Badly Drawn Boy – Banana Skin Shoes (One Last Fruit) - Despite a reputation as a difficult live performer, Badly Drawn Boy is one of my favorite artists. Like many artists, his first album casts a large shadow of his discography. That’s fair, but I would counter with two points 1- his second album (which was the About A Boy soundtrack) is a great album and if not as great as Hour of Bewilderbeast, is In the conversation and 2- there are some great songs spread out as hidden gems over the rest of his career.
In 2010, after a 4 year hiatus, we were presented with Its What I’m Thinking Part 1. It was an inspired album that seemed to reinvigorated his career and the title “Part 1” implied that more was soon to come.Part 2 never came. Instead, we got a decade of mostly silence, so expectations are high for Banana Skin Shoes. Initial listens reveal an album that is influenced by 70s AM Radio- with some slick produced soul and folk influences. It might be a bit disappointing to those who expected a new Bewilderbeast. On the other hand, I can’t imagine too many of the diehards will be that unhappy about it, (though they may have to spend some time with it.)
Stylistically, It is much in line with About a Boy and it certainly captures Badly Drawn Damon in an upbeat mood. The strong moments are the songs that sound like singles, for example “I Need Someone to Trust” and “Note to Self”, and they balance out the songs that kind of disappear in the ether or don’t work within the album’s context (the title track); with enough songs falling somewhere in between. It’s enough for a passing grade, and it’s better to have a new Badly Drawn Boy album than the alternative.
The Buttertones- Jazzhound (Innovative Leisure) - How would one describe the Buttertones- a band that is not easy to identify.
The name implies a ska band to me. The album covers look like classic jazz albums of the Fifties and Sixties or alternatively circa-Y2k post-punk- either something released by Blue Note or Burning Heart.
The most often used comparison is Garage band and to a certain extent, surf. It is not a stretch to compare them to the Allah-Las or the Growlers, or an band that follows that history back to the Cramps and back before to the Sonics, and anyone in between. But it's singer Richard Araiza's baritone (and how the band play around it that is the real story.
A touch lounge, a touch rockabilly, more than anything it reminds me of Morrissey, especially on songs like "Denial, You Win Again " (even sounds like a Morrissey title) and "Fade Away Gently".
The band's a bit of a chameleon too, so while the image of 60s rock looms, there is such an 80s sound. Think Gun Club or Joy Division depending on the track (on the title track, maybe both). "Blind Passenger" starts with an obvious Cure guitar lick. Elsewhere, C86esque sounds drop in, while "Bebop" manages to be surf and No Wave. Throughout, these influences seamlessly intertwine.
I wasn't aware of the band before Jazzhound (three albums since 2017). From my short period of listening, I might say this album simultaneously continues their sound, but also takes them to a new level. I really dig this. Album of the Year candidate.
Clan of Xymox – Spider on the Wall (Trisol/Metropolis) - On my list of best albums of last year was New Model Army. Although Clan of Xymox are quite different musically, there is a lot in common between the two.
Both had a limited but devoted fanbase in the US in the late 80s. Both have reformed (or perhaps never truly went away). Both put out a new album every couple of years - while perhaps not Earth-shattering, are fairly consistent in quality.
The musical blogs and press aren’t going to spend much time on an almost 40- year old band. Where casual listeners are probably best served by a Best-Of playlist or an Artist “Channel”.
Xymox was probably a bit more popular here, gaining fans who liked the ecocentrism of 4AD Records (appearing on the seminal Lonely is an Eyesore compilation) or the darker bands of the new wave like The Cure, Depeche Mode and Love & Rockets.
For those who need caught up, the band has largely been Ronny Moorings and a revolving cast since 1994. They signed to Metropolis Records around that time- an early signing of the label that has been one of the definitive goth, electro-metal and synthpop labels ever since- releasing albums by classic and evolving artists like KMFDM, Assembelage 23, Frontline Assembly, Lords of Acid, VNV Nation and man more.
To call ‘Spider on the Wall’ a workable album is probably faint praise. Though the bands above made it all look so easy when they relegated to a few minutes on the latest hours of MTV, making a good Goth style album is no mean feat.
‘Spider’ should be a crowd pleaser. It has some strong singles and it’s an enjoyable listen. The band has made a record that should appeal to multiple generations of fans. It should appeal to the classic 80s gloomster who considered Xymox essential back in the late 80s and early 90s. It should appeal to those who enjoyed the post Y2K dark wave resurgence- bands influenced by Xymox who may have had EDM, Goth or Industrial tendencies. This would include bands like the Cruxshadows or Apoptygma Berzerk or even some of the electroclash bands that were in the spotlight for awhile. Lastly, it should appeal to those who maybe came to the genre only in recent years with bands like Drab Majesty who come from goth with an emphasis on hard rock (directly pulling influence from some of the biggest alternative rock and industrial bands of the mid and late 90s)
"She" has to be the millionth song with this title and is a good representation of one of the originators still being the innovator.
The Dears- Lovers Rock (Dangerbird) - Like many bands, one album looms heavily over the Dears discography.
After some initial attempts at trying to formulate their sound, in 2004, they released No Cities Left, a classic album in an age of post-Y2K bounty.
They seemingly will always be chasing this career peak.
Which may be unfair. I don't believe that they have truly made a bad album. Lovers Rock is the 6th album in fourteen years, which calculates to something like a record every two and a half years. (I will pick Degeneration Street if you are looking to drop the needle somewhere in the middle of the discography).
Lovers Rock is an unusual ‘first listen’ album. The production and instrumentation does not seem obvious. That said, it seems to work in favor of repeated listening. In fact, in a matter of a month and a half, this has become has much loved to me as No Cities Left.
Reviews seemed a bit mixed, though generally bands 20 years and 8 albums in are usually met with a lukewarm reception. In this case, most criticism is around 'who wants to listen to a depressing set of songs with the world is like today, and how have Dears mainstays Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak stayed together as a couple for two-decades-plus when every album sounds like the product of a disintegrating romance.
Also of note, a couple of reviews mention the similarity in voice to Damon Albarn, which might be a relief from twenty years of comparison to Morrissey.
In summary, this one didn't grab me on first listen, but I am so glad I stuck with it. It's some of the band's best work, and one of my favorite records of the year.
The Dream Syndicate- The Universe Inside (Anti-) -I didn’t expect to fall in love with the Dream Syndicate’s “The Universe Inside” but here we are.
An album that gives us a 20 minute opening track and no songs shorter than seven and a half minutes.
There was a specific summer that I have a fondness for as the local mall music store (an anachronism now itself) cut out dozens of great cassettes. I was able to really explore some of that second tier of great American bands. Groups like Big Dipper and Death of Samantha. One of my favorite of these “discoveries” was the Dream Syndicate.
Through changes in sound, they put together a solid enough discography that their string of singles can stand up to most anyone.
I took interest in their reunion. While I feel both their 2017 and 2019 records slightly missed their mark of the band’s previous heights, they both have some worthwhile tracks. They certainly marked their spot as a band to watch.
The Universe Inside makes for a good listen that belies the track times. The Regulator May be the shortest 20 minute song I have heard- with a nocturnal David Lynch feel. The Longing is the closest to a traditional rock song, and there as with “Dusting off the Rust” feels the ‘punk improvisation’ vibes of Television. The addition of occasional Foxygen and Butcher Brown saxophonist Marcus Tenney is inspired. The albums often swings like Bitches Brew and there’s certainly a nod to Hendrix as well. It probably shouldn’t work and yet it does. It’s something the band had in them all along but it certainly is a surprise for someone expecting four minute songs.
Even the albums weakest moment - the closing “Slowest Rendition” eventually works itself into something quite serviceable.
An unexpected surprise then and if Steve Wynn (and gang) didn’t already have an air of great under appreciated American artist, he has solidified it here
