Rev E ew
ROCK
REM
Around the Sun (Warnersi O.
Si
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You always get suspicious when REM release an album in a fancy nancy box set. The warrii-hearted types would ; ssume they're Just giving their fans a little something special while the cynical would deem it a cunning marketing ploy to ensure a mediocre album still makes it to number one
ROCK ELLIOTT SMITH
From a Basement on a Hill (Domino) 00000
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"‘agir, 2‘ Aiifc'r‘iifc ‘77 the Pecpe. Around TU" Sun sees the Via reflecti.e rr‘elarishoi. iricod although the. seen to have f‘.‘l.‘;[,l£t"§‘:’l their "box; to .vrzte choruses handbook. Behind the endless la,ers of [)l{llllil'.": acoustic guitar and pulsing organ lie
sorr‘e nioments cf
(léill‘fllllg politica' l)’)|f}ll‘il(,.
most expressiver on ‘Final Straw'. but mostly this is mil/7y. sub-Tom Petty crooning.
REM were one band who could relied upon to be mainstream and people friendly while retaining something resembling an edge. Until now. it seems
(Mark Robertson)
CUB“. MANUEL ‘GUAJIRO’ MIRABAL Buena Vista Club Presents . . . i‘.'.’(:'lfl Circuit 0..
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Amazineg this is 71» year-old Manuel Mirabal's debut solo album. Trumpet soloist on Buena Vista Sr>cia| Club's prewous LP outings. 'Country Boy' Mirabal has been at the forefront of the Havana music scene for half a century.
The album is intended
Elliott Smith had already knocked out five albums when he was stabbed
through the heart in 2003. Was it murder? Was it suicide? Who knows? Who cares? What is important is that his great music gets remembered, and this album is as fitting a tribute as he could have hoped for.
The 15 tracks here were selected by Smith’s father from 30 he was working on at the time of his death, and range from deeply rocking to heartbreakingly tender.
It’s easy to read all manner of fatalistic gloom in lines like ‘bodies lined in chalk’ and ’a fond farewell to a friend who couldn’t get things right’. Smith was a poet, but often a doomy one. His battles with depression are well catalogued, but his immense songwriting skills, less so. Smith had a rare ability to harness overwhelming emotion in frail, sparrow-like songs. ‘Strung out Again’ and ‘Twilight’ display that skill pretty much perfectly here and, even when armed with a full band, he creates an oddly calming noise; melancholic but playful, even goofy and humorous at times.
The provocative question remains as to whether this album is a truly great record or whether the circumstances of its release have added such weight and poignancy as to make it greater than it is? Would a half-decent Marilyn Manson album become a great one if he was topped? One suspects that it might, but repeated listens can’t shift the fact there are some truly brilliant songs here. Smith changed lives when he was alive; there’s no reason he should stop now. (Mark Robertson)
74 THE LIST 7-21 Oct 2004
legend "E Cie’ M:2ra;*<:s;t' the Blind Mane» Arswiio
Paar gue.‘ Cuban folk .anguarl Rodriguez intrediiqetl Congolese "ivthrns and a three i’tlllll‘(3i lead to his citinjutos of the 408 and Wis. being recognised as i‘r‘eator of the rnariibc rhythm.
In this fittirg tribute. the Buena Vista DOys have produced an accomplished. tight and spontaneous performance With all the humour and character we've come to expect of this Cuban old guard. (Mark Edmundson)
ROCK
SUPER FURRY ANIMALS Songbook — The Singles Volume One (Sony) 0....
This album is so good it made me cry. I'm glad records exist that can do that. It's only when you hear this collection of the Super Furries' Singles that you remember what a truly awesome and vital band they are. There are 21 songs here. all of which are extraordinary blends of pop genius and rock experimentation. It's not always perfect but even when they fuck up the Super Furries create glorious failures brimming over with ideas and energy. They can write songs about mullets and Einstein and make them seem profound. and they can also pinpoint the fragile human condition like no other band around. And ‘The Man Don't Give a Fuck' is DOSSIbly the best song ever written. (DOug JOhnstone)
NED-SOUL VARIOUS California Soul: New Wave Soul From the West Coast
(Unisex) .0.
They Just keep on coming.
This latest in the . . . Sow series of compilations is largely the same deal as
pre\ ious visits to Philadelphia. Detroit. New York (altgl pl‘lliy agaiiii but pert‘aps a little more sun-kissed.
Once again we find that the pioneering sound of California today is not a thousand miles from the s0ul music that put it (if not on the map. then) in the charts. So here we have loose. bright. COflVlVlal workouts and dreamy. cosmic meanderings of a kin to the likes of Roy Ayres or the Sons and Daughters of Life.
This is sunny, sexy nu- SOLil — the fresh sea breeze of R88.
(Mark Edmundson)
ROCK'N‘ROLL BLUES EXPLOSION Damage
(Mute) O...
Other than the foreshonening of the name — Jon Spencer's ego is maybe not what it was ten years ago — its business as usual for the Blues Explosuon as they go about their busrness of reconfiguring the blues into various colourful punk. funk and spacey rock'n'roll shapes.
It‘s the collaborators here that give this album the variety newcomers may crave. and Martina Topley-Bird. Chuck D. DJ Shadow and DaVid Holmes all add meat to the seething blues trio's boney frame. In the middle of it all, however. beats a heart filled With great tunes as 'You Been My Baby'. Burn it Off' and the revved up growl of ‘Mars Arizona' Will all testify. (Mark Robertson)
ECCENTRIC BEATS GENERAL ELECTRICS Cliquety Kliqk (Compost) 0000
Like Harmonic 33 and the Bees getting ripped
Oll AL‘SIT'V'R‘. GO'lt‘lJ Electrics is t"e twstea‘ machinatien e? i. "’age ke\t\\trd plaxei and electro \isionar\ PM AKA Herze Salters l'ie album takes the tor'?‘ of a tightkriit string of oddities that flit between madness and genius. blurring the proxertiial thin line.
Both beautiful and terrifying. C/rgueti Kliqk is a perverse. edgy voyage through the innocent, tuneful and melodic tapestries of a San Fran-based Anglo Franc mind. A whirlwind of (a/x-pop. electronica and ()lLkllItH hip hop songs. sporting a sguonk that would make Mr Scruff blush
HayWire mentalism never seiinded so cool. (Mark Edrnundson)
ROCK
THE WONDER STUFF
Escape from Rubbish
Island (Independent) .00
Miles Hunt always was a grumpy bastard and now. With the detritus of failed solo DTOJC’CIS behind and nostalgia tours ahead. the Wonder Stuff vocalist has even more reason to moan. Gone are the fiddles. the punk and the (aunty scorn: now Hunt. guitarist Malc Treece and new guy Mark McCarthy pump out mid—paced rock. replete with flag aning choruses and rumbling goitars. It's hard not to feel that all this angst is abOut as relevant as the fliritlock musket. and the pop touch that made the likes of Hop and Never Loved E/vrs such essential records seems long gone. but it's rousmg stuff nonetheless. full of paSSion and bile.
(James Smart)
the wonder. stuff