It’s been a long twenty-four years since their last album, 2001’s We Love Life, though like The Cure they’ve been busy off and on in the interim, doing various tours and shows when they can. I’d been a passing fan during their 90s heyday, aware of the classic “Common People” single but little else until 1998’s This Is Hardcore, one of my favorites from the HMV Years. They were yet another band I’d finally get into just when they’re on the back end of their cycle.
Anyway, it’s great to see them back in the spotlight, with a lovely lead single that feels like they haven’t missed a beat at all. I’m yet to sit down and fully experience the new album More, but I’m looking forward to it!
I really have no idea how this band passed me by for six years! Perhaps I’d heard one or two songs on KEXP, but somehow I never got around to checking them out until this last weekend, when their first album was reissued. And man, this band is totally in my wheelhouse: sludgy, noisy echoey shoegaze that’s equal parts Lush, MBV, Curve and maybe even a bit of Boston indie in there as well (especially Mistle Thrush and Swirlies). And Lush’s Miki Berenyi even shows up on one of their songs! It all screams this is now a part of your permanent writing soundtrack collection to me.
Yeah, I’m going to have to investigate this band further, because I am hooked.
The Beach Boys were a band that took me a long time to appreciate. I’d hear “Good Vibrations” and “Kokomo” and a few other big singles on classic rock radio as a kid but at that point I was a full-on Beatles nerd so I didn’t quite get what they were about. It wasn’t until the early 2010s that I finally decided to do a deep dive into their discography and finally figured it all out.
It’s far more than just the nerdy surf and car tunes and the easy laid-back pop. Brian Wilson was one of those rare songwriters that didn’t just write brilliant songs, he understood the math of them, as I like to say. Well-crafted songwriting to me isn’t just about a catchy riff or a singalong chorus; I see it similar to writing a novel. There are several moving pieces that need some kind of focus, and Wilson was a natural at hearing all those pieces in his head. Unfortunately sometimes the musical mathematics in one’s head doesn’t translate to reality and that can be absolutely infuriating (John Lennon often had the same problem), but he came extremely close with shocking frequency.
And there’s definitely a Beatles-Beach Boys connection there, because if it wasn’t for this wonderful piece of music (my favorite of theirs)…
….there wouldn’t be this song that was inspired by it.
(Not to mention Paul’s continuing love for the band a few years later when he did “Back in the USSR” as a Wilson pastiche.)
I can’t decide if this band is trying to be Comsat Angels, early Cocteau Twins, The Chameleons UK, or all of them and more. Not that I’m complaining, because this is fast becoming one of my favorite recent acquisitions!
What I mean to say is that this new album is definitely hitting all the right buttons for me: echoey 80s post-punk retro goodness that sounds like something you’d hear on some college radio station just about coming in on your boombox in your bedroom. Melodic basslines, vocals alternating between slithery and shouty, jangly guitar riffs, and adventurous melodies that resonate perfectly for me. I highly recommend this one.
Considering I’ve spent the last month or so focusing on moving house and day job stuff, I’ve fallen behind on my listening habits! So I’m going to spend a few days just going through some of the new releases and get my head around them.
Such as the new Peter Murphy album, Silver Shade, which came out on 9 May. I have to admit I really love it mainly because it feels like a true return to his classic form. His last couple of albums were good but very ponderous, but this one brings him back to the style he did best back in the late 80s and early 90s. It really does sound like a mix of the best parts of Love Hysteria and Deep, but with the added bonus of some heavy NIN influence.
Definitely an album I’ll be listening to during writing sessions.
Believe it or not I did not listen to Revolver this time out while I did our taxes! Just…didn’t feel in the mood, I guess. But yes, everything is done and away until next year. Who knows what they’re going to look like then?
In the meantime, I’ve been revisiting some music from 2001-2002 — the Belfry Years, specifically the albums that were on heavy rotation during the writing of A Division of Souls, which I’m currently ‘remastering’. [Long story short if you don’t follow my writing blog: It’s been ten years this September since I first self-published the book, so I thought I’d do a tenth anniversary special edition. I’m currently doing a bit of revision and clean-up where needed, fixing up the cover a bit, and perhaps adding some extra bonus things. And yes, I will most likely be doing this for The Persistence of Memories and The Balance of Light as well.]
So what’s popped up that I’m enjoying once more?
I’d forgotten how much I loved Zero 7’s Simple Things! It’s a lovely record that feels a bit like Morcheeba with a hint of Air and “Destiny” is just a wonderful track.
The Chameleons UK shows up on my playlists partly because I love the track “Swamp Thing” so much, but this 2001 album was an amazing return to form after a long hiatus for the group. Highly recommended.
Big Wreck has always been one of my unsung favorites. They’re one of those bands that are absolutely amazing yet have never had a huge following. Loud and extremely melodic, they’re definitely not alt-metal, but they’re not just another 90s alt-rock band either. I highly recommend checking out all their work.
I kinda sorta liked Coldplay’s “Yellow” when it came out, but I wasn’t completely sold on their lighter sound. I even passed up picking up their second album A Rush of Blood to the Head until I heard them do “Politik” live on the Grammys in early 2003. That’s when I realized just how amazing “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” is, and how this band has a lot more going on than just radio friendly fare.
I’ve been listening to a lot of music from 2000-2001 lately, and this song popped up on my playlist. Blur can be kind of odd at times, but this one’s strange even by their standards. It was a new track to sell up their Best of album that dropped on 30 October 2000, but it pretty much sounds like an extended jam session set in a single key, feedback and all. It might be filler, but it’s also infectious and demands to be cranked up.
Still, one of my favorite songs of theirs, and I absolutely love the oddball video they made for it.
I’ve been a long-time fan of the Manchester band Elbow. They’re high on my ‘I will buy anything they release’ list of bands. Guy Garvey has a distinctive voice, slightly tired yet sonorous, and his use of wordplay is absolutely wonderful and I wish I could write like he does.
Every now and again I think of the series of videos they’d dropped during the height of the COVID pandemic, which they cleverly named elbowrooms, featuring the band (and sometimes guest musicians and vocalists) performing some of their beloved songs via shared video. By far my favorite is their take on “Lippy Kids” from their 2011 album Build a Rocket Boys!, featuring not only four of the five band members but a full choral section!
When I think of the pandemic years, I often think of these videos, because they were part of a time when the world was going in a strange direction and somehow communities came together, locally and otherwise, if just for a little while to remind us all that we’re in this together.
I’ll return to those elbowrooms videos every now and again, just to lift my spirits.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve actively listened to Radiohead, especially during my writing sessions. During the Belfry days, The Bends and OK Computer would get a lot of play, but the last time I played them a lot while writing was back in 2016 when A Moon Shaped Pool came out. [Has it really been that long since their last album?]
I think part of it is because I was working on different projects at the time. In Rainbows came out when I was writing the trunked Love Like Blood. I’d just started working on the multi-year revision work for the Bridgetown Trilogy when The King of Limbs dropped, but by that time I was obsessing over several other bands and Radiohead kind of fell by the wayside. The ever-increasing gap between albums caused a bit of a distance for me as well.
Now that I’m working on the ADoS remaster, however, I’ve been tempted to do another revisit of those albums. I’ve been a longtime fan literally since “Creep” dropped here in the US in early 1993, and I’ve picked up most of the members’ solo releases as well. Perhaps this is the perfect time!
As a matter of fact, yes! I’ve been meaning to listen to the new Franz Ferdinand album, The Human Fear! It dropped last Friday, and I’ve been hearing a few of its singles on KEXP lately (including “Night and Day” which I’m really liking). They’ve always been one of those bands who are catchy as hell yet slightly off-kilter — and super fun live, considering we caught them at Outside Lands a few years back — and they sound better than ever.
Anything else…? Well, there’s also Lambrini Girls’ Who Let the Dogs Out. Shouty punk with thick Brighton accents? Sure, why not? This is one of the many styles I listened to back in the 90s and I love that it’s experiencing a renaissance.
Walk In Silence 