Jun 25, 2009

Like Flies on Sherbert - Alex Chilton


A diamond. Alex Chilton went insane and recorded this taboo sort of record where people sing off key, guitars are out of tune and the drums are fuzzy as shit. He starts early on a few tracks and the drums finish late on a couple, and other mistakes abound that only add to the charm.
It's like I went over to Alex Chilton's house when he wasn't home and found a box of tapes under his bed. Even though there are write-ups about this record all over the internet I still feel like its a secret. A warm, lo-fi epic that drank too much.
Listen to the title track and the first five seconds to "My Rival" to get right in.

DL

Jun 1, 2009

Circulatory System - Signal Morning


They sure took their sweet ass time. 2001 was the year the previous album was released. What were they doing in all that time? Clearly they were endlessly recording catchy melodies and layers upon layers of instrumentation. So much so that this album almost explodes at the seams with so much going in and out constantly. Almost being the key word. There is a fine line between overload and ecstasy and Signal Morning is the poster child for garbled perfection.
From listen to listen each song sounded completely different to me. Was the drum intro what hooked me the first time, or was is the chanted chorus? There is a lot going on, and enough good ideas to fill 5 albums, but something this dense yet easily listenable doesn't come along very often at all. The sweet, chaotic pop record of 2009.

DL