Features Disc of the day
The Feelies
The Good Earth
(Coyote, 1986)
Good-natured powerpop gets two-thumbs-up from MOJO messageboarder.
Mr. Million. Mr. Mercer. Mr. Weckerman. Mr. Demeski. Mrs. Sauter. It would be easy to see these people lifting their hats to each other and greet each other in old-fashioned gentlefolk-style, such is the kindness at the heart of the music they play on this album. The Good Earth, The Feelies' second album, produced by Peter Buck, seems to have that particular kind of Quaker-goodness about it too.
This, the follow-up to the jaunting Crazy Rhythms, was a far more demure adventure. The opening two tracks, On The Roof and The High Road, are gentle mid-tempo janglers, a mellow impression strengthened by the low-mixed vocal of Glenn Mercer, sounding here like a slightly bored Lou Reed. But that's when business picks up. The uptempo bluegrass-styled The Last Roundup ropes you in and there's a real sense of urgency in Slipping (Into Something), where the twin guitars of Million and Mercer build up towards menace and culminate in a frenetic ending. But the reflective mood returns with the hummingly fine Let's Go and Two Rooms, and though Tomorrow Today's military drums (the very effective Mr. Weckerman) and fuzz guitar allay the slumbers, the sun finally sets on this all-too-short set with the neatly meditative Slow Down.
The Feelies are scaling no steep cliffs or high mountains. They are at home on these flatlands, but sometimes there is adventure to be found in the spaces between. On this lovely, gentle album The Feelies make those spaces their own. Hats off.
Maarts
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 02/07/2009
Further Listening
R.E.M. – Murmur (IRS, 1983)
The dB’s – Stands For Decibels (Albion, 1981)
Guadalcanal Diary – Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man (DB Records, 1984)
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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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