I've finally got some free time with the semester ending, so as promised, here are my reviews.
CALLING ZERO - GO BACK SNOWBALL - 6.5/10
Okay, so I know I made a mistake on the last Pollard album I rated (
Under the Bushes, Under the Stars) in giving it a 7/10, when it really deserves 8 or 8.5, and I don't want to do that here. In fact, this might just be a 7/10, and by no means is it a "bad" album. In fact, as I listen while writing this, it's rising in my estimation, but I'll leave it at 6.5: I have to have some sort of standards, and 6.5 isn't too harsh a score, considering Pitchfork gave it a 4.3. Here's what I think about this album. Like any '90's indie fan of any sort (I'm hardly that into the stuff), I salivated at the prospect of Mac McCaughan and Robert Pollard making an album together. I mean, this is the stuff of legends. It still comes out better than Proust and Joyce collaborating on a dinner party, which is the upside, but it could have been so much more incredible, and peaks of this potential are revealed on "It is Divine", "Red Hot Halos", and "Never Forget Where You Get Them", which fuse the happy-go-lucky attitude of Superchunk and a lot of Portastatic stuff with Pollard's intentionally obsoleted diction. They really contain the best of both worlds. Elsewhere, however, I hate to say it, but Mac's really excellent instrumentals are at times not fulfilled by the Bob's lyricism, not because Mac is writing for a too high pitched voice - I've seen interviews where he says he has trouble writing for himself, which would imply that he can write just fine for people who can sing in ways other than falsetto. To me, it just seems like the sometimes funky music isn't in tune with Bob's strictly rock sensibilities. Certainly GBV has put out tracks with incredibly clever instumentation, but its always creating texture through lo-fi textural experimentation rather than with the beat. Mac comes up with some pretty compelling stuff that just doesn't seem to mesh with Bob at times, as in "Climb" or "Go Gold". Enough negative though, because I spent way too long making just one point. This album is certainly enjoyable. It starts a bit weak, but that body of it is really well done, and when then the elements mesh, they end up with something every bit as good as GBV or Superchunk. All in all, there are some gems, listed above, which alone make this album worth checking out.
CATHOLIC EDUCATION - TEENAGE FANCLUB - 8/10
Once again, I'm tempted to go higher, but I'll stick with an 8 here.
Catholic Education is Teenage Fanclub's first album, and I've got to say, if they stuck with this aesthetic, I wouldn't have complained. Sure,
Bandwagonesque is a classic of monster proportions, and deservedly so, but
Catholic Education is nothing to sneeze at. So much is apparent from "Everything Flows", a lost teenager's anthem. The murky sound works to perfection on this song, the higher chords sounding like a lost voice amidst the multitude of lower notes. A comparison of the original version with the solid Idlewild cover should make it apparent: "Everything Flows" is a good song, and would be a classic even if I sang it, but the execution is absolutely untouchable. The jangly songs also get a different identity with the original Fanclub sound - "Pet Rock" is "Don't Need a Drum" with more saccharine, but the two sound totally different, and it totally works on both. There are moments where
Catholic Education is the greatest thing ever: as soon as I hit the opening chords on "Too Involved" I'm hooked for the rest of the song. Why only ("only", eh?) an 8 then? Mostly just quantity. This being the only Teenage Fanclub album (besides
Thirteen. Kind of, if you try. And maybe
The King, but I've only heard that it's not a very good album) to carry this fuzzy and laid back atmosphere, I'm saddened that there was never anything after this. If there was another
Catholic Education (like there is on the album, incidentally enough), I'd be in ecstasies over it (and really, I think this might be a Scottish thing. I'm still asking myself why Idlewild never made another
Hope is Important or
100 Broken Windows. Anything heavy would have been a godsend after what are already godsends). As it is, though, the existence of two nearly identical versions of "Catholic Education" and two basically unnecessary "Heavy Metal" instrumental tracks (one I could live with. "Is This Music?" from
Bandwagonesque is a great track, "Satan", in my opinion, isn't particularly needed) cuts this album to only 7 (8 if you count one of the "Catholic Education"s) real tracks - 7 excellent real tracks, but 7 nonetheless - and that is just too few for this demanding blogger. Nonetheless, this is a must have for anyone with feelings. Check out "Everything Flows", because it is probably one of the best songs ever written. Then check out "Eternal Light" and "Critical Mass", because they too are awesome. This isn't
Bandwagonesque/
Grand Prix Teenage Fanclub, but it's incredible nonetheless (with probably the best Teenage Fanclub songs, for my money).
JJ72 - JJ72 - 8.5/10
I call this one number two in my should have made more albums list (after The Warm Jets). Yeah,
I to Sky was made after this, and from what I've listened to is just as solid, but JJ72 has the talent to have been massive. It's not often that you get the musicianship, poetic lyricism, and vocals of JJ72 in one band - once in fact. I give Mark Greaney props on all three, as well as being too cool for school, because he apparently never wanted to be mainstream (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJOpM5-AaI&feature=related). Basically, there is nothing not to like about this band. First off, the vocal talent is undeniable. He sings as high as Mac McCaughan (neither, in itself, a strength nor a weakness), but has a larger range and can sing on pitch, and infuses the music with a passion and energy that's basically unmatched. The instrumentals are also your standard Indie Rock, taking cues from Radiohead and Nirvana - you've got the mix of heavy and soft guitars used to great effect. Finally, the lyrics are undoubtedly fantastic. Take "Long Way South", for instance: "Torrential high seas dragged me to my knees. Bleeding perfumed blood: magic mixed with mud". "Oxygen" and "Algeria" are equally compelling. This album is in its entirety undeniably fantastic. Why not rate it higher, then? I guess there are two reasons. First, the subject matter is just your classic set of love songs. I like it, and I relate to it, but it's relatively standard I guess (I'm being picky here, because this album is flat out fantastic). Compared to the animalistic qualities of
Suede or the metaphysical despair of
Diary, it seems somewhat flat, which means that
JJ72 does not get my pick as greatest album of all time. Oh no! Also, the songs all pretty much reflect the same aesthetic, and can blend together a tad. Really, though,
JJ72 is a seriously excellent and underrated album that gets my stamp of approval. Highlights include "Algeria", "Long Way South", and "October Swimmer".
END ON END - RITES OF SPRING - 8/10
There's nothing like Rites of Spring. One feels the loss and alienation in Guy Picciotto's voice as he moans the lyrics over the instrumentals. Even today it's completely out there. The emo acts it inspired don't even try to replicate this level of pain and confusion, because it can't be done without just totally ripping Rites of Spring off. The lyricism should also be pointed out. Aesthetic is all well and good, but you have to say something too, and this is indeed satisfied. There are so many examples I could cite, but the first lines of "Persistent Vision" have been stuck in my head the most: "I was the champion of forgive and forget / But I haven't found a way / To forgive you yet / And though I know you and I are through / All my thoughts are lines converging in on you". The whole album is filled with this sort of heavy, dark, philosophical content, and for those times when you need the most self-loathing and intense music available, this is just the stuff. It just oozes catharsis. Being an album from the '80's (not to stereotype, but here we are), the instrumentals are pretty standard, and you won't find yourself playing air guitar to this album - with the exception being the guitar part in "All Through a Life", which is just amazing - but it is otherwise fantastic. Highlights include "Persistent Vision", "All Through a Life", and "For Want Of".
