Ben Folds Five - Naked Baby Photos (Caroline)
You know sometimes life is like a jumble sale, a big box of ill fitting shoes, strange support garments
and other items that you know must fit somewhere if only you knew where to put the straps. ‘Naked
Baby Photos’ is a bit like that, a grab bag of tunes culled from the career of the Ben Folds Five, from
their beginnings up to the present day. Some of the tracks are ace, others a little less so. The live version
of Underground stands out, as does the short but none the less brilliant, Satan Is My Master.
Everything else however comes across as just being less than exciting, don’t get me wrong they’re all
competent but without the little bits of crowd noise at the beginning you’d be hard pushed to tell the
live tracks from the originals, so what’s the point?
As a collection of B-Sides and rarities this is pretty good, but really it’s just one for the completists or
the huge fans only. There are few gems in amongst the jumble, but you have to fight the old ladies to
get to them. Sharpen your elbows and dive in.
Jon
The Charlatans - Melting Pot (Beggars Banquet)
As soon as the thud of the drums and the wide-boy Hammond organ break loose at the start of this
album, you know that this is just so right. It encompasses the whole ethic of good time guitar
grooves and delivers more quality tunes than you can shake a proverbial stick at. Always the
Bridesmaid but never the bride, The Charlatans have been a constant in the past eight years of music.
True, their style has barely changed, but with a formula this good, who would change it? What with
the washed up grooves of Then, evolving to their own Jagger / Richards style 'Just Lookin’, and the
Chemical Brothers’ version of Patrol, this makes a valiant attempt to become a ‘complete’ album but
falls barely short of the mark. Well, The Charlatans never were a ‘Jack of all trades’ band. Having said
that, the album lacks any of the slower, quieter songs that litter their back catalogue (a ghastly mistake).
This ‘best of’ collection might as well be taken down as their epitaph. Very few bands will ever come
this close to perfection. The competition might as well give up trying now.
Rod
Ben Folds Five - Naked Baby Photos (Caroline) Jon
Gurd - Down The Drain (Century Media)
Made up from the remnents of Swiss thrash metal band Poltergeist (who?), this is Gurd’s fourth album
to date, previous titles being Gurd, Addicted and D-Fect. With the usual shouting/grunting lead
vocals which are so prevalent on thrash metal these days, at first listen this four piece sounds like
routine metal spew. After a few listens a little something shines through; the musicianship is tight
and accurate, sound lyrics and catchy riffs. The only thing letting this type of band down is its’ lack of
general acceptance. As the record label states it was time to get pissed off, and that’s what Gurd are.
Pissed off with just about everything. Play this too loud and you’re likely to get well and truly kicked in.
Zoë
Sean O’Hagan’s a funny old bugger. Forming Microdisney with Cathal Coughlan in the early 80’s and
recording ace melancholic and bitter pop tunes must of seemed like a great idea at the time. But
unfortunately, The band only hung around enough to inspire a certain Niel Hannon before
imploding. So O’ Hagan found himself at a loose end at the beginning of the 90’s. So did he retire
gracefully? Of course not. He decided to devote the rest of his career trying to make a sequal (equal?) to
Pet Sounds. As you do. After a few impressive solo albums he formed the High Llamas and released a
couple of great albums, Gideon Gaye and Hawaii (94 + 96 respectively). And now we come to the third
High Llamas’ album. And it’s a corker. The Stereolab influence is obvious as anyone who heard last
years Dot’s and Loops album will confirm. This can probably be attributed to the fact that O’ Hagan has
worked with Stereolab on several occasions. To get an idea of the sound, think Brian Wilson trying to
sound like Mouse on Mars via Parisian cafes. It’s all half formed songs with hazy vocals and strange
beats. Quezy listning at it’s best. In fact the last Stereolab album and this one make perfect companion
pieces so if you liked that, then this is more of the same. For everyone else though, this is quirky but
non-essential.
Bunny
Finally laying The Muses to rest, Kristin picks up her guitar and strums through 15 songs. With such a
distinctive voice it's hard to think of this as a solo album (indeed, her second), rather than a stripped
down Muses LP. The live LP that accompanied 'Red Heaven' demonstrated what she was capable of on
her own, as did 'Hips And Makers', the first solo outing proper. Much more coherent than her half-
sister Tanya's 'Love Songs For The Underdogs', 'Strange Angels' won't have you jumping around,
instead it will lull you into a cosy world, all serene and beautiful. Don't operate heavy machinery after
listening to this. Stripped down, Kristin is far from naked, as her talent keeps her warm.
Andi
Carter USM - I Blame The Government (Cooking Vinyl)
Well I didn't expect it to be Jim Bob's or Fruitbat's fault, now did I? Carter leave a suicide note to their
career, which spanned some good songs but never usually a whole album full at any one time, except
for '101 Damnations' and '30 Something'. They have finally decided to call it a day and bury the corpse
before people noticed the smell. Almost single handedly they introduced crowd surfing to the UK.
Their gigs were just one heaving mess of testosterone and sweaty T-shirts (oh but what T-shirts they
were!) A band who loved a pun, but were always going to be the first casaulty of a New Labour
government, a band who simply needed Thatcher and her army of yuppies for the source of their
inspiration, it simply left them little to write about. This is a hollow collection of bouncy sing-alongs,
without purpose or direction, (and not much in the way of production either!) Unstoppable?
Thankfully not. RIP.
Andi
Clawfinger - Clawfinger (Coalition)
Fairly hard rock music with a monotone vocalist; so prepare yourself for an album of, well, similar sounding but commendable tracks. This is nearly modern heavy metal, and the musicianship is tight and production is good. It is unusual because of the strange vocals, but these occasionally disappear, replaced with chunky backing vocals in the choruses. Good tracks include "Biggest and the Best" and "Not Even You". The album definitely grew on me.
Zoë
Stuck Mojo - Rising (Century Media)
Jumping in at the deep end, Stuck Mojo thrash their way through thirteen seriously heavy ditties that grab you by the neck and throttle you unexpectedly. Not the grunting sour-faced album expected from thrash metal bands, to be fair. For a change, the album sleeve sums it all up well: "big metal riffs, groovy rhythms and harsh vocal bantering". Recommended tracks are "Rising", "Trick" and "Dry", although all with terribly trendy one word titles, surprisingly cool. Turn on, fire up and rock out.
Zoë
Beekeepers - Third Party fear and theft (Beggars Banquet)
Premier almost-album from long-standing objects of desire here at Scrapie Towers. The Derby-based quintet's wonderful ability to sound beautifully melancholy whilst maintaining a hard-nosed edge of attitude is apparent in this fine package of songs including the Rossiter-esque warblings of 'Inheritance' and the Squire-inspired 'Beau Peepshow'. Three of their first four singles are also included in the nine (plus one) track offering, and this becomes a veritable hive (durrr) of musical wonderment. Whilst a full album would have been nice, this will more than fill the gap. Take note of the Beekeepers people, for this is the future and verily the future is bright.
Dave
