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Built to Spill are a tough band to talk about I think because although they're albums really are special, it's hard to pin down exactly what it is that's so great. Third album, Perfect From Now On (1997) was their first for a major label and they took full advantage of the opportunity not only to spend a bit of cash and time making a record as seriously as possible, but also to take the piss out of their paymasters. There are some wonderful songs on Perfect From Now On, but they all head towards the 8 minute mark, meaning it's college radio or bust. Despite their albums being determinedly indie rock, there's a deep influence of Neil Young's guitar work and a faint nod to a kind of late period psychedlicism in the swiriling repeated patterns and phrases in most of Built to Spill's songs. Perfect From Now On is a great record and it showcases Doug Martsch's high but mournful vocal brilliantly (and also the great Scott Plouf's brilliantly restrained drumming), but it's the guitars that rule the day and on occasion I do find myself wishing for a bit more melody in amongst the maelstrom. And it's melody by the bucketful that they delivered on next album Keep It Like a Secret (1999). Keep It Like a Secret is a brilliant album, taking all of the best elements of Perfect From Now On and distilling them into a fantastic series of songs, alternating between loping pop hooks (opening trio 'The Plan', 'Center of the Universe' and 'Carry the Zero') and perfectly judged indie rock ('Sidewalk', 'Else'). Only one song tops the 6 minute mark this time around and the relative brevity really works in the albums favour, making it flow brilliantly from one grand melody to the next, and despite Martsch's world-weary delivery, it's really fun. I think it's fair to say it's easily one of the best albums of the 90's.
2006's You In Reverse is a rather different kind of record. It's a much more stately, refined affair, with mostly mid-tempo, contemplative songs. There's still plenty of Martsch's explosive guitar work, but it's all contained within relatively sombre, reflective frameworks. It's a great album and although it plays like a comedown after listening to the joyous workouts on Keep It Like a Secret it's still got some fabulous stuff going on. The Neil Young influence that has been such a thin thread throughout all their work makes itself clearer on You In Reverse ('Wherever You Go' is fairly blatent), but as we all know there's nothing wrong with a blatent Neil Young influence, and the band's own spirited mix of classic and unconventional indie songwriting is still pretty invigorating, even when it's cast in a relatively downbeat mould.
Next up is the perfectly pleasant if unchallenging Oh My Darling (2007) by Canada's Basia Bulat. It's a relatively charming little bit of indie-folkery which has it's roots in a now well-worn Canadian folk tradition, but with an added edge of indie-savvy. It's not a record that sticks in the mind, and it strives maybe a little too hard (Joanna Newsom this most certainly is not), but it's a pleasing enough record and it certainly has its place.
Before Vashti Bunyan recorded the now legendary Just Another Diamond Day she had made a handful of singles and demos with various noted folk and pop producers between the years 1964-1967, most of which are collected on the compilation Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind (2007). These are lovely pieces of work, the songs on the first disc being the released and scrapped singles together with a few studio demos. There was clearly an idea to present Bunyan as a kind of Francoise Hardy by way of Marianne Faithfull and the lightly orchestrated structure of the songs, together with the politely arpeggiated acoustic guitars are a sort of folk-light, which was not the kind of record Bunyan would go on to make. There's even some dusky and downbeat pop music here ('Coldest Night of the Year' - in fact the winter is a recurring theme throughout these songs). The songs on Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind are however really very lovely and suit Bunyan's breathless and wispy vocals nicely. There has been the suggestion that this stuff is all a bit throwaway but I disagree, I think this is beautiful stuff. The second disc is perhaps the more interesting yet, being a home demo that Bunyan did herself in 1964, and which shows just how clearly versed she was in the true folk tradition, which was put on hold for the studio work.
Next we have Tricatel's head honcho Bertrand Burgalat and one of his various homages to Melody Nelson specifically and Gainsbourg generally, The Sssound of Music (2000). It's all twinkling keyboards, rumbling bass and the over-arching sound of casual kitsch. But bearing in mind Burgalat is the master of this kind of stuff it's absolutely brilliant rather than cloyingly naff. Burgalat has such style, and such impeccable taste that even at its most obvious Gainsbourg cum James Last worshipping, The Sssound of Music is a masterclass in both style and technique. There are some great tunes and it's all played with complete elan. I often get the feeling that Burgalat considers himself to be sort of untouchable. He is though, and even when he fronted AS Dragon, it came across as sleazily stylish rather than Mike Flowers. He always walks a line and he's always on the right side of it. The Sssound of Music is a great exercise in intellectual pop music making, but it's also a great listen.
Now we've got another dose of Jon Spencer (hang on, so let's get this straight, we'll be having Jon Spencer for: Boss Hog, Pussy Galore, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Solex and...). R.L. Burnside's blistering comeback album, A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (1996), was as much a Spencer pet project as it was Burnside's. By the 1990's Burnside was a pretty much forgotten rough edged bluesman whose hard life was a book but whose records were a bust. Spencer's peculiar relationship with the blues (to my mind a strictly postmodern one) seemed to fit with Burnside's overblown personality and diminishing public presence. A Ass Pocket of Whiskey is a great dose of sleazy blues from one of the sleaziest old blues men and one of the sleaziest postmodern renaissance men. It really is a good match, and Spencer rails himself in a bit for Burnside's benefit, which works well, there's less of Spencer's highly strung guitar mangling and little of his yelping and wailing, all so that Burnside has room to deliver his laconic and dirty blues. It's a really great, and fun, album, and it's the grubbiness that really makes it work.
Finally for today it's the opening to another lengthy session, this time with the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Kate Bush. It took me a long time to be able to admit in public that I thought Kate was the greatest, but having done it, it's amazing how many people agree. Nonetheless, the first three albums still present something of a challenge to me, because they still sound like the work of a theatrically minded young woman, who hadn't had the real experience to carry it off. Bearing in mind that's exactly what she was though, they're actually truly remarkable records. The best of the three is probably the debut, The Kick Inside (1978). It's a fantastic record (in every sense) and while there are occasional problems ('L'Amour Looks Something Like You' for instance), for the most part these are amazing and amazingly peculiar arty pop songs. 'James and the Cold Gun' is great, 'Feel It' is marvellous and 'Them Heavy People' is magical. Kate's influence is pretty much everywhere these days, but it has tended to be the later stuff that people focus on, and it's interesting to note that Joanna Newsom in particular has used The Kick Inside as a template to effecticvely copy wholesale (compare the opening vocal note of 'Easy' on Newsom's Have One On Me and the opening vocal note of 'Feel It' on The Kick Inside). Anyway, it's a grand, and grandstanding, opening to a career that would prove to be one of the most remarkable in pop music history.
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