Dog Man Star (10/8)

Who: Suede

What: Dog Man Star

When: October 1994

I’ve read/heard loads on the coked-up magisterial brilliance of Dog Man Star; however, have never heard it in its entirety. Let’s fix that, shall we?

As it happens, for the most part, despite majority opinion tending to disagree with me, I generally like albums that have been written and recorded whilst their makers were taking loads and loads of cocaine. What some people find overblown, overlong, and generally unlistenable, I generally find quite pleasant, I concede the facts, but reject the conclusion.

Thanks to that overly long intro, you’ve probably gathered, I liked this. A lot.

This album tells a story. Brett Anderson sings frankly about drug abuse and rough sex, but without pointlessly embellishing it. In his world, actions have consequences, wild nights have mornings after, and he’s careful never to tell you the moral of the story.

By ‘Heroine’, I was in love. It’s sexy, and that bassline is hot. This albums gives some of the most powerful visuals yet, and for this I’m seeing a big, romantic epic, where Brett’s the hero, coming for this waify thing dressed in a white nightie, in a huge castle, with billowing curtains. I can barely begin to describe how amazing this is.

This whole album feels so.. Earnest. I know it only comes about because Bernard Butler and Brett Anderson hated each other so much by the end of it that the sheer force of their hatred made them both write better than they’d ever written before. But I don’t care. It’s amazing. Brett Anderson’s vocal is gorgeous. Bernard guitar sounds incredible. This is a band at the top of their game.

Elsewhere, tracks like ‘The Asphalt World’ and ‘New Generation’ are the soundtrack to the gangster film I’ll never make, the latter something David Bowie himself would’ve been proud to have written. Actually, include ‘The Hollywood Life’ on that soundtrack too. It’s got the most delicious dirty guitars, which make a noise that goes straight to my ovaries. It is incredible; I could write reams on just this song, it perfectly encapsulates that self-indulgent and overwrought frustration within the entire industry. It’s so unreal, and the appeal is in that seedy glamour (or appearance of it).

They also have some of the best ballads ever written. ‘The Power’ is reflective and pensive as well as ‘Daddy’s Speeding’ and ‘Still Life’ which, spoilers: sounds nothing like the Horrors, is a lovely, picturesque tune, which everyone who loves this album seems to love, but…

The true gem of this record, the absolute without a doubt best song that I have heard in far too long, is ‘The 2 Of Us’, a gorgeous, heartfelt, piano-led ballad. Anyone who says it’s overblown has missed the point. It’s a necessary melodrama. He is behaving like a fool. He is being overdramatic. It should be embarrassing for all involved, but it’s not, because it’s just too sad. It’s like his heart is being literally wrested from his chest, and slowly torn to tiny shreds in front of his eyes, and it’s so painful, so unbearable that the only thing he can do, with his last moments of sanity is write this heart-shattering song.

What a record. Wow. I’ve wasted too long, not listening to this album. Please, please don’t make the same mistake.

The Bedroom Covers (9/8)

Who: The Morning Benders

What: The Bedroom Covers

When: July 2008

Developing a theme here... Going with more covers today, courtesy of The Morning Benders. Recorded in the band’s apartment, these are surprisingly good quality, if a little less clean than may be expected. If these boys ability with covers is anything to go by, it’s a shame I haven’t listened to very much of their original material, as I imagine it must be really quite good.

I love a girl group cover, and I’m in luck as there’s TWO here, three, if you count the extra Daytrotter session of ‘Why Don’t They Let Us Fall in Love’, and the first of these is wonderful. Almost painfully cute, it’s soo gorgeous. The cover of the Crystals’ ‘He’s a Rebel’ is also wonderful. I’m gonna love these guys forever now just because they love to cover girl groups.

‘Lovefool’ is one of my favourite songs of all time, so it takes a lot for me to not actively hate any cover I come across. This version is sped up, has a bit more shuffle, but the instruments are toned down to allow the vocal to come through. The delicate harmonies of all their voices working together makes this (if possible) even more tender and lovely than the original. These are also quite faithful covers for the most part. The cover of ‘Crying’ by Roy Orbison doesn’t do much with the original, but is still very cute, and keeps a lot of the emotion of the lyrics.

There are weakish points, their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ is nicer than the Corrs’ one, but isn’t really a patch on the original, it’s just nice, and ‘Caroline, No’ is just a bit..Well.. annoying. The introduction of the keyboard on ‘I Won’t Share You’ is an interesting stylistic choice, but in this version, it’s a little bit out of time, and as such a cute, sparkly line it feels far too heavy, and is at odds with the rest of the song.

Fools Rush In is a stompin’, right ol’ good time. They are so cute. His voice has this, fragility to it, that would, I feel, in any other setting feel a bit wrong, just a bit weak, but it’s just so cute!! Same goes for Talking Heads’ Pull Up The Roots, it’s good fun. It’s so different to the original, but at the same time, totally not, and it’s just really awesome.

So this was fun, I really really liked this, a collection of sound covers and some indication of creativity and flair. Well done.

The Road Leads Where it's Led EP

Apologies. Today’s review is short, only an EP as opposed to a whole album, but, well, time constraints, etc… I promise I'll stop whinging about that soon.. Maybe...


Who: Secret Machines
What: The Road Leads Where it's Led EP
When: June 2005

Aaanyway.. Title track, and first track, incidentally, is a perfect intro, a welcome track, if you like, and with some cute use of words (“We communicate by semaphore, no language we’ve got flags”) we’re off to a good start. In for some nice, harmless fun. It’s followed by the only other original on the EP, Bring Your Friends, which is upbeat and drives along, although slightly overdoes the crash cymbal.

Then there’s the covers, which are.. Hit and miss.. Girl From the North Country (a Bob Dylan cover) and Deluxe (by German band Harmonia) are goodish, but forgettable. Astral Weeks, the Van Morrison cover (yeah, you did hear that right) turns into a J&M chain type thing with a nice growly guitar sound, and suitably passive aggressive lyrics. The rueful fadeout is nice too, just feels, suitable, somehow. Then there an.. interesting on classic Money (That’s What I Want), which slows it right down, and turns it into a sweeping soundscape that is not altogether unwelcome, and is actually rather enjoyable.

I generally like my psychedelia to have a bit more going on, a bit more drive, I guess. I don’t mind if it’s lazy, but it does need to move. This takes a while to get going, and apart from that really quite intriguing choice of covers, it’s essentially just a better than average covers EP.

Suicide (The Second Album) (7/8)

Who: Suicide
What: Suicide (The Second Album)
When: March 1980

The Second Album by Suicide is absolutely essential. It’s daring, stunning, and beautiful, Alan Vega and Martin Rev have worked hard on this, and we find the pair on excellent form.

From the start, Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne, Suicide are in a strange mood, one that is decidedly sweeter, and not too far removed from the tones one might expect from Gary Numan, New Order or Depeche Mode.

Some tracks seem to glisten with a sexy sweat, others immediately change in the light, making that sweat seem unhinged and hateful. Touch Me sexily invites you to do just that, but Dance is dark and menacing, which of course means it’s bloody brilliant, and showcases a lot of these guys’ skills as innovators and creators of an entire subculture, going some way to demonstrate just how important this band is.

My first introduction to Suicide was hearing about the series of covers commissioned for singer, Alan Vega’s 70^th birthday, and track three, Sweetheart is one I’d already heard, thanks to the (frankly quite good in itself) cover by Klaxons. It’s a wonderfully sweet and tender ballad, which is a rare moment of prettiness on the record, Suicide are many things, but pretty rarely comes to mind.

Unsurprisingly, I suppose, I like this band. I really like this band. I can hear the elements which have been taken on by my favourite band (oh Miranda’s on her hobby horse again, she’s gonna start talking about the Horrors. Yes I am. Deal with it.) Shadazz (Recently covered by the Horrors, as part of the same covers series) takes on a delightful, glitchy optimism, making me feel like LITERALLY jumping for joy. Dream Baby Dream displays itself as an unlikely (or perhaps not so unlikely) reference point for the Horrors’ track You Could Never Tell, the hallmarks are remarkably similar, and it’s another pretty joy to listen to. These moments really show a band at a point of real development, creating a fully formed album that shows off their respective talents as songwriters to it’s full extent.

This album is one of the first to really grasp with both hands the potential of synthesizers to create gorgeous melodic pop songs, and it’s truly stunning. These two men take the very small number of instruments, just synths, a drum machine and vocals, and made them into something beautiful. Don’t believe me? Just ask any band from the past 30 years with a synthesizer.

Travelogue (6/8)

I know! I know! I wrote this one with one of the worst hangovers I've ever had, so sorry, it's a bit sketchy...


Who: The Human League
What: Travelogue
When: May 1980

Travelogue sounds like people who know how to play synths, doing just that. And I love me some synths. Which is good, since the album states proudly, right after the title and band name, that it "contains synthesizers + vocals only". They’re not kidding. This is only their second album. They would split up after this album, 2 members leaving to form Heaven 17, and 2 to try to continue with a more pop oriented, new Human League lineup. Already, the synth textures and vocal on this indicate a pop leaning, but the tone remains quite dark and solemn, recalling, at times, bits of Kraftwerk.

It starts (as I always do) at the very beginning, with The Black Hit Of Space, from what I can tell, a song about a record about Buck Rodgers. It’s dark and paranoid, and a bit full on. Dreams of Leaving, on the other hand, is a bit more minimalist, save for the intense synth noise that comes in right before the first verse. It builds up and then breaks down for about 6 minutes in total, turning into a bass groove, and introducing a synth wash into the second verse.

Gordon's Gin is good fun. I love a song about booze, me, and this song is an instrumental synth version of a jingle written by Jeff Wayne for the titular brand of gin. It takes the triumphant heralding of the original and turns it into a delightfully dark synthy warning against it. Tom Baker takes it to another level, and is a truly good instrumental synth exploration. Plus, anything that references Dr Who is ok with me.

Crow and a Baby is quite weird, but I liked it, and besides, weirder still was the covers medley of Rock’n’Roll/Nightclubbing, pairing, you guessed it Gary Glitter's Rock 'n' Roll and Iggy Pop's Nightclubbing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t actually do too much, so something that one thinks could only have been the best thing ever or the worst, turns out to be neither, it’s in fact just meh.

So an overall underwhelming, but a fitting, and perfectly enjoyable second album.

Chameleons Peel Sessions

Yay! I've caught up again!!


Who: The Chameleons
What: The John Peel Sessions
When: 1990 (Recorded 1983-1990)

Oh.. Oh!! Miranda’s a fan of post punk is she? I’d never have guessed..

Much like Echo and the Bunnymen et al.. These boys follow all the hallmarks of a perfectly competent post punk template, with some truly beautiful songs as a result, however, for some reason, unlike the Bunnymen, I’m told they never really had that “big hit” moment, so I was given this Peel Sessions as an intro to the band, and as expected, it is full of great, yet mostly unremarkable songs.

I guess the beginning’s a good place to start, it’s served me well up to now. And so far so post punk, track one, The Fan & The Bellows is fine, but the problem with all these post punk/new wave singers is they tend to sound the same, there has to be something distinctive in the music to set the bands aside, and as much as I like this (this track especially) it really does little to leap out at me from the (frankly several) similar bands that I already love.

The way the tracklist runs does work well as a live set, and thanks to some of the BBC’s superior recording equipment, these songs maintain the energy they would have live, without compromising on sound quality, giving a great glimpse of the band at different stages of their career.

Plenty of these songs would’ve made lovely chart singles, Perfumed Garden is case and point, standing up to repeated listens well, Things I Wish I'd Said has a great bassline that keeps things moving, and it’s staccato guitar fits in well and Don’t Fall is really hard to ignore, his voice is really emotive, and the stomping guitar sounds so great.

Unfortunately, they’re little more than lovely, Looking Inwardly is pretty, and does what it’s meant to do, Intrigue in Tangiers is Pictures of You 5 years before that was even written, and second skin is a bit Psychedelic Furs. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if I wanted to listen to the Cure, or the Psychedelic Furs, I’d just listen to them, wouldn’t I?

I’m sorry, Chameleons, I wish you’d have come to my attention sooner, I’m sure I would’ve liked you more if that were the case. I did like this, honest, I just, can’t really rave about it, since about half the songs sound like things I’ve already heard, and a 50/50 strike rate is just not really high enough for my liking.

The Sunlandic Twins (4/8)

To be fair, today’s is cheating a little bit, I have heard a fair few songs from this album before (they’ve popped up on Genius playlists and the like) – BUT – I’ve never heard it in it’s entirety before, so it still fits the criteria (which I set up anyway, so my interpretation is what counts :P) plus, it’s been a hell of a week with assessment and things, and I just really didn’t have the time to listen to anything longer.

Who: Of Montreal

What: The Sunlandic Twins

When: April 2005

The second listen through on this was pretty much just a formality, I could’ve written reams on any given individual song, it’s that packed full of ideas, from the childlike, twinkly opener Requiem for O.M.M.2 (which sounds like anything but) to the strange, cut up, choral qualities of Death of A Shade of Hue, there is almost too much to write (as if that could ever be true).

A bunch of these songs really skip between genres, it’s a bit disarming at first, as it’s really not something that can ever be expected, but I love a challenge. I Was Never Young, in particular starts off with a, frankly quite funky skip, which makes it sound daggy in a way it absolutely isn’t, and incorporates latin horns, before morphing into a sort of, 8-bit composition freakout towards the end. It’s like a lot of this album can’t decide where it wants to sit, but when every guise looks this good, it’s too much fun trying everything on.

And try it on they do.. Forecast Fascist Future takes directions from David Bowie before going off on a road trip all it’s own, and The Repudiated Immortals could’ve come directly from the Night at the Opera recording sessions. But with hindsight comes the glorious ability to trace the line forwards as well as backwards, The Party’s Crashing us is a great deal of fun, and Hot Chip have clearly been taking notes from this one, and Knight Rider is a lovely instrumental that smacks of Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach, although that may just be a chance occurrence, spurred on by the two bands’ shared interest in slightly unusual instruments.

When I stop using other bands as reference points, there are still some songs that stand out. Oslo in the Summertime, besides being a cool title, is really awesome with it’s growly bassline, So Begins Our Alabee is more electro-sounding than the rest, and the guitar sounds really cool. They also get away with having a song intro go on for two minutes, and in that time you barely even notice time is passing.

It’s the striking vocality of the singers that truly strings this album together. The harmonies are gorgeous, and ensure that while it moves about so much, the album still feels like a single entity, and an excellent-sounding one at that.

Ooh.. One final thing.. A plea: I’ve been thinking, and I’d like to give my own two cents on a couple of “the big ones” the really famous albums that everybody’s heard of, so I’m taking suggestions of any albums that you think I should listen to.. Go on, dare me :)