This one took me a while to get. When it first came out, a couple of songs were often playing on Athens rock radio stations, and I had made a mental note to get the CD as soon as it dropped in price. That is what I did then: always having a long buying list and being short of money, I'd wait a year or so by which time albums either fell into the "nice price" category or started appearing in 2nd hand stores. That approach worked - just not always. While I kept appreciating the music more with every listen and became convinced I really must add it to my collection, this album became rarer and rarer until it disappeared from shops completely. It finally became the record that's been sitting in my wishlist (well, the wishlist in my head - not an actual amazon/discogs one) longer than any other. Until it got re-released by a U.S. indie as a record store day special. It then took a fair amount of time to bring myself to buy it on import: In the past, I have had bad experiences with purchases from the U.S.: high postage, unreliable delivery dates, and -worst of all- unexpected customs problems. In the end, though, it all worked fine and I found myself the owner of a shiny, brand new, black vinyl copy.
I just love dropping the needle and watch it spin until "PS Exclusive" comes busting in, first these propulsive staccato riffs, and then one of the most original female rock vocalists of the decade: Sue Tompkins may spit the words in a manner reminiscent of The Fall's Mark E. Smith, but she puts way more passion and conviction in her vocals - here she keeps monomaniacally repeating the phrase "The Right Stuff" (some reviewer counted her - she says it 44 times) as if she wants to hammer it in your head. And, as much as I love the neo-post-punk sound of the band, it's how you feel about the over-the-top shouty vocals that will define whether you'll like this record. For example, here's what what NME's John Mulvey wrote about her: "only mad people and immediate family could warm to Tompkins. Hers is the sound of a performance artist having a self-conscious breakdown, all freestyle poetics and an incalculably avant-garde approach to singing in tune". He hated it. I love it, yet we can agree on a lot: no, she's not singing in tune, she's arguably not singing at all. While he dismisses her as a "performance artist" (as opposed to "singer"), that's hardly offensive. Sure, technically she's not up there with, say, the contestants in The Voice, but that's because she literally is a performance artist: A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, she is currently doing paintings as well as installations and performances mostly focusing on language and expression through the written/spoken word. This LP is her only foray into the world of pop music. Thankfully, there's also nothing pretentious about it.
It holds remarkable well as indie rock music: the complex rhythms and jangly guitars are never derivative but are nevertheless familiar: fans of Patti Smith, The Talking Heads, X-ray Spex, Breeders, Pavement or Sonic Youth will recognize a kindred spirit. At the same time they have this interesting arty thing going on with the lyrics, which seem to be either stream-of-consciousness or word collages, and with the singing/shouting/scatting of repetitive mantras which is uncontrollable, childlike, emotional, and exciting. The faster, punkier, songs are the ones that stick out at first listening: "PS Exclusive", "Let's Get Out", "Young Offenders", "14 Days". Arguably the best is "New Town", employing that slow-fast-slow trick perfected by The Pixies and sold in millions by Nirvana. It's the one that gained the most radio play back in the time. On the closer "Sorrow" they prove they can successfully adapt their style into Mazzy Star-like ballads. Most of the rest sound quite similar, and continuous listening (as I do while writing this review) tends to emphasize the formula repetition. I guess the band is an one-trick-pony: we'll never know if or how they could evolve, since they never made another album. Despite getting (mostly) good reviews and being touted as the next-big-thing in a double bill with The Strokes (at the latter band's UK debut) the idea of professional music careers didn't seem to appeal to them, so they dissolved the band and returned to the art world. This way they remained utterly unfamiliar and evasive and their sound retained its freshness and remained undiluted by repetition. The album fell out of print very quickly, deservedly gaining cult status - when MOJO Magazine presented this album on their page-long Buried Treasure feature, I immediately thought "hell yeah! this is the very definition of the term". This limited Record Store Day reissue has made it available again, but it won't be out there for long, so if you like what you here don't make the same mistake I did, and grab it while you can!
I just love dropping the needle and watch it spin until "PS Exclusive" comes busting in, first these propulsive staccato riffs, and then one of the most original female rock vocalists of the decade: Sue Tompkins may spit the words in a manner reminiscent of The Fall's Mark E. Smith, but she puts way more passion and conviction in her vocals - here she keeps monomaniacally repeating the phrase "The Right Stuff" (some reviewer counted her - she says it 44 times) as if she wants to hammer it in your head. And, as much as I love the neo-post-punk sound of the band, it's how you feel about the over-the-top shouty vocals that will define whether you'll like this record. For example, here's what what NME's John Mulvey wrote about her: "only mad people and immediate family could warm to Tompkins. Hers is the sound of a performance artist having a self-conscious breakdown, all freestyle poetics and an incalculably avant-garde approach to singing in tune". He hated it. I love it, yet we can agree on a lot: no, she's not singing in tune, she's arguably not singing at all. While he dismisses her as a "performance artist" (as opposed to "singer"), that's hardly offensive. Sure, technically she's not up there with, say, the contestants in The Voice, but that's because she literally is a performance artist: A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, she is currently doing paintings as well as installations and performances mostly focusing on language and expression through the written/spoken word. This LP is her only foray into the world of pop music. Thankfully, there's also nothing pretentious about it.
It holds remarkable well as indie rock music: the complex rhythms and jangly guitars are never derivative but are nevertheless familiar: fans of Patti Smith, The Talking Heads, X-ray Spex, Breeders, Pavement or Sonic Youth will recognize a kindred spirit. At the same time they have this interesting arty thing going on with the lyrics, which seem to be either stream-of-consciousness or word collages, and with the singing/shouting/scatting of repetitive mantras which is uncontrollable, childlike, emotional, and exciting. The faster, punkier, songs are the ones that stick out at first listening: "PS Exclusive", "Let's Get Out", "Young Offenders", "14 Days". Arguably the best is "New Town", employing that slow-fast-slow trick perfected by The Pixies and sold in millions by Nirvana. It's the one that gained the most radio play back in the time. On the closer "Sorrow" they prove they can successfully adapt their style into Mazzy Star-like ballads. Most of the rest sound quite similar, and continuous listening (as I do while writing this review) tends to emphasize the formula repetition. I guess the band is an one-trick-pony: we'll never know if or how they could evolve, since they never made another album. Despite getting (mostly) good reviews and being touted as the next-big-thing in a double bill with The Strokes (at the latter band's UK debut) the idea of professional music careers didn't seem to appeal to them, so they dissolved the band and returned to the art world. This way they remained utterly unfamiliar and evasive and their sound retained its freshness and remained undiluted by repetition. The album fell out of print very quickly, deservedly gaining cult status - when MOJO Magazine presented this album on their page-long Buried Treasure feature, I immediately thought "hell yeah! this is the very definition of the term". This limited Record Store Day reissue has made it available again, but it won't be out there for long, so if you like what you here don't make the same mistake I did, and grab it while you can!
***** for PS Exclusive, Let's Get Out, Young Offenders, 14 Days, New Town
**** for Juno, Envoys, Sorrow
*** for The Leanover, Philip
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