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: Dream Pop
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.
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 …
To the Faithful Departed (1996) by The Cranberries
I know this is not “the big one” but I was actually surprised how many of the singles from this record which I remembered, dare I say almost fondly. (I guess this means I’m getting old enough to just be happy to hear the music of my teens, even when I didn’t like it at …
Victorialand (1986) by Cocteau Twins
Though they’re missing a member, this almost feels like the Cocteau Twins at their purest or most essential.
Things We Lost in the Fire (2001) by Low
Low are, to the best of my knowledge, one of those bands that just go out and do their thing over and over and over again. There’s nothing wrong with that necessarily, but it makes dipping in and out of their catalogue a little difficult, because you don’t know which of their albums are really …
Suburban Light (2000) by The Clientele
I often wonder about the historical perspectives (or lack therefore) of ’90s and ’00s music critics, particularly the young people. Because I often encounter highly acclaimed albums from these decades which sound to me as extremely derivative of other times and places. Sometimes it sounds like nostalgia, sometimes almost outright plagiarism but, regardless, I’m always …
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 …
What Does Anything Mean? Basically (1980) by The Chameleons
I sort of don’t know why I ended up listening to this. It seemed to have pretty positive reviews and they released so few records, I guess I figured I had to listen to this if I was ever going to listen to any Chameleons record. So here we are.
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.)
Heaven or Las Vegas (1990) by Cocteau Twins
The Cocteau Twins, arguably the inventors of dream pop, have an inimitable sound. On their early records I find that sound a little too reminiscent of Siouxsie and the Banshees but, at this stage of their career, I find that comparison basically useless. Bands with such distinct sounds, who I don’t love enough to listen …
Jordan: The Comeback (1990) by Prefab Sprout
Note: This album has nothing to do with Michael Jordan. It’s always weird coming to a critically acclaimed album by a band you’ve basically never heard a note of in your entire life. I was like 6 or 7 when Prefab Sprout had their big hit, and it was a hit in the UK. I …
Electr-o-Pura (1995) by Yo La Tengo
My biggest issue with many dream pop bands is that they make music that just doesn’t appeal to me, it’s just a not a sound I particularly enjoy. But there is a subgenre of dream pop which includes noisy guitars, and that’s a subgenre I can usually get behind. That’s the world that Yo La …
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.)
I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990) by Sinead O’Connor
Sinead’s second album is considerably more self-assured and even than her debut, though it’s lacking a bit of the energy of the debut and, also, the pure shock factor of a woman so young seeming like such a self-assured songwriter and performer. And like the debut, it hasn’t dated that well, but that’s sort of …
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (2000) by Yo La Tengo
I love I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One. I didn’t initially but, over the years, I’ve come to really, really enjoy it and also come to regard it as one of the great indie rock albums of the era. One of the things I love about it is its relative diversity something that …
Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (1990) by The Sundays
Why do I know The Sundays’ biggest hit? I was 8 when it came out and absolutely not listening to contemporary radio. My only guess is that the video got played a lot on Canada’s music video channel when I was older. Because I’ve definitely heard this song, and I can’t come up with any …
Treasure (1984) by Cocteau Twins
Every time I listen to an ’80s Cocteau Twins record I think “this will be the one where I’m convinced they’re not overly indebted to the Banshees”. So far, that hasn’t happened yet. Even on this, ostensibly their masterpiece.
Geek the Girl (1994) by Lisa Germano
I knew nothing about this record going in and, frankly, nothing about Germano. The name maybe rung a bell, a teeny bit, but that’s all. So I had no idea what I was in for, which is maybe why I keep can’t help but compare her to other people.
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 …
Mars Audiac Quintet (1994) by Stereolab
I don’t love Stereolab’s shtick though I get why lots of people do. So my mileage with them varies in so much as I can convince myself that the album is either important (because they probably pioneered their particular fusion) or how ti compares to the other albums of theirs I’ve managed to get around …
Disintegration (1989) by The Cure
“Disintegration is the best album ever!” says Kyle at the conclusion of “Mecha-Streisand” from the first season of South Park. I don’t know if I was even 17 yet when I first watched that episode and heard those words. I didn’t know much about the Cure, beyond the fact that Robert Smith could save the …
The Splendour of Fear (1984) by Felt
The first track made me think I was listening to some kind of proto math rock thing, only coming at it from a different direction. That idea disappears pretty early into the second track, but the thought was interesting.
Quique (1993) by Seefeel
I don’t know ambient music much beyond the 1970s, aside from a few 1990s albums I’ve encountered due to my podcast. But I do know that the vast majority of ambient music in existence has been created with synthesizers and other electronic instruments, keyboards hooked up to synthesizers and now computers, not rock band equipment. …
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993) by Sarah McLachlan
This is the Sarah McLachlan I was too young for; the kids at my school weren’t into this music when it came out and I don’t think she was big enough in the States yet to make it on MTV when I got the chance to watch that at my cousins’. I say this because, …
Painful (1993) by Yo La Tengo
I have only ever heard one Yo La Tengo album, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, and I suspect it has ruined me for their earlier career (or, perhaps, the entirety of the rest of their career). That record may or may not be their best – I wouldn’t know – but it …
Head Over Heels (1983) by Cocteau Twins
My only experience of the Cocteau Twins before this record was Blue Bell Knoll, a record that both sounds very different from this one and quite similar. Listening to this, knowing now where they came from, I think I should have rated Blue Bell Knoll higher, because I never would have guessed that it was …
Blue Bell Knoll (1988) by Cocteau Twins
In my mind, I had confused the Cocteau Twins with the Thompson Twins, so this record was a surprise. (Such a surprise, the moment the first track came on, I had to google them to clarify what was happening.) So instead of getting synthpop, I got dream pop!
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.
Chrome (1993) by Catherine Wheel
When a band is named after a song or an album, and you know that song or album, there’s definitely a bit of expectation even if you don’t know much else about it. Maybe this band is named for the torture device, not the David Byrne album, but yet I still assumed there would be …