Now it's Moo You Bloody Choir (2007) by Augie March. Terrible band name, terrible album name, but they're apparently pretty popular in their native Australia. It's a decent, pleasant and thoughtful rock record. It's fairly instantly forgettable though, so it's one that will be going on the reject pile. That is after all part of the purpose of doing this stupid listening to everything exercise, I've got to get rid of stuff before the floors collapse at home.
But now we get the afternoon started off right with the lovely Au Revoir Simone, starting with debut mini-LP Verses of Comfort, Assurance and Salvation (2005). They're a lovely outfit are Au Revoir Simone. The wheezing and slurring of their vintage keyboards provide a choice backing for the laid-back, emotionally neutral vocals. Their records are restrained affairs in every sense. They're gentle and unchallenging, but there's always the sense of great turmoil underneath the placid exterior, as if not expressing is all about the desperate need to not express. If you see what I mean. Anyway, Verses is the least successful of their three records, only because it's rather uneven in tone, one minute being mournful, the next popping about all over the place (all in politely restrained fashion of course), and on the whole the songs aren't particularly strong. It's still lovely stuff though. The Bird of Music (2007) is the best of the bunch. There are some fabulous pop songs here, and for an album so delicately undemonstrative it always comes as a surprise that some of the songs are weirdly moving. Lyrically there are some peculiar little phrases and any whimsicality is always undercut by a sense of something dark moving underneath the surface. Finally we have Still Night, Still Light (2010) which is, if anything, even more guarded in its approach to a listener and as a result is slightly colder than The Bird of Music and has a greater emphasis on the melancholic end of their style. It's not as immediately enjoyable a listen as a result but it is a fine record nonetheless. (PS I think the description of Au Revoir Simone as being Bananarama with librarians is not quite accurate...).
Let's get all ambient techno on our asses with the first album by Autechre which is called Incunabula (1993). Here's another example of what I was talking about before in relation to the Aphex Twin. I used to pretend I loved this stuff. In fact, listening to Incunabula now I'm struck by how much more I genuinely like it than I did back when I used to pretend to like it. If anything, it's improved with age, and despite still sounding like a 1990's piece of experimental ambient, it has a really nice feel to it, some genuine melodies, and the very low-key way in which it experiments with rhythm and, er, sonic texture means that it doesn't sound so obviously of its time in the way that much of this stuff does. In many ways it's to do with the very clinical and spacious feel of the record, there's no concession to clubbers really, it's pretty much all just bedroom headphone atmospherics, and it still works really well.
And finally for today it's another one that's going on the reject pile, I And Love And You (2009) by the Avett Brothers. This is another one of those folksy, Americana-y, way too serious-y records which you only half concentrate on and think sounds really good, rootsy, good tunes, but when you give it your full attention you realise is really only half a record. One of those v. good, but could try harder type of efforts. When space in your tiny flat is at a premium, it's cheerio to the Avett Brothers.
We might finish A tomorrow. How about that then boys and girls?
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