Second album by this band very soon after the first. I didn't really understand why that record was on the list so I'm extremely dubious about what this has in store for me.
It opens up with Alone Again, going for the sharp contrast between an instrumental acoustic guitar with heavy reverb suddenly bursting with orchestral support for the hook part of this verse verse format. There's a spaghetti western trumpet solo in there that reminds me of Tom Jones for some reason. Weird, but certainly better than that last shower of shit.
Predictably, though, the second track, A House Is Not A Motel, shows signs of slipping back. There's a brave key change for the chorus but the accompaniment doesn't follow with enough gusto and he just sounds out of tune. It's trashy, fast hipster groove with hard rock instruments and a second go round reveals it wasn't a key change. Oh dear.
Andmoreagain: see what they did there? They pushed all the words together like a domain name. Edgy, huh? Sadly that's the only thing about this that could be described as ahead of its time. His voice is reminding me of Carol Decker (singer with T'Pau). Sings fine about 70% of the time then goes a bit pitchy and comes back in. Repeat that a couple of times before landing squarely flat on a long, high note and instead of correcting it, bottling it - or, god forbid, doing another fucking take - just holds this flat note in the hope people will think it's deliberate or else blame themselves for hearing it wrong.
"Keep smiling and call it jazz" only works for jazz, dickhead.
On and on we lurch from track to track in search of greatness that never comes.
The Daily Planet - surprise, it's got nothing to do with Superman. It's very reminiscent of The Who - a mix of Magic Bus and I'm A Boy, perhaps. The intro is a stomp but then turns into that generic 60s beat with the syncopated snare. It's a perfectly decent song but lacking the magic.
Old Man could be a secret tribute to some father figure. A couple more of listens might reveal its sacred beauty but for now it passes by almost unnoticed.
The Red Telephone is searching for a progression to do the job of melody. It's struggling to be interesting and you could argue we have that in common but at least it's trying. The anachronistic pseudo rap at the end is pretty naff though and is an admission of defeat.
Live And Let Live. Six years later a title playing on this axiom would become an all time classic. No such future for this bland sojourn in a house of blunt scissors, which opens with the line "the snot has kicked against my pants". Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's a mondegreen[*] too, but still.
I'm working on a theory that if a song has more than 6 words in the title, it'll be shit[**]. And the next track, The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This, is no exception. In spite of this, there are some nice chords created by the strings and horns but not much else.
The final song, You Set The Scene, is an up beat pop song to close with more of that chromatic shift we've been seeing in the progressions throughout. But then it switches pace and goes into a different section. Ahaaa. Fancy ourselves a concept closer do we? No, you're just a cut n shut. Two songs blutacked together with no real care. The arps in the final bars are elementary school band further underlining an album trying far too hard to be something it hasn't the chops for.
[*] - this seems to be a little known fact. When words are mis-heard, as in "hold me close and tie me down, sir" and "excuse me while I kiss this guy", it's called a mondegreen. Read more about mondegreens.
[**] - One notable exception to this rule is of course When The World Is Running Down You Make The Best Of What's Still Around.
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