More sunshine pop, this time from the eponymous
1969 album by The Unusual We. There seem to be split views on this one amongst
the soft pop cognoscenti, with some folks suggesting it’s a weak attempt at
slightly funked up Free Design. Me, I don’t hold with that, although I do agree
that pretty much any disc with a male/female vocal mix that goes for the Free
Design style is pretty much always going to come up dramatically short.
Personally I kinda dig The Unusual We in a loungey, laid back Sunday kinda vibe…
‘Feeling Kinda Sunday’ indeed.
Sunday Supplement
July 12, 2009
July 05, 2009
Sunday Supplement pt 3 Children Are Bored On Sunday - The Split Level
I don’t know much about The Split Level at all, except to say that today’s Sunday Supplement comes from their 1968 Divided We Stand album (though I think it’s also listed just as The Split Level). And what a great album that is: a baroque folk pop gem that’s also eclectic and adventurous enough to throw in a bit of fledgling electronica. And if that is not enough to whet your appetite, there is a version of Margo Guryan’s classic ‘Think Of Rain’ to push things along. Classy, and no mistake.
June 28, 2009
Sunday Supplement pt 2: Another Sunday - The Legends
The Legends first came to my attention with the fuzzy indiepop shazam of ‘Call It Ours’. Guitars! Action! Gyration! It was kinda cool.
Then suddenly they were all supercool electropop sweetness, going on to show off some hip aural and visual references to Kraftwerk (yeah I know, I know, who hasn’t?) and DAF. I particularly liked the reference is Alles ist Gut on the sleeve of Facts and Figures.
It’s from Facts And Figures that this weeks’ Sunday Supplement comes. I like to think it follows in the spirit of Stephen Duffy and I’m sure that The Legends would not be averse to that suggestion.
Incidentally, there’s a new Legends set that has just come to my attention. On first cursory listen it sounds like a return the scuzzed up style of their debut, except with even more of a heavy hand on the distortion buttons of the mixing desk. It’s like they took the idea of ‘You Made Me Realise’ and made a kinda Swedepop lite version. That’s no criticism, by the way, just an observation. The record, like all of The Legends’ catalogue is certainly worth checking out.
June 21, 2009
Sunday Supplement pt 1
Okay, so I made some kind of aborted attempt at a ‘Sunday’ series a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a proper attempt to get something regular going… Assuming I post a different track every week, I figure that I have just about enough ‘Sunday’ songs to eke this series out to just over two years. Are you ready for the trip? Am I ready for the commitment? Probably not, but what the heck.
To kick off, and to give the series its title, here’s Stephen Duffy, from his Because We Love You album of 1986. Now I liked Stephen Duffy pretty much from the outset, or at least from when I first heard ‘Kiss Me’ on the radio in 1982. I remember buying Because We Love You on cassette in a record store in Edinburgh. I think it was when I was in the city for an interview at the Art school. I’m pretty certain I picked up the Colourbox album on cassette at the same time, and passed on the Dr Calculus album. Kinda wished I had picked that one up as well, but hey, you can’t have everything.
So did the Edinburgh art school offer me a place? I really do not remember. Not that I wanted to go there anyway. It was Glasgow or nothing.
I have followed Duffy erratically since those early ‘80s days, and whilst it may be unfashionable to admit it, it is those first two albums that I like the best. For whilst there are many moments from the Lilac Time’s impressive body of work that are admittedly delicious, there was always a hint of earnestness or at least the tint of strived for authenticity that left me a little cool. Oh, and ‘Dreaming’ was wonderful too of course. The Hypnotone remixes even better. Which is a statement designed to frustrate the Lilac Time purists, of course, but no less true despite or because of that.