Travis- Good Feeling

If this was any other day
I'd turn and walk the other way
But today
I'll stay
Not walk away

   

 In honor of a new Travis record, I've decided to review all of their albums up to this point. Good Feeling is Travis' first record, but it wasn't until their second album that I became aware of them. This one, I probably didn't get around to listening to until, maybe, after their third record, because in the early 2000's I had to either find a physical copy of the CD or try my luck at a dial up modem. I eventually got a a T1 line and a CD burner and my record collection grew exponentially, in the process killing the record industry, or so I hear. 

      Travis quickly became my favourite Brit Pop band, and when I finally got my hands on a copy of Good Feeling, I loved how raw of record it was compared to The Invisible Band and The Man Who. This is, easily, the most rocking record in their catalog. Electric guitars, heavy distortion solos, pounding drums and, lead singer, Fran Healy's voice pushed to the brink of a weird mixture of a scream and a growl. It's all on display on the first track, appropriately titled, "All I Want to Do is Rock". This song and approach to the music really nestled them, nicely, into the already bustling Brit Pop scene that was being dominated by bands like Blur, Pulp, and Oasis (with whom Travis supported on their first major tour). The influence of Definitely Maybe and Park Life are evident in songs like "U16 Girls", "A Good Day to Die" or "Tied to the 90's" whereas things take a turn in the, almost, Beck's Sea Change like "I Love You Anyways".

      One thing I always enjoy discovering in revisiting a band's earlier albums is finding that song that feels like it was written late in the recording process and kind of shows you the direction that the band is going to take on future albums. "Street Spirit" on Radiohead's The Bends feels that way to me and on this album that song is "Falling Down" a much more nuanced song in a minor key. While I can appreciate heavier (weird word to use when describing a Travis song) This is the Travis sound I fell in love with. 

      I only discovered today that Steve Lillywhite produced this record, and that's quite a get on your first record, considering his pedigree. He produced some of my favourite albums for the likes of U2, Morrissey, and The Talking Heads. Good on you Steve, good on you Travis.

3.5/5

Favourite Track- All I Want To Do is Rock

James Taylor-Gorilla

He's got arms like legs, he's got hands on his feet.
He's got a nose like a doughnut, got a tendency to overeat.

I'm pretty sure I borrowed this CD from my Dad and never returned it, because James Taylor is straight dad music. There's nothing wrong with that, I got a lot of good music from my dad... also phillips head screw drivers for some reason. Lots of them.

I was always drawn to James Taylor music for some reason. It's light and breezy most of the time, his hits could fill any soft rock collection that Time Life tried to peddle on TV in the 90's, but I think I recognized the quality of it over a Captain or even a Tenille. When I started to play guitar, I really enjoyed watching his live stuff, I always appreciated his, pretty impressive, finger-picking.

Gorilla showcases this, but it's also a, kind of, weird white guy soul album, featuring the most over enunciating version of a Marvin Gaye song this side of an high school chorus kid's American Idol audition. Many of the songs have a groove based around acoustic folk picking, which doesn't always sound right, but I guess it didn't scare white people in the 70's so it sold pretty well. Of the singles that were released from this album, Mexico is the highlight for me and I didn't realize this until today but it features some guest vocals from Graham Nash and David Crosby, who do have the tendency to make things better... all things, not just music, just ask Melissa Ethridge. I have to imagine Jimmy Buffet being pissed that he didn't write that song. The real surprise on the record for me is "You Make it Easy". It's a delightfully smooth song about adultery that I don't imagine sat well with Carly Simon.

Overall, probably not the world's greatest James Taylor album, but certainly solid. Also, If you think you know James Taylor, and you've come to the conclusion that he's not a bad-ass, I recommend you listen to his interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast or watch Two Lane Blacktop. He's cooler than you think.

3/5

Favourite Track- You Make it Easy

Thursday - Five Stories Falling

There's music playing 
Though we dance to the beat 
Of our own black hearts 
And draw diagrams 
Of suicide on each other's wrists 
Then trace them with razorblades

An EP that shows off the ferocity of a Thursday live show. I'm going to miss seeing them live, always one of my favourite bands to see in person, but I guess I'll at least have this disc. The first four songs of the EP are all live tracks, and while not perfect versions of the Full Collapse songs, they have an emotional dynamic that can't be matched on record. The real appeal of this disc for me isn't the solid live renditions of album tracks though, it's the inclusion of, in my opinion, Thursday's finest song, Jet Black New Year. It's energy is infectious and could have easily gotten me in any pit... if I didn't hate that crap.






4/5

Favourite track - Jet Black New Year

Fugazi - End Hits

"If we're so fine maybe you can tell me why no one counts until they're dead"

The problem when choosing a Fugazi album to review is that when I'm done listening to it I'll swear it's my favourite album ever, until the next time I listen to another Fugazi record. They really are the absolute best. This record really shows off the amazing rhythm section of Joe Lally and Brendan Canty, unsung heroes in a band consisting of absolute brilliance in Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto. "Break" is a rhythmically driving masterpiece that turns into a jazz number midway through and succeeds on every level. "No Surprise" drips with tension with veritably no release, but that's okay because the next two tracks, "Five Corporations" and "Caustic Acrostic"  serve that purpose exceptionally well. "Closed Captioned" is my favourite song on the album, and proof to me that writing a song in which you have passion for the subject matter will always come out strong. Ian MacKaye bleeds the lyrics, and it shows. If you're still reading this, you should stop and go listen to Fugazi... all the time.

5/5

Favourite track - Closed Captioned

Dinosaur Jr. - Dinosaur

Here's a record I've never actually listened to before today, I really had only listened to "Without a Sound" and "You're Living All Over Me" by the band. This, the first Dinosaur Jr. record, is not their best, but it did show a lot of promise and very evidently inspired Nirvana... not that this hasn't already been well known. I found it to hit it's stride, more or less, half way through the record with the last three tracks really being the strongest. Mountain Man is a great 80's hardcore punk song and sits perfectly in the SST records catalog. I'd have wanted to record an album as good as this when I was 20 years old.




2.5/4

Favourite track - The Leper (love the Joy Divisionesque bass line)

Vampire Weekend - Contra

I heard you play guitar down at a seedy barWhere skinheads used to fight

I did not even remotely like this band when their first record came out. Maybe this was due to the enormous hype they received from magazines and internet sites such as pitchfork media, or maybe it's because their music annoyed the piss out of me... one of the two. But after settling into my incredible hatred for the band and feeling okay about it, I heard the song, "Giving up the Gun"  from this, their second LP, and couldn't help but enjoy the crap out of it. With this new knowledge I decided to give the entire record a chance and found myself to enjoy most of it too. It's well documented that this sounds like a Paul Simon, Graceland era rip off, album (sans African choirs and instrumentation), but why is that a bad thing? Who else is doing that? I happen to like that record, it's a classic, so quit giving them crap. Not to make it sound like every song is great on "Contra", but they weren't all great on "Graceland" either (trust me, give it a listen today), but I'd say over half of them are pretty good so might as well give it a listen.


3/5
Favourite track - Giving up the Gun

Cursive - Burst and Bloom

I'll try to make this perfectly clear,I'm so transparent I disappear.These words I lyrically defecate,Upon songs I boldly claim to create.

This EP is an excellent precursor to my favourite Cursive album, The Ugly Organ. To me it's almost a companion piece. The was the first of their records to feature Gretta on Cello, whom I greatly miss in the band. The best thing about this record, for me, is it's beauty in it's ugliness. The guitars play lead lines that aren't in key and Tim Kasher's voice is pushed with emotional extremes until it breaks, not just screaming for screaming's sake, and to me it all works amazingly. The only difficult thing about this record is choosing a favourite track.













4/5

Favourite track - Sink to the Beat