Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Clientele “I am not there anymore”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Clientele
Album Title: I am not there anymore
Year released: 2023
Details: Double LP, limited edition, black-in-red

The skinny: This will be the final installment (for now*) in my series highlighting The Clientele’s LPs on my record shelves. The dream pop trio released their 8th studio album, “I am not there anymore”, in the summer of 2023 and it landed on a number of end of year lists, including that of yours truly. For me, it was quite a shift from their previous output, the last of which came six years earlier, tinkering with their tried and true formula, but ultimately, it was still a Clientele record. It is much longer than their normal work, requiring two discs, which allows their sound to breathe and to brood. I didn’t buy the album right away, but added it when I saw it on the shelves for the taking, when I ventured out for some post-Boxing day shopping. I lucked out with this limited edition pressing in red with a black splotch in the middle of both discs. It looks and sounds pretty sweet spinning on the turntable.

Standout track: “Blue over blue”

*Pretty sure I read somewhere that Mr MacLean plans to spend some time in the studio this year so perhaps a new one to add to my collection in the near future.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2003: #5 Death Cab For Cutie “The sound of settling”

<< #6    |    #4 >>

“Bop-baaah… bop-baaah! This is the sound of settling!”

Yes. “The sound of settling”. This was my first of many favourite songs by Bellingham, Washington’s Death Cab for Cutie.

As I wrote back in August in relation to the number 10 song on this list, it was the many promotional posters, wallpaper style, in the windows of a local independent record store, The Record Runner, hundreds of blackbirds tangled in red yarn, that first piqued my interest in the band and their fourth album, “Transatlanticism“. I wasn’t immediately sold on their sound on first listen but there were a couple of tracks that did grab me right away, this one included, and those sustained me, drawing me back for repeat listens. Eventually, I picked up on the melancholic joy that “Transatlanticism” was laying down and the rest was history.

The band originally formed back in 1997, releasing three albums prior to “Transatlanticism” but those I could never really get into. Founding members Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla, and Nick Harmer found structure with their fourth drummer Jason McGerr in 2003 and this lineup remained a constant through their jump to the majors with their fifth album, 2005’s “Plans”, up until lead guitarist Walla departed the group in 2014. Without him, Death Cab has soldiered on, replacing him with a pair of guitarist/keyboardists, releasing three more albums and they remain active.

“Our youth is fleeting
Old age is just around the bend
And I can’t wait to go gray
And I’ll sit and wonder
Of every love that could have been
If I’d only thought of something charming to say”

But back to “The sound of settling”. The album’s second single was famously disliked at first by Gibbard because it was so upbeat but it had a big supporter in Walla, who was also producing the album. I’m so glad he won out*. The song is unbelievably catchy and immediately replayable. It’s got a driving beat that lasts the whole two minutes that is tailor-made for a mid-tempo pogo. It’s got the hand claps, the bopping baseline and Ben Gibbard’s unique voice and take on the dangers of searching for love, the anxiety, the fear that it might not be returned, and on the other side of the coin, the risks of not taking those risks. And yeah, those inescapable “bop-baaahs”!

Pure indie pop goodness.

*And I’m sure Ben and the rest of the band were also glad in the end given how universally loved it is.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.

Categories
Albums

Best film soundtracks: Honourable mentions

And now for something completely different… er… perhaps just a mild change of pace.

I’ve been doing these ‘Best albums’ series pretty regularly since I started this blog close to 10 years ago. But up to now, each of these series have been focused on a specific year, whether it be an end of the year recap of faves or a fond nostalgic look back on a certain year. For my first ‘Best albums’ series of the year, however, I’ve decided instead to go thematic and focus on my favourite ever motion picture soundtracks.

Back when I was a teenager and into my early twenties, I was a rabid cinephile. Indeed, I almost spent as much time watching films as did listening to music. It was a love I got from my mother, who’d been watching films since her own youth and began collecting films as soon as they were available in a format to watch from home, first on VHS and later, DVD. The household collection grew quickly and I never wanted for something to watch. In fact, it was often a bigger problem and took a herculean effort to choose just one film. It wasn’t long before I had my own favourite actors, directors, and screenwriters that I would follow and typically knew when they had something new being released. After moving out of my childhood home, my film watching slowly waned and I eventually got to a point where I would watch films weekly rather than daily, quality rather than quantity.

Still, many of my favourite films are from the days of my youth. And of course, I still love sitting down to dig into a good flick. Maybe I won’t watch just anything these days but certain actors will always tempt, as will anything that focuses on writing and writers and to be sure, anything to do with music.

Which brings us back to the task at hand: film soundtracks. We’ll get down to my top ten favourites over the next few months but first, on this first day of February, I’m going to whet your appetite by sharing a handful of great soundtracks that didn’t quite make the cut.

Action!

21 (2008):  A slick and hip, indie-heavy soundtrack that perhaps even out-hipped the slick, heist film that was based upon but over-sensationalized real events.
Check out: “L.S.F. (Lost souls forever” Mark Ronson feat. Kasabian

24 hour party people (2002):  The soundtrack for the amazing biopic on Factory Records, Tony Wilson, and the Manchester scene features a number of artists, both well-known and lesser-known, associated with Factory.
Check out: “Love will tear us apart” Joy Division

Forrest Gump (1994):  A double album of strictly American musical artists that reflect and embody the three decades – from the 50s to the 80s – that we experience of Forrest Gump’s remarkable life.
Check out: “Turn! Turn! Turn!” The Byrds

Rocky Horror picture show (1975): The soundtrack of the cult film/musical/phenomenon features the film’s cast*  belting out those twisted numbers we all know and love.
Check out: “The time warp”

Stand by me (1986): Music from the 1980s film based on the Stephen King novella “The body” perfectly evokes being a teenager with your friends on an adventure at the end of summer in 1959*.
Check out: “Stand by me” Ben E. King

*Including Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Richard O’Brien, and Meat Loaf.

**Okay, I wasn’t there, but that’s how I imagine it. That’s certainly how it felt for me at that age in the 80s, but with different songs.

I’ll be back very soon with albums #10 through #6 for my Best film soundtracks list. In the meantime, you can check out my Best Albums page here if you’re interested in my other favourite albums lists.