Moose High Ball Me!

Moose High Ball Me!

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What's more surprising? That London's Moose have finally secured a U.S. release for their fourth LP, High Ball Me!, after the first three were undeserved imports? (They were dropped by a hasty Virgin in 1992 after only one release, a cobbled-together, seven-song EP of their earliest, too-formative singles called Sonny and Sam, still the poorest intro to the group.) Or that Moose are still so damn sparkling after a decade, making them four-out-of-four terrific with wonderfully inspired LPs? Or that they're even still around at all, considering the obscurity they've suffered (and the five-year span since their last LP)? Again, nearly all their contemporaries from the 1989-1993 Camden dream pop scene have withered on the vine. But Moose, the group least reliant on that scene for its inspirations and sound (despite a longstanding friendship with Cocteau Twins, who brought Moose over as a support band on their final U.S. tour), have continued to prosper, at least musically. And what a thing of pacific beauty they remain! For High Ball Me! is another proud accomplishment from a group that's always made beguiling, sunny warm, expertly textured, well-conceived, and well-played LPs (think bossa nova ambience mixed with early Glen Campbell/Jimmy Webb pop gems, a little like Ivy), while covering Wire and Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talking." Each new album is like a group of songs to ice-skate to, so cool and menthol, so sweet and gliding, and High Ball Me! is yet another. One just falls for still-vintage Moose handiwork in "Keeping Up with You," "Pretend We Never Met," "The Only Man in Town" (previewed on Saltwater Records' teaser EP, Baby It's Over), like a secret schoolgirl crush. Ditto the sultry, snake-charming, violin-trimmed pop of the most unique offering, "Lily la Tigresse." Moose mainmen K.J. "Moose" McKillop and Russell Yates remain consummate stylists, infecting every selection with charm, and most of all, seductive hooks. When "Lily la Tigresse" asks, with luscious sexual entreaty, "Why can't we be as nature planned?," it sums up the grace of the LP as a whole. Few albums can match this one for sublime elegance

The Telescopes The Telescopes

The Telescopes The Telescopes

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The Telescopes began as a run-of-the-mill British shoegazer band fully under the thrall of noise and My Bloody Valentine, perhaps a little angrier than most of that ilk but pretty unmemorable. At some point, however, they discovered subtlety and songcraft. They traded in most of their noise pedals for some that make the guitars go all spacy and phased-out. They also wrote a batch of songs with melodies and hooks reminiscent of Love or The Notorious Byrd Brothers-era Byrds. The songs on The Telescopes are built on acoustic guitars, then the aforementioned tricked-out electric guitars are laid on top and garnished with bongos, organs, pianos, and all sorts of classic instruments. Stephen Lawrie's vocals are restrained and semi-emotional and female backing vocals add a touch of sweetness that might otherwise be missing from the record, as the overall atmosphere is very moody and introspective. A large chunk of the credit should be given to producer Guy Fixsen, who also helmed some great records with Moose and Rollerskate Skinny and was a member of Laika. Sadly, the Telescopes split soon after this album came out, but the classic sound they came up with here lives on in bands like Mojave 3 and the Verve.

EMF Epsom Mad Funkers The Best Of

EMF Epsom Mad Funkers The Best Of 

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Regrettably, England's EMF had been seared with the curse of premature victory, sometimes belting out "Unbelievable" two or three times per show, and many assumed they'd be forever damned to run from their own success until the day they took off their long shorts and cut their hair. But Epsom Mad Funkers, an emphatic and touching tribute with new songs and a second disc of remixes, proves that what saved them from disaster was an anarchic instinct for just how to nail together the flotsam and jetsam of late-20th century chart music without sounding totally contrived. One moment you could get "Girl of an Age," the great, cherubic baggy anthem that never was, the next you'd be swimming about in megalomaniac, brain-rammed funk ("Perfect Day," "They're Here") or even a sort of facetious revelry, such as the live classic "EMF," which would rather stack up stylistic Lego blocks and smash them to pieces than try to mimic the picture on the box. For better or worse, nobody else sounded like this

Jesus Jones Never Enough The Best Of Jesus Jones

Jesus Jones Never Enough The Best Of Jesus Jones

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In 2001, shortly after a new album and a new tour of England and America, EMI announced plans to release Never Enough: The Best of Jesus Jones. Although the label had released Greatest in Japan in 1999, the collection had many holes -- most notably, the complete lack of material from Already. Building on Greatest, Never Enough adds classics like "Move Mountains" and "All the Answers" from Liquidizer; the hidden gem "Blissed" from Doubt; and the electro-rock shaker "Idiot Stare" from Perverse. Making a strong showing from Already are the singles "The Next Big Thing" and "Chemical #1," the poppy "They're Out There," and the haunting "February." Closing out the first disc is "Come On Home," a new track that bridges Jesus Jones' signature sound of the past with their garage rock influence of the present. Disc two offers rare B-sides and a generous helping of remixes by the Prodigy, Aphex Twin, Ben Chapman, Phil Harding, and Martyn Phillips. A true catch-all of both the group's popular and more obscure material, Never Enough serves as the ultimate companion for hardcore Jesus Jones fans, and an eye-opener to more casual listeners who may only be familiar with hits like "Right Here, Right Now" and "Real, Real, Real."

Ultravox Vienna Definitive Edition

Ultravox Vienna Definitive Edition

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With the departure of vocalist John Foxx and guitarist Robin Simon behind them, Vienna kicked off Ultravox's second phase with former Rich Kids vocalist Midge Ure at the helm. Trading Foxx's glam rock stance for Ure's aristocratic delivery, Vienna recasts the band as a melodramatic synth pop chamber ensemble with most of the group doubling on traditional string quartet instruments and the synthesizers often serving to emulate an orchestra. It was a bold move that took awhile to pay off (the first two singles, "Sleepwalk" and "Passing Strangers," went unnoticed), but when the monolithic title track was released, the Ure lineup became the band's most identifiable one almost overnight. The simple and instantly recognizable drumbeat of "Vienna" proved infectious, taking the single to the top of the charts in the U.K. and making an impression in a new wave-apprehensive America. Bassist Chris Cross' monotone narration on "Mr X" and the frantic ride that is "Western Promise" give the album just enough diversity and showcased the rest of the group on an Ure-heavy album. There are plenty of pretentious and pompous moments at which Foxx-era purists cringe, but taken as a snooty rebellion against the guitar-heavy climate of the late '70s, they're ignorable. Returning producer Conny Plank's style adapted well to the new group, pitting the stark and the lush against one another. Add Anton Corbijn's photography and Peter Saville's smart cover design, and all the ingredients for an early-'80s classic are there. A few albums later, it would all seem like a fluke, but on Vienna, all the pieces come together. [This edition of the album contains a bonus disc of live tracks and alternate takes.]

Heaven 17 The Luxury Gap Deluxe Version

Heaven 17 The Luxury Gap Deluxe Version

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After creating a marvelous electronic debut, Glenn Gregory, Ian Marsh, and Martyn Ware decided to tamper with their winning formula a bit on Heaven 17's 1983 follow-up to Penthouse and Pavement. The result, which added piano, strings, and Earth, Wind, & Fire's horn section to the band's cool synthesizer pulse, was even better, and The Luxury Gap became one of the seminal albums of the British new wave. The best-known track remains "Let Me Go," a club hit that features Gregory's moody, dramatic lead above a percolating vocal and synth arrangement. But even better is the mechanized Motown of "Temptation," a deservedly huge British smash that got a shot of genuine soul from R&B singer Carol Kenyon. Nearly every song ends up a winner, though, as the album displays undreamed-of range. If beat-heavy techno anthems like "Crushed By the Wheels of Industry" were expected of Heaven 17, the melodic sophistication of "The Best Kept Secret" and "Lady Ice and Mr. Hex" -- both of which sound almost like show tunes -- wasn't. If there's a flaw, it's that while the band's leftist messages were more subtle and humorous than most of their time, they still seem rather naïve. But the music, which showed just how warm electro-pop's usually chilly grooves could be, is another matter entirely. [Note to collectors: there were differences in the original British and American pressings of the album. The 1997 reissue by Caroline follows the order of the British pressing, adding some extended remixes.]

Pet Shop Boys PopArt Limited Edition

Pet Shop Boys PopArt Limited Edition

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Looking back at the 35 years since Neil Tennant left England's Smash Hits magazine to form the Pet Shop Boys with Chris Lowe, the two-CD Popart opens itself up for arguments while surpassing 1991's Discography as the ready-to-wear selection. All the growing up and becoming more emotionally focused the duo did post-Discography could have yielded a dour hits collection, but putting new tracks like the plaintive "I Get Along" between the slick chestnuts "West End Girls" and "So Hard" works to the listener's advantage. The tropical and wistful "Single-Bilingual" and the clever and melancholy "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" add more latter-day treasures that Discography couldn't include, and the only thing left to do besides submit is argue about the details. One disc is full of "Pop" moments and the other "Art," but just try and figure out the criteria. The two new songs (the austere electro of "Miracles" and the fair "Flamboyant") are nice enough but they're not as fully formed as their surroundings, making them obvious late additions. A little bit of text and history in the liner notes would have helped, and fans should be aware most of the tracks here appear in album versions rather than single mixes. Of course, compilers need to make decisions and bookending the collection with the ultracamp and semiflippant covers of "Go West" and "Somewhere" could be seen as a comment on how listeners shouldn't worry so much and just enjoy. Regardless of omissions and decisions, Popart is an excellent, hang-together listen and a better representation of the duo's career than Discography. [Upon Popart's release, a limited edition was available with an extra disc of remixes from Moby, Sasha, Danny Tenaglia, and others.]

Happy Mondays Bummed Collector's Edition

Happy Mondays Bummed Collector's Edition

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Only a year after the intermittently thrilling Squirrel and G-Man, Happy Mondays snapped into focus on its sophomore album, 1988's Bummed. "Focus" is an odd word for the persistently addled, violently hedonistic Mondays, yet Bummed has its own peculiar drug logic, loping into view with the two-stepping "Country Song," a cut so twisted it goes far beyond irony, then settling into the dense groove of "Moving In With," its hook buzzing and circling, causing a cacophony. Such vivid, concrete textures are a hallmark of producer Martin Hannett, the Mancunian legend who has been brought on board to give the Happy Mondays direction by doing the opposite of what he did with Joy Division. His production for Unknown Pleasures was stark, austere, but Bummed is all smeared colors and harsh edges, a fistful of razors and menace cutting viciously into the subconscious. This is nasty, nightmarish music delivered with a lascivious leer by Shaun Ryder, a hallucinatory accidental poet portrayed on the album's garish cover as some kind of harlot put out to pasture. Decadence has rarely sounded as dangerous as it did in the hands of the Mondays and this is where they reveled in that debauchery, pumping out stiff psychedelic funk as Ryder spat out rhymes of luck, lazyitis and fat lady wrestlers. Hannett's bright, brittle production amplifies everything, creating a swirling hyper-reality that's almost a sonic black hole sucking everything into its vortex -- slide guitars, sound clips from "Performance," maniacally looped drum machines, Beatles melodies, drums that are pushed to the front of the mix so it all is a relentless assault, from the ears down to the loins. As jagged and lacerating as all this is, there's a sense of evil glee, that the Mondays want to drag you down to their level, but there's no sense of seduction here; you're either with them or not, as Bummed is music for after you've already succumbed to the dark side.

Various Artists Mersey Boys & Liverpool Girls

Various Artists Mersey Boys & Liverpool Girls

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Subtitled - The Sounds of the Mersey 1978-2001. UK compilation featuring 21 acts with origins in post-Beatles Liverpool. Tracks include, Ian McNabb ' Liverpool Girl', Cast 'Sandstorm', Echo and the Bunnymen 'The Back of Love', The LA's 'Feelin' and more