and a step behind Pearl Jam. They try hard to be artsy, with vague stream of consciousness lyrics ("Smoke a cigarette and lie some more/These conversations kill/Falling fast in my car"), but with such a straightforward musical approach it's difficult to shake the impression that they listened to one to many Kiss albums while growing up. Despite a singular lack of originality, Purple is an accomplished album; frontman Scott Weiland has a voice that's simultaneously warm, powerful and ragged, while his cronies Eric Kretz and the DeLeo brothers are all talented enough musicians. And some of these songs are pretty good; the effortlessly burbling hit single 'Interstate Love Song' is the most obvious example, while the memorable 'Vasoline' has an excellent set of lyrics. 'Pretty Penny' is a pleasant enough acoustic song, although it's very reminiscent of Nirvana's acoustic material. There's signs of creativity, especially the out of control guitar freakout at the end of 'Silvergun Superman', while the lounge singing bonus track provides some much needed stylistic variation, while being well executed in its own right. There's nothing too obviously substandard on Purple, and even though I haven't heard any of their other albums it's justifiable that this is widely regarded as their best record. It may seem like a snobbish reaction, but it comes back to chains of influence; like any era, the alternative bands that mattered had wide and varied influences from bands as diverse as say Big Star, MC5 and Pere Ubu and hopefully some non-rock input to boot. In comparison, the Stone Temple Pilots sound like they misspent their collective adolesences playing air guitar to Kiss and Aerosmith.
Straitjacket Fits have their own pageSugar have their own pageSun Kil Moon can be found on the Red House Painters pageMatthew Sweet has his own page |
|
|
|
Written 2001-2009, Graham Fyfe
