MELOMANIA goes 4+1 this week. Four nuevo releases. One mega dive into the new REVOLVER demos.
Q: Two weeks in a row? What is going on there? A: Memories of a young man whose formative years were watching The Beagles at Chuck E. Cheese.
HONEY HARPER - Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky [LP/CD](ATO)
On his first album for ATO, “Starmaker” was a long stretch to showcase Harper’s alarming vocal range (The lilting Seventies Country/Pop of“Tomorrow Never Comes” remains a sweeping smash hit in waiting.) “Infinite Sky” is Harper assuming that role. The Seventies Outlaw-ish/Pop-ish/pure-ist singer/songwriter is taking on that Cosmic Gram Parsons-style Americana with a touch of Lee Hazlewood. “Tired of Feeling Good” tells its story in the title alone. Hearing his bellow list sorrowful details and then light up the chorus with background singers is the perfect non-country Country song. If that was not enough, the way he peels out into the dreamy honky-tonk ending stays clever over multiple listens. Harper is world-weary on here, but aren’t we all? The sheer fact that he is content to let the band play and sing a little here and there, indicates new confidence in his writing. The good-time groove of “Broken Spoke” and its Band-meets-Black Crowes stands the best chance of hitting the AAA charts. “Infinite Sky” really takes Harper all the way home.
TVAM - High Art Lite [LP/CD](Invada UK)
Joseph Oxley’s one-man SynthPop band shows real promise on the debut for Invada. Oxley creates booming Nineties style danceable music with a panoply of great synth sounds. “Piz Buin” emerges from a siren-like synth loop to push you to the dancefloor with sinuous beats and Shoegazer-style vocals. The Manchester-based composer’s two biggest influences seem to be Suicide and Nine Inch Nails. “Double Lucifer” compresses its rage below the surface like a “Downward Spiral” cut. While it sounds quite similar in structure and instrumentation, Oxley proves to be fantastic at building tension with subtle synth loops that hide in the background of the pre-ending swell. “Semantics” with its Cure-ian guitar and ghostly/Eighties Goth dance rhythm feels like the obvious single especially given its guitar break and choral push. TVAM is very promising even on our shores.
GHOST CAR - Truly Trash [LP](One Little Independent UK)
These London-based Post-Punk women put it all on the table. Cheap monosynths. Delta 5-style call-and-response. Swirling jagged Punk guitars. Above it all, choruses are released into the wild with a Chai-singing-Riot Grrrl music fervor. “Selfish, Spoiled” and its continuous cry of “Will you ever open your eyes?” is hard to shake. “Sex” vrooms back to the roller-rink organ feel of early Blondie where you see the vocal depth of Ghost Car. When they drown all their vocals in reverb and burn mightily toward the end, Ghost Car is as purposely abrasive as Pinch Points. “Truly Trash” is a promising combination of thundering garage and the dance-all-night mentality of early B-52s with an emphasis on pogoing while venting about politics.
LOGAN FARMER - A Mold For The Bell [LP/CD](Western Vinyl/Secretly/AMPED)
There is a loneliness to being a singer/songwriter. The low-volume high-range singing of Logan Farmer fits into many future late nights. With his classical guitar and some airy saxophone (from producer Joseph Shabason) or mournful cello, “A Mold For The Bell” does its damage to you in an understated way. Farmer’s Samuel T. Herring-sings-Nick Drake style voice always feels like he is seated right in front of you. “Silence or Swell” quivers like when you come home late and try not to wake the neighborhood. “Cue Sunday Bells” hangs on its pre-chorus highs as peaks. However, without Farmer’s intonation in a lot of these songs - they are actually quite doomy. Thankfully, Mary Lattimore and her harp brighten the Mark Kozelek-ian “Horsehair.” Farmer is capable of using his voice for various colors as well. Farmer is most dangerous with a waltz. “The Moment” sways like memories dancing around his lonely mind, with a wordless melodic line tag in several verses that puts a lump in your throat. The closer “South Vienna” leaves you in a puddle knowing that “he never wanted this” but not what “this” even is.
BEATLES - Revolver (Super Deluxe)[4LP/7” EP](Apple/Universal)
Writing about the Beatles is always a learning experience. Every facet of their sound from 1965-1970 plays a crucial part in their evolution. In addition, to hear it deconstructed and then reassembled is a lot to ask fans who draw a feeling from listening to such a dynamic record. Situated in between the Folk-Rock-y farewell to mop-top paeans to the past on “Rubber Soul,” and the past, present, and future all coming into focus at once on “Sgt. Pepper,” it is no surprise that “Revolver” continues to ascend the vaunted Greatest Albums of All Time charts as THE exemplary Beatles album (or perhaps the best of all artists ever - that is for you to decide.)
Listening to the cuts from Revolver this week has been an eye-opening experience for a pair of reasons. First, unlike every album to come (except “The Beatles,”) “Revolver” is truly a disparate set of songs. Lennon and McCartney in undoing their system of writing together are celebrating their freedom. Second, there is a LOT to examine on “Revolver.” It may work well because it does not profess to be an album about anything. In fact, it is only truly a “time capsule” because of inventive production and (maybe) oblique drug references (although, like “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” - they could go either way.) So with that, it’s a special thinkpiece/instant evaluation of the newly discovered takes and work tapes that await you. If you wish to venture on your own, we will catch up soon.
The first take of “Tomorrow Never Knows” is unbelievably raw. The famous beat has been replaced by one that is almost motorik. Lennon’s distorted Leslie-vocal idea is clearly the central inspiration, but the faint guitar whines are entrancing. “RM11” is closer to the “Revolver” version with more pronounced doublde vocals from Lennon and a crispness that is common to the Mono mix as it was in 2012 (from the 2009 master.) The real surprise is the lengthier tag/breakdown at the end.
Listening to “Revolver” this week, one song stood out as almost dense and mechanical. Paul’s “Got To Get You Into My Life” with its brass, organ, and punchy riff almost does not fit the album at the moment. The various work tracks actually point to how well Paul was at adding (their close “Beach Boys” harmonies against the acoustic guitar sound great) and subtracting (Paul’s vocal ad-libs in places - “somehow someway.”) The Second version is more stripped-down and tough with its fuzzy counter-melody and the high-jangle of the guitar pulling against the riff. “Take 8” adds the brass and it is nice to hear the airy parts underplaying Paul’s vocal part in the verses.
Interestingly, the broken-down takes 1 and 2 of the pre-album single “Paperback Writer” (arguably one of their best riffs ever) is indicative of how much the “clarion” part of the riff sounds similar to the opening “pull” on the riff of “Got To Get You Into My Life.” (and also “I Want To Tell You.”) However, the chugging verses without vocals demonstrate how well The Beatles could quickly interpolate exactly what a track needed while playing. Extra points for finally hearing the end-of-line chime.
The B-side to "Paperback Writer,” “Rain” played at actual speed swings as hard as a Jazz song with excellent fills from Ringo and the band controlling the song so well after a minute you forget it is even at amphetamine speed. (Note: it is weird how well Paul’s steady high bass notes manage to sound better than bass arpeggios on the “Raaaaaaaaaain” part of the “slowed-down” version.)
“And Your Bird Can Sing” shows over its multiple takes its evolution from an ace Folk-Rocker to a Rock N’Roll burner. Outside of the laughing (always relieving to hear them having fun,) Paul’s bass line is astonishing to hear in the mix. In addition, while the stop does not work as well as the classic repeated ending if paired with Ringo’s whipcrack drum part on “Take 5” - it is not hard to imagine that this is how the Beatles would have played it live. (With the single take of “Doctor Robert” here, they sound quite similar.)
Wish there were more takes of “I’m Only Sleeping.” Like the moodier cuts on “Rubber Soul” hearing the Beatles’ mixture of evocative harmonies and Lennon’s slightly-menacing delivery on top has always made it a favorite. In the outtakes, the first rehearsal messes with vibraphone giving the chords some warmth. On “Take 2” they pound it out on acoustics and you can hear them working on the metered pace their vocals will take. (Note: really like the end of the chorus melody played individually on guitar strings.) It is then a huge leap to “Take 5” which feels less somnambulant but the push on the chorus works fantastically. This all leads to the very bright “Mono Mix RM1” where the studio trickery enters even though the vocals sound distant and haunted.
Speeding through “Eleanor Rigby” - maybe you can hear the difference (emotionally) between the strings using vibrato or not. The take without vocals enhances the legend of George Martin as a skillful arranger. “For No One” sounds mechanical during the verse (it does NOT on the record) but Paul’s contrapuntal piano part in the chorus is stunning. “Yellow Submarine” gets a lot of work between John and Paul. “Part 2” is likely where they obtained the structure they wanted for the chorus - which is somehow even cooler when punctuated by the exclamation: “Look Out!”
Finally, the very Psychedelic “She Said She Said” apparently started in a whole different place from John’s home demo on here. Peeling back the fragment, the Folky thrust of John by himself becomes the necessary rhythm guide for the rest of the band to have more fun outside of 1-2-3-4 (likely leading to its time shift between 3/4 and 3/4 time?) Ringo’s swing-like verse fills are still the magic. However, there are a couple of repeated “stutter” notes that really illuminate both its Mod-ish tendencies and a short drone that leads to the big ending.
The demos play as all Beatles lost pieces do. The familiarity must first be diminished and then you can hear them building toward something. The mystery of “Revolver” remains without one particular Beatle in control (debatable, we know) does it work because they are all contributing at once? (“She Said, She Said (Take 15)” makes a great example and weirdly fits into some of those uncomfortable moments from “Get Back.”) In addition, without so much of the song being pre-written (the exception may be Paul’s “Here, There and Everywhere” which even in demo form sounds like he “orchestrated” it) does “Revolver” give the Beatles the ideal ground to mix and blend their ideas democratically before taking off for their own spaces on “The Beatles?” This is certain though. The rested Beatles. The newly retired-from-the-road Beatles were a fountain of ideas that seem to emerge without too much thought or effort. The centerpieces of “Revolver” are the songs themselves which the demos prove for the most part could function on their own without all the studio wizardry. (Thinking about how the first recordings of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” sound dry and kind of monotone. Then when they sit down to “perform” them, they only have to open up their connectivity to each other - which for personal reasons may have been closed off or veiled outside of playing.) Either way, double-tracking, tape loops, and all the wild ideas make the songs of “Revolver” even better. The demos collected here truly illuminate that these tracks would have still been classics without them.
Well, another week, another list of several different styles and pursuits in music for you. Enjoy. Listen again. Share as you wish.
NEW RELEASES lovingly compiled for you from this very week!
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