Swervedriver—Mezcal Head (A&M)
What’s with all the Swervedriver? Well, they are one band I’ve heard many great things about, especially in the Big Takeover, but inexplicably never pursued—until now. Wow! Listen to songs like “Duel” and be prepared to hear some of the best guitar driven rock from the 90s.
Swervedriver—Ejector Seat Reservation (Sony)
Ejector Seat was near impossible to find upon release a decade ago. Why? The band’s U.K. label, Creation, amazingly dropped the band one week after its release. But lucky music fans can now pick up a brand spanking new copy for about $15. Ejector Seat is tighter and less sprawling than its predecessor. The album, which is astonishingly good, takes a while to fully appreciate. It’s a grower but once it sticks, it stays with you.
Swervedriver—99th Dream (Zero Hour)
The band’s fourth album (Mezcal Head was second and Ejector Seat was third) is more expansive than prior efforts. Though not as good as its predecessors it still stands tall. An interesting note is that the final song of the album is titled “Behind the Scenes of the Sounds & the Times,” a clear tip of the hat to some of the names of songs on Love’s
magical Forever Changes like “Maybe the People Would be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale” and “You Set the Scene.”
Belle & Sebastian—Push Barman to Open Old Wounds (Matador)
This double album composed of the band’s EPs from 1997 to 2001 is a real treat. The band, which took its name from a French children’s TV show, recorded a startlingly good bunch of songs here. You get 25 cuts for the cost of a regular CD release. A veritable bargain!
Jean Luc-Ponty—The Very Best of Jean-Luc Ponty (Atlantic/WEA)
Okay, I’m not an authority on French violinists nor am I a Francophile or a violin expert but I do know that Luc-Ponty’s “best” is worth having. I put it on recently because I had never got much out of it previously but then something happened. My ears finally fell to the other side of the fulcrum—that wonderful tipping point where you decide to delve deeper into a heretofore underappreciated artist’s work. Merci!
The Damned—Play it at Your Sister (Sanctuary)
And now for something completely different. The Damned,
mentioned in last week’s Top 10, were a ground-breaking punk band and virtually all of their musical output from 1976-1977 (including demos, Peel sessions and a hot 5/19/77 show) is collected here in a three-disk box set. A big attraction: a 130 page book about the Damned (well, 90 pages are exclusively devoted to the band with the first 40 pages describing the scene at the time). The third disk is a poorly recorded, but important disk nonetheless of the band’s second ever gig at Mont De Marsan, France (I swear the French connection is just a coincidence!).
Robert Wyatt—Theatre Royal Drury Lane (Hannibal)
Like the Damned’s Mont De Marsan show, this 1974 concert by Wyatt and company is tremendously
satisfying. But unlike the Damned show, this boasts stellar sound. Just a year earlier, Wyatt tragically broke his spine and became a paraplegic after falling drunk from a fourth-story window at a party. A year later he’s at the top of his game accompanied by luminaries including Nick Mason, Mike Oldfield, Dave Stewart and Ivor Cutler. John Peelintroduces the show). Wyatt also recorded what was arguably his best album, Sea Song, in 1974.
Marrianne Faithfull—Before the Poison (Anti)
Faithfull’s latest album marked my first exposure to a singer who has been making records for more than four decades! Well, most of the first half of the album is flat out stunning. Faithfull’s raw, raspy, world-weary voice repeatedly pummels the listener with emotional punches on stunners like “Last Song” and “Crazy Love.” The only stinker is “My Friends Have.” Shame that it’s the second song on the album.
American Music Club—San Francisco (Warner Bros./Wea)
Mark Eitzel scores a knockout on this dark, emotional, and deeply personal album. It delivers an eclectic assortment of songs of varying moods and styles that don’t work every time. But ultimately the power of Eitzel’s pathos prevails.
The Heavy Blinkers— The Night and I Are Still So Young (Endearing)
Delightful orchestral pop. Evocative of Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, and the Polyphonic Spree, but with less octane and bombast, the Heavy Blinkers are worth keeping both eyes wide open for.
