LaRM day 13 (...And You Will Know Us By the Trail Of Dead-Anniversary)

Art-rock! It's a double dose of ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead this morning. First up, the eponymous debut album (1997). Cripes, was it really nearly 15 years ago that this came out? That's nuts, I would have said maybe 8 or 9 at the most. But then that's because I refuse to accept that I'm getting old. Anyway, it's a great calling card of an album, taking some angular frenzy from Sonic Youth, chucking in a whole load of melody in a Pavement style, and mixing them up with a bit of old school rocking. It's great stuff, maybe one or two tunes outstay their welcome, but on the whole, yep, it's great stuff. Second album Madonna (1999) is better in some ways, worse in others. There's more attention to songs, making the tunes tighter and less obviously post-rock indebted, but if anything the dynamics of late-80's Sonic Youth are even more prevalent. The problem with the album is that when the songs don't really work I find myself wishing they'd do a bit more of the extended rambling to give them some flavour (there is some though to be fair - 'Aged Dolls' rambles on pretty well). When the songs do work though, they're blistering.

Next up we have Feels (2005) by Animal Collective. Now, I absolutely loathe this record. I think it's abysmally bad, almost disgracefully so. It feels like a very, very bad joke to me. All the laughable bouncy vocal lines and irritating twittering noises just seem like something Chris Morris might have made up to take the piss out of hip kids. In fact irritating is the word, because everything about this record is a nuisance - every element of the sound of it is annoying, the fact that it was hyped is annoying, the very strong sense that the band think they've done something radically amazing is annoying. I've seen occasional references to early Mercury Rev as an influence, but that does Mercury Rev a remarkable disservice. It really, really sucks big time, I truly hate Feels. Which is why it's such a miracle to me that 2009's Merriweather Post Pavilion is one of the best records of the 2000's. I can scarcely even pinpoint what it is that is different between the records, but where Feels makes me want to cut my own ears off, Merriweather Post Pavilion is a wonderful record. I think one of the key differences is that MPP sounds like the band were concentrating, writing lovely songs, considering how to put them together and how to make the whole thing flow, where Feels sounds like some bored trustafarian college kids sitting about and mucking around. In fact there's such focus in MPP that it's completely absorbing and exhilirating to listen to. It's a fabulous record and one that makes me thrilled every time I hear it. Strange that isn't it? To absolutely hate one record and love another by the same band. I can't work it out, but there it is.

After that post-modern arty fun we have a totally different proposition. It's one of my favourite, and in my opinion one of the most criminally ignored, British bands of the last twenty years, Animals That Swim. I love Englishness in pop music (which is why The Kinks will always be on the top spot for me) and Animals That Swim were thoroughbred, but not in a twee, anachronistic way. The songs are very gentle indie-rock, but imbued with an incredibly affecting sense of quiet melancholy (helped by the inclusion of muted trumpet) and lyrically they are like being in a pub and being told odd second hand stories of the peculiarities of London life (this is more narration than singing anyway). In fact, to me they sound like London turned into song, there's a strong sense of a nostalgia for a handmade way of life that probably nobody has ever lived (trying to make chandeliers out of broken car windows, sitting on broken plastic school chairs on the roof of a cheap flat overlooking the city). The third single, '50 Dresses', is a lovely story of the modest dreams of how a couple might live if they ever got rich, and I believe it got single of the week in the NME, which should have been the start of a glittering career, but as is often the way, no such luck. Workshy (1994), the first album is a little bit dense (the production work is clearly on the cheap side) and the songwriting is a little eccentric, but there are some fabulous songs here ('Smooth Steps', 'Pink Carnations').

I think the band really hit their peak with second album I Was the King, I Really Was the King (1996). The romance of normal life is heightened here, and I think the band's reputation for being almost permanently drunk (I saw them at the Free Butt in Brighton at the time and they were certainly enjoying themselves then) actually adds to the attraction of the kind of lifestyles that the records depict. Unfortunately I can't say much here about either I Was the King, or the fabulous follow-up, Happiness from a Distant Star (2001), because amazingly neither of them are legitimately on the internet and I've only got them on vinyl. Suffice it to say that both albums are really special, certainly to me at least. Finally for Animals That Swim we've got a compilation of album tracks called Faded Glamour (2004) which also has a bonus disc of B-sides and odds and ends which is interesting but doesn't add much to the greatness of the albums. Just as an aside, it's worth mentioning that after the band split up Hugh Barker co-wrote an excellent book called 'Faking It' looking into the meaning of "authenticity" in pop music. It's really very interesting, if you get a chance you should have a read.

Penultimately for today we've got a healthy dose of pop music with Annie's Anniemal (2005). Now, I know we were all supposed to pretend that we liked this record back in the day but to be honest I've got no problem with admitting that I still love it. Every now and then I really feel a bit of proper pop and this is how it's done as far as I'm concerned. It's a bit brittle, a bit icy, it's certainly unconcerned with whether you rate it or not and that's just how it should be. We all know and like the tragic back story and in a way the record is given a bit of extra bite as a result. It's slick and is convinced of it's own cool class (and in some ways it's getting less corny as it gets older, rather than more) and I really like it.

And finally we have the second album by post-punk, emo-ish outfit The Anniversary, which is called Your Majesty (2002). This is a strange record, it can't settle on any particular style, one minute flirting with spiky punk-pop, the next doing a kind of lo-fi prog. A lot of it works really well though and there are some nice pop hooks in amongst it all. You can see that excitable bands like Los Campesinos may have taken a lot of cues from Your Majesty.

Once again that wraps it up for today. Let's have a whole load more "A" larks tomorrow, shall we?