Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People (2002)

Since Broken Social Scene released the amazing "World Sick" from their upcoming Forgiveness Rock Record, I've had my ridicullionth rediscovery of this album.

On You Forgot It In People, Broken Social Scene had gone through some major changes. Since their debut Feel Good Lost, featuring mainly frontmen Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, for You Forgot It In People, they had gone to harvest their fellow Canadian musician-friends, forming a collective of 10 members - including Leslie Feist and Charles Spearin of Do Make Say Think. 5 additional musicians guest the album. Naturally, this doesn't sound much like the experimental post-rock of Feel Good Lost. The experimentalness is however contained, but this time with pop-songs. And the progression is immense.

You Forgot It In People's status as a classic is perfectly deserved - I'd argue that this is up there among Funeral and In The Aeroplane Over the Sea. It is as good as perfect, not containing a moment of filler from start to end; it is epic, but never tiresome, and it offers a diversity most good albums can dream of, which keeps it interesting at all points. It starts off with the modest "Capture the Flag." The intense combo of "KC Accidental" (the title referencing Charles Spearin and Kevin Drew's former band), "Stars and Sons" and "Almost Crimes" is contrasted by the relaxing "Looks Just Like the Sun," that also keeps the album from getting overwhelming. "Pacific Theme" sounds like a summery landscape, containing some truly awesome production (like the rest of the album, but even more so), then blurring into the fan-favorite "Anthems For a 17-Year-Old Girl," the most obvious pop-song, featuring Emily Haines' vocals on helium. The completely relaxed "Cause = Time" becomes the amazingly creative and catchy mostly-instrumentals "Late Night Bedroom Rock For The Missionaries" and "Shampoo Suicide." "Lover's Spit" is perhaps the biggest fan-favorite, but also the only song on the album I don't really like. "I'm Still Your Fag" features typical Kevin Drew-lyrics, while the outro, "Pitter Patter Goes My Heart," is basically an instrumental version of "17-Year-Old Girl." And by the time of its ending I'm usually stunned, having to sit for some minutes to clear my mind, and to realize what just happened.

You Forgot It In People

This is also the album that launched Arts & Crafts, the canadian label co-founded by Kevin Drew.

Pavement - Watery, Domestic EP (1992)

Watery, Domestic was released some months after Slanted & Enchanted, Pavement's classic album debut, and marks some changes in line-up. Yet still close to the S&E-sound, Watery, Domestic's sound is more violent and intense, which may be an effect of Mark Ibold and Bob Nastanovich joining the band. Compare it to the later Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain though, and you won't find too many similarities - perhaps except for the spark, and the melody. These are pop songs compared to the majority of S&E (not to mention the earlier Westing-work), and they sound somewhat like a polished version of it.

Definitely some of Pavemen't very best work, many a fan would have this over any Pavement-record (which says a lot a lot). The biggest classics are the first tracks - "Texas Never Whispers" and "Frontwards." "Texas Never Whispers" shows an aggression perhaps never surpassed on a Pavement-recording (arguably though compared to some of the Westing-material). Opening with a distorted shoegaze-riff that soon ceases, Stephen Malkmus sings with a certain disappointment in his voice, and the following solo is the best solo in the world (this is a fact). "Frontwards" is like a beautiful, slowed-down version of the latter. Part 2 is lighter, starting with "Lions (Linden)" with its mesmerizing guitar build-ups, followed by "Shoot the Singer," both sounding naively happy.

[taken down]

I'll have to post the entire Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe sometime in the future, that includes this EP and some 30 additional masterworks. As far as I'm concerned though, Wowee Zowee is the only record by them that surpasses this.

PS: Flytende! Bølge is wounded, and will need your sympathy. Focus your energy on him, so that he can recover faster. His wrist might be broken.

The Yummy Fur - Kinky Cinema (1997)

The Yummy Fur was a scottish indie rock-group active in the 90s. Endlessly underrated, they never gained acclaim, and after keyboarder Mark Gibbons committed suicide in 1999, as well as massive line-up complications, they played their last gig in December, 1999.

I think this might be a compilation of the group's 92-96 recordings - everything before their masterpiece Night Club - but it anyway serves as their second album. Influenced by The Residents and their Commercial Album, as well as The Minutemen, The Yummy Fur would experiment further with short songs. Kinky Cinema is a mesh of 60 songs, lengths ranging from 8 seconds to 3 minutes and recording quality ranging from like-a-crappy-live-tape to fine. The song quality is not steady either, but although it is long between the great songs, it is at all times entertaining. Parodying themselves, Kinky Cinema features several takes on songs from Night Club; "Plastic Cowboy" becomes "Plastic Cowboy (New Wave)" and "I am Cosmetic Man" becomes "I am 'Consumer Man.' " A retake on "Theoretically Pink," "Theoretically Blue" sounds very true to the first version, while "Amphetamine Education Movie" is just a lo-fi version of "Rollerderby." (then again, all these songs may have been recorded before the versions on Night Club - I have no idea). A cover of The Fall's "Fiery Jack" is also included, and doesn't sound very alike the original. The Yummy Fur was often accused of ripping off The Fall; this was perhaps a statement. But the Fall influences is everywhere to be found, also on this album.

Yummy Fur was an art-band (they said so themselves), and heavily influenced with post-punk, their goal was to make something unique. They opposed music that was "fake-serious" - frontman John McKeown criticized bands he met that would be all laughing and joking around, happy people, that onstage would sing about their misery and despair. And so, The Yummy Fur sounded like one big joke. With songtitles like "Yummy Fur vs The Stooges," "Male Slut" and "The Walt Disney Murder Club," their texts were rarely serious, but that also wasn't their intentions. Their music are simple like The Fall's, but lighter, made up of mostly (really) catchy riffs and McKeown's silly vocals. They sometimes sounds like a circus.

John McKeown was a big fan of Alex Kapranos' band at the time, The Karelia, and in the latest line-ups, both him and future Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson was members of The Yummy Fur. John McKeown are also having success with his new band, 1990s. Yummy Fur got together for a short tour and a compilation-release in 2010, but I haven't heard anything about that - they may still be touring, and I don't think the record has been released yet.

Kinky Cinema