Asides Besides can certainly be seen as a cash-in release to coincide with Mark Hollis' first solo release and the reissue of Talk Talk's EMI catalog, but rarely does such a calculated industry move result in such a treat for fans. Over two discs, Asides Besides essentially ties up all of the loose ends for the band. Disc one is probably the least essential, bringing out all of the 12" remixes, which are of marginal interest, though all are superior to those found on the unauthorized History Revisited. Disc two however, reveals no shortage of prime rarities beginning with three demos from 1981 ("Talk Talk," "Mirror Man" and "Candy"). A handful of singles are included -- the not-so-rare single, "My Foolish Friend," the ultra-rare "Why Is it So Hard" (from the film First Born), the U.S. remix of "Dum Dum Girl," and the edit of "Eden" -- but the real gems are the B-sides, which are anything but "throwaways." In fact, the B-sides are not only in most cases as strong as the ones that made it onto the albums, but they also indicate the more experimental direction the band would take later on. Asides Besides may be of interest only to diehard Talk Talk fans, but for that audience this collection is absolutely essential.
If there's anything you can't accuse Sparks of, it's being understated. For over four decades, the brothers Mael have been gifting the world with a brand of quirky and intelligent pop music that seems to revel in its theatricality. Looking to distill their sprawling 22-album discography down to its most essential parts, Sparks have released New Music for Amnesiacs: The Ultimate Collection, a two-disc career retrospective featuring 40 tracks hand-selected by Ron and Russell themselves. With the band offering a guided tour of its massive back catalog (minus any selections from The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman), listeners are treated to a collection of tracks that the band feels best define who Sparks are. Along with this impressive audio biography, New Music for Amnesiacs also comes with plenty of collectible materials, including a hardcover booklet of liner notes, replica posters, backstage passes, and photos of the duo. While the extensive collection of tracks makes this set a great entryway into the wild and weird world of Sparks, the extra goodies make this collection a real treat for die-hard fans.
Two years passed since Sigur Rós' debut. By this time, the band recruited in a new keyboardist by the name of Kjartan Sveinsson and it seems to have done nothing but take the band to an even higher state of self-awareness. Even on aesthetic matters, Sigur Rós entitle their sophomore effort not in a manner to play up the irony of high expectations (à la the Stone Roses' Second Coming), but in a modest realization. This second album -- Ágætis Byrjun -- translates roughly to Good Start. So as talented as Von might have been, this time out is probably even more worthy of dramatic debut expectations. Indeed, Ágætis Byrjun pulls no punches from the start. After an introduction just this side of one of the aforementioned Stone Roses' backward beauties, the album pumps in the morning mist with "Sven-G-Englar" -- a song of such accomplished gorgeousness that one wonders why such a tiny country as Iceland can musically outperform entire continents in just a few short minutes. The rest of this full-length follows such similar quality. Extremely deep strings underpin falsetto wails from the mournfully epic ("Viðar Vel Tl Loftárasa") to the unreservedly cinematic ("Avalon"). One will constantly be waiting to hear what fascinating turns such complex musicianship will take at a moment's notice. At its best, the album seems to accomplish everything lagging post-shoegazers like Spiritualized or Chapterhouse once promised. However, at its worst, the album sometimes slides into an almost overkill of sonic structures. Take "Hjartað Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm)," for instance: there are so many layers of heavy strings, dense atmospherics, and fading vocals that it becomes an ineffectual mess of styles over style. As expected, though, the band's keen sense of Sturm und Drang is mostly contained within an elegant scope of melodies for the remainder of this follow-up. Rarely has a sophomore effort sounded this thick and surprising. Which means that "Good Start" might as well become of the most charming understatements to come out of a band in years.
Young Team, Mogwai's first full-length album fulfills the promise of their early singles and EPs, offering a complex, intertwining set of crawling instrumentals, shimmering soundscapes, and shards of noise. Picking up where Ten Rapid left off, Mogwai use the sheer length of an album to their advantage, recording a series of songs that meld together -- it's easy to forget where one song begins and the other ends. The record itself takes its time to begin, as the sound of chiming processed guitars and murmured sampled vocals floats to the surface. Throughout the album, the sound of the band keeps shifting, and it's not just through explosions of noise -- Mogwai isn't merely jamming, they have a planned vision, subtly texturing their music with small, telling details. When the epic "Mogwai Fears Satan" draws the album to a close, it becomes clear that the band has expanded the horizons of post-rock, creating a record of sonic invention and emotional force that sounds unlike anything their guitar-based contemporaries have created.
Just in Time for Christmas" is a good example of the kind of holiday album of Christmas rock that used to hit the record stores sometime around Black Friday -- back when there were record stores, that is. Perhaps the executives and marketing personnel at the major rock-music labels got tired of watching Andy Williams et al. monopolize the Christmas-album market. Whatever the reason, the late 1980's and early 1990's saw a growing number of rock-themed Christmas CD's in which one can see some similar trends.
This album, released by I.R.S. Records, reflects the alternative-rock sensibilities of the label that once counted R.E.M., the Go-Go's, the Alarm, and Concrete Blonde among its stable of acts. Like many of these albums, "Just in Time for Christmas" starts with a relatively well-established act and then proceeds to less well-known artists -- perhaps in hopes of providing said artists with greater exposure, and thereby drumming up sales. The relatively well-established act that starts things off here is Squeeze with "Christmas Day." Back in those days, Squeeze was considered definitively cool -- it was always safe to play Squeeze at a graduate-school party -- but I must confess that their work, while intellectually satisfying, never did much for me emotionally. That being said, "Christmas Day," a guitar-based song with a harp intro and good harmonies, typifies well the band's smart, hip, self-conscious approach. The Rebel Pebbles' "Cool Yule" is a fast-paced, peppy song with a definite Go-Go's vibe to it. Klark Kent (whose secret-identity name is a pseudonym for Stewart Copeland, according to Wikipedia) contributes "Yo Ho Ho"; with its low-timbre vocals (especially the words "Yo Ho Ho" in a deep, rumbling bass) and sardonic delivery, it could perhaps be retitled "Have Yourself a Portentous Little Christmas." Torch Song's "Hark" is very synthesized, with syncopated percussion and phase-shifted harmony vocals. One hears, in this song, many of the musical trends of the 1980's fading into the distance.
But things pick up with the next couple of songs. Reckless Sleepers' "Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday" is a country-tinged song that seems sincere rather than ironic, with fine harmony vocals. Steve Hunter's "We Three Kings," an acoustic-guitar instrumental supported by bells, has a pleasant and contemplative quality. And the dB's, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, bring their own country overtones to "Home for the Holidays," offering a fresh take on the familiar theme of family members missing each other when they can't be together at the holidays. With the vocalist's high thin tenor, effective use of lap steel guitar, and violin coming in on the chorus, this song is a highlight of the album.
There's nothing dangerous about The Edge of Christmas, rather it's a collection of contemporary Christmas songs suitable for play at even the most conservative family gathering-save for one punky number by the Ramones. Bookended by Queen's gorgeous anthem, "Thank God It's Christmas" and the Waitresses' new wave rap, "Christmas Wrapping," the compilation takes a while to get going, but halfway thorough things loosen up-not unlike an office Christmas party. The Pretenders' "2000 Miles" and the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" were classy inclusions. Kate Bush's "December Will Be Magic Again" and the Cocteau Twins' "Winter Wonderland" are rarities now made available again. Dave Edmund's "Run Run Rudolph," a classic rockabilly romp, and the Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight )" are modern day standards. As holiday rock records go, it doesn't get much more-traditional than this.
If you already own the long out of print Greatest Hits set, then there's no real reason to invest in Sound of the Jam, which, predictably, repeats the majority of that program. However, for latecomers this provides an excellent overview of the output of one of Britain's most distinctive and influential new wave bands. The album's 20 tracks proceed in chronological order, documenting the Jam's progression from sharp, aggressive mod-influenced rock ("Modern World," "In the City") to explicitly Motown-influenced post-punk R&B ("Town Called Malice"), with frequent forays into surreal balladeering ("Butterfly Collector") and ambiguous love songs ("English Rose"). The band's sociopolitical stance is not always comprehensible, especially to American ears (and particularly to American ears born somewhere around the time these songs were written), but it clearly has something to do with populist politics, open-hearted romance, and some kind of gentle socialism. That such sentiments could translate into reliably tight, beautifully constructed guitar pop with a serrated edge is a testament both to frontman Paul Weller and his fellow bandmembers. Weller would later go on to make records of an increasingly unpredictable and inconsistent nature with the Style Council, but as Sound of the Jam makes clear, his first band got the best of his prodigious early talent. Highly recommended.
Following the break-up of The Jam in 1982 and The Gift, Weller endeavoured to write what he would coin as 'more soulful' music. In that musical journey, he'd form The Style Council and take himself in a completely new musical direction. Loud guitar solos would be replaced by refined brass sections, whilst the gruff voice of Foxton would be replaced by a myriad of backing singers.
Homebreakers, the album's opener, provides with the perfect vibe that sets the rest of the record. It's five minutes of pure brilliance, featuring a defined soul in overall sound, substantiated by both the horn sections and Mick Talbot on Hammond Organ that provide a great backing to Weller's deep vocal. Come To Milton Keynes also features the Hammond Organ during his introduction, but is a much more upbeat and lighter tune when compared to the likes of Homebreakers. It opts for both strings and horns, as well as a steady drum beat, courtesy of Steve White. Despite its happy tune, Come To Milton Keynes is more overtly political than anything The Jam ever produced - like The Jam's A Town Called Malice, it's a deliberate attack on the idea of 'Middle England' and the Thatcherite principles present in the eighties.
Internationalists is particularly funky, featuring a rocksteady drum beat in part, and this up-tempo guitar riff that's a little reminiscent of Huey Lewis & The News' I Want A New Drug, as is the lyrical structure. It's undoubtedly one of the record's best offerings, making for compulsive foot-tapping at the very least. On the contrary, A Stone's Throw Away is very much like Weller's own Eleanor Rigby - there's an overpowering string backing that, when coupled with Weller's solemn vocal, changes the vibe and pace of the album completely. It becomes a little more refined and takes a step back from the faster start.
The Stand Up Comic's Instructions fusing a Hammond Organ and a spoken word poem that's actually vocalled by Lenny Henry. Interestingly, looking back at this from the perspective of modern-day observational humour, Henry's words evoke a sense of the old seventies comedians, pioneered by the likes of Bernard Manning. It makes you curl up a little with lines like "Tell 'em the one about the friggin' queer/Do the one that always works,/'Bout the lazy blacks that don't like work." and "Do that one that never fails/'Bout the gang of white thugs and the Asian male,/And once you got 'em, they'll be with you!" It's fascinating how humour has changed so much in the past forty years.
The Lodgers is one of the other majorly political songs on Our Favourite Shop, featuring a duet from both Weller and then wife Dee C. Lee, who had, quite famously, previously worked with Wham!. It's a great song with four minutes of satire in part, combined with a Nile Rodgers-esque riff backing it and a thumping bassline. Walls Come Tumbling Down! takes us back to Homebreakers by way of overall sound, but instead fusing it with a vocal that could be best suited to a track like The Eton Rifles on the verse. It's one of the tightest and most complete songs on the album and goes down as one of my favourites.
On some editions of the album, you'd have Shout To The Top! added as a bonus and since it's on the version we've got, it seems wrong not to discuss one of The Style Council's catchiest songs. In reality, it's that performance on Top Of The Pops that got me into The Style Council, obviously many years later than its original broadcast. Personally speaking, Shout To The Top! is their best effort, fusing a jazzy bassline with great drumming patterns, a recurring piano sound to die for and one of Weller's best vocals in his career.
If you're on the search for something with a mixture of fast-paced funk and slowed-down soul, then Our Favourite Shop ticks all the right boxes. Arguably, this is better than any of his works with The Jam and I'd go along with that. As much as I love the likes of In The City and Sound Affects, if I'm honest, Weller's work with The Style Council just has a little more substance and swagger. It's pretty much perfect.
