FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Sunset on Empire - Fish
The reason for blindly picking the CDs from my collection is to remove them from any context my collection imposes on them so that I can judge them on their own merits. Solo albums add their own wrinkle, however. Chances are you are interested in a solo artist because of the work they did within the confines of the group dynamic, and this naturally colors your opinion of their work without the band. Case in point - I can’t listen to solo Fish without thinking about his work with Marillion. While I might be able to pull the CD from the context of my collection, I can’t remove the CD from the context of his former band. Because of this, his solo albums never live up to my expectations. The same hold true for Marillion without Fish. I’m not sure this is fair, but it’s inevitable.

OK. Time to get to the question at hand, what do I think of Sunset on Empire? Not much, to be honest. The album is overly wordy and preachy and the music just doesn’t move me. This is one of the CDs in my collection that I can count the times I’ve listened to it on one hand. I can’t really imagine needing many more fingers in the future.

Chips from the Chocolate Fireball - The Dukes of Stratosphere
Comprised of the 25 O’Clock EP and Psonic Psunspot, Chips from the Chocolate Fireball is a collection of some of the best 1960s pop and psychedelic music ever recorded. This is particularly amazing considering the band recording it was doing so in the 1980’s and were actually XTC. Andy Partridge and Collin Moulding are geniuses and this CD proves it. Originally a one off for XTC to pay homage to their musical influences and mentors: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and especially Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, the Dukes had too much in them to be confined to one measly 6 song EP and proceeded to record a full length album two years later. I actually became aware of the band while reading a review in Rolling Stone. This was back when the magazine was actually relevant. The review sounded interesting and I was in the “summer of love” phase of my musical exploration (it was 1987 after all, the summer of love was IN again) and was very interested in anything smacking of 60’s psychedelia - particularly British psychedelia (we all have these embarrassing moments in our musical evolution, don’t we?) When I bought the Psonic Psunspot cassette, I wasn’t yet an XTC fan so I didn’t really know what to expect, not that they had every really recorded anything like that before. However, from the opening notes of “Vanishing Girl” I was sold.

Of course at that time, I had not yet heard the songs from 25 O’clock. That was corrected when I bought Chips from the Chocolate Fireball. While more noticeably influenced by specific bands rather that a general aesthetic (“Bike Ride to the Moon” has Tomorrow written all over it), the songs are no less great than those on Psonic Psunspot. Listening to the collection again now, as I have done many times over the years, I am struck by what initially seemed like a departure from what XTC was doing at the time, was actually a shift in direction for the band. I know these weren’t technically XTC albums, but just look at everything that came afterwards. Could you have had Oranges and Lemons, without the Dukes? What about Nonsuch? I think not. For that reason alone, the Dukes deserve to be lavished with praise. But we also have the music, an unmitigated masterpiece of psychedelic pop if ever there was one.

Failure -The Posies
Holy Cow, what a great album!! The Hollies and the Beatles are the obvious influences. Great tunes with harmonies galore! The real surprise is that this was put out by a band from Seattle in 1989 without a trace of grunge anywhere in the vicinity (a good thing by the way). This CD is so sugary it’ll rot your teeth! It unabashedly embraces Pop and waves the banner high. It’s a shame that record company execs didn’t latch onto this instead of Nirvana as the next big thing. People who prefer grunge over this are obviously either mentally deranged or were dropped on their heads as a small child. I defy anyone to listen to “I May Hate You Sometimes,” “Paint Me” or “What Little Remains” and not agree with me.

Flight of the Blue Manu - Combo Mahalo
Ahh, the perks of living in Austin. Here is CD from a local Austin band that plays “Hapa-haole.” For those of you who do not know what that is, allow me to explain. In a nut shell, its Hawaiian music in which the tune and styling are Hawaiian, but the lyrics are in English or mostly in English, and its chock full of jazz and swing elements. It was very popular in the Twenties, Thirties, and Forties. Steel guitars (sweet steel guitars) and ukulele dominate the sound, and what a sound!! This CD contains covers and originals. Mellow is the key, but that doesn’t mean the band doesn’t swing when they want. If listening to this CD does not automatically make you feel cooler, then you my friend are like school on Sunday…No Class!