Thinking Fellers Union Local 282

Strangers From The Universe (Matador ‘94) Rating: B+
With a band name like this it’s readily apparent that there’s nothing normal about these guys (and gal). I had heard great things about these San Francisco-based Fellers, and was previously amazed at their originality and creativity but dismayed by their amateurishness and inconsistency. After persevering through Lovelyville and Mother Of All Saints, both of which had their moments but were too frustratingly inconsistent to be completely satisfying, Strangers From The Universe was the payoff that finally rewarded my patience with the band. A significant step up in class, here the Fellers hit their stride, again coming up with unique compositions that only they could muster, piecing songs together in an unconventional manner unlike anyone else. But they also give the listener much better production and far less filler while keeping the annoying vocals to a minimum. For the first time I’m noticing the lyrics, which are funny, poetic, and quite cynical, while the singing is vastly improved and impressively diversified (the band has four members who sing). Jerky rhythms, atmospheric drones, and abrasive, often-angular guitar phrases are still in place, but this is also an often-lovely record, with gorgeous jangly guitars and the occasional organ lending richly organic textures. They’re still too experimental for their own good, and I’ll personally never see the need for the “Feller filler” that these guys are known for (short and often pointless segues that are somewhat kept in check this time compared to Mother Of All Saints). But for the first time the Fellers have come up with a full album that’s enjoyable on the very first listen, highlighted by “Socket,” with its low-key, funky, and quite hooky riffs, “Hundreds Of Years,” with its pretty guitars, pleasantly whispered vocals, creative intermingling of guitars, and intense stop/start interruptions, “Cup Of Dreams,” with its often-dreamy ambiance and utterly gorgeous mellotron (I think), “The Piston And the Shaft,” with its slinky groove and prominent female backing vocals, and “Notable Experiment,” a cynical, lullaby-like ballad on which Anne Eickelberg again shines, this time on lead vocals. Again, the “Feller filler” is regrettable, the oddball vocals on songs such as “My Pal The Tortoise,” “Cup Of Dreams,” and “The Operation” take some getting used to, and the overly long but mostly good “Guillotine” gets a bit dreary after awhile, but by and large the band’s mellowest and most diverse album to date finally saw them delivering on the scattershot promises of their previous records.

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