― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 30 August 2004 04:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 30 August 2004 05:07 (nineteen years ago) link
i dunno. in so many ways that record exhibits so many admirable tendencies of mid-80s "smart" pop (esp. the connecting of the personal and political, the invoking of a native facism). it's of its moment. but i find that moving in itself.
oh yeah and "come on home" is worthwhile not for just being a v. pretty song but as one of the few pop tunes to pick up where "message to martha/michael" and "golden lights" left off.
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 30 August 2004 05:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 30 August 2004 05:44 (nineteen years ago) link
also yeah the marine girls are amazing.
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 30 August 2004 05:46 (nineteen years ago) link
You're right. And that's kindof scary, now that I think about it.
LTM seemed to be an attempt to mix the jazzy vibe of Eden with the socialism of the whole Red Wedge thing and Johnny Marr's layered guitar sound.
I suppose you mean the second album Love Not Money? I've never heard that Johnny Marr played on that. I'm a Johnny Marr freak so I don't think it's possible to talk of the "Johnny Marr sound" unless you're talking about something he actually did because I think his sound is pretty unmistakeable and not easily copied. I mean, there are things I hear him do that I think "no way could that be anybody else but him".
"Eden" is one of my favourite albums of all time, if we ignore the fact that as an American I don't know it by that title, and the U.S. version had a slightly different tracklisting. Still, all the key songs are there. The second and third albums have their highlights, too, but proved far less memorable. I bought "Walking Wounded" when it came out. I liked a few songs a lot, then sold it. But I think that might have been because of a certain relationship I was in at the time.
― Bimble (bimble), Monday, 30 August 2004 06:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bimble (bimble), Monday, 30 August 2004 06:50 (nineteen years ago) link
I remember liking a lot of 'Temperamental', esp. 'Lullaby of Clubland' and 'Hatfield 1980'. I love the city songs over the minimal focus of the production. nice stuff.
Could never get into 'Idlewild' or 'Baby, the Stars...', which I generally attribute to the busier production. I came to LOVE Tracey's voice on the gorgeously ungussied 'Amplified Heart', and hearing it reverbed, etc. throws me off. The last two albums are different beasts, but there's a close recording of her voice again, which goes a long way.
― derrick (derrick), Monday, 30 August 2004 07:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― darren (darren), Monday, 30 August 2004 17:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― briania (briania), Monday, 30 August 2004 18:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 30 August 2004 18:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!st, Monday, 30 August 2004 18:26 (nineteen years ago) link
it's kind of amazing that they manage to turn cap'n beefheart's "my head is my only house unless it rains" into a normal EBTG song, but on the downside the result isn't necessarily much more than a normal EBTG song.
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 22 October 2004 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 22 October 2004 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 22 October 2004 19:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Friday, 22 October 2004 19:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Friday, 22 October 2004 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 22 October 2004 20:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Friday, 22 October 2004 20:34 (nineteen years ago) link
how is their "back to mine" volume?
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― jon dale, Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― karl76 (karl76), Sunday, 24 October 2004 13:52 (nineteen years ago) link
more please.
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:34 (nineteen years ago) link
a friend used to joke that ben and tracey suffered from opposite maladies: her eyes were too close together and his were too far apart. but they are both so cool i really feel bad making any such comments.
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link
Surely you jest!
Okay, maybe you don't. Here's Andrew in all his finery:
http://www.ultra-pop.org/images/band/som.jpg http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Basement/4286/Eldritch.GIF
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 07:54 (eighteen years ago) link
Having said that, I do find it a little annoying that they nowadays behave as if their entire pre-"Missing" career is not worthy of any attention. Idlewild is, as noted at the start of the thread, a fab album melodically and lyrically; only its slightly dated and thin-sounding production lets it down. But the band doesn't perform any early tracks in their concerts (not that they've given any in a while), and the more recent remix album (Adapt or Die) should have offered them a chance to revisit and update those early tracks. Instead, all the remixes were of Wounded and Tempermental songs. Frankly I'm hurt.
― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 09:09 (eighteen years ago) link
just pulled this out of my shelf and played it for the first time in a long while
this is a really nice lp (mini-lp?) that time seems to have forgot
in fact i don't think anything ebtg-associated is particularly hip right now, least of all the early stuff
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 16 June 2006 07:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― peter d (peter dee), Friday, 16 June 2006 12:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 16 June 2006 14:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 16 June 2006 14:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Adolescence Mokushiroku! (gendo ikari), Friday, 16 June 2006 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― Wookie Rookie (Wookie Rookie), Friday, 16 June 2006 17:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― Erick H (Erick H), Friday, 16 June 2006 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Friday, 16 June 2006 17:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fryin' Berry, Buck Cherry (Bimble...), Friday, 16 June 2006 19:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― dh (djh), Friday, 16 June 2006 20:37 (seventeen years ago) link
Whoops, missed that anticipation is over here:
Everything But The Girl Album Poll
― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Tuesday, 10 January 2023 10:20 (one year ago) link
What was this in response to? "would not be surprised if tracey has been side hustling in mental health the whole time because"
Is this (new album) being discussed elsewhere? Strangely, I really like seeing the photos of them draped over each other appearing on my Twitter feed, without not really being into what I've heard of their new recordings (very open to the idea that I'll realise I love the tracks, at some later date).
― djh, Thursday, 20 April 2023 20:24 (one year ago) link
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 April 2023 20:37 (one year ago) link
What was this in response to? "would not be surprised if tracey has been side hustling in mental health the whole time because"― djh, Thursday, April 20, 2023 1:24 PM
― djh, Thursday, April 20, 2023 1:24 PM
hi.
umm, i think i meant her ability to get into hyper-specific narratives that simultaneously could apply to many different scenarios? "big deal" inspired that post and here's the first verse—
You spend four nights a week now looking for your inner childWhat you gonna say when you find him?Suppose you don't like him or he doesn't like you?Suppose once you wake him up he won't go back to bed and wants to stay up late watching TV?But you say there must be some reason why you feel this way
i have a lot of mental health problems, so these feel like questions from a therapist. tough, maybe even intentionally provocative, but ultimately coming from a place of compassion. and only posed in the first place to redirect and change unhealthy behavior. especially when she concludes, "big deal, that's the way we all feel." (with the implication that it's okay, she's not mocking you; the world is scary and we're all in it together)
more importantly: it's framed in that song as a relationship conflict ("first you doubt yourself and then you doubt her"), but most of the song is only about what's going on for one side — a biased narrative. if the psychoeducation i've received was worth anything at all, one of the main themes is that folks like me have an inherently biased, unhealthy narrative that needs questioning, needs correction. that she frames it in a seemingly specific relationship context, yet still manages to ask universal questions, is a pretty neat trick and what inspired my post up there. she does this a lot (especially on albums like temperamental love and its opposite). i could get into many other examples, "big deal" was just hitting with some extra heft that day i guess.
― W E F L Y T O G E T H E R (Austin), Friday, 21 April 2023 15:38 (one year ago) link
“Mirrorball” ftw
― calstars, Sunday, 30 April 2023 21:08 (one year ago) link
Might be of interest (Ben Watt's Private Passions on Radio 3):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001l4jf
― djh, Sunday, 7 May 2023 20:12 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NljK-sXaMtk
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 21:38 (eight months ago) link