I spent way too much time in my review of Earth Sun Moon obsessing over how these guys weren’t Bauhaus. It’s a weird review that I find hard to read now. I wish I had focused on the music so I could try to compare the two records and understand why I appear to have …
Tag: Neo Psychedelia
All Is Dream (2001) by Mercury Rev
This record continues the chamber pop direction Mercury Rev had found in the late ’90s but it’s arguably a little bit closer to their original sound on some tracks, certainly as compared to the pervious album, Deserter’s Songs.
Rings Around the World (2001) by Super Furry Animals
One of these bands that I’ve heard the name of many times but never really heard. Or maybe it’s just that the name sticks in your head. Either way, I’ve heard of them without ever hearing them, until now.
Hot Shots II (2001) by The Beta Band
Their debut was a surprising delight. I’ve since read that they may have disowned it but I really enjoyed it so I find that a little weird. (It’s been long enough that I don’t remember well enough if it was just too long or if it was too ambitious or too silly. Regardless, despite its …
Talk Talk Talk (1981) by The Psychedelic Furs
It should be to their credit that the Psychedelic Furs tried to distinguish themselves on this record more than they did on their debut but I’m not sure how much that works for me. It’s less a criticism (I think) than a manner of personal taste.
Gish (1991) by Smashing Pumpkins
There are people, usually older people, who will tell you that Gish is actually the Pumpkins’ best album, or their only good album, or something like that. I suspect these people are either just old or they are being deliberately contrarian/curmudgeonish, or they are trying to be hipsters (“I liked the Pumpkins before they were …
East Side Story (1981) by Squeeze
Can I admit something to you? I thought “Tempted” was from the ’60s. Of course, if I’d really listened to it, I might have noticed it wasn’t. But I became familiar with it when I was young and before I had an ear that could spot time and genre differences. And I guess I just …
Mama Said (1991) by Lenny Kravitz
I get why people like Lenny Kravitz. I think there was probably a time in my life when I could have quite liked Lenny Kravitz. (And maybe, for a while, I sort of did.) And maybe, had I not become the music history obsessive that I am, I would like him to this day. But …
Nowhere (1990) by Ride
I’ve never gotten shoegaze, it’s just not anything that appeals to me on a fundamental level. Some of this comes from the nature of the genre – pop music drowning in distortion is still pop music – and part of it I’m pretty sure comes from not seeing it live at the time it was …
Kilimanjaro (1980) by The Teardrop Explodes
It’s funny what gets labeled “psychedelic”, especially when music wasn’t particularly psychedelic. I’ve never heard this band before – though I’ve heard Cope’s solo music but the label “neo psychedelic” really steers one the wrong way. Yes, it’s a spectrum, but this is pretty typical 1980 British post punk with a couple of major differences: …
See You on the Other Side (1995) by Mercury Rev
Transition albums often have a bad rap. Of course, we usually only know they are transition records in hindsight so it must be that we retroactively apply the term. That or maybe some critic guesses extremely well at the time. (I really doubt it, though.)
Crocodiles (1980) by Echo and the Bunnymen
Maybe it’s when I came to the Bunnymen but I am constantly underwhelmed by a band that most consider one of the pillars of British Post Punk (a genre I love). They always remind me of other bands (both past and contemporary) and I find myself wondering what’s with all the hype. (Someone once claimed …
Underwater Moonlight (1980) by The Soft Boys
The beginning of the first song got me excited. Then the rest of the album happened…
Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995) by The Apples in Stereo
My understanding is that this is the first Elephant 6 album. So, for people who care about such things, that’s a really big deal. For the rest of us, it’s certainly much less of a big deal. Moreover, the degree to which The Apples in Stereo truly represent that beloved “lo fi indie pop” aesthetic …
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000) by The Apples in Stereo
I read that this was an attempt by Apples in Stereo to sound more like they do on stage, so it’s rawer than normal. I’ve heard one of their earlier albums – Tone Soul Evolution – but I don’t remember it. But reading my review that sounds like it might be true. But it’s kind …
Life (1990) by Inspiral Carpets
Full disclosure: I listened to this on YouTube and two songs were missing. I don’t think those two songs would have changed my mind but you never know.
Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches (1990) by Happy Mondays
I’ve listened to a few madchester/baggy albums at this point and it’s safe to say that I just don’t get the genre. Now, I get very few dance-rock hybrids outside of Talking Heads’ version of that kind of thing, but this one I find particularly perplexing.
Around the World in a Day (1985) by Prince and The Revolution
I suspect the degree to which I like this album is heavily influenced by the narrative around it, and my lack of engagement with that narrative. Prince is a known iconoclast when I’m listening to this record for the first time. He’s done things such as change his stage name and fail to release completed …
The Noise Made by People (2000) by Broadcast
Yo La Tengo with way less guitar, without a male singe, the female singer now has an accent and there’s programming. I mean, basically, right? (That’s unfair, but it’s there.)
Up on the Sun (1985) by Meat Puppets
The more that I listen to the Meat Puppets the more it feels like they are one of the foundational bands of American alternative rock, setting the template for what was acceptable. When I was young and first encountering alternative, it felt like the diversity was baked in but original. The more I listen to …
On Fire (1989) by Galaxie 500
Having heard Luna a bunch before this band, I found their debut, Today, a bit of a deja vu experience (with a lot more grime and feedback) but I tried to put that aside due to when that album was recorded. Listening to this roughly a year later, I still don’t know enough about the …
Definitely Maybe (1994) by Oasis
Loud electric guitars had been missing from British radio for a long, long time by the early 1990s. With the exception of U2 and the Smiths and a few other bands, there hadn’t been much popular guitar-based music for much of the previous decade. And when guitar-based music appeared, it often had synthesizers, gated drums …
The Beta Band (1999)
Sometimes you encounter something you don’t know at all and it just stuns you with something special about itself. In this case, it’s the irreverence and the extremely healthy disrespect for genres (which I’m a sucker for) of something like the lead-off track, “The Beta Band Rap”, which I just can’t get over. It takes …
Hyaena (1984) by Siouxsie and the Banshees
Reading about this album, it’s absolutely incredible how much ink was spilled over Robert Smith’s involvement. Even though it sounds like the Banshees (much more than the Cure) and even though Smith’s involvement in the songwriting is not explicitly laid out (perhaps because of this), the critics of the time attribute basically everything they like …
The Stone Roses (1989)
Somehow in my mind I confused the Stone Roses with the Happy Mondays so my initial listen was kind of confusing. Anyway… I have read that this is the record that started Madchester/Baggy but listening to the first side of it it’s certainly hard to understand. You have to get to the second half before …
Ocean Rain (1984) by Echo and the Bunnymen
It’s been a while since I’ve heard Porcupine and even longer since I’ve heard my favourite, Heaven Up Here, so I am having a hard time listening to this record and deciding whether my memory is bad or something else is going on.
Oranges & Lemons (1989) by XTC
I don’t know anything about XTC really, just that one of their early ’80s albums has been on my “to listen” list for a very long time. I sort of assumed they were a post punk band but knew basically nothing else. Not knowing anything was good, as it often is, because I didn’t see …
Mutations (1998) by Beck
I can imagine that, had I paid attention to Beck more when he first became popular, and only heard Mellow Gold and Odelay, and not his earlier “anti folk” records, this record might have knocked me on my ass. In retrospect it has far more in common with Sea Change than it does those records …
Peepshow (1988) by Siouxsiee and the Banshees
The opening song “Peek-a-Boo” really threw me for a lip – those samples are a massive departure from what I’m familiar with from this band. My initial impression of it was that they were trying to piggyback on the emerging sound of hip hop and electro which they didn’t understand and were failing terribly. That …
Giant Steps (1993) by The Boo Radleys
As neo-psychedelia goes, this is a pretty diverse and varied record. That’s good because it’s not all that psychedelic comparatively speaking – I’m thinking of Mercury Rev by way of comparison – and often has more in common with britpop.