From: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org (seven-seas-moderated-digest) To: seven-seas-moderated-digest@smoe.org Subject: seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #216 Reply-To: seven-seas@smoe.org Sender: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Precedence: bulk seven-seas-moderated-digest Tuesday, July 15 2003 Volume 02 : Number 216 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 12:18:24 -0400 From: Peter Charbonneau Subject: seven-seas-moderated Re: seven-seas Stylus Magazine Wow, aside from his negative review, which he's entitled to, I thought he was way off on a lot of his history and comparisons. Sounds like he hasn't done his homework and now his misrepresented facts skew the people reading this review. That's bad journalism, IMO. At 09:41 AM 7/10/2003 -0600, K. F. Smith wrote: >http://www.stylusmagazine.com/musicreviews/ian_mcculloch-slideling.shtm >l > >Ian McCulloch >Slideling >Spinart >2003 >{4.5} >Reviewed by: Chris Rowland >As if you didn't have enough reasons to hate Chris Martin. >Now it turns out than in his spare time between banging Gwenyth >Paltrow, gazing dreamily (but slightly suggestively) from posters on >the dorm room walls of all the girls who think you're a "really nice >guy, but just don't think of you that way," and ending any doubt as to >whether the marriage of Buckley-esque vocal ardor to swirling, >post-shoegaze British pop was something the world really needed (it >wasn't), it seems that he's also found time to start something of a >finishing school for washed up new wave stars. "I think we have >re-established ourselves, more so with the Coldplay connection and >Chris Martin talking about us in every interview. That helped. We >played a lot of gigs around the world and became a great band >again.Luckily for us Chris Martin did. It meant we bypassed every >journalist to become the firmly established band. Having Chris sing >your praises is not a bad thing. That's why we got the Q Award. Q liked >Coldplay, we got the Q award in November and I can't even get an >interview." So spake (former? current? occasional?) Echo and The >Bunneymen frontman, Ian McCulloch in a recent interview. While the "we" >he's referring to is Echo proper, Martin's fingerprints are all over >McCulloch's third solo album, Slideling, as well. Echo and the Bunnymen >formed in Liverpool in 1978. Initially a duo of singer McCulloch, and >guitarist Will Sergeant (the Bunnymen) and their trusty drum machine >(Echo), the perpetual bridesmaids spent the first half of the eighties >refining their distinct (though ensconced heavily in new wave) sound. >Fleshed out to a full band (but still regularly employing Echo and his >descendants), by the time they released their first album in 1980, the >Bunnymen were easily recognizable largely based on McCulloch's voice. >Sounding like an amalgam of Siouxie's low banshee shriek and and Bono's >anthemic belt, Mac's delivery -along with the band's fusion of thin, >articulate electric guitar, spirited yet spartan rhythm section, all >manner of analog keyboards and synth percussion, and occasional >flourishes of eastern tones and instruments- earned the band a soft >spot in the hearts of mopey kids with bad hair cuts all over the world. >The Bunnymen spent the mid eighties refining and lightening their >sound, mining dozens of variations of their fusion of dense art school >drama and pop melodicism and anthemic choruses. During this time they >released a number of poppy (if still melodramatic) singles so iconic of >the era that last year, when Richard Kelly used the "The Killing Moon" >to open his Twin Peaks meets 80s John Hughes flick Donnie Darko, it >established the period as instantly and irrefutably as a date caption. >It's in the late 80s that the story gets complicated. Since then there have >been: a death (Drummer Pete De Freitas in a motorcycle accident), McCulloch >solo albums, a Bunnymen album without McCulloch, a McCulloch/Sergeant album >released under a different name, and a number of actual Bunnymen albums. None >of it gives the sense of forward momentum; most of the Bunnymen work since >then has sounded like a band struggling to keep up, torn between identity and >relevance, while McCulloch's solo albums have fared only slightly better. >Abandoning the drama and heavy-handed imagery of the group, McCulloch's first >two solo albums were quirky, jangly affairs, full of space and light that >showcased his increasing control over the nuances of his voice. His first, >Candleland, is particularly aptly titled in that its songs are warm and bright >and comforting but ultimately impermanent. >So it's not really a great surprise that Slideling isn't a stunning leap >forward. What is somewhat surprising though (and here's where Chris Martin >comes in), is just how vapid and soulless Slideling is compared to recent >Bunnymen work and McCulloch's other solo albums. >With a band consisting of John Buckland (Coldplay) on guitars and Barriemore >Barlo (Jethro Tull!?!?!) on percussion, (and allegedly featuring Martin >himself somewhere or other) Slideling eschews all of McCulloch's recognizable >quirks and endearing pretensions, replacing them with slick generic "mature" >songs and arrangements that make Coldplay sound adventurous. >The moderately bouncy opening track, "Love in Veins" may or may not actually >have anything to do with drugs. But its "High on Life" chorus and bloodlessly >pristine arrangement brings to mind nothing trippier than a Claritin ad. >"Playgrounds and City Parks" slows things down a bit, to keep anybody from >breaking a sweat. It sounds more like late period U2 B-side than anything Mac >has ever done, complete with a Bono-rific coda, performed with just slightly >less enthusiasm than one might have hoped. >Things plod along similarly for the rest of Slideling's eleven tracks. >Alternating between smoothly intoned mid-tempo rockers- dressed up with synth >organs and tastefully overdriven guitar jangle- and smoothly intoned slow >dance heart warmers that get a lot closer to Diane Warren territory than >befits the man who wrote "Silver". >It's a disappointing development, even within the context of a relatively >unexciting late period. Mac and producer Cenzo Townshend have given us an >album more interested in approximating the obviousness and commerciality of >dad-friendly alternative pop than in constructing a showcase for McCulloch's >historical strengths. > > > >====================================== >http://www.bunnymenlist.com > >====================================== ====================================== The Official Seven-Seas Web Page. www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ End of seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #216 ******************************************