December 2001
LONG-AWAITED REVIEW SECTION

BLACKEYES
From A Blue Room (Kosher Rock)
A swing creaks, blown slowly in a gathering wind. Paint slowly peels, defenseless to the elements. Lips meet and part, families live and die. Eyes darken with the violence of the moment. On the country road to redemption, Nick and Katia Taylor surround themselves with the most famous non-famous Torontonians to deliver plaintive confessionals counterpointed by angelic redemption. Recorded by the incomparable Lee Sheppard, songs like "I Am A Train" could melt even polar hearts.
File next to: Jerk With A Bomb, The Two Minute Miracles. NC

THE FALL
Are You Are Missing Winner (Cog Sinister)
After the third complete line-up change in almost as many years, Mark E Smith is back to the rockabilly lo-fi sludge that made The Fall great over twenty years ago. This time, though, it's, uh, over twenty years later. The new Fall group have a Stooges-y stripped down snarl here. Mark sounds as cryptic and incomprehensible as ever, sometimes gleefully so. And yes, AYAMW rarely strays from the classic Fall blueprint. However, where last year's The Unutterable made people who weren't really into The Fall drop their jaws and search for the import section, this year's offering is sure to preach to the converted. Destined to be a rough gem in the canon, it is somehow disappointing after the last few years of surprises from the mighty Fall.
File next to: Let's produce this ourselves. POD

I AM ROBOT AND PROUD
The Catch (Catmobile)
It's the Saturday afternoon plans. It could be Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo... Three girls are out for the day. They are beautiful, men watch them as they pass. In awe of a city that is in awe of them, they shop for Hello Kitty underwear, drink bubble tea, and talk on cellphones. I Am Robot And Proud (a.k.a. Toronto's Shaw-han Liem) follows them, providing a soundtrack to their day. Escalators and taxi cabs. Jet black hair thrown back against an ancient culture moving seamlessly into the new modern age. A truly beautiful and mesmerizing recording.
File next to: Mouse on Mars, The Sea and Cake. NC

LONGITUDE
...by the things that light the night (longitudemusic)
Chicago's Longitude take to heart the maxim that it's not the notes that matter but the spaces in between. Their songs of love and loss become all the more poignant with this attention to restraint, and when the harmonies kick in the songs become exaltations. The disc contains some great rocking numbers, but this band really succeeds with their stake in neo-Americana. A perfect blend of intensity and subtle beauty. Engineered by Toronto's Bryden Baird, Hallelujah indeed!!!!!!
File next to: Eleventh Dream Day, Palace Songs. NC

MERCURY REV
All Is Dream (V2)
All Is Dream plays heavily upon a formula established with Deserter's Songs, call it the Disneyfication of indie-rock. Replete with bowed saw and swelling strings, it evokes images of doe-eyed creatures frolicking with fairy princesses. Where D.S. succeeds despite the Fantasia feel, this record fails because of it. Any emotional content is nullified by the pedestrian orchestration and harmonically simplistic vocals which Jonny D. likens to Kermit the Frog on helium. To cap off the pretension, the band pics make them look like complete male-model Sears-catalogue indie-rock prats. |
File next to: Any Disney soundtrack. NC

PICASTRO
Red Your Blues (Pehr)
Repetition is the key. Liz Hysen has this amazing ability to pick the perfect, simple acoustic guitar figure and ornament the other instruments (cello, drums and electric lead guitar) around it. It's not so much "drone-rock" as "mantra-rock." Riding that fine line of monotony, but never crossing it and, therefore, genius. There's a moment on Red Your Blues when everything breaks down into a wall of pure atonality and you can imagine the coffeehouse crowd splitting into two, one half running for cover, the other glued to the spot, enraptured. I know which side I'm on. Kudos to star producer Jeff McMurrich for capturing Picastro on disc, after five years of succesfully evading documentation.
File next to: Cat Power, Gastr Del Sol. JD

RHUME
Jeu de Puissance (Kelp)
Jon Bartlett is Rhume, a transplanted Maritimer now based in Ottawa, who is singlehandedly responsible for the Kelp Records "scene" that exists there. His first recording as Rhume, Snack of Choice, is a slice of low-budget pop genius with a serious GbV influence. He does not stray from the previous formula except that the vocals are all sung in French and he has an actual studio budget, courtesy of the Ontario taxpayers. This is an ambitious project that works on almost all levels. Any live show should be attended at all costs... you will probably end up being part of it.
File next to: GbV, Roch Voisine. NC

SUPERCHUNK
Here's to Shutting Up (Merge)
Old friends get old and so do you. With some friends, you have the same conversations over and over again and you wonder if it's you or them that got boring. This record isn't that; it's the friend you haven't seen in ages who surprises the heck out of you, regaling you with exciting revelations and new insights into everyday stuff you took for granted. The chord change of the year comes 42 seconds into track two, just when I thought I'd stopped caring about such things. This is a solid set of astonishingly well-written songs, tastefully arranged and recorded, that won't leave your head or stereo for quite a while.
File next to: your other Superchunk records, any New Zealand pop. JD

THE TWO-MINUTE MIRACLES
Volume II (Teenage USA)
Andy Magoffin has been working away in relative obscurity in his London home/studio, recording bands and developing his impressive body of work. Anyone who comes a stranger leaves a friend, just like the songs on this disc. Beautiful songs with perfect melodies played by a great band. There are two almost plagiaristic moments, obvious GbV and Tom Waits nods that serve more to illustrate the many worlds that today's songwriters straddle. There are no rules except the ones we ourselves enforce.
File next to: Tom Waits, XTC. NC

The reviewers: Nora Charles (NC), Jonny Dovercourt (JD), Paddy O'Donnell (POD)