Magnetic Fields
"All The Umbrellas In London" 7" vinyl
Merge. MRG 073.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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Stephin can't sing, but like, that's so cool. I think he wakes up in the
middle of night, and records vocals when he's at his groggiest. Brilliant
concept! His voice totally falls within his down tunes, and at the same
time, that voice starts to pull you down and within, too. His brand of
ding-dong synthesizer pop is so alien, so odd, that I'm not sure I'll
ever be able to fully appreciate it. But hey, I'll keep buying it. And
there's that certain something in the vocals. With great lines like "All
the umbrellas in London couldn't stop this rain, and all the dope in New
York couldn't kill this pain" delivered with such matter-of-factness,
Stephin's drollness is hard to top. He's the Steven Wright of the music
world.
the Cat's Miaow
This Is All I Ever Wanted 7" vinyl
Quiddity. Quiddity 004.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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Maybe the reverb on "I Fall to Pieces" is just a little bit excessive,
but, gosh, what a beautiful song! It's a Patsy Cline cover, and it sounds
like it, seeing as how she was given so much sorrowful, lyrically
brilliant material to work with in her day. The second song on this record
ends almost as quickly as it begins, which is sort of the Cat's Miaow
trademark for both the A-side and B-side of their 7" singles--first a
normal length song, then a really short one.
Turning the record over, "Portland, Oregon" brings the pace up a bit, and features male lead vocals instead of female leads. Great song! And the next track is also snappy, and it finishes in about 30 seconds. Now that is concise song writing!!
Aberdeen
"Snapdragon" 7" vinyl
Sunday. Sunday 035.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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If you're looking for light and flowerly non-abrasive female vocaled
atmospheric music, these two tracks provide that throughout, but
if you're looking for engaging pop, you had better listen beyond
the opening couple of minutes because it's not until each song's
finish that you'll catch the full musical experience.
The spirited jangling of the last minute of "Snapdragon" is what makes that song finally take off.
The flip-side "I think I'm falling" isn't particularly notable until towards the wrap up when that title lyric finally emerges and snugly grabs hold. It's here when you realize "Gee, what a nice little song! Not quite a rock anthem, but who needs those anyways?"
And if you are looking for hot and sweaty rock and roll, try elsewhere!
Tarnation
Gentle Creatures CD
4ad. 9 45961-2.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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What in Tarnation!? After I faintly caught the last bit of that rich,
glorious voice coming out of a "Rock Over London" tuned radio faintly
heard arising out of the kitchen of a Pembroke, Wales bed & breakfast,
I struggled to remember where I had heard it before. Oh yes, that was
Paula Frazer. That was a Tarnation song. Well, that was an easy
mystery to ...solve... No wait, couldn't have been! Not a possibility!
Self, what were you thinking? They're just an obscure little half-way
across the world San Francisco country band, certainly beyond the
scope of what the Rock Over London folks have possibly ever scoped
out previously. Not to mention it being an un-new song. After those
few seconds of thought on the matter, I forgot about it, trying not to
become distressed at my obvious mistake at identifying a song.
Then a couple of weeks later, after returning from my European vacation, I found sufficient proof that my identification was right. A new Tarnation album, lots of them, on sale. The label: 4AD. Ah! My long forgotten minor overseas trauma came back to me. It really was them on the radio! The secret was out!
Tarnation: a gem of a group. There's not much good about country, but what is good about country is what is good about Tarnation. The spooky, sentimental qualities of this group are unlike that of the popular country artists of the present that I almost universally loath. So, no, I am not trying to convert anybody to Garth Brooks. I'm not trying to convert anybody to new country hits. I'm just telling you about a new record by a band I like. And there ends the disclaimer.
The fifteen songs on this album for the most part flow by quite pleasantly. "Game of Broken Hearts" is the quiet, lo-fi number that begins the album. It features just Paula with her guitar, and it has a recorded-through-a-telephone quality, but that's not a bad thing. A certain mysterious, ravaged-by-time authenticity results from the recording technique. "Game of Broken Hearts" is one of about a half dozen songs on this album that were originally released on Tarnation's debut LP I'll Give You Something to Cry About.
The album then traverses through more fully instrumented songs of which most are new to me. Crying guitars are firmly in place, and Paula's vocals are heartbreaking, while not hokey. "The Hand" stands in most contrast to the rest of the album, having wonderful surf and western guitar overtones throughout. It's something you'd almost expect to be an instrumental, but then the vocals come, and that is, yes, quite grand.
Song fourteen "Stranger in the Mirror" is perhaps the track which hits most directly on country elements that challenge my tastes. It also represents a switch from female lead vocals to male lead. That's not bad in itself, however, as a strong finish is made with the Wendell lead "It's Not Easy," a track on which Paula does great sky reaching accompanying vocals, wonderfully summarizing the splendorous trip on which the album has taken you.
Helen Love
"Bubblegum" 7" vinyl
Damaged Goods. Damgood 61.
by Aurore Bacmann.
October 31, 1995.
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After a few singles, a mini-LP and then a compilation CD containing
the songs of the singles and the ones on the mini-LP (for those who'd
missed the beginning), Helen Love comes back with a new 7", faithful
to the style that was featured in her previous releases. Lo-Fi punky
guitars and radiopop keyboards, lots of good mood and lyrics
reflecting the preoccupations of a 14-year-old are the main
ingredients that she mixes for her catchy songs with so much savour.
Bubblegum and Let's Go both have that lightness generally associated
with "pop-music" and are, just like the "Radio Hits" compilation, the
perfect soundtrack for teenage summer holiday, sunshine and water at
the seaside. These two new songs have the power to put a piece of blue
sky into the dull greyness of bad days and some youth into sad,
cynical hearts. the Carousel
Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz CD
Vinyl Japan. MASKCD50.
by Aurore Bacmann.
May 1, 1995.
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Sometimes you just browse in records shops, barely looking at the
records, and not at all expecting to come across anything worth
buying. Let's say you're just there seeking shelter because it's
raining outside. Moreover, you're not even in the mood to spend
some money on a circular mirror-like piece of plastic -- they
call it a "CD" -- viciously packed inside a case that will
undergo an unexpected self-destruction phenomenon the first time
you try to open it. Counting out the fact that the case itself is
wrapped up in a sheet of plastic and it usually takes you longer
to take off than to listen to the record.
Yes, there was a time when a record shop was a magic garden, full of surprises, crammed with 12"s of all kinds in large colourful sleeves, and where some incredible little records could be found.
Now the invasion of CDs has made music more and more market-oriented and while CDs made themselves comfortable in record shops, the frustration of never finding the records they were looking for never made itself comfortable in popkids' minds. Especially those who were into lovely homemade "I recorded it in my kitchen" sort of things. How can you hope to find the first ep of a group that split up after 2 releases and whose only fans are the few lucky people who bought the record because the sleeve had silly pink drawings on it? So there you are, half looking at the records while the sighs of disappointment at the sight of the records have replaced the frequent excited "Aaaaagh, I must buy this" or other "Hm, why no buy that" of yore.
However there are some cases of happy surprise when a sudd en cheery "Oh my God!!!" distracts you from your lethargic, aimless search, makes you look at the person who uttered those words in a puzzled way and grab the record from his hands "let me see let me see what is it oh the Carousel oh the new album oh wow I can't believe my eyes." Grin.
This second album by the Carousel will not turn upside down the landscape that I Forgot to Remember to Forget, the first one, had painted. The songs are still built on the basis rhythm guitar/strings/vocals and have kept their simplicity and enchanting, catchy melodies.
Helped by almost the whole of Heavenly (fans can have fun trying to spot Amelia's voice), Gregory Webster and his Rickenbacker -- the pop reference! -- Elizabeth Price reigns like a princess on her new album, her voice leading the instruments. Like in I Forgot to Remember to Forget a religious atmosphere floats around on the LP but sometimes the voice becomes less ethereal and emerges from the music.
For, in her songs, Elizabeth Price lays emphasis on the singing -- the rhythm guitars are wrapped up in several tracks of perfect vocals. This new album by the Carousel is globally more energetic than the previous one. An effort has been made on the sound -- the guitars are less harsh, the reverb rounds off the angles. Moreover, the LP is full of bubblegum lyrics praising "him so sweet" which made so glorious the songs Elizabeth wrote for Talulah Gosh. She sings about a dreamlike Prince Charming (the enthusiastic "Like a honeybee") or stories of pride and preciousness like in "Sidesaddle."
In a kind of music often hated by the conventional and well-established indie music press (too twee, too childish, not deep enough, not violent enough, etc.), yet adored by the numbers of a certain Pop Underground who draw flowers on every piece of paper that comes under their hands, (play the guitar neatly and sing shyly -- sometimes out of tune) Elizabeth has put her personal touch which gives her songs their originality and special sound. In those 8 short popsongs, she proves that it is possible to write great music just with acoustic guitars -- no drums, no distortion. As straightforward as the alphabet.