(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: Blur Album Title: Leisure Year released: 1991 Year reissued: 2012 Details: 1 of 7 in Blur 21, anniversary box set, black vinyl, 180 gram
The skinny: The debut album by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, and Dave Rowntree, also known as Blur. It’s a bit messy, not knowing whether to lean towards baggy or shoegaze, two sounds that were both on their way out. Still, some fantastic tracks here.
This may come as a shock to some of you out there but I must admit that I heard this cover by The Soup Dragons well before I heard the original. In fact, I’m not certain that I’ve even heard The Rolling Stones’ version to this day. I briefly thought about logging on to Spotify this week to confirm but decided it wasn’t really necessary. Listening to The Soup Dragons’ version is enough to discern that this is a song that well matches the Jagger swagger and embodies the Stones’ sound. I can well imagine that the original didn’t include the sampling effects nor the vocal flourishes of reggae singer, Junior Reid, and I could go either way as to whether a gospel choir graced the Stones’ version, though given it was a B-side (to “Get off my cloud”), I’d wager no.
This cover of “I’m free” was one of biggest hits for the Scottish alternative rock band (the other being “Divine thing”) and the song for which they are best known. It is definitely the first track by them that I ever heard. It fit in quite nicely with a lot of the other music that I was listening to at the time so I took note of their name. Of course, I didn’t know then that The Soup Dragons were Scottish and that they came out of the same scene as another of my favourite bands of the era, Teenage Fanclub. I just assumed that they were from Manchester like all the other bands that were considered “baggy”, espousing that magical blend of soul, psychedelia, and acid house beats.
In fact, the sound of this track and the rest of “Lovegod” was the result of experiments with sampling and drum machine beats, due to the lack of a physical drummer when they were bound for the studio. A happy accident, I’d say. They would go on to release two more albums, further evolving this sound, including the aforementioned, popular single “Divine thing”, before splitting in 1995.
This version of “I’m free” is the perfect tune to kickstart August and set it off on the right track. Upbeat and uplifting and with an irrepressible groove, it is almost guaranteed to bring the sunshine. Cheers!
For the rest of the Best tunes of 1990 list, click here.
The Clientele will always remind me of my friend Jez, who I met while working in a call centre during the first five years after moving to Ottawa. He was a few years younger than I but shared very similar tastes in music and also a similar insatiable appetite for discovering new music. I can’t remember which of us caught wind of The Clientele first but it likely wasn’t long before we were both raving about them to anyone who would listen. And when The Clientele unbelievably made a stop at a tiny club here in Ottawa in 2007 (with Beach House opening!), we didn’t hesitate in picking up tickets. Jez and I don’t get out for drinks nearly as often these days as we used to but when we do, music is always one of the main topics of discussion.
And speaking of music discussion, I believe The Clientele was today’s topic? Right.
So this here is a London-based indie pop outfit that formed in 1997 and has had an organic rotation of personnel that has generally centred around school mates Alasdair MacLean (guitar and vocals) and James Hornsey (bass). Their first long player, 2000’s “Suburban light” (on which “Rain” appears), was in fact a compilation of singles and B-sides recorded in the group’s early years. Jez and I picked up on these guys three or four years later after they released their first proper studio album, “The violet hour”, and fell deeply in love with their dreamy, 60s psychedelic and jangly pop. The group released three more albums before going on hiatus in 2011, a hiatus that has seemingly come to an end with news of a sixth album due out in September. (Cheers all around.)
“Rain” is one of only three tracks of thirteen on “Suburban light” that hadn’t previously seen the light of day on some release or other. It’s definitely a mood piece, sounding very much like a showery dusk in the middle of fall (or pretty much every day this summer in Ottawa). The jangly guitars pittering and pattering against the windows and MacLean’s vocals, breathily fed through a guitar amp, sing about longing, of love and a summer lost.
“And I want you so bad in my heart. And I touch your shadowed fingers in the dark. And the stars have fallen on this night like rain.”
It’s all grey and misty and lovely, like laughing with tears in your eyes. And I just want to listen to it all day long.
For the rest of the Best tunes of 2000 list, click here.
My (life in) music lists 