There was a time, pre internet days, when my world revolved around inventive Singer Songwriters. We went on to term this period as Gravitas Pop in the Anything Should Happen days. These guys (and it was largely guys with the exception of Aimee Mann) were songwriters of the highest order.
Melodic, intelligent with unexpected arrangements and great great songs. I'm thinking Jason Falkner, Michael Penn, Matthew Sweet and Jon Brion. Our appetites were insatiable. It was too long between albums and so we gathered all that we could.
Radio Broadcasts, Rarities and some of the worse sounding bootlegs ever, but that didn't matter then as much as we just wouldn't entertain such sound quality now. The most elusive was Jon Brion and so we contented ourselves with gathering his monthly Largo performances.
There was also a fair amount of unreleased stuff to gather, including a 2 disc collection of demos and outtakes. We don't really do cover albums on here, but I'm not sure this counts as such as most of these recordings are of songs from that two disc set.
Brion gets an unfair rep with him only ever releasing the Meaningless album and his part in The Grays album. He remains largely unsung despite his work with much more mega artists and his exhaustive Film Soundtrack releases,
You never knew what you were gonna get with these outtakes, sometimes it would be all instrumental piano, at other times great straight ahead Pop Rock mixed in with complex arrangements and even some great Psych Pop. Across this album the concentration is on the great Pop Rock.
There is no better exponent than Mo Troper, probably the hottest Producer and Performer around at present and he has done a magnificent job. The centre piece is the jaw dropping Not Ready Yet, all 7 minutes of it. A mixture of Psych Pop and Classic Rock. It is a tour de force of a song and performance.
But this is an exception, the rest on show demonstrates how both Troper and Brion master melodic Guitar Pop.Contrast that to the Jangle Pop of City Sign and the wondrous West Coast Pop Rock of Any Other Way, both wipe the floor with much around over the past three decades.
Into The Atlantic is almost Piano Pop with a splendid Bacharach like arrangement and Pray For Rain benefits from its Parisienne instrumental arrangement. Then there is Love Of My Life (So Far) which is superb jaunty Indie Pop that is as catchy as catchy can ever be,
Troper deserves massive credit, both for taking on this project and for the arrangement, performance and sheer joy on show. His productions have showed another massive side to him and the treatment of these songs shows that there is much more to him than straight ahead Power Pop. Absolutely Fantastic!
You can listen to and buy the album here. If ever an album demands a physical release, it is this.
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Gotta say I love that cover, echoing Nilsson Sings Newman....
ReplyDeleteDon, as ever - this is a much needed spotlight on an otherwise obscure and unlikely release. I've been playing this (on the radio, too) since the pre-release single appeared on Bandcamp a short time ago!
ReplyDeleteA quibble here and a quibble there - I think you mean The Grays, not "The Grass" above. As well, tho Brion's pop output is modest in quantity - some of the soundtracks you allude to as side projects themselves include a pop song or three.
Finally - if the only thing this album had done right was the visual pun of the cover with its echoes of Nilsson Sings Newman as a forbear, I would have eagerly signed on and yes, like you said, I'm crying for vinyl for that reason and many, many more.
Thanks Craig! Corrected The Grass, it was the Apple auto correct which beat me as it does all too often.
ReplyDeleteThanks Craig! Corrected The Grays, it was the Apple Auto Correct that beat me, which it does all too often. Don
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