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Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 4 October 2009 CE
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Popel Vooje
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Edited Oct 04, 2009, 15:11
Re: Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 4 October 2009 CE
Oct 04, 2009, 11:54
Having exhausted the recent plethora of new releases, and my copy of the new Volcano Choir album still in limbo due to the postal strike I've been on somewhat more of a retro trip than usual this week. Better snap out of it soon before I find myself writing for Uncut, but in any case...

The Misunderstood - Before the Dream Faded
The first half is heady, frenetic and innovative psychedelia that would surely have made them famous in 1966 had they not been continually dogged by bad luck, not to mention the nomadic continent-hopping various members were forced to undertake in order to evade the draft. The second half is slightly more generic rhythm'n'blues / garage band stuff but still with enough flashes of greatness to make it worth listening to.

Husker Du - Warehouse Songs & Stories
Not their best album - in fact, in some respects it's the weakest of the final five, at any rate - but even a slightly below par Husker Du album was still good enough kick most other new releases of 1987 into orbit. There are a few classics scattered across this double LP ("Friend You've Got To Fall", "Ice Cold Ice", "She's a Woman and Now He is a Man" and "Up in the Air" being the most obvious - but Grant Hart's songwriting isn't as strong as usual, and Bob Mould's subsequent AOR / college rock tendancies are already beginning to make tone-lowering appearances here and there. Probably for the best that they split afterwards rather than turn into R.E.M. with a fuzzbox.

Spiritualized - Let it Come Down
Again, not their best album - but it was on heavy rotation during my trip to America eight years ago due to having only just been released at the time, so for me it always triggers pleasantly misty-eyed memories of the San Francisco bay.

Liars - s/t
Again, not their .... oh sod it, you know the rest. The detuned guitars and the morass of reverb in which they've seemingly drenched every instrument here remind me a good deal of "EVOL"- period Sonic Youth.

Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long Way Baby
Definitely his best album - in fact, probably the only one worth owning. The Basement Jaxx-meets-John Barry-in-a-converted-warehouse vibe of "Right Here, Right Now" still thrill, as does the infuriatingly catchy "Praise You".

Jim O'Rourke - Insignificance
Noted experimental/improv musician releases his third pure song-based album that recalls everyone from The Beach Boys to Judee Sill to Radiohead to Cat Stevens (although the dissonant last two minutes of "Life Goes Off" still make for a mightily strange and disorientating conclusion to this brief 7-track album).

The Grateful Dead - Live/Dead
Been listening to this recently due to having just bought the new "Gimme Shelter" DVD, in which the Dead fail to appear (Garcia was too scared, apparently) except for a miniscule spoken segment in which they express their aghastness at how the whole affair seems to be descending into chaos and violence ("The Hell's Angels are doing the beating on the musicians? Doesn't seem right, man!"). Encapsulates hippie idealism in its last gasp before the opportunists and crazies moved in and paranoia descended. "Turn on Your Love Light" is still dull as dishwater, mind - never could enjoy the Pigpen stuff much.

Camper Van Beethoven - s/t
For anyone who still thinks the novelty indie hit "Take the Skinheads Bowling" was as far out as CVB ever got, this album is one of the most off the wall and genuinely psychedelic albums to come out of the 80s.

Over and out.
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