written by math
8/10 (ESSENTIAL)
- Tally Ho! b/w Platypus 7" [9/10]
Clean.
It quickly did arrive like this and
It will forever survive like this!
A-Side: New Zealand is a perfect place in this song, the cheesy garage organ absurdly accents every line. The songwriting is built here, and never matched again, but approaced from other interesting directions. It's all pop, perhaps, but so pop that it reaches avant garde levels. A queer little ditty, and a merry.
B-Side: A live cut sounding like so many great bands, but the Clean probably hadn't listened to any of them, so why bother to list? Hook.
Cut: Tally Ho!
Boodle, Boodle, Boodle EP [9/10]
5 songs in the similar vein of the first single are here. "Thumbs off" = reggae minor threat pop with preposterous drumming. This EP has more acoustic sounds, and more catchiness. Singalong choruses in all the songs really. "Point that things somwehere else" is crazy guitar work, being both shoegazer and twee.
Cuts: Thumbs Off, Point that thing somewhere else, Billy Two
Great Sounds Great, (Good Sounds Good, So-So Sounds So-So, Bad Sounds Bad, Rotten Sounds Rotten) EP [8/10]
Essential Sounds Essential, this EP has crazy classics. You gotta hear this to understand that the Clean have guitars going berserk yet they remain as close to a pop song as can be.
Cuts: Beatnik, Slug Song
Getting Older 7" [8/10]
A-Side: The fullest Clean, (almost spotless!) a horned dinosaur, a behemoth of noise and kitchens.
B-Sides: b) Scrap Music (is just that, but amazingly well crafted) and c) Whatever I Do Is Right (whatever this band has done is right so far. The changing lyrics are only one line?!)
Cut: Getting Older
Bonus Junk [5/10]
This First Disk has bunches of outtakes and live stuff, cool?(yes!)
Disk 2
Vehicle LP [5/10]
The Clean sound actually becomes clean here. Polish and all, the songs are still good, but some elements feel missing. Actually, there are quite a few high points in this 7 song selection, but there is lots to not pay attention to.
Cuts: Diamond Shine, Big Cat
Modern Rock LP [6/10]
This album is more gritty, and much more noisy! The Clean say, we've gotta get undistinguishable and you run with them to a house which is so buzzy, and as always, very peculiar in how it can be catchy too.
Cut: Secret Place
Modern Rock Outtakes [5/10]
These outtakes are really average and some funny! The songs may have fit on the album, they are just as good, if a little haphazard (ie. Nirvana's "Beans").
Unknown Country LP [7/10]
Ah! A new Clean, fresh and instrumental laden, with grooves beyond grooves, exists. It is sparser, and alternately (depending on the song) catchy and exciting or laid back and ambient. Eno or Pavement? ("Franz Kafka at the Zoo" vs. "Clutch"?)
Cut: Twist Top
The Clean are from New Zealand and were put out by Flying Nun Records.