LaRM day 57 (Buffalo Tom)

Buffalo Tom's self-titled debut album (released in 1989) is something of a developmental record in that you can hear from the start what kind of great, angst-rock stuff they would come up with in future years, but it is still desperately in thrall to the indie rock that had slightly preceded it, most particularly the early Dinosaur Jr records. However, where J Mascis was writing kind of sloacker anthems, Bill Janovitz was concentrating on creating a much more emotionally exacting kind of song. The problem is that it doesn't quite convince on Buffalo Tom and although the signs were really promising (opener 'Sunflower suit' is great, and 'The Bus' is a fantastic song - I'll never forget being thrilled when the audience vote for it as the encore was "passed" when I saw them in Bristol back in 1992) there is still too much reliance on the sludgy rock that they were emulating. Second album, Birdbrain (1990) is both better and worse in different respects. The sludge and the over-arching angst are even more the focal points and make listening to the record feel a bit exhausting, but on the whole the songs are better. It's unsurprising that Mascis' presence is even greater on Birdbrain (as with the first album, he is both producer and guest guitarist) and I think it was important that his involvement stopped at this point, because the band could have become, and certainly would have been written off as, a pointless parody of the grunge sound. A couple of singles were released to promote Birdbrain ('Birdbrain' and 'Fortune Teller') and the B-sides contain decent covers of the Psychedelic Furs 'Heaven' and George Harrison's 'Wah-Wah' as well as a couple of fair originals.

The next album was preceded by a couple of singles in 1992 ('Velvet Roof' and 'Mineral') both of which are fabulous songs and immediately signposted how much of a leap forward the album would be. The B-sides contained a couple of really good new songs ('Sally Brown' being the highlight). The album, Let Me Come Over (1992) is a fantastic album, a benchmark for the US indie rock scene and a touchstone for emotional rock with serious intent rather than just pretence (a la the "emo" world). In a way it's an album that is unafraid to speak to the listener who accepts that getting older is a necessity rather than harking back to being an eternal teenager. It's an emotionally sophisticated record that is also musically sophisticated, ditching the sludgy sound in favour of clean guitar work and using waltz time and country rock in a way that fits absolutely the model of yearning, frustrated rock that they had already started to make their own. It's a great record and as one gets older it just seems to get more and more relevant, both musically and personally. The band never were able to make a record as good again, but that's no failure, because as far as rock music goes, this is pretty much a fair height.

The following year the band released Big Red Letter Day (1993) which consolidated the little bit of commercial success they had had with Let Me Come Over. Big Red Letter Day is an audience friendly record, cleanly recorded and delicately performed with big hooks and attractive choruses. But there's something missing from the album and I can only think that it's the slightly scrappy edges that were still there on Let Me Come Over and which make the sound of the band so personal. Big Red Letter Day sounds like an extremely classy rock record, but it doesn't sound like it was particuarly made for you. The songs are ace, grand, classic songwriting stuff, and Janovitz particuarly had developed into a formidable songwriter, but there's something strangely disengaged about the album. That's not to say that it isn't a fine album, it certainly is, it just doesn't hit the mark in the way its predecessor had. A couple of the songs from the album were released as singles and the B-side of 'Tree House' is a nice acoustic version of the album's 'Late At Night'. The band clearly knew that they had overstepped the mark, production-wise, and when they reconvened for a new album in 1996, what they released was considerably more homespun and downbeat, much less cleanly produced. Sleepy-Eyed is another album of fine classic songwriting, but this time it's more inviting, more engaging, and although it's a very different record to Let Me Come Over, more mature, more cautious perhaps, it's probably their next best work. There's something of the aging process at work here and again it's as if the band are unafraid to discuss it quite openly without fear of sounding like some crusty old rock outfit. Some of the best songs Janovitz has written to date are on Sleepy-Eyed ('Summer', 'Rules') and the whole album is a demonstration of just how to write songs that address emotional issues without either descending into mawkish sentimentality (or middle-age nostalgia) or overplaying your hand and sounding like the work of teenage emo kids. It's a delicate balance and Buffalo Tom absolutely perfected it on Sleepy-Eyed.

Once again though, when the formula is working just right, they overplayed their hand on the follow-up and 1998's Smitten is, if anything, too sophisticated, too mature and as a result it feels dull. It's sort of weighed down by its own smarts somehow and although there are some really lovely songs ('The Bible', 'See To Me') it seems to drag and feels weirdly colourless. In fact, when the piano chimes in you might find yourself thinking Bruce Hornsby... I think, again, the band felt the problems themselves and that was it for the band for a long time. It was another nine years before they were to record again, but in the meantime two compilations were released, one of the singles and another of various of the single B-sides. The Besides (2002) compilation shows what a curate's egg a B-sides compilation can be, containing some odd and unsuccessful cover versions ('All Tomorrow's Parties', 'Cupid Come') and some fairly irrelevant tunes ('Butterscotch', 'The Spider and the Fly'), together with some absolutely sterling stuff ('Sally Brown', 'Clouds'). Despite having had a great time seeing them play again in London (with the lovely Vicky Ball and Honey and Fawad) a couple of years ago, I haven't picked up the two albums they've released in the last few years.

And that's it for today, the Buffalo Tom perfectly filled the day.