Features Disc of the day
Michael Head
Presents The Magical World Of The Strands
(Megaphone, 1997)
Shack mainman’s woodsmoky semi-solo set makes an hour serenely disappear.
“What’s happened to all my clothes?” wonders Love-esque fourth song X Marks The Spot, “What’s happened to all my furniture?” Deep into drugs and lost in the woods, these were the kind of questions occupying Shack leader Michael Head in the mid-‘90s. Perverse, then, that he chose this moment to make one of his finest works. Assisted by guitarist brother John and Shack’s astoundingly ego-free drummer Iain Templeton, it’s the strings and flute-augmented sound of an Arthur Lee obsessive letting songs come to him in the shade of an English oak tree; at times it’s a breath away from giving into grace once and for all – see the beauteously glazed Something Like You – while at others, bucolic, almost medieval evocations of landscape and memory like Queen Mathilda and Hocken’s Hay touch on the personal here-and-now. John Head’s Loaded Man, meanwhile, is desolate and full of shame, and it’s tempting to see it as a comment on the reviled ‘90s lads mag phenomenon. Exciting to think that Head’s planning another Strands LP, isn’t it?
Ian Harrison
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 12/01/2008
Further Listening
Shack – Waterpistol (Marina)
Love – Forever Changes (Elektra)
Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left (Island)
Previous Disc of the day
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Boo Hooray - Haunted
Rumpled velvet pop from weary Scots romantics. Out on Monday!
6:00 AM GMT 04/02/2010
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The Pernice Brothers - Overcome By Happiness
"Prince Valium" leavens the badness with Bacharach/Fanclub tune gold.
6:00 AM GMT 03/02/2010
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The Walker Brothers - Nite Flights
Former pin-ups' last-gasp reinvention as art rock phantasms.
6:00 AM GMT 02/02/2010
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Chet Baker - Deep In A Dream
"The ultimate Chet Baker collection", they called it.
6:00 AM GMT 01/02/2010
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A completely overlooked masterpiece. Yet again, ill fortune consigned this fine album to obscurity, despite the glowing reviews. Almost impossible to find today, it has an elegance that is absent from the majority of rock'n'roll albums today.
"X Marks The Spot" is the most poignant song on heroin addiction since Love's "Signed D.C". Is it mere coincidence that Shack became the backing group for Arthur Lee in the very early 90s? Not that it made any difference, because few people heard the album in the rush for the new Oasis set. Listen and weep because this music is the story of lost opportunities and its' wistful consequences......
Posted by Rob J at 1:26 PM GMT 15/02/2009 Report Abuse
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