I always thought that Fairground Attraction were more 2CV fodder - all that wilful rusticity crammed with a creak into a shiny new wicker picnic hamper full of shit spritzer and shoved on the backseat in a jam outside Maidenhead. I guess the Bluebells had a lot of this about them too. Also Carmel? Matt Bianco?
― NickB, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:02 (sixteen years ago) link
The folkish authenticity thing accommodates Eddie Reader's 'The Patience Of Angels' in addition 'The Second Summer Of Love', 'Young At Heart', 'Nothing Ever Happens'. I can sense tangible connections from this to Tunstall but the connections to the more urban/youthier sophistopop are harder to trace, and a far cry from something like Dave Stewart's 'Heart Of Stone'.
― blueski, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Matt Bianco were surely too *shiny* to be Mondeo Pop? Same reason, in a roundabout way, that Spandu Ballet and ABC aren't Mondeo Pop.
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:05 (sixteen years ago) link
*Spandau
How did The Man Who kill Mondeo Pop... oh and then there's David Gray... I think it may have been at the scene but I don't think it was actually responsible.
xp
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:05 (sixteen years ago) link
NickB probably right re 2CV. same things that keeps Hothouse Flowers not in this thing.
― blueski, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:06 (sixteen years ago) link
nickb's post is a thing to treasure.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Thing is you could NEVER have imagined Thatcher enjoying Mondeo Pop but there's Blair top 10 records of 1996 in that John Harris book and i is lamost 100% Mondeo Pop.
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Travis were the point where Mondeo Pop made too great gains into both "pop" and "indie", they were on TOTP more, they were on Radio 1 more, they actively courted the NME and Melody Maker. It's wher ethe boundaries got broken up, which is why even if, say, Keane or Scouting for Girls wanted to make a Mondeo Pop album in this day and age they couldn't.
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Keane and Scouting For Girls, The Feeling, Coldplay et al are all from a very different world. I don't see any of them writing anything so rooted if you see what I mean.
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Lack of folk influence, surely? There's no humbleness.
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
Even when Mondeo Pop was smug (Heaton Heaton Heaton), it still meant it, maaaan. You can't say that about The Feeling.
For Lily Allen there is no such thing as society.
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:18 (sixteen years ago) link
'the man who' isn't it. 'the man who' is profoundly post-1997. it and david gray and coldplay served perhaps a comparable audience to true school mondeo pop. but it's a galaxy away.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:24 (sixteen years ago) link
All I know is that after the release of "Driftwood", The Beautiful South never had another top 20 single.
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:26 (sixteen years ago) link
why? it has the folkiness, the humility, the comunal thing, healy was always on the "we just making pop here tip. what's that song where he lays diss on wonderwall and devil's haircut? y know franny's 4real. still dunno quite where later period manics fit.
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:28 (sixteen years ago) link
and they are scottish...
it just feels wrong to me, chief.
mondeo pop is clever, but not too clever; a little sardonic sometimes but not mean. i probably read too much coldplay into travis, but they were too 'universal', not clever, never sardonic. no grit to them.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Maybe then tomorrow will be Monday And whatever's in my eye should go away But still the radio is playing all the usual And what's a Wonderwall anway
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:39 (sixteen years ago) link
AND
Travis - Slide Show Lyrics
Today is the day For dancing and for singing The birds in the trees and all The bells are ringing The sun is in the sky Is bright as bright second light Is bright oh god I hope I'm alright
Cause I'm gonna cry Hold on, hold on Slow down, slow down You're out of touch Out of touch 'Cause there is no design for life There's no devil's haircut in my mind There is not a wonderwall to climb To climb or step around But there is a slide show and it's so slow Flashing through my mind
Today was the day But only for the first time Hold on, hold on Slow down, slow down You're out of touch Out of touch
'Cause there is no design for life There is no devil's haircut in your mind There is not a wonderwall To climb or step around But there is a slidesshow and it's so slow Flashing through my mind
Today was the day But only for the first time I hope it's not the last time
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:40 (sixteen years ago) link
There is no devil's haircut in your mind
zing
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh just saw the: Today was the day
But only for the first time Hold on, hold on Slow down, slow down You're out of touch Out of touch
And realized I completely forgot the looming inspiration of Radiohead and Jeff Buckley.
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:43 (sixteen years ago) link
wouldn't catch them in a mondeo, figuratively speaking.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:47 (sixteen years ago) link
When Travis debuted, didn't they get a lot of Radiohead comparisons?
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:47 (sixteen years ago) link
turin brakes 'pain killer' is calling - will MP accept the charges?
― blueski, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, no Travis started as a post Britpop rock act, like Silversun or The Supernaturals.
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Someone's gonna mention Starsailor in a minute and then we're gonna be all "oh shi"
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:49 (sixteen years ago) link
i have no idea how travis got compared to radiohead, but that's what happened. based on 'high and dry' and um, er...
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:51 (sixteen years ago) link
when Starsailor released 'Alcoholic' i fucking called it re Darkside Danny Wilson
― blueski, Thursday, 13 September 2007 14:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Quitney: Godrich production, Healy aproximating that vocal styling, Radiohead being a bit closer to Mondeo Pop than anyone would care to admit.
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:00 (sixteen years ago) link
We need Singstar: Mondeo Pop ASAP
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Songsmithery in the modern world?
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bpghLLQ8L._SS500_.jpg
Poor quitney Dr Morbius on one side Mondeo Mafia on the other. Stay strong buddy.
― acrobat, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link
there are always going to be continuities, but that album represents a decisive shift from true-school mondeo.
the fray -- who? coldplay -- no razorlight -- rockist the feeling -- no fucking way the view -- uh? the killers -- lol the killers james morrison -- no, too 'heart on sleeve' the kooks - lol the kooks keane -- no, too sincere
i mean none of that lot have anything to do with the beautiful south.
and most of them are for traditional instrumentation and straightforward production, which T4F and prefab sprout were not.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:34 (sixteen years ago) link
i can almost hear 'Fill My Little World' as a Wet Wet Wet song tho - almost. maybe it's just the "riight up, riight up" bit.
― blueski, Thursday, 13 September 2007 19:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Keane definitely like to stray into the blurry territory - Everything's Changing and Is It Any Wonder' esp. - the former could easily pass for late Tears For Fears altho I guess the latter is too U2/stadium. Beautiful South are an anomaly really, incomparable to anything else as pop 'force'.
― blueski, Thursday, 13 September 2007 19:46 (sixteen years ago) link
re: the feeling. it's an attitude thing. it's about where they're from. it's about class.
i need to go back and listen to more, read up, research, perhaps.
Beautiful South are an anomaly really, incomparable to anything else as pop 'force'.
-- blueski, Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:46 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
yeah, this is true also. they're not really very much like the others...
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 19:49 (sixteen years ago) link
it's also an image thing re The Feeling. they really look American to me somehow.
― blueski, Thursday, 13 September 2007 19:52 (sixteen years ago) link
kind of disagree about Razorlight as well if you actually listen to 'America' and 'Before I Fall To Pieces' from sonic pov.
remind me: 'Dakota' is too rawky right?
― blueski, Thursday, 13 September 2007 19:57 (sixteen years ago) link
i think new order's 'republic' is mondeo, to follow up on the electronic reference.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 20:37 (sixteen years ago) link
-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 13 September 2007 20:49 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link
There's no one like The Beautiful South? For a band so despised in certain quarters that seems kind of notable. Surely yr Prefabs are kinda similar, pleasant music with cutting lyrics? But sonically you may be onto something.
― acrobat, Friday, 14 September 2007 09:19 (sixteen years ago) link
TBS = not aspirational? some sort of book-smart sophistication but very self-aware, earnest and NEVER pretentious
― blueski, Friday, 14 September 2007 09:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Is that perhaps a Northern thing? Anti-pretention, pro-folkishness, irrespective of intellectual output?
― Dom Passantino, Friday, 14 September 2007 09:33 (sixteen years ago) link
I am actually confused what Quitney and Stevey are getting at. Are TBS sonically different or different in tone? Listening to You Keep It All in, it's more retro, less folky perhaps? I'd like to hear some Grime MC's rap over that "Murder in '73" bit.
― acrobat, Friday, 14 September 2007 09:52 (sixteen years ago) link
I do think Catatonia bear some comparison with the Beautiful South. Not just thematically, there's also the way they both draw on similar pseudo-sophisticated retro stuff to try and glam-up their otherwise pumice-stone-grey and dirty-bath-brown sounds and ends up as this ghastly Pernod and Horlicks concoction.
― NickB, Friday, 14 September 2007 09:55 (sixteen years ago) link
Pernod and Horlicks
KUDOS
― Dom Passantino, Friday, 14 September 2007 09:56 (sixteen years ago) link
'You Keep It All In' is bordering on 'Come Up And See Me' musically.
― blueski, Friday, 14 September 2007 10:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Which is / was also a local radio staple. This is the current playlist of a local radio station (Southern FM, the station that played the Mondeo Pop of my formative years)
Playlist
14.09.07
Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own
Avril Lavinge - When You're Gone
Enrique Iglesias - Do You Know? Fergie - Big Girls Don't Cry James Blunt - 1973 Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around Kate Nash - Foundations KT Tunstall - Hold On Nelly Furtado - Say It Right
Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah Rihanna - Shut Up & Drive Robyn - With Every Heartbeat Scouting For Girls - She's So Lovely Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls Sugababes - About You Now The Fray - How To Save A Life The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray
― acrobat, Friday, 14 September 2007 10:13 (sixteen years ago) link
I bet they sneak in "The King of Rock 'n Roll" most days though. I hope they do.
― acrobat, Friday, 14 September 2007 10:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Last ten songs Virgin Radio (where I learned Mondeo Pop as a youth) has played:
James Blunt 1973
Bryan Adams Run to you
Amy Winehouse Rehab
The Clash Should I stay or should I go
Alanis Morissette You oughta know
Philip Oakey and Georgio Moroder Together In Electric Dreams
The Twang Two lovers
The Dandy Warhols Bohemian like you
The Fratellis Chelsea dagger
Semisonic Secret smile
― Dom Passantino, Friday, 14 September 2007 10:22 (sixteen years ago) link
We're not in Kansas anymore.
Semisonic and Bryan Adams! That's not Mondeo Pop but it's in the zone.
― acrobat, Friday, 14 September 2007 10:25 (sixteen years ago) link