Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
Modest Mouse
The Lonesome Crowded West
(Up, 1997)
Marr-less but marvellous music for misfits.
Clocking in two seconds shy of 74 minutes, Modest Mouse's second album is the Issaquah band's quintessential one: a rambling, rambunctious and unsteady long-distance drive through the heart of America. Aided by Eric Judy, Jeremiah Green and Dan Gallucci - this was nine years before celebrity guitarist du jour Johnny Marr joined the band - frontman Isaac Brock sneers, shouts and sighs his way through sad shopping malls (the "soon to be junkyards"), parking lots and trailer parks, all populated by oddball characters for whom the American dream has become more of a nightmare. From the delightfully ramshackle seven-minute opener, Teeth Like God's Shoeshine, through to the almost sentimental, existential Styrofoam Boots/It's Nice On Ice, Alright, Brock's incisive lyrics and the band's distinctive, capricious sound capture broken people gleaning "short love with a long divorce", penniless reprobates Doin' The Cockroach and, for good-humoured measure, "two one-eyed dogs... looking at stereos". A fan of contradictions, Brock's lyrics have never been more paradoxical than on this album, and, indeed, the album itself is a paradox. For while Modest Mouse's America is an urban and emotional dystopia, it's also a source of riotous celebration. Even the sombre refrain of Polar Opposites - "I'm trying to drink away the part of the day that I cannot sleep away" - is uttered with a sense of defiance, an understanding that, yes, things are f___ed up, but you can still try to have a good time. It's an uneasy, unrefined listen, overlong and occasionally overbearing, but it's those very imperfections which bring to life this snapshot of troubled, turbulent life in the USA.
Mischa Pearlman
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 16/04/2010
Further Listening
Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love (Up, 1994)
Pixies - Doolittle (4AD, 1989)
Pavement - Brighten The Corners (Capitol, 1997)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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A great record, the music is amazing, atmospheric and inspiring, as is the one "The Moon & Antarctica".
Posted by M.A.Melo at 11:33 AM GMT 21/04/2010 Report Abuse
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