Let's Get Out of This Country, Camera Obscura

Let's Get Out of This Country, Camera Obscura, 2006, :39

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Have only maybe just barely heard of this band, but knew nothing about them before today.  It's a delicate Scottish indie pop band, like my beloved Belle and Sebastian!  There is a certain similarity.  Gander at these lyrics and tell me Stuart or Stuart wouldn't sing them: "Fed up of girls in pretty dresses / With boys who want to teach them a lesson / Sick of the sight of my old lover / Went under sheets and covers to get away from him."  Very Sebastianish.  They hate to be called twee pop, but it's just an apt description!  Vocalist Tracyanne Campbell has such an ethereal, beautiful voice as she sings of heartbreak, affairs, and infatuation.  Favorite tracks: "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken," "Tears For Affairs," "Come Back Margaret," "I Need All the Friends I Can Get."

Carnavas, Silversun Pickups

Carnavas, Silversun Pickups, 2006, :56

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

This buzzy, shoegaze type of indie is really not my thing. This album was suggested by Spotify, which normally is a good source of new-to-me music that matches my tastes. But I found it to be a snorefest.  I guess I just can't get past that dead affect, low-fi buzz.  It works, most of the time, for Yo La Tengo.  But these guys sound like Elf Power on Xanax. On the plus side, "Checkered Floor" has a few rockin' moments. But the last song ends with 1:45 of fuzz noise. No thank you! Favorite track: "Dream at Tempo 119," which true to its title manages to speed up enough to sound awake, at least.

Waiter: "You Vultures!", Portugal. The Man

Getting close to the end of the alphabet of albums now! W is for what the heck is this?

Waiter: "You Vultures!", Portugal. The Man, 2006, :52  

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Experimental (?) rock band from Alaska's debut album. They're a good band, but the songs don't seem to be about anything. See: "Lay my face back in the sleep finds me lazy / (A fear's friendly fed when you're free to be resting) / Birds in the sky and the rain won't soon call in / (Gravel laced sunsets foaming through my belly)."  Or: "Pears and peaches and Doctor Hippo / Met for a drink in those marshmallow clouds / Shout at pavement that’s sprouting up turnips."  Or: "Sharpened tongues fair painted divers / Forearms rest in streams of silver / Golden people pass in silence."  Well.   Look, I can only listen to so much unalloyed gibberish. And of course the album ends in five interminable minutes of buzzing and plinking and random voices and feedback. Ugh.  Doesn't anyone want to just make an album of songs any more?  Favorite tracks: "How the Leopard Got its Spots," "Waiter."

Hello Young Lovers, Sparks

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2006.

Hello Young Lovers, Sparks, 2006, :50

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I'm astonished! What a bizarre and pleasant find. This band has been around since 1967 and still releasing albums, yet I've never heard of them. It's a baroque chamber-pop, art-rock band, reminiscent of Queen but with more of a comic and absurdist streak. The first track on the album, "Dick Around," a six-and-a-half minute vocal tour de force about the idle life, shows that right off.  Voices are used as instruments, lyrics are repeated, choruses burst in and layer upon one another.  It's as if written by a modern, post-ironic, self-effacing Gilbert and Sullivan. Favorite tracks: "Metaphor," "Waterproof," "Dick Around."

The Evening Call, Greg Brown

The Evening Call, Greg Brown, 2006, :56

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

I've been a long-time fan of Greg Brown's often brilliant work, so I looked forward to this one eagerly.  I hate to give two stars to an album by someone of Brown's stature, but that's what my impression was.  Sludgy and slow, with too little of the wry wit that makes his material so enticing.  Favorite track: the spoken word chant of "Eugene" stands out in my memory.