MELOMANIA sends you into the long weekend with several new releases well worth your time (off)
Happy Memorial Day! Thank a veteran for their service and remember those who sadly never returned. May we recommend watching "Paths of Glory" or "The Big Red One."
Thank you for your service and the sacrifice that you made for all of us.
BAR ITALIA - Tracey Denim [LP/CD](Matador/Redeye)
London trio Bar Italia is the latest in a series of bands that look inward to extract mystery from their connections. Like The XX, they are trading male/female vocals that never quite sound like conversation, but leave you knowing there is some shared intimacy several layers beneath the surface. In addition, Bar Italia strikes the ear like the lamented, lost The Goon Sax. However, it is fun to labor over an album that challenges you. “Nurse!” is a truly brilliant introduction to the band. For months now, the thrill of it unspooling a playlist at random has been amazing. As an exemplary Bar Italia track, it only threatens to reach that peak moment - but always drops back down to its meek but biting central part. As an album, the huge bass moments really leap out the most. “My Kiss Era” follows a similar evolution to “Nurse!” but when they all sing together it feels like that moment when you wake up and know that last night’s dream is over. Opening their song with such a crushing descent is truly an original idea. Its most nutritious moments are when it tickles the Nineties vibe on the swishy “yes i have eaten so many lemons yes i am so bitte,” the slowcore Pop of “Horsey Girl Rider,” and (this is going to seem weird for our choice of second single) the Cure-ian lure of the chimy “Clark.” On both cuts, there is a give-and-take that makes them like one lover lying to the other just to keep them there to fight loneliness. Finally, the well-worn perspective that is implied from the delivery (and those pauses) on “changer” hints at Bar Italia writing lyrics in the future that are honestly about nothing they are feeling - just to get across the feeling that they are feeling nothing. Not a difficult album. Not really even a grower. “Tracey Denim” is an album that you need to accompany you to several places and eventually occupy you - not just your time.
BAYONNE - Temporary Time [LP/CD](Nettwerk)
Like last year’s Wild Pink album crossed with the moody melodicism of Tame Impala, Roger Sellers takes Bayonne’s Dream Pop to a different extreme. By drowning his own voice in effects and pushing the most propulsive elements of his music upfront, tracks like “Is It Time” float on his vocals while being driven along by the ongoing tradeoff between synth chord changes and warm drum sounds. Sellers was dealing with a lot of emotion here, “Words” is both supposition of the situation and its emotional release. This balance of belief and disbelief forces you to listen closer, opening up Sellers’ multilayered approach. “Solo” stands out for its interpolation of guitar arpeggios and Sellers’ heart-mending falsetto into the mix. While it speaks to how delicate admission and recovery are going to be, all credit to Sellers for never losing sight that this is not going to last forever. Finally, while “Temporary Time” does sound familiar, one gets the feeling that there is comfort within these grooves and that is always welcome.
OUT ON THE EAVES - The Ride Out [LP](Red Curtain/Darla/AMPED/The Orchard)
Former Athenian/current Memphian Patrick Carey may not get his voice too far above a whisper, but his lyrical ideas and melodies as Out on The Eaves speak loudly enough. His woozy jangly Power Pop finds that bittersweet intersection between confession (“Red Curtains”) and pitching a future to you ( the standout “Crossover” opens with “Don’t be scaaa-red/Just be wiiiiiiiiild” before Carey concocts some beautiful highly original lyrics that instruct just how hot his desire is burning.) Drenched in more reverb than a shoegaze album, Carey’s secret weapon is the dreamy steel guitar of Matt “Pistol” Stoessel. “The Ride Out” is brimming with optimism and the essence of discovery - with the latter really powering Carey’s incandescent Pop.
JONI VOID - Everyday Is The Song [LP/CD](Constellation CAN)
When we talk about Musique Concrete, it is typically something harsh and eye-opening. The third Joni Void album, “Everyday” is a deep listening experience. Based on pieces collected (and found) on a Walkman, the French-British creator is stringing ideas together in a more musical manner than most Musique Concrete. For instance, Void’s looping on “Parallax Error (+N NAO)” is meant to first entrance, then work in almost Steve Reich-ian rhythm interconnecting patterns with its two “outer” parts. The effect these phases have on you is one of the mind being able to “juggle” the portions. (In opposition would be Cecil Taylor’s opposing melodies played together at once to push your mind hard to encompass and maintain them.) “World Is Spinning at 33RPM” is a really beautiful composition that brings together the randomness of street sound (think David Holmes’ “Let’s Get Killed” without the confrontations) with haunting bells, voices, and flute. The wow and flutter of the tape finds its path to a perfect combination with Void’s subtle musical additions. The entire first side sets you adrift. Void’s panoply of sounds is all identified on the back of the release. However, we can only urge you to dive in headfirst and be prepared for the irrational beauty of a Beatles cover creeping in on “Disposable.” “Everyday” is inexplicably warm considering its source material and beguiling even after multiple listens. Don’t look at those credits! Seriously DON’T!
POLLY PAULUSMA - When Violent Hot Pitch Words Hurt [LP/CD](One Little Independent UK)
Singer/songwriter Paulusma gathered together all of these stark acoustic versions and demos as a response to her most recent album "The Pivot On Which The World Turns" (The title is an anagram of it.) Honestly, with just guitar and piano, Paulusma's attention to personal writing really gets beneath your skin. The piano-driven "The Big Sky" makes you feel both its expanse and the loneliness of living beneath it. On the more joyful side, "Luminary" hangs years of growing a relationship on her ongoing verse lines opening with the push "Come on, come on" before the chorus shines all on its own. However, it is the deep "Brambles and Briars" that begs to crossover to our shores. Her phrasing and the rich beauty of her lyrics, the figurative imagistic juxtapositions, and internal rhyme truly make it a transcendent moment.
LISTENING JOURNAL for the week
STEVE HARLEY & COCKNEY REBEL - The Human Menagerie (1973)
About to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Steve Harley and his wild band released their first album to a world soaking in Prog, Glam Rock, Art Rock, and even ornate Pop simultaneously. It is a testament to the power of Harley's songs that he could assemble a group so disparate, and just five gigs later land a contract with EMI. This record is built on tension and translates into grand and glorious tracks that still burst from the turntable.
With the vision of Harley and the violin of Jean-Paul Crocker, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel are part of the brief peak moment for Prog Pop. "Hideaway" provides a great introduction to Harley's singing (especially through effects) and the juxtaposition of the sawing fiddle and the warm Rhodes piano. Clearly, with his expressive singing and vocal tailing, EMI likely thought they had captured another Bowie in their butterfly net. However, the real magic of Harley's songs is truly continuing the Music Hall-style imagery/Americana sway of The Kinks' "Muswell Hillbillies." "Loretta's Tale" is not far from being both a Ray Davies song with swishier rhythms or a Blur cut about Parklife and its casualties.
Harley's vision in writing captures a lot of the failure of the Dionysian daze of the Sixties. With the complex production of Neil Harrison and Geoff Emerick, there are always hints of classic production ("Mirror Freak" - written about Marc Bolan) and Harley's rebellious Folk that once fell upon deaf ears (The pre-Waterboys rumble of "My Only Vice.") However, the real Harley is seen through an almost Scott Walker-ian lens on the two most ornate songs here. Seven minutes of "Sebastian" is Prog Pop at its best. With his Roger Waters-ish vocals stretched to their limit, a 50-piece orchestra accompanies Harley on his first true work of beauty. This combination of Dylanesque lyricism ("Slagged in a Bowery saloon, love's a story to serialise") attacks the false facade of Glam Rock as next-stage Hippies hiding ("Pale angel face, your eye-shadow and glitter is outta sight/No courtesan could begin to decipher your beam of light) away from both this world and the next. The epic staging ("Scott 4" style) makes it the ultimate Harley folk song brought to its completion. "Chameleon/Death Trip" is the other lengthy centerpiece showing Harley at his most intimate. The loss that Harley weathered (even though arranged in its Ziggy-ish grandeur) is his true depth charge to decadence. As an outsider to the scene, Harley possessed a devastating ability to both capture accurately and mock without coming off as petty or jealous.
It is only fitting that the modern version of the album adds the ebullient single "Judy Teen" to the end as that was the point where Harley's knack for self-promotion caused a rift in Cockney Rebel as they finally were having their moment. Its spirit and joie de vivre would be further refined into their signature song and biggest hit ever, 1975's "Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile.)" However "The Human Menagerie" lives on for its ability to be both deeply personal (while coded) and still as grandiose as Prog Pop was during its all-too-brief window.
We sincerely hope that this was time well spent. We thank you for reading, listening, subscribing, and most of all supporting the artists listed here. Thank you.
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