The Clientele - Best Band Since The Smiths

are we ready for an album poll?

Ready! It's the perfect time of year to back through their albums again.

we can poll the greatest comp too!

ok then. i'll put up the album poll this weekend. great idea to poll the greatest hit comp as well.

Strange POLLometry ...

I Had to POLL This

God POLL The Clientele

We can POLL together

POLLiceman getting lost

POLLcelain

POLLing time and money doesn't mean a thing

Poll is up. Very excited to see how many voters and what is the consensus view. Have to say that I forgot about The Minotaur... don't think that was their best effort. I only included full length albums.

Minotaur starts well but has a drop in quality a few tracks in iirc, weird EP but ofc nice that they were trying something new

it's that time of year

They were very good the other week. No new songs on the night but I believe there are some goodies in the works.

God Save The Clientele is the fourth studio album by British indiepop band The Clientele. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, it broadens the band's palette through the use of pedal steel and slide guitar.

wow, never knew this

anyway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxaPeBJ0oa8

I'd love to see them again

Yeah GSTC was recorded, barring a few overdubs, at Mark Nevers's studio (where a lot of Lambchop's work to that point was recorded); the final mix was done at Bark in London. I've heard conflicting things about whether the Nevers mixes exist in any meaningful form.

hell yeah time to break out my Suburban Light and Strange Geometry LPs

i always thought strange geometry was obviously the best one but now i think I've listened to GSTC way more in the past few years

the highs of GSTC are very high but I do find some of it a little treacly/pastiche-y, moreso than usual

after many years of trying I finally cracked The Violet Hour...no idea why I always found it so impenetrable

the house always wins

I revisit It's Art Dad very often

I mean I constantly listen to them overall but I wanted to mention that one in particular

In an August sky-y-y-y-y

I'm thinking these days that Music for the Age of Miracles is up there with the Violet Hour in my Clientele album rankings, it's so so good

I want to like it that much but I'm still really turned off by the bloated compositions and distracting backing vocals.

Don't mean to be a downer about it though... I know it's loved here. I want to love it. Though I've said before that I think I would love a "Naked" version of the record!

GSTC is my least favorite exactly because it sounds like it was recorded in Nashville, which basically means overproduced imo

(ha, sorry, I guess "nashville == overproduced sound" is about the most cliched thing a person can say)

the Nudie suits were also ill-advised

So I’ve really be into As Night Is Falling. The one with all the moody organ (or synth) and Alasdair singing about Ms Jones. Whatever that first chord is from the organ - so nice.

it's very good

bit of an outlier for Alasdair vocal-wise, somewhat strained, soulful in its pathos

Those ghostly dreamlike songs they do are my favorite.

I love 6am Morningside the most! It really captures the quiet peaceful mood of early morning.

ooh that's good too

Driving South and As Night is Falling always seemed of a pair to me, both amazing

My favorite part of the song is

It's a suburb in the rain
It don't matter anyway

I always want that sequence to repeat, at least musically. Wouldn't mind if it happened twice in a row. It's the prettiest part!

Speaking of the songs in this category... has anyone heard the original version of Six Foot Drop by Clock Strikes Thirteen? I've never heard it and can't find it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmz3XtwWdnA

Not sure how I missed that!

maybe wasn't uploaded last time you looked? I have that 7", Drive-In Records was quality indie pop.

a bit of Dear Prudence in Driving South

The title track from Age of Miracles is such a wonder: the lyrics, the arrangement, the asides, the way the Hindi section calls to the final lines, the 'Wake up in the night time with the silence so close' which might be my favourite of his, the repetition, the languor. Damn.

That closing minute or so could be straight off Bryter Layter.

Yeah! That song is unbelievably good.

Now, the year is turning
And the eeriness comes...

The Relict LP getting a vinyl reissue by the looks of it.

YAY!

ooh, I see the Bandcamp version of Tomorrow is Again has four more tracks than the CD version!

Wow, so I didn't even know this existed. Unsurprisingly amazing on first listen. Thanks ILM.

Stoked for this...