While I would generally put this into a category with Aphex Twin, the range of sounds they draw on here separates them a bit. The little touches of guitar perhaps also give it somewhat of a more organic feel than electronic, yet it still only moved the needle very slightly for me. This was pleasant as background, but not something that worked for me in the foreground of my attention. Such is the reality for me with ambient and ambient leaning music, but this certainly has bright spots for the genre.
The Essential Track: Climactic Phase No. 3
Up Next: Earth - Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version
Formerly Black Francis from the Pixies, Frank Black arguably continued in their tradition on this album, but there’s something even lighter about this album, not to mention that these songs all seem to have a sense of completeness where a bunch of Pixies songs sounded more like fragments of ideas not yet fully fleshed out. On its own merits, this is an excellent album, filled with tons of dare I say catchy nuggets and one great Beach Boys cover. Los Angeles, I Heard Ramona Sing, Hang On to Your Ego (I Know There’s an Answer from Pet Sounds), Fu Manchu, Tossed, Adda Lee, and Don’t Ya Rile ‘Em are all fantastic here. A nice little gem of an album.
The Essential Track: Fu Manchu
Up Next: Sugar - Beaster
I'm excited you are carrying forward with Frank Black's solo material. I hope you continue on through The Catholics, some of his best songs and a completely different feel than Pixies or the solo albums you are about to journey through.
Interesting that Fu Manchu ranked so highly for you. I don't know how I'd place these songs into any type of ranking, perhaps Ten Percenter is my favorite but really, it's just fantastic start-to-finish and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I look forward to your future reviews.
I think it was conceded upon recommendation that I was not likely to enjoy this album - and that, to some extent, turned out to be true. Would I ever pick an album that is a deep guitar drone that continues basically unaltered but for subtle shifts for over an hour as my go-to? Never. Would be it effective white noise for me in the background while I accomplish things in this world? Turns out yes because while I am sensing the shifts, and in the third track a subtle drum and cymbol, it never overtakes the foreground of my attention while also never falling completely out of my consciousness. If that’s the design, success. Granted, in commuting I probably prefer something that would distract me better.
The Essential Track: Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine
Formerly Black Francis from the Pixies, Frank Black arguably continued in their tradition on this album, but there’s something even lighter about this album, not to mention that these songs all seem to have a sense of completeness where a bunch of Pixies songs sounded more like fragments of ideas not yet fully fleshed out. On its own merits, this is an excellent album, filled with tons of dare I say catchy nuggets and one great Beach Boys cover. Los Angeles, I Heard Ramona Sing, Hang On to Your Ego (I Know There’s an Answer from Pet Sounds), Fu Manchu, Tossed, Adda Lee, and Don’t Ya Rile ‘Em are all fantastic here. A nice little gem of an album.
The Essential Track: Fu Manchu
Up Next: Sugar - Beaster
I'm excited you are carrying forward with Frank Black's solo material. I hope you continue on through The Catholics, some of his best songs and a completely different feel than Pixies or the solo albums you are about to journey through.
Interesting that Fu Manchu ranked so highly for you. I don't know how I'd place these songs into any type of ranking, perhaps Ten Percenter is my favorite but really, it's just fantastic start-to-finish and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I look forward to your future reviews.
Thanks. I don’t rank the songs, and really choose the one that sort of stuck with me most. Sometimes that’s easy but most of the time there’s 3-5 contenders in there.
This is one long continuous loop, with very slight little variations on an ambient track. This is another that you sort of keep in the background, it grabs you for a few moments, then attention recedes and comes back again for an hour. I didn’t mind this though I wouldn’t likely actively return to it - it mostly sounds like what I would think is playing in the background at some spa in a resort somewhere.
The Essential Track: Neroli (easiest decision in this thread)
Up Next: Stereolab - Transient Random Noise Bursts with Announcements
Stereolab - Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements
Coming off the ambient album, this was a welcome injection of pop and guitars, though there’s a piece of this connected to that. A great segue really, and while this feels almost part ambient, though it reminds me much more 60s psychedelic rock. The opening trio Tone Burst, Our Trinitone Blast, and Pack Yr Romantic Mind is really fantastic, though Jenny Ondioline is a journey unto itself. Crest also stuck out for me as well. Excellent album here.
The Posies are exactly how I would describe what alternative rock sounds like circa 1993. Part heavy, part poppy, and easily digestible rock music. Sometimes that can be a bit of a drag in the wrong hands, probably the target of Flavor of the Month, but their brand of this is spot on. Dream All Day, Definite Door, Burn & Shine, Lights Out, How She Lied By Living, and Coming Right Along are all fantastic. The slow burn of Coming Right Along changes the poppy feel of the album to close it, but it works nicely in that space. Burn & Shine meanders into almost Neil Young territory before abruptly ending. This is one I certainly missed in those days.
I think it was conceded upon recommendation that I was not likely to enjoy this album - and that, to some extent, turned out to be true. Would I ever pick an album that is a deep guitar drone that continues basically unaltered but for subtle shifts for over an hour as my go-to? Never. Would be it effective white noise for me in the background while I accomplish things in this world? Turns out yes because while I am sensing the shifts, and in the third track a subtle drum and cymbol, it never overtakes the foreground of my attention while also never falling completely out of my consciousness. If that’s the design, success. Granted, in commuting I probably prefer something that would distract me better.
The Essential Track: Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine
I think it was conceded upon recommendation that I was not likely to enjoy this album - and that, to some extent, turned out to be true. Would I ever pick an album that is a deep guitar drone that continues basically unaltered but for subtle shifts for over an hour as my go-to? Never. Would be it effective white noise for me in the background while I accomplish things in this world? Turns out yes because while I am sensing the shifts, and in the third track a subtle drum and cymbol, it never overtakes the foreground of my attention while also never falling completely out of my consciousness. If that’s the design, success. Granted, in commuting I probably prefer something that would distract me better.
The Essential Track: Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine
It’s hard to separate this album from Sonic Youth’s poppier albums as they do bare an uncanny resemblance - and that’s a high compliment. This is noise and pop and hard rock and just about everything in between. Songs like My Kimono, Shiela, and Stinger are nearly instrumental but captivating. Action Vs. Vibe, Thermal Treasure, Tiebreaker, and Time Is Not On My Side all highlights for me. What separates this album here is what feels like the bending of strings to their noise will, never letting a chord hit straight it seems. This one was quite good.
This one is listed in quite a few spots as a classic, and it seems like an early example of a garage revival. That said, for me the hype didn’t quite match the experience. It’s a very good album maybe weighed down by those expectations, and I really liked Summer Babe, Two States, and Jackals False Grails: The Lonesome Era - but I guess the album in whole didn’t quite appeal as much as I thought it would.
This was a really enjoyable album, a modern pop rock gem. For Tomorrow really gets this thing off on the right foot, and there some highlights that really bring to focus the solid song structures they have here - Chemical World, Oily Water, and Coping really stuck out - and I loved those interludes baked into Chemical World and the end with Resigned. My attention wasn’t perfect for the whole of the album, but it seemed like I was just head nodding along for all of it - a good sign.
I do think this album is in dire need of reappraisal. It’s often treated like the red headed stepchild of their catalogue, and when you are competing against yourself, perhaps that’s a fair observation. But instead of listening to Pablo Honey as an exercise in comparison and take it at its own merits and it’s a fantastic album - yup, I said it! Creep is the elephant in the room from being an impossibly huge single, but even taking that out of here, this album rips. Stop Whispering, Anyone Can Play Guitar, I Can’t, and the closing Blow Out are all great. You, How Do You?, Vegetable, Prove Yourself all solid - hell there isn’t a really bad track on here. No, it is not everything that comes after, but if this was all you had to go by, I posit you find this to be a damn good band.
A likely deliberate cross between Pearl Jam (they’d at one point play with Dave Kristen) and Stone Temple Pilots, they would be one of the leaders of a second wave of alternative rock where they represent a lesser quality photocopy of existing bands. Granted, there’s some highlights here - it’s not a total waste. Don’t You, You, and Cover Me are alright. They’ll likely most be remembered for Far Behind and the mayayayayayabe!, but it could be worse…
The Essential Track: You
Up Next: Collective Soul - Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid
Collective Soul - Hints, Allegations, and Thinge Left Unsaid
Candlebox, but slower and mostly more melodic. Again, you couldn’t escape Shine (“woooooooah!”), and there’s a couple of songs here that ain’t bad, but this is another in the realm of a photocopy of a photocopy of the modern sound. Scream is a good song though, so there’s that. And Goodnight Good Guy isn’t terrible.
This would be the point where I have my annual slowdown for the family vacay. Will get to some for sure, just much less frequent for the next few weeks.
