Album Reviews - Autumn 1999

Autumn 1999

GO TO: All Seeing I GO TO: Appliance

GO TO: Arab Strap GO TO: The Bigger The God GO TO: Cat Stevens

GO TO: Dream City Film Club GO TO: 5ive

GO TO: Fun Lovin Criminals GO TO: Le Tigre GO TO: Lisp

GO TO: Little Mothers GO TO: No Wings…

GO TO: The Rosenbergs GO TO: Satellite Girl GO TO: Savage Garden

GO TO: Michael Shelley GO TO: Steps

GO TO: Sugar Plum Fairies GO TO: Ben Vaughan GO TO: VARIOUS

And with regards to the scoring system – the more Gizmos a band

are awarded the better, the more Gremlins, the more …bobbins.

But you can only have a maximum of three each. Awight?

THE ALL SEEING I - ‘PICKLED EGGS AND SHERBET”

( Mute Records )

The All Seeing I come from Sheffield. They make deliciously funky music, using a rampant variety of instruments and techniques. Jarvis Cocker, Baby Bird, Phil Oakey and Tony Christie also come from Sheffield. And, coincidentally, they’re also to be found on this deliciously funky album, adding vocal bark and lyrical bite to the swinging tunes found there-on. It looks like the All Seeing I might well have accidentally managed to throw together an album of classic pop tunes by stealing from their fair city’s musical heritage, and mixing it in with their own charm. It’s beautiful & lonely & swoopingly infectious… and it’s got a load of sherbet on the sleeve-art. Glorious.

APPLIANCE - 'MANUAL' ( Mute Records )

Wibbly-wobbly weirdness from the Kings of such wide-eyed nonsense. Appliance play tambourines, plastic cymbals, maracas, phase shifters, tube screamers, and Early Learning Centre bells. As well as the usual guitars and keyboards. We love them for that. And for that the music that they make with such an array is so darned good. They’re like a string of faery-lights you can hug to your turn-table. And we love them for that too.

ARAB STRAP - ‘ELEPHANT SHOE’ ( Go Beat )

‘Arab Strap?’ comes the question, as people nosey through my record collection. ‘Isn’t that the one where the bitterly lascivious Scottish bloke mumbles over some tripped out guitar fumblings?’ Well, yes. But there’s more to it than that. Like beauty, depth, and an aching poignancy. As well as a tinkly sample of a wind-up musical box on ‘Tanned’...

THE BIGGER THE GOD - ‘…AND THE UGLY’

( Outdigo Records )

It’s been a long time coming, this. 3 ½ years. Too long. And the sort of behaviour we’d expect from lesser bands - though TBTG are hardly the Stone Roses, more their fickle mistresses. So this sonical sparkler won’t merit the same amount of column inches as ‘The Second Coming’ did. So? All who hear it will find themselves incapable of doing anything but settling back and revelling in 37½ minutes of swooping glories. David still has a voice to fall in love with ( so much emotion from such a little thing ), and the lyrics still bend down to kiss you before snapping at your heels, but the songs themselves seem a lot more pick ‘n’ mix than those on their first album. They now seem to have discovered the Nick Cave secret of writing songs with menacing musical under-bellies. And how to write ones which taste of the fairground. The most beautiful track on here is a sugar-spun piano-ballad duet about a family whoring trade. Ooh, but I have missed them terribly.

£10 cheque to The Bigger The God, c/o OMC, Suite 1, 2^nd Floor, 65 George St, Oxford. OX1 2BE

CAT STEVENS - ‘THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION’

( Island Records )

D’you remember Cat Stevens ? The sharply dressed 60’s crooner turned 80’s charity mover & shaker who gave the world the original version of Boyzone’s ‘Father And Son’... Well there’s 24 choons here to remind you of his existence. And they’re all really rather lovely. And you’re not gonna find another top pop album this year that covers ‘Morning Has Broken’. ( So, um, nyeah. )

DREAM CITY FILM CLUB - 'STRANGER BLUES'

( Beggars Banquet )

Mini-album. Six tracks. Good sleeve-art. ( No stuffed animals anywhere to be seen. ) A John Cale cover, a Bob Dylan cover, and all the poisoned-kiss vocals and hypnotic thrash-guitar one person could ever need. We’ve got swooning lullabies, soaring gospel, and terrifyingly energetic full-on rock. A perfect hug of a record. Bless em.

5IVE - ‘INVINCIBLE’ ( RCA )

It’s 5ive. They’ve covered Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’. In Abs’ sleeve-notes he tells us; ‘To everyone who doesn’t want to admit they like what they hear, we’d prefer you used the CD as a coaster!!’ Oh Abs my boy, some things don’t need to be said...

FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS - ‘MIMOSA’ ( Chrysalis )

The Kings of New Yoik groove go easy-listening? The guys who took on Quentin Tarantino go lounge-lizard? The Criminals turn Andy Williams? Well, yes. And – wouldn’t ya know – they still come off sounding cool. Sex-music cool. This album takes a coupla b-sides, a coupla covers, and a coupla re-workings of classic FLC ( ‘Scooby Snacks’, for one ), and delivers them all nice and slow and oh-so-laidback. Schmoove movers, these guys. Very very schmoove.

LE TIGRE - ‘LE TIGRE’ ( Wiija )

I could tell you where they’re from ( New York ). I could tell you what they play ( keyboards, trumpet, live toms and dishrack ). I could tell you who they name-check ( Nina Simone, Metrocards, Joan Jett and someone known only as ‘Vaginal Creme Davis’ ). But I’m buggered if I can do this record justice with only my measly adjectives and metaphor-strewn sentences. There’s one bloke, two girls, and a lot of shouting. But it’s not like Bis. It’s mostly got a ‘bedroom made’ and ‘bedroom dance-able’ feel to it, except the occasional mod-tastic track, and the ones that come over all shiny Cyndi Lauper. It sounds nothing like Urusei Yatsura, yet I usually wind up singing ‘Hello Tiger’ to myself after immersion in this album. I really like it, and it is very good, but I can’t say why on either count, just urge you to seek it out yourselves. Maybe Mel C should have a sneaky listen and all...

LISP - ‘CYCLES’ ( Mind Horizon Recordings )

Oooh, but this is a good un too. Simultaneously managing to remind me of the ( nu-look ) Sneaker Pimps and George Michael, these sleepy trippy balladeers are working wonders at filling my Strangelove void… Thankyou.

LITTLE MOTHERS - ‘THE WORRY’ ( Island )

I keep putting it on and forgetting it’s there, maybe that’s The Worry. I found myself idly wondering if their name had anything to do with Louisa May Alcott, maybe that’s The Worry. One of the band’s three singers sound so much like Gaz Coombes I had to mentally pinch myself, maybe that’s The Worry. Or perhaps it’s just that this record, this little cat’s eye marble of a pleasantry – all twirling guitar and lulling vocals – won’t find its way into as many hearts as it deserves to…

NO WINGS FINS OR FUSELAGE - ‘ELECTRIS’

( Seriously Groovy Music )

Desperate pushing guitar and screamed distortion vocals, then glass-resonant humming and softly softly murmurings about space-ships and such. Akin to that you would find if Gene Roddenberry were to splice Metallica with Captain Beefheart. It doesn’t give me a headache, it just makes me blink a lot in vague confusion. I find it peculiarly interesting, not that I can pinpoint why.

THE ROSENBERGS - ‘AMERIPOP’ ( Pomona Sounds )

Bush b-sides. The sonical equivalent of boiled rice. Earnest guitar and little else, this record never quite rises above reasonable.

SATELLITE GIRL - ‘SPEEDBOAT’ ( Shoeshine Records )

So bright ‘n’ shiny you’d swear it was Teenage Fanclub. Or maybe you’d just swear at the sheer bounce of it all. Speedboat eat too much sugar. This record is proof.

SAVAGE GARDEN - ‘AFFIRMATION’ ( Columbia )

Chiselled-features, check. Rhyming-dictionary, check. Earnest hopeful love songs, check. Identikit ‘passionate’ pop written to a sub-Elton money-paying spirit-crushing formula, cheque.

MICHAEL SHELLEY - ‘HALF EMPTY’ ( Shoeshine Records )

‘Favourably compared to Jonathan Richman, Ben Vaughan and Kermit The Frog...’ I’m told. Which is almost as rock ‘n’ roll as having been in a band with Michael J. Fox. Both of which Michael Shelley has got covered. With his oh-so-American slab of college-rock/pop. As you can hear, here. If The Lemonheads ever appeared in a coming-of-age Howard Hughes movie which featured a Twist ( dance ) contest ( or maybe just a Twister challenge ), they’d be making music that sounded like this. Oh yes they would...

STEPS - ‘STEPTACULAR’ ( Jive Records )

As well as employing people to play the guitar, keyboards, drums and oh-so-vital mandolin, the marvellously monikered ‘Steptacular’ ( that’s right, look impressed ) utilises the talents of five backing singers in its orchestration of teeth-rotting handbag-pop. In Claire’s sleeve notes, she tells us; ‘I hope we continue to make you laugh and have fun with the album and for a long time to come.’ Claire? I don’t think you have anything to worry about luv...

SUGAR PLUM FAIRIES - ‘FRUIT KARMA’ ( 369 Records )

I was expecting full-on Rawk. ( Despite the band’s name. ) But instead I got the metaphorical box of chocolates with a surprise radish lurking within. All the songs on ‘Fruit Karma’ are really rather tasty – all power pop punches and incessant choruses – but with that extra root-vegetable element for depth. And vitamin purposes. Naturally.

BEN VAUGHAN - ‘A DATE WITH BEN VAUGHAN’

( Shoeshine Records )

If only Chris Isaak had ever really funked-out. If only Rob Orbison had ever learnt the power of the slinky break-beat. If only Peggy Lee had been a boy. ( pause ) Ben Vaughan does the theme music for ‘Third Rock From The Sun’, you know. Not that you can tell.

VARIOUS - ‘BLOW UP A GO-GO’ – DANCEFLOOR CLASSICS FROM THE LEGENDARY BLOW UP CLUB ( V2 )

London’s shag-a-delic Blow Up club is six years old this week. But they don’t want Lego, or a Beanie Baby like most six-year olds. They just want you to groove (on out) with their celebratory compilation album of their favourite floor-fillers. Even including the club theme, recently re-appropriated by the Gap advert (and, um, Richard Herring’s cress dance). All of which seem to be both swingin’ and schmokin’, and very very well-turned out. ( Much like the club’s clientele. )