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The Auteurs – “New Wave”
Delightful. I thought I was never going to like Britpop outside of a few exceptions, but The Auteurs are much less obnoxious than the ear-splitting volume of Oasis or the smartass vibe of Blur. The guitar on this album is very light and sparkles with elegance, perfectly accompanied by Luke Haines’s soft vocals that still… (read more)
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Broadcast – “The Book Lovers EP”
Pretty wonderful, even if the songs on ‘The Book Lovers EP’ are fairly interchangeable. Broadcast would develop more of their own style over time. (read more)
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The Cranberries – “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?”
Wow, color me surprised (which in this case would be a dark red). I decided to trust history writing The Cranberries off as a three-hit wonder responsible for the classic singles “Dreams,” “Linger,” and “Zombie.” I may have to stop doing this, because history almost prevented me from discovering one of the ’90s‘s better alternative… (read more)
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The Cardigans – “First Band on the Moon”
The Cardigans have an impeccable style inspired by ’50s lounge pop, but the incredible singles from ‘First Band on the Moon’ land every other song on the dark side of the moon. (read more)
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Comus – “Song to Comus: The Complete Collection”
First Utterance is an essential album, and the remastering of it on Song to Comus: The Complete Collection is very tasteful and enough for me to consider it an improvement over the original (apparently the first CD issues of First Utterance had terrible sound quality, so there’s another reason to get this set). There are… (read more)
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Comus – “To Keep From Crying”
First Utterance is one of my favorite albums of all time. I went into To Keep From Crying expecting it to be completely generic southern pop garbage; totally disposable. It uh, wasn’t. I think? As far as I know. I don’t go out of my way to listen to a lot of (I guess) early… (read more)
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Dusty Springfield – “Dusty in Memphis” (1969)
Aah, Dusty in Memphis is beautiful. Dusty Springfield’s voice is as soft as the warm air coming off a hot fire, and the string arrangements here decorate it in golden lace. The sitar at the end of “In the Land of Make Believe” is genuinely kind of innovative for soul/baroque pop music. I wish there… (read more)
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John Foxx – “Metamatic”
Metamatic is Gary Numan without a background in glam/post-punk music. So, a lot less annoying and likewise more respectable. John Foxx doesn’t come off as a weird idiot, and the rhythm in his vocals is actually a bit menacing. He’s clearly still inspired by dated ’70s sci-fi (just look at the song titles… “He’s a… (read more)
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The Go-Betweens – “16 Lovers Lane”
’80s jangle pop is truly a marvelous thing. I don’t know what it is about it, but it seems to me many of the best lyrics in pop rock music come from jangle pop. 16 Lovers Lane‘s lyrical imagery is as aflutter as its brightly shining guitars, but can quickly change to a cold wind… (read more)
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Todd Rundgren – “Something / Anything?” (1972)
Often called “the best album Paul McCartney never made,” Todd Rundgren’s 1972 double album Something / Anything? is indeed as good as any album the master of pop put out during his solo career, if not better. The album is basically packed full of competent pop songs, either piano or guitar-driven, and almost anything on… (read more)