Top Ten of 2018

Every year, as I get older, my music purchasing skews more and more to older releases (usually at least 20 years older). If I am buying something new, it’s a reissue; Maybe an expanded remaster I’m upgrading to or a “lost classic” some label has given a new lease on life. I thought maybe this year I hadn’t purchased enough non-reissue new releases to even put together a top ten, but it seems I did actually shell out for about double that number.

Top Ten

In no particular order, except for the first three…

Rattle – Sequence

More or less everything I want in an art-rock record. Drums, vocals, no other instruments, rhythm and creativity, zero fucks given if this should or shouldn’t be how you make music.

Gwenno – Le Kov

Welsh psych-pop that is informed by that Stereolab/Broadcast aesthetic without being overly derivative or beholden to it. It’s magical and witchy whilst sounding modern and urban. Sung in Cornish.

Among The Rocks and Roots – Raga

Absolutely demolishing bass and drum noisecore duo. Transcendent. This. Is. Music.

Bodega – Endless Scroll

Top quality noise rock like Toronto bands used to make.

Tanukichan – Sundays

A dreampop/shoegaze revival that didn’t ultimately leave me cold and bored after a few listens. Being more focused on actual songs than just getting that sound down perfectly kept this rose’s bloom intact.

Iggy Pop / Underworld – Teatime Dub Encounters (EP)

This is sort of the “filling out a list of nine to make it ten” entry. It’s not entirely up for repeat listens, yet isn’t totally not up for repeat listens either. Iggy’s stream of consciousness, slightly tone-deaf, old-man rambles are admittedly engaging, except when they’re insufferable. Mostly I like that Underworld are making music that isn’t trying to be hit contemporary EDM anymore and have gotten back to the rave/house/jungle they were good at twenty years ago. I wish instead they’d completely cut-up Iggy’s vocals in like they did their own on a track like “Cowgirl” though.

Culture Abuse – Bay Dream

Not a record I’d expect to like. Mainly because judging by a photo I’ve seen of the guys, they look like the type of indie-rock dudes who’d defend a friend who was accused of sexual misconduct with cries of “Ever heard of innocent until proven guilty?” and then when the truth came out be all like “Yeah, we always said he was bad news. Fuck that guy.” That’s an unfair assumption to make based on a promo photo, but that’s the thought I immediately had and immediately regretted purchasing their music. Anyway, they do popular 90’s alt-rock in the melodic vein of Teenage Fanclub, Weezer and Matthew Sweet, or whatever, really well and it’s the kind of record I end up listening to on repeat. Despite being audaciously derivative.

BEAK> – >>>

Is this prog? Is this post-rock? Is post-rock just prog rebranded? Is post-rock now just as old and unfashionable as prog was when I was listening to Tortoise and Godspeed in the 90s? More importantly, Is this the best Beak> album ever? No. No, it’s not. But it’s in my top ten for 2018 anyway. If I’d listened to, and purchased, more new releases in this vein this year, I suspect it might not make my top ten. Or it might? I don’t know why I feel compelled to compare it to Thom Yorke‘s Suspiria soundtrack—but it’s a lot better than that. I guess it’s the Goblin worship feel. Too bad they weren’t hired to score that remake (which I haven’t seen and have no interest in seeing).

Goon Sax – We’re Not Talking

Not quite as good as the debut, but a fine sophomore release. I like bands that actually put some craft into their songwriting and don’t just write songs so they can be in a band.

Terry – I’m Terry

Likewise, another fine release by Terry. I like that they write songs and don’t just put words on top of chords that sound like what they think indie-rock should sound like. I’m aware this is exactly what both Terry and Goon Sax are doing, but to my subjective experience they both pull it off. Same as Tanukichan, above. And I guess I don’t care about most modern bands because to me they only pull off the style and not the substance.

Not top ten but I have something to say about

The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Something Else

Could possibly be better titled Something Exactly The Same. But I like what this absolutely terrible excuse for a human being does (I actually have a fair amount of empathy for his mental health issues which cause him to be an abusive fuckwit) and I like that it’s consistent. Not essential BJM.

Orchestra of Spheres – Mirror

This should probably be in the top ten half of this post. But I don’t trust this record. I haven’t spent enough time with it, but I feel like it’s going to let me down. I sense something insincere about it. Or maybe it’s so sincere I don’t know how to recognise sincerity.

Shame – Songs of Praise

These boys, who look like they’re 12, make music that reminds me of the underrated and forgotten Dream City Film Club, though not quite as in-the-gutter glam. Sort of a theatrically dark, noisey, brit-pop and post-punk hybrid. At times maybe a bit of emo-informed Slint influence I just choose to ignore. This should probably be in the top ten instead of Underworld/Iggy Pop. But who the fuck cares even?

Rick Astley – Beautiful Life  and Kylie – Golden

Two favourites of mine put-out okayish, not bad, but kind of spotty records with some high highs, but mostly middle region filler. You both are better than this.

Robyn – Honey

Not feeling it like everyone else seems to be. It feels dead. Like a corpse that’s been reanimated to dance but can’t really move it’s limbs.

Neneh Cherry – Broken Politics

Nothing is really jumping out and grabbing me. But it also sounds great. For me, I think it’s a sleeper that will grow on me during long transit rides (which I take much less frequently now). I’m a fan, I feel like she can do no wrong and if I’m not “getting it” then it’s my fault. There’s not too many artists I give this kind of benefit of the doubt to.

Body/Head – The Switch

I think, of all the post-Sonic Youth records by ex-members, this one is the only truly good one. And I still think it’s not fabulous. But it’s not mediocre and drab and boring.

Superchunk – What A Time To Be Alive and Swearin’ – Fall Into The Sun

Both records on Merge by bands that sound like Superchunk. Both bands I was probably a little too stoked about when they got back together. I suppose when the Superchunk reunion records where only pretty damn good but didn’t hold that same magic, that should’ve tipped me off this new record by a reunited Swearin’ would be the same. Still, both miles better and more substantial than that new record by a reformed Belly. Or last years’ disappointing Slowdive record (that everyone on the planet but me thinks is their best record ever).

Recent Releases Round-UP: King Krule, Valerie June, Crocodiles, Julianna Barwick, Medicine, David Lynch

More recent release reviews at THIS PAGE.

King Krule: 6 Feet Beneath The Moon

I first ran across Archy Marshall when he was still going by Zoo Kid. Really, it was just a photo that I ran across on Flickr that reminded me of a cross between the characters Baby Boom and Wizard in Julian Temple‘s 1986 film Absolute Beginners. But possibly trans. Anyway, I was all like “Fuck, yeah! Who’s this? Zoo Kid? He’s got a video? Let’s hit this shit up!” That’s what I was all like.

Then when I heard his jazzy Mark E. Smith meets art-damaged Billy Bragg meets punk-thug Morrissey, well, I was hooked. Kid could do no wrong in my book. Except I couldn’t find any Zoo Kid product and his Bandcamp songs were only streaming. Hey, kid, I just wanna give you my money. Anyway, I pre-ordered his first EP as King Krule as soon as it was announced. It was, admittedly, a bit of a letdown. But I wasn’t remotely deterred. So I’m probably not really a reliable witness when I say 6 Feet Beneath The Moon is everything I hoped it would be and is the hands-down album of the year. For whatever reason this stuff is just on a Kamikaze trajectory zeroing-in on my heart and soul. Marshall is an original,  the real deal, a true post-modern wizard of song.

Apparently Jana Hunter, on the other hand, thinks differently.

5 Mealy-mouthed troubadours out of 5 Misfit balladeers in smoke-filled diners

Valerie June: Pushin’ Against a Stone

I’d have been impressed if Valerie June had been good at any of the half-dozen styles she attempts on Pushin’ Against A Stone, but the fact she’s a master of bluegrass, trad-folk, indie-folk, soul, and blues is just kind of sickening. And the way the album opener “Workin’ Woman Blues” seamlessly blends bluegrass and West African funk, it’s perhaps the most successful attempt at world-fusion I’ve ever heard. On top of all that, she’s pretty easy on the eyes. God damn.

One-upping albums by the likes of Gillian Welch or Sharon Jones—fantastic as they are, they tend to be a tad samey-samey—Pushin’ Against a Stone album plays like a really well curated mix-tape from someone with a record collect consisting only of deep cuts. I took issue with Dan Auerbach‘s production on Hanni El Khatib‘s latest album but he knocks it out of the park here. Or, I suspect, June does the heavy lifting and he just pressed “record”, sat back and let her work her magic. It’s not polished, sanitized, Nashville magic either. There’s a gritty, outsider feel to the proceedings. Something like the underlying hint of danger in Tom Waits’ music before be went the full Beefheart.

The only flaw with the album is the songs themselves are all only really good. There’s nothing to rival the classics they might bring to mind like “Jolene“, “Fever” or “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay“. But since there doesn’t really seem to be  anyone writing songs of that caliber anymore, she’s still ahead of the pack.

4.5 Versatile down home divas out 5 Complete histories of popular American song

Braids: Flourish//Perish

Only one track in as of yet, but the Björk influence that was an ingredient on Braids debut is in full effect, taking over the recipe. Not just in the fragile, lisy-whispy vocals, but in the skittery ambient electronics of the backing tracks.  By track four (“Hossak“) the Björkiness isn’t lessening. Not sure it’s getting more prevalent, but an innate Braidsiness isn’t coming to the fore either.

So, taken as a Björk album, how does it fare? Very well, actually.

It falls somewhere post-Post and pre-Medúlla. That is to say, it’s pretty much exactly Vespertine. That’s not precisely true, there are moments which are very Thom Yorke circa The Eraser (especially the merping synth bass and clacking drum stick rhythms on “Juniper“). But anyway, now that I’m at the end, I feel confident saying Flourish//Perish should please Björk fans (like myself) who’ve been waiting for another Vespertine. But I’m still waiting for Braids follow up to Native Speaker.

4 Elfin chanteuses out of 5 Vespertines

Lilys: In The Presence of Nothing (1992)

Roll: 4-1-1
Album: Lilys, In The Presence of Nothing

Everybody has this experience. There’s records that used to be your favourites you just can’t listen to anymore. Not because you overplayed them, but because they conjure a painful memories of a specific time in your life. They place you back to some bitter situation as surely as if you’d been teleported in some infernal time machine. For me U2‘s Achtung Baby (1991) and Depeche Mode‘s Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) both play like soundtracks to a rich and varied selection of bad memories surrounding my first serious girlfriend, Tikki. To this day, the opening guitar noises of “Zoo Station” fill me with an odd mix of dread and nausea.

Other albums, such as Lilys’ 1992 shoegaze classic In The Presence of Nothing remain unmarred by such associations. Perhaps because by the time I’d immersed myself In The Presence of Nothing, the halcyon days of constantly listening to those U2 and Depeche Mode tapes together were long past us.

As things got worse, as simple communication became a minefield of passive aggression and resentment, I retreated further into my own private headphone world. And if  I wanted an album to sweep me away into the depths of oblivion, there aren’t many better suited than In The Presence of Nothing with it’s swells, swirling eddies and multiple layers of fuzzy haze.

Somewhat ironically, it was Tikki who discovered the album for me. At some point around ’92, when things were still pretty good between us,  we were shopping in Nanaimo’s Fascinating Rhythm record store (in their first Country Club Mall location). They were playing In The Presence of Nothing on the overhead and, though it now seems out-of-character, Tikki said to me, “This is the kind of stuff I like.”

I hadn’t been paying any attention to the drifting waves of white noise but, of course, as soon as she said that I decided I liked it too.

It reminded me vaguely of the Posies, Teenage Fanclub and House of Love tapes I’d been enjoying but mixed with a little bit of the fuzz-obscured dreaminess I loved about Hüsker Dü‘s New Day Rising (1985). Not knowing My Bloody Valentine except as a name that got dropped in reviews of bands I didn’t particularly like or know (at the time), those were my closest reference points. And maybe not knowing its direct lineage made In The Presence of Nothing all the more mesmerizing that afternoon. It was dense and shimmering and soft and harsh and melodic and magical and like nothing I’d heard before. It threw the shutters off the windows of noise rock and let in the bright, hazy light in a way Sonic Youth hadn’t been able to do for me.

In an instant, primarily just to impress a girl, I became a shoegazer.

Recent Releases Round-up: Date Palms, Mood Rings, Ensemble Pearl, Jerusalem In My Heart, Rip Rig and Panic, Hawkwind

More recent release reviews at THIS PAGE.

Mood Rings: VPI Harmony

What I have little doubt will prove to be the best shoegaze/dream-pop record of the year, has doubtlessly the worst title of any album of the year. But by any other name, the rose would smell as sweet and all that. Like a good sized handful of nü-gaze bands, Mood Rings use Slowdive‘s smooth and fuzzy as velour formula  for a template. Unlike many of those bands, they write songs nearly as good as Slowdive. On repeat.

4.75 Lucid dream states out of 5 Sweet harmonies

Date Palms: The Dusted Sessions

After you hear a number of ambient/psych/drone/improv records over several years (or decades) you start to think there’s just nothing left to be done with the format. Then you hear a record that might not spin the genre on it’s head, but reminds you that people with talent can always find somewhere new to take it. This latest Date Palms offering is just such a release. Swirling, ethno-psych soundscapes that bridge neo-classical, spaghetti westerns and astral travelling in some kind of dessert ritual surrounding the annual solar eclipse (during which it was recorded in 2012!).

4.5 Post-psychedelics out of 5 Pre-historic shamans

Recent Release Round-Up: Soko, Aidan Baker, Classixx, Naam, Sigur Rós

More recent release reviews at THIS PAGE.

Soko: I Thought I Was An Alien

I’m of the belief that all singer-songwriters should listen to I Thought I Was An Alien and take notes. Not notes on the lo-fi production, but copious notes just so they’re forced to pay attention to the inappropriately flayed-bare confessional tone of Soko‘s songs. This is exactly why we, as a species, tell stories. So that others can play voyeur and peek through the windows of our lives to glimpse a little bit of  truth to help makes sense about their own.

Soko probably won’t maintain many friendships as a result of this album. From experience, I suspect it’ll play like a wrecking ball tearing her personal life down to the foundations. But that’s what makes it spectacular art. It reminds me of the work of Stina Nordenstam, not because of the similarly fragile, icy vocals, but in the similarly honest presentation of deeply personal topics. This isn’t a happy album, though it is achingly beautiful. At times it’s youthfully naive (perhaps in the way that, as you grow older, you learn to keep these things private) but at others it’s wise beyond anybody’s years.

Joni Mitchell didn’t record Blue so that Jewel and Sheryl Crow could use acoustic guitars for as props in music videos, she must have been hoping she’d inspire more albums like this one.

5 Songs of Love and Hate out of 5 Memories of a Color

Aidan Baker: Already Drowning

Light as gauze and dense as concrete, Aidan Baker‘s post-post-rock collaborations with a series of female vocalists plays like a Wim Wenders film. And not just because the songs sound like they’d be right at home on the soundtrack to Until The End Of The World or Wings of Desire, but Already Drowning tells sprawling, interconnected, almost dreamlike pseudo-narrative that evokes spiritual euphoria against the background of existential angst.

It’s not too far removed from being a seductively soothing version of Scott Walker‘s Bish Bosh—that is to say, it’s a dramatic chamber cabaret that’s actually pleasant to listen to. Which I personally think is a huge plus. Masterpiece or not, I need to want to put an album on in order to consider it a successful piece of artistry. I have absolutely no qualms about putting the engagingly creepy, darkly beautiful, serenely paranoid, comfortingly challenging, Already Drowning on repeat any time (though might not be great running or workout music).

5 (x 8) Sirens’ songs out of 5 Cinematic soundscapes

Classixx: Hanging Gardens

Smooth, future-retro disco/house. Classixx are a little less organic than Breakbot though similarly tread the same path as Daft Punk and, again, do it better than our robot overlords did on Random Access Memories. The vocal collaborations are a bit more modern indie-rock flavoured than Daft Punk’s guests, but they all work better than that Panda Bear cameo.

Anyway, enough whinging about RAM. Everyone’s already forgotten about that album so Hanging Gardens might actually get some well-deserved attention. A party record that’s not too aggressive or built around contrived, ringtone-ready earworms, but also a sweet headphones record that sports some decent hooks (“I’ll Get You” cashes the cheque written by “Get Lucky“).

It’s Goldilocks-zone pop perfect for commuting on transit, reading or cutting a rug.

4 Retro robot DJs out of 5 Futuristic Eurodisco paradises

Recent Release Round-Up: Willy Moon, Kadavar, Beacon, PacificUV

More recent release reviews at THIS PAGE.

Willy Moon: Here’s Willy Moon

Probably the most ridiculous album I’ve heard in a long while. In a good way. Post-modern rock’n’roll in the true, bigger-than-life, spirit of the ’80s. This isn’t any kind of arty, too-cool-for-school, post-punk revivalism. This is another kind of monster altogether. There’s not a grain of subtlety or artifice anywhere near this record. Not to say is a mature, personal, singer-songwriter album where Willy Moon lays his soul bare… No, no, this is pure superficial teenage rock’n’roll mayhem—but it’s shockingly sincere pure superficial teenage rock’n’roll mayhem.

In a way that makes you realize how everything you’ve been listening to is complete poser bullshit. Part ’60s garage-rock, part ’80s pychobilly, part ’90s sampledelic and all filtered through a contemporary pop strainer, probably the most surprising thing about Willy Moon’s debut is how abrasive and raw everything sounds. Judged on the material (and Willy’s sleek visage) alone, you’d expect a slick radio-friendly approach like Rick Astley meets Jive Bunny.

Which wouldn’t be an entirely inaccurate comparison in certain respects. The Ctrl-C/ Ctrl-V nature of Moon’s lyrics (play a spot the reference drinking game and see how long you last) and the retro-swing horn riffs aren’t all that different than Jive Bunny’s original mash-up “Swing The Mood“. But instead of being a reverent nostalgia kick, Here’s Willy Moon sounds like it was recorded in some kind of computerized juke-joint on the outskirts of a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Yet it’s a really fun juke-joint where you dance ecstatically while the city burns, oblivious—or in spite of—the desolation outside.

Like I said, the true spirit of the ’80s.

5 Rick Astley from Hells out of 5 Sigue Sigue Screamin’ Jay Transvision Sputniks

Apparently Bi-weekly Round-Up of Recent Releases: Wild Nothing, Savages, Akron/Family, Purson, Still Corners, Shannon Wright, more

More recent release reviews at THIS PAGE.

Arrington de Dionyso’s Malaikat Dan Singa: Open The Crown

I missed Old Time Relijun the first time around thinking, for some reason, that they were a relatively tame bluegrass revival act. I didn’t realize they were hillbillies of a different ilk, playing a sort of weird, off-kilter rockabilly blues more a kin to Blues Explosion than Be-Good Tanyas. Lately I’ve been exploring singer Arrington de Dionyso‘s exponentially weirder and more off-kilter solo records. His schtick is basically a magical melange of Captain Beefheart and Damo Suzuki era Can played in a sloppy Birthday Partyish post-punk/art-rock style very much in the K Records aesthetic (but with more passion and less twee smugness). What separates Dionyso’s music from merely being a sum of his influences is a bonus grab-bag of raw, ethic music influences—dancehall, dub, gamelan, various Asian vocal textures, etc. The result sounds like vintage, unearthed recordings of some crazed Thai Elvis impersonator having an on-stage breakdown while entertaining American G.I.’s on leave circa 1972. A spectacular, visceral mess. This is art school rock’n’roll of the highest caliber.

5 Velvet Elvis undergrounds out of 5 Captain eat your Beefheart outs

Daft Punk: Random Access Memories (2013) semi-pointless track-by-track review

Roll: N/A

Album: Daft Punk: Random Access Memories

This is the only album on this site I haven’t purchased. Having purchased an album, I feel like that gives me free-reign to crap all over it if I want. Also, if I bought it and it’s stayed in my collection long enough to end up on this site, that probably means I like it. Anyway, I’m only reviewing Random Access Memories now because yesterday I was being pressured to listen to the pre-release iTunes stream by a Facebook friend.

He said, “You’re not going to listen to it. Come on.”

I said, “The track I heard from it was a pale shadow of their former selves. Also, that PR campaign was irritating.”

He said, “If by irritating you actually mean brilliant, then yes.”

A day later, curiosity has gotten the better of me and I’m listening to the stream. So far, two tracks in, I haven’t shaken my impression that Daft Punk are past their prime and have kind of been shark-jumped by their own image.

“Give Life Back To Music” is sort of okay dance music but there’s not much oomph here. The kick drum should be crunching more. The melodies are begging me to find them alluring but they seem a bit shallow for all their glitter. Also, is vocoder going to be used on every song? I suspect they recorded “The Game of Love” without a vocoder and realized it’s one of the most tuneless pop-songs ever written. The vocoder evokes Discovery nicely but at this point in their career the gimmick feels like treading water.

Weekly new release round-up: Miles Davis, Gin Wigmore, Wax Idols

More recent release reviews at this page.

Miles Davis Quintet: Live In Europe – Bootleg Series Vol. 2 — Though the “Lost Quintet” never recorded in a studio together, they are probably one of the the most heavily documented line-ups Miles Davis played with. I own recordings of at least six cities from their 1969 European tour. It seems like every year another recording surfaces and gets issued, so they’re hardly lost at this point. Since I refuse to go through the trouble of playing them all back to back to determine which has the best performance-to-fidelity ratio, I’ll just state this set is all the 1969 European tour of the “Lost Quintet” you’ll ever need to find. Disc 2 and 3 offer slightly better ROI with some great solos from Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette and the general tearing-shit-uppedness of all involved. I haven’t watched the DVD of the Berlin date yet (I’ve heard the audio on a different CD release, I remember it being good), but I have watched the Copenhagen DVD from the Bitches Brew 40th anniversary set which suggests it’s well worth watching (I’ll get to it someday). The band was indeed, as Miles famously said, “really a bad motherfucker.” Though perhaps not, in my opinion, really any more bad than the Wayne Shorter-less 1970 quintet which has a slew of better quality recordings available and delves a little deeper into the psych-rock fusion people associate with this period of Davis’ career. The Quintet is still jazz on these dates. Very experimental, electric jazz, but pure jazz compared to the stratospheric fusion Davis would soon explore beyond Bitches Brew.

4  Decently high fidelities out of 5 Real bad motherfuckers.

Gin Wigmore: Gravel & Wine — The short story is this is the kind of white-hot, red-line rock version of Amy Winehouse that Adele was hinting at with “Rolling In The Deep“. Or sort of a better, less contrived, more assured version of Lykke Li‘s “Get Some“. But repeated nine times with three ballads covered in the dirt they unfortunately scraped off Adele’s 21 before they released it. If, at some point in the last 20 years, you ever wished for a dream collaboration between Portishead, Boss Hog and The Bad Seeds, this isn’t that far off. Nancy Sinatra packing a sawed-off shotgun on amphetamines washed down with enough gin (pun intended) to bring out her inner Shirley Bassey. Okay, enough name-dropping. Noir swamprock with a pop edge.

4.75 Pistol packin’ rock’n’roll mamas out of 5 R&B revival femme fatales

Wax Idols: Discipline + Desire — I think I’ve arrived at an age where if someone did do something new and exciting in rock, I wouldn’t like it. This is probably why chillwave and shitgaze and whatever it was Animal Collective were supposed to be didn’t impress  me at all. So instead I’ll just listen to records by bands that SOUND EXACTLY like Siouxsie and the Banshees. Not that Wax Idols sound exactly like Siouxsie and the Banshees every single second. Sometimes they sound a lot like Siouxisie Sioux singing on a blend of early PiL and The Cure tracks. Which is great because she didn’t sing with those bands and now I get to hear the results of some fanboy dream collaborations. Plus, I just really like this kind of reverential post-punk throwback. Naked on the Vague do it pretty well too, though perhaps with a little more originality. Anyway, Discipline + Desire fits nicely into my curmudgeon comfortzone. It’s good to see these ghosts perennially resurrected. What I don’t like to see resurrected is the stupid “mystery song” tacked onto the end of the last track of the album after a few seconds of silence. That should have died a fiery death in the late-90’s and I thought it did. Do people not realize how annoying that is when you put the album on your phone? Do they not realize that’s where people listen to CDs now? Good god, people, if you feel the need to tack an out-take on the end, make it its own track and just don’t list it on the art work. (The song in question is actually a pretty great halloweeny garage rocker).

3.75 Siouxsies out of 5 Banshees.

Alex Calder: Time — A sort of weirdly lo-fi dream-pop album. Listening to it gave me the nagging sensation I’d heard it before. But like it was in another dimension or a dream. That was kind of invigorating until I decided it sounds exactly like Polvo playing Danielson Family songs. Then it became a lot less interesting. Not saying it’s at all bad mind you, just not the right record for me.

2.5 Oddballs out of 5 Songwriters

Inspiral Carpets: Life (extended edition) — Not often recognized as such, Life is probably the best album of the Madchester and Brit-pop eras. It’s just that little more rock’n’roll than Primal Scream, Stone Roses, Oasis and, of course, Happy Mondays (who weren’t very rock’n’roll at all). The songs are a bit better and the psychedelic flourishes come off a little less contrived than those of their counterparts. Brilliant and ecstatic. This reissue is a little bit of a baffling creature though. Included as bonus materials are the Planecrash and Trainsurfing EPs and their first Peel Session. Bloody fantastic! But left out is material from the Joe and Island Head EPs which means “Commercial Reign“, the song most associated with the album on this side of the pond, is missing along with “Joe” (one of their bigger early hits). “Besides Me” from the original UK release is reinstated but a few other tracks included on the original North American release are AWOL. Anyway, all this material could have fit nicely on the second disc except the second disc is naturally the now obligatory live DVD meant to draw in old fans like me. Which is great, I guess, except I might never get around to watching it and would rather have the complete picture of the band’s music up to this period in one nice shelfspace-saving package. A near miss.

Life: 5 Monkeys out of 5 Backs / Reissue: 3.75 Real Things out of 5 Happy Returns.

Joint Ventures: Itz Da Joint (1993)

Roll: 7-11-8
Album: Joint Ventures, Itz Da Joint

So if I were to lay my cards on the table, my hand might reveal that I can find something to appreciate in almost any old-school or golden age hip-hop album. It might only be a killer sample, a clever bon mot, or just the ponk-ponk of an 808 cowbell. But there’s always something. Which is probably how I’m perfectly content to own more than one Candyman CD.

But even if the DJ’s beats are thin or an MC’s rhymes are full of cringe-worthy bravado, there’s still something enchanting about almost any hip-hop record from before 1995. A specific period in a culture’s history was documented in thousands of post-modern mini-operas in a way rock’n’roll never really accomplished. For a middle-class white boy growing up in Pacific North-West, it was a window into a world as alien and magical as those created by JRR Tolkien or Gene Roddenberry. Perhaps the depiction of ’80s and ’90s African-American culture on these albums isn’t really much more realistic or less fantastical than Star Trek, but it’s just as entertaining and I’ve always found it more immersive than the too painfully close-to-home depictions of white, middle-class slackerdom by Sebadoh or Pavement.