The Black Watch - Highs and Lows (2015)

As I mentioned in my last blog, there were two albums that kept me going for a couple of years; and it's another album by one of my favorite bands.

Let's just get to it.  Highs and Lows is melodic, violent, pastoral, yearning, confident, reticent, impossibly sad, squeamish, bitter, frank, howling, optimistic, humorous, and implausibly contradictory.  In other words, another great album by The Black Watch.

Let's start with the second track on the album: "Quondam Redhead."  When you successfully can follow a graphic head wound description with "Doot doot doot doot doot doot doo," you can pretty much do anything.  It's the second song of the album, and the final 3:15 of the song (which clocks in at just over 6 minutes) is basically feedback.

Now if there is one rule for epic feedback, it's this:  it ends the album.  Period.  It DOES NOT work on the second track on the album.  It just doesn't.  But somehow it does here.

The Black Watch -- "Pershing/Harvard Square"

There are plenty of other excellent songs to be had here:  "She's a Mess," "Pershing/Harvard Square," "There's No F*$%ing Way" (my SFW spelling, sorry), "Love's Fever Dreams," "Elanor's Not Hiding"... it's a great variety of tempos, textures, and feel from song to song.  It all hangs together somehow. 

Do I have an issue with this album?  Yes.  It's track order.  I listened to the promo version for quite awhile... at some point I switched to the physical CD.  The CD version has "Pershing/Harvard Square" as track 3, flopped with "She's a Mess."  That actually works better.  But it's a quibble, not a criticism.

CD Placement Rating: Car iPod.  Go find this one.

- Snilch

10 Songs I'm Constantly Listening to These Days

In alphabetical order:

1. Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra - "The Killing Type" (2012)

2. Courtney Barnett - "Pedestrian at Best" (2015)

3. The Black Watch - "Meg" (2013)

4. Enuff Z'Nuff - "When Doves Cry" (2014)

5. Joyce Manor - "Heart Tattoo" (2014)

6. Neneh Cherry Feat. Robyn - "Out of the Black" (2014)

7. Pinback - "From Nothing to Nowhere" (2007)

8. TV on the Radio - "Could You" (2014)

9. Ume - "Too Big World" (2015)

10. U2 - "Volcano" (2014)

- Snilch

The Black Watch - Sugarplum Fairy, Sugarplum Fairy (2014)

If you don't know The Black Watch by now, I'm either not doing my job or you're not paying attention. Therefore, I'm blaming you.

I've approached this review with some trepidation because, as I told John Andrew Frederick himself, I found it confusing. My first impression: it's an album that was half finished. The back half of the album seemed more and more like demos as it progressed, as opposed to the lush and layered production I'm used to from The Black Watch.

On second, third, and fourth glance, this album is still a bit confusing and complicated, but gradually begins to open up. It may have been my huge expectations or experience with the band, but finally songs like "There You Were" or "Scream" (which did not sparkle on first impression) began to come in better focus as standouts with more listens. And the solid nature of the album began to come through.

The Black Watch - "There You Were." You might as well listen, there's a lot more to read.

Compared to my 2013 album of the year (The Black Watch's previous album, The End of When -- album review here, 2013 Best of list here), the album still feels a little more stripped down and low-key, in terms of both intensity and mood, although you wouldn't know that if you had never heard the band before. It's unfair, objectively -- I am comparing this release directly with last year's best album, which I'm not doing with any other albums. So the issues I have with this album are probably more directly related to the artist's 25+ years of standout music, rather than to the album itself. It took me a while to realize I was not separating the two.

The other issue (and yes, this review is much more "stream of consciousness" than I typically write) is the grouping of four acoustic/non-drum songs to finish the album. After a number of listens, I realize THIS is where I am getting the demo idea from; they feel a bit same-y and incomplete as they are so stripped down and back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Once again, to my ears; for unknown reasons I'm having an oddly strong reaction. Would it be different if the song order were mixed up? Possibly. Or maybe the album is as stream of consciousness as this review is. Who the hell knows?

So: let's take those songs out. Let's pretend for the moment that this is a seven song album (or eight with just one of those acoustic songs). In that context, this is an excellent album, and one that I'm much more accepting of. Thus, I'm going to pretend this is an eight song album with three "bonus tracks." Now we're getting somewhere.

Which brings me to how to rate the album, which for me personally turns out to be a matter of curved grading. This is an excellent album when compared with all of the 2014 albums; but what I keep doing is comparing TBW to their extraordinary catalog. So while The End of When is overall better than this one, it's not fair to knock Sugarplum Fairy, Sugarplum Fairy down completely, as it's still better than 95-99% of what I'll hear this year. Thus it gets two ratings: an objective listener rating, and a rating as compared to the rest of the catalog.

CD Placement Rating:  Objectively, this is another great Black Watch album, so it gets a Car iPod Rating. On The Black Watch scale, it's more a CD Rack/Portable CD Case rating, which speaks to the outstanding output of this band.

Fin.

- Snilch

An Interview with John Andrew Fredrick of The Black Watch

The Black Watch began in 1987, the brainchild of primary songwriter and frontman John Andrew Fredrick.  The band history until 2011 is detailed here; their 2013 album was my favorite of that year.  This interview took place over email in January 2015 into February.

The Snilch Report:  I just listened to the album [2014’s sugarplum fairy, sugarplum fairy].  It's very good, but I find it confusing -- it will take some more listens (perhaps many) to get to the heart of it.  My initial impression is that you were in a dark happy place when you made it, if that makes any sense. 

John Andrew Fredrick:  Yes in a very very dark happy place.  It is meant to be very much a "fuck off" record -- made by a person who was, in effect, heartbroken...by music itself. If that doesn't sound too terribly grandstandingly hyperbolic...

SR:  That's a very interesting idea... is it the process of creating music or the business of creating music that's leaving you feeling heartbroken?

JAF:  The metaphor of heartbreak is even more applicable, in that The Black Watch are over it, their heartbreak -- as one gets over it in life -- and are recording a follow-up EP to sugarplum fairy, sugarplum fairy.  Probably not surprising to those who said:  "You're a lifer, you won't quit," but I was mostly talking about feeling how I had a very bad time in the studio, on account of I did all the instruments save the drums myself, all the singing, all of it.  And it was very not-enjoyable. 

Tyson, Chris, and Rick and I are rehearsing four new songs for the forthcoming EP.  It's a nice space to be in.  I still think I may not make another LP, but obviously I kind of don't know what I will do, am confused and such, and should just shut up and sing.  Haha!  [Editor's note:  Since this interview, John has written other new songs, so now this release is going to be an LP.  Which is great news for Black Watch fans!]

For so long The Black Watch has been, in the picayune-scene indie press, "The band that never got even marginally as big as they deserve to be."  That got to me too.  I shouldn't have let it do so, but I did, more's the pity.  Tough luck and sucky hurts and disappointments, bandly-wise, music biz-wise, can be, or feel, at least, cumulative.  If you let them get like that.  Which I did.  More's the pity.  Now I will stop going on about stopping.  And go on.

SR:  You can't let the bastards drag you down!  Don't let them win!  For sugarplum fairy, sugarplum fairy, was the "solo recording for the band record" a plan you went in with?  Or was that forced on you?

JAF: I started by doing four songs that seemed like they'd be best acoustic.  The engineer at the studio -- guy called Luke Adams -- had been Pete Yorn's drummer, a studio session man.  I showed him some other songs, and because he speaks Beatles and is a one-take kind of guy, a "one-take Tony," as we say, he did the drums, all of them, in four hours for seven other songs.  I told the band:  “Look, if we rehearse and do this as a band, it'll cost four times as much.  Let me do this, and then we'll go make something afterwards.”

Having Luke play was like finding money on the ground.  How could I not use his tracks? (The drumming on sugarplum, I think, is stellar.)  Steven Schayer having left the band, after 6 years, you know, I sort of did it, the record, by myself as a way of going, "Hey, I don't need you like you always say I do."  He'd say it to me in jest, mind you, but not really.  I missed him being there, in the studio, being my foil and thorn in my side.  I was heartbroken over the person, Anne, many songs are about, and thinking I was going to stop doing the thing I love most:  recording music. 

Anyway, the work Steve did on Led Zeppelin Five and the end of when -- spectacular.  A great, great musician.  And, inevitably, someone who became unhappy playing in The Black Watch.  Someone who should do his own album -- and I really hope he does.  But now we have someone on lead, Tyson Cornell, who is just as good but different.  Tyson actually runs the publishing company here in LA that is my publisher -- Rare Bird Lit.  He has a spin-off label that's putting out a picture disc 7" of two songs we did this summer in Santa Barbara.  Geeky!  Collector's bait.  I mean, I love records but a picture disc?!  Haha.  I woulda been happy with a cassingle!!  Remember those?  Of course you do.  And, with Tyson, we're back to being a happy band.  Chris our bassist and Rick our drummer -- they've become great good friends with Tyson as well.  So we're fine.  Happy.  Obscure as hell, still, but happy.

The Black Watch - "Terrific," off the 1991 album Flowering

SR:  Sadly, I think I still OWN a number of cassingles.  Is it safe to say that the solo approach to the album was something you wouldn't attempt again?  Then again, you had a perfect storm:  a personal heartbreak plus a creative partner parting, and then the process of creating your potential cathartic outlet (the album) was not very enjoyable.  I can only imagine that you felt completely isolated.

JAF: Yes, I won't be recording on my own again.  I do several other things professionally that are lonelyish.  Writing novels –- you can't do that with anyone else around.  I've just finished a book on the early films of Wes Anderson that is coming out soon -- you can't do that by committee.  Haha.  I wrote a musical over Christmas.  It's about Dr. Johnson and his biographer James Boswell, with an indie rock/contemporary twist.  When I teach Freshman English, that's kinda solitary 'cause you can't go "Hey, great class today, you guys!  Let's all go down the pub and talk about how great it was!" 

I like the perfect storm metaphor.  That's apt.  I think the record is at once very spare and very honest.  I could barely open my mouth to sing.  Hence the vocals are a bit "safe."  It was risky enough just attempting to sing the lyrics because I kept thinking I was going to burst into tears... instead of into song!  See what a jolly-melancholy person I am!  I never cry.  Never ever.  I didn't when my mum, whom I loved very much and was very close to, died six years ago.  I probably should cry.  It'd be cathartic.  I don't seem to be able to, however.  Oh, well.  That sounds rather monstrous, actually.  Makes me wanna cry. Hahaha.  

SR:  It's not a stretch to say we all have different ways of coping and dealing with our grief, although I appreciate your stream-of-consciousness self-analysis -- it sounds like something I would do!  I can't recall off the top of my head whether this is the case, but have you written anything about your Mom since she passed?  I'm also wondering whether or not it's coincidence that you stopped releasing music for a few years (2009- 2011) right around that time.

JAF:  We didn't have anything out from 2009-2011 just because we didn't have a label then, that's all.  We recorded Led Zeppelin Five in 2009 and it took a year for it to come out in New Zealand first and then here in 2012, I think.  It's very hard to keep track of the records, and I’m not good with numbers.  There's a bit about my mom in my first novella, The Knucklehead Chronicles, but that's it, really.

SR: Fair enough.  I did want to touch on something you mentioned earlier -- how great the drums were on sugarplum fairy, sugarplum fairy.  I've always maintained that the drumming is a huge part of your sound and you are well served by having a strong drummer; to my mind, you leave a lot of space for percussion to really move the songs along.  Is that a factor in your composing?

JAF:  Yes, it is a factor.  I am a huge fan of drums, and am moved by great drumming and drummers, having started off as one, at 10 or so?  Played for 3 years, drove my parents crazy.  They were so happy when I just played guitar when I turned 13.  Of course, as a serious fan of musical drummers -- Ringo comes to mind of course, and Mitch Mitchell of the Hendrix Exp., as well as, oh, David Narcizo, the great cymbal-less guy from Throwing Muses -- I think about how the drums will go. 

But even though I played for a few years, I don't really "speak" drum.  I just know what I want... when I hear it.  I can only direct the drums sort of derivatively -- a la, "Do a Ringo fill here that goes into a sort of XTC kinda vibe."  I think it's driven Rick a little crazy over the years -- like, "Yeah, sure, John.  Whatever you say."  Does that make The Black Watch a bit of a pastiche?  Perhaps.  We try to hide our influences, that's for sure -- all the way down to the rhythm section.

The Black Watch - "Uncheerupable," off the 1999 album The KIng of Good Intentions

SR: I am a huge huge HUGE fan of musical drummers. I think that a great rhythm section can take good to great and great to unbelievable.  People underestimate their power and their impact.  But don't get me started.

So since let's talk about the new stuff.  What can fans expect from this one?  And, of course, will you be doing a cassingle promo release?

JAF:  Hahaha.  No cassingle.  One song is a nine-minute guitar freakout.  Another one is a drone like "The King of Good Intentions" off Amphetamines.  One is a very catchy song, very poppy -- called "There's No Fucking Way" (so that it won't ever get played on the radio).  Another is an old thing we've had from The Hypnotizing Sea days.  A song called "Beautiful Sleeper" that is both acoustic and full-band.  We're going to work with Rob Campanella who has been in and out of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.  A great guy with a super basement studio in Toluca Lake near Warner Brothers.  He has two mellotrons -- so look out.  I might compose a sort of psychedelic symphony on those things, just because.  Rob is big on The Byrds and on space rock, as are we.  So I am sure it will be way more trippy than sugarplum was.  He was telling me how dry the vocals are on this new record.  He'll maybe hose them down some.  And Tyson's definitely singing on the new LP. 

So there will be some harmonies, whereas we eschewed them for sugarplum.  I have been listening to Hϋsker Dϋ around a thousand times in a row, so I am looking forward to loads of fuzz guitar, flanged fuzz, overdriven, screaming screams. I took a year off from listening to anything but classical.  Well, a bit of The Beatles and of course I had to get MBV [My Bloody Valentine].  I mean, they are my second favorite band -- next to TBW, of course. Hahaa.

The Top 15 Albums from 2013

Yes, it's a year late.  But better late than never... plus, we'll start 2014 reviews immediately.  Well, almost immediately.  Shortly?

In any case, without further ado... The Snilch Report's Top 15 albums from 2013:

15. Anoraak - Chronotropic.  "Of all the electronica I heard this year, this album seemed to incorporate the best parts of all of them, adding in a confidence and a self-assuredness that comes off as 'relaxed expert,' and not 'annoyingly cocky.'"  Original review here.

Anoraak - "Behind Your Shades"

14. Speck Mountain - Badwater.  "It's a nice mellow listen, best enjoyed with a good book on a bright sunny day on your porch, or with your favorite medicinal drug of choice."  Original review here.

Speck Mountain - "Badwater"

13. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Unvarnished.  Anyone who wants to tell me that there's not great music out there any more can just look at this list.  The fact that Joan Jett is this low tells you there was a ton of good music in 2013.  Just watch the video.  "This is quite simply, a great, classic rock album.  It's not a throwback, it's timeless.  It's got an edge and an intensity that is surprising after all these years.  It's classic Joan Jett, and that is a damn good thing."  Original review here.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - "Any Weather"

12. Brent Amaker and the Rodeo - Year of the Dragon.  "This sounds like Calvin Johnson from Beat Happening traded his lo-fi bandmates for Johnny Cash's backing band. It's uptempo country, fun storytelling extolled in a lighthearted tone (even when the lyrics are dark)."  Original review here.

Brent Amaker and the Rodeo - "Tequila Cerveza"  Warning: the video is very sacreligious at points.

11. Barrence Whitfield and the Savages - Dig Thy Savage Soul.  "Barrence... well, he's got the voice of an angel and a devil, all rolled into one.  Simply ridiculous. That is worth the price of admission alone."  Original review here.

Barrence Whitfield and the Savages - "Corner "

10. Cage the Elephant - Melophobia.  "It's a snapshot of a band still growing into their sound, which is scary as this is already really good....  It's a listen that will satisfy pretentious snobs (like me) and 'I like what sounds good' lunchpail joes (oddly enough, also like me)."  Original review here.

Cage the Elephant - "Take It or Leave It"

9. Bored Nothing - Bored Nothing.  "This is excellent, accessible, and well produced; it's everything you'd want in an album to listen to and enjoy.  Not a bad song in the bunch.  I'll take Big Star 2.0 any day."  Original review here.

Bored Nothing - "Let Down"

8. Grant Hart - The Argument.  "It's a breakthrough recording for someone you could have written off years ago.  Hart is clear and focused, wasting no space vocally in his quest to win the argument."  Original review here.

Grant Hart - "Morningstar"

7. Eric Salt and the Electric City - Please Say Yes.  "In the end, this feels like a mixtape of the best songs Salt has written in the past four years, but it works.... [A]ll in all, it's a great listen and an album I'll be revisiting again and again in the near future."  Original review here.

Eric Salt and The Electric City - "Women I've Loved" 

6. Luscious Jackson - Magic Hour.  "Hearing Glaser and Cunniff trading vocals, and Schellenbach's drumming style brought together again... well, it's just awesome."  Original review here.

Luscious Jackson - "Show Us What You Got"

5. Curt Smith - Deceptively Heavy.  "In the end what comes through is the combination of confident experience with the restless energy of an artist.  It's just another amazing offering from a great musician."  Original review here.

Curt Smith - "Suffer the Silence"

4. The Black Angels - Indigo Meadow.  "I could listen to this album again and again -- it's got just enough pop to be accessible, and just enough edge to keep it fresh and interesting.  It's an impressive offering, produced expertly."  Original review here.

The Black Angels - "Don't Play With Guns"

3. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2.  "Musically and lyrically, I can't imagine any album being more musically intricate and emotionally disturbing at the same time.... His lyrical ability to paint a sharply focused picture is unparalleled; his combination of ignorance, brilliance, mental instability, perfect clarity, brick-headed self-centered stupidity, and introspective objective empathy simply weaves too well together to be anything but intentional."  Original review here.

Eminem - "Bezerk"

Cameos by Rick Rubin, Kid Rock, and Kendrick Lamar

Samples of The Beastie Boys and Billy Squier (including video from "The Stroke")

2. Tom Keifer - The Way Life Goes.  "It's an easy listen, but holds enough edge and challenge to ensure you'll be back for more.  I'm not the first to say it, but that don't mean it ain't the truth:  this may be the best album of his career."  Original review here.

Tom Keifer - "It's Not Enough"

1. The Black Watch - The End of When.  "It's dreamy rock that's smooth and smart, emotional and poppy.... Simply great."  Original review here.

The Black Watch - "Meg"

And there you have it.  Next up:  an interview with John Andrew Fredrick of The Black Watch, a roundup of some other stuff I have been listening to... and then it's on to the 2014 reviews!

- Snilch

The Black Watch - The End of When (2013)

We've finally reached the end of the 2013 reviews, and we've saved one of the best for last.

I'm not sure how this happened, but this release was not on my radar in 2013 at all.  My everlasting love of The Black Watch is best articulated here, here, or, most descriptively, here.  (The latter post can give you the band's entire sordid history.)

Before we get started, there are two things you need to do when you listen to this album:  1) listen to it with good headphones, and 2) (since you're likely a bit dim like myself) LISTEN TO IT WITH GOOD HEADPHONES.  Case in point:  I initially tried this album in the car and it didn't work.  (Please note:  when you convert this album to crappy, lowest common denominator mp3s, then listen to it with your iPod earbuds and complain "it doesn't sound great," I'm going to hit you over the head with a tire iron, as that is not even close to following instructions.  You've been warned.)

The album opens with "I Don't Feel the Same," a fuzz rock anthem that's worth the price of admission alone.  The guitar tone alone makes me feel happy to be alive to appreciate it.  From the get-go, the band sounds super tight -- it's a lush, rich, fully cohesive sound.

Then they go straight into "Meg" -- a dreampop contrast, a classic Black Watch offering with a freshness I can't quite define but definitely appreciate.  It's relaxed, confident, and unhurried; a conspicuously languid counterbalance undercuts the song's unrest, and the "Hey!" background vocal punctuation somehow propels the song to the next level.  By "Hardly Nothing Never Ending," it's clear that this album is a precisely produced, expertly arranged masterpiece.  And by "Oh Oh" I was texting and emailing music pals to pick up this album.  So damn good.

The Black Watch - "Meg"

It's dreamy rock that's smooth and smart, emotional and poppy.  It's a rare "album," complete from front to back.  It's a must pickup:  my immediate thought (based on pure speculation, not on any sort of a factual basis) is that this is the culmination of the long road back from the sudden departure of J'Anna Jacoby a decade ago.  It's not as if John Andrew Fredrick has failed to produce great albums in the intervening years; this is just the best, most fully realized expression of the group since that time.  Simply great.

As a bonus for fans who don't know the band, there's a bonus disc that gives some highlights from their previous albums (although I do have an issue with some of the songs that were left off).  So quit procrastinating and go get the CD.

CD Placement rating:  Car iPod.

- Snilch

The Black Watch - Led Zeppelin Five (2011)

Strictly from my perspective, the largest casualty of The Whiskey Dregs switching away from doing further music reviews was this one.  Given the bad luck that has followed The Black Watch since 1989, however, this is just water under the bridge.

Let's start with some history:  

1. The Black Watch released their first album St. Valentine in 1987 (after opening for The Church and Toad the Wet Sprocket), then the EP Short Stories in 1989, on founder/lead singer/lead guitarist John Andrew Fredrick's own "Eskimo" label.  
2. The band went through some lineup changes, including the crucial addition of vocalist/violinist/fellow songwriter J'Anna Jacoby; they signed to Doctor Dream Records in 1991 and released Flowering.  It's a great album, featuring the outstanding songs "Terrific" and "Humming."  Unfortunately, no one ever heard the album as the label did not promote it at all.  So The Black Watch moved on.
3. The band signed to Zero Hour Records in 1994 and released Amphetamines.  It's a great album, featuring the outstanding songs "Come Inside," "See You Around," "Whatever You Need," and "Nightlight."  Unfortunately, no one ever heard the album as the label did not promote it at all.  So The Black Watch moved on.
4. The band went through some lineup changes, signed to Catapult Records in 1997, and released Seven Rollercoasters.  It's a great album, featuring the outstanding songs "I Feel So Weird" and "Steve Albini."  Unfortunately, no one ever heard the album as the label did not promote it at all.  So The Black Watch moved on.
5. The band went through some lineup changes, signed to Not Lame Records in 1999, and released The King of Good Intentions.  It's a great album, featuring the outstanding songs "Uncheerupable" and "Quasi Stellar Radio Source."  Unfortunately, no one ever heard the album as the label did not promote it at all.  So The Black Watch moved on.
6. The band went through some lineup changes, signed to Saltwater Records in 2000, and released Lime Green Girl.  It's a great album, featuring the outstanding songs "Caroline" and the cover "If You Could Read My Mind."  This time, fortunately, this label actually promoted the album.  And it included a collection of highlights from all of the above albums, now out of print.  People finally heard this album.
7. In 2001 they released the EP Christopher Smart, again through Saltwater.  So it took the band 14 years to record consecutive albums with the same record label.  It seems too good to be true, right?  Well, it was:  this release was the last one ever for Saltwater.  They promptly folded.

Fredrick and Jacoby were the only two constant elements throughout this whole odyssey.  So once the band settled down for the first of three albums with Stonegarden Records in 2002 (Jiggery-Pokery), it appeared that they were finally due for some long-term stability.

Then Jacoby left the band.  (To play with Rod Stewart, no less.)

Playing great music no one ever heard, toiling in obscurity, and leapfrogging from one bad label to the next is one thing, but this was definitely the hardest hit of them all.  Jacoby not only contributed fantastic songs, but her vocals and violin were part of the core Black Watch sound.  


Lesser men would have crumbled as Fate conspired against him at every turn (and with a bit of rancor, I might add).  But Fredrick pressed on.  


Since then, Fredrick (with various lineups) has released four albums and an EP, the latest of which is Led Zeppelin Five.  Fredrick took a bit of time regaining his footing after Jacoby's departure -- 2008's Icing the Snow Queen was the breakthrough.)  Typically, I think they sound like The Cure meets My Bloody Valentiene with pop sensibilities; Led Zeppelin Five (besides being an ironic, funny, and "how did I not think of that?" title) is actually more laid back in comparison to some of their other albums, and even adds a touch of Longwave (particularly on the track "Weirdly"). 

And we know that Fredrick is definitely over the hill and down the road a bit from that tumultuous departure of Jacoby's:  for the first time in eight years, another band member gets a lead vocal nod.

That, of course, is pure speculation, but I won't let my lack of facts get in the way of a good story:  to me, Fredrick's confident voice is what drives this album.  (And by "voice" I mean that of an artist, not "vocals.")  There is obviously no way to measure this, and I can't define it except to say that he just sounds so sure of himself on every song.  And it is what strikes me every time I listen to it.


Highlights for me include "How Much About Love," "Emily, Are You Sleeping?" and "Cognate Objects."   But there's something here for everyone:  I guarantee that five other people listening to this would have widely varying top 3's.  That's a good album, people.


I don't have a high enough recommendation for this band.  It's criminal that they've flown as far under the radar as they have all these years and still continue to not only perseve, but to create fabulous music.  


My recommendation:  go buy everything they've ever done.  But slowly; you'll want to absorb each album before moving on to the next.  And Led Zeppelin Five is not a bad place to get started.


CD Placement Rating:  Car CD Changer for me, at least Portable CD Case for you.


- Snilch