Ecstasy at the Uffington White Horse

I mean, if it's good enough for Mandy...

Woah! Seriously though, English Settlement is great. I first started getting into XTC when I was into Scott Walker 'cause I was real into the idea of the pop star going weird, and heard Andy Partridge (singer, guitarist of XTC) didn't exactly go batshit but got sophisticated or something (Talk Talk?) but shit's crazy, he was always good/artistic (Talk Talk!) and then was all appreciative of the art of growing as an artist within pop rather than going avant-tard or quoting Camus. Nah sorry Scott you're still cool. But that Andy Partridge! New waver staying new wave but just getting better is my jam. English Settlement shows how insanely well he understands rhythm and acoustic guitar while retaining the poppiest of pop sensibilities. Hear that, Anco? I'm onto you! I'd call it their best 'cause I'm listening as I type and MAN that acoustic sound rulz and MAN those downer tracks at the end of Skylarking really fuck things up, but I'm not sure. Always the same, always better.

A

here

Twa Toots - The Peel Sessions (1986)

...the fuck?!?

A-

seriously

The Smiths - The Smiths (1984)

The thought of The Smiths in their early days jamming then Morrissey coming along and doing his tone-deaf moan over the top and the whole band stopping and going yo that sounds real good, keep singing like that! makes me so happy whenever I listen to them

Flowery creep shit with sweet jangliness, weird moans when there's nothing to sing, overlong falsetto outros, and varying quality from track to track. But man it's charming (ha)

I consider Reel Around the Fountain The Smiths' best song after This Night Has Opened My Eyes, but I get the same vibe from both of them. This Charming Man is delightful. Hand In Glove is surprisingly driving and good. Suffer Little Children I mentioned in a Chills post which got taken down (ò_ó) 'cause it's designed to chill the listener and is in my opinion one of the greatest pop songs ever written. Calling the victims of the moors murders out by name is fairly eerie, but the inclusion of the victims' families' reactions (I know my son is dead, I'll never rest my hands on his sacred head) is tragic, and giving Hindley a voice with her infamous psychotic insistence that whatever he has done, I have done is bold, AND Morrissey has the good sense not to turn everything into a trite amoral goth/post-punk song as the notion of the Romanticism of death fades in the second half- But fresh lilaced moorland fields cannot hide the stolid stench of death- and he gives the children a voice to condemn their murderers- But we will be right by your side until the day you die... You might sleep, but you will never dream

Not their best album, BUT IT'S THEIR BEST ALBUM. Their better albums sometimes bore me. The chaotic amateurism here keeps me excited. What do I know though? I still think the best thing to get by them is a damn compilation! Note to self- also post Hatful of Hollow, the damn compilation

A

spotify

Girls - Broken Dreams Club (2010)

WARNING: whereas I gave Album and Father, Son, Holy Ghost a whopping 5 stars (WOW!!!), I've only given Broken Dreams Club four and a half (boooo!) on a site people only use for automated recommendations any way

AND WHY IS THAT?
Because it's not as good as Album or Father, Son, Holy Ghost


It is however a fantastic release and an important one as it shows the transition between the sound of both albums- an alt country aesthetic gels their influences together for the first time and so it's not as schizophrenic as Album. In fact, a few of the songs are better than the ones on Album, certainly more interesting, as the band adds horns and pedal steel and comes out sounding Roy Orbison + x on two tracks, and dreamy/slow-building/guitary on the closer Carolina. The only track I don't really care about is Alright, but a few minutes in the song takes an interesting turn- something they did frequently on Father, Son- turning a nice-ish (but only that) idea into something unexpected and good

It's concise (it's an EP) and works as a great stand-alone record as well as an interesting one. I recommend buying it on vinyl like I did 'cause the cover is cool and you get a little download token which is a nice idea

A

spotify
buy

Girls - Album (2009)

1. Lust for Life 2:25

2. Laura 4:51

3. Ghost Mouth 3:11

4. God Damned 2:17

5. Big Bad Mean Motherfucker 2:16

6. Hellhole Ratrace 6:57

7. Headache 4:00

8. Summertime 5:39

9. Lauren Marie 4:58

10. Morning Light 2:36

11. Curls 2:08

12. Darling 2:59

Mainly to make things on here comprehensive- according to at least two of our posters Girls are the best rock band of recent years and their first Album is their best because it's the most ambitious

Less grandiose, realized, and consistent than their 2011 epic Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Album still stands as one of the best heartbreak albums I've ever come across, certainly the best indie rock one, if only because Girls so successfully piggyback on Elvis Costello (the 'pop encyclopedia') meaning you get a ridiculous amount of styles (again, not as realized as Father, Son, Holy Ghost) to convey all the mood shifts surrounding heartbreak

If it's messy, it's meant to be. If it's big and dumb, it's meant to be. If it's saccharine, it's meant to be. The only real problem is the listener's propensity to play it so frequently that the capo'd chord in Lust for Life and Owens' voice become torture. But it's 2012 now and we've got two other great Girls records to fall back on until Album becomes listenable again! Wooo!

A+

spotify
buy