We’ve said this before, but there’s nothing like the acidic jangle pop from the eighties. The signposts are familiar, even obvious – Byrds, Velvets, Big Star, Wire, and various folk rock, psychedelic, and post punk stars and obscurities that mark each act with their own aura. It’s why R.E.M., Guadalcanal Diary, the Reivers, the Primitons, and the Feelies sit comfortably under the same banner even though they don’t sound like each other. It’s a sound that stood out during the Reagan years as unique, and continues to do so four decades later.
Rochester, New York’s Absolute Grey never hit the medium time that many of their peers did, but it wasn’t for lack of quality in their music, as CBGB’s 1985 makes clear. The quartet of singer/writer Beth Brown, bassist/writer Mitchell Rasor, guitarist Matt Kitchen, and drummer/Heyday owner Pat Thomas owns the jangle and the melody one would expect from eighties college rock – a sound Brown’s voice sounds made to sing. But the band avoids the brisk tempos and power pop movies that mark so many of their contemporaries, preferring mid-tempo, even slow rhythms, subtler hooks, and a moody atmosphere. That’s partly due to Rasor’s bass leading the arrangements, letting Kitchen’s guitar decorate the framework, rather than build it, and partly due to Brown’s plainspoken but powerful pipes taking center stage, always. On tunes like “A Joke,” “Gardens,” and closer “Killing Birds,” her menacing moan approaches gothic rock, but never too closely, pulling the instruments around her and bending them to her steely will. While not the only thing going for Absolute Grey, Brown is definitely the focal point.
This concert record was originally released on cassette in the U.K. the year it was recorded, making its Stateside debut here. Whether the original recording was on point, or considerable post-production was done in the twenty-first century, the sound is clear and strong, making the band sound like they’re playing in your living room. (Assuming your house has a lot of reverb.) That makes CBGB’s 1985 an excellent introduction to Absolute Grey’s unfairly misplaced ouevre for those that missed them the first time around.
