33 rebellions per minute
"We're satisfied but we won't get far"
1995
Mommyheads, BINGHAM'S HOLE
At least two of the world's music writers believe that the Mommyheads sound exactly like an XTC copycat band. Of course I remember that; it's why I bought BINGHAM'S--- their fourth album, widely considered their best, in what has apparently been a five-album journey from experimentation towards songcraft--- in the first place. Martin Newell records sound exactly like XTC records, and range from good (THE OFF-WHITE ALBUM) to brilliant (THE GREATEST LIVING ENGLISHMAN). Captain Snesible's REVOLUTION NOW sounds, well, mostly like an XTC album, and it's great too. XTC records by definition sound like XTC records, and XTC are one of my six favorite bands. The Mommyheads, however, have more complicated ideas. Luckily, I'm okay with that.
Singer Adam Cohen has one of those strained voices you hear from males who probably should be singing an octave lower, and sounds about halfway between Stephen Malkmus (Pavement) and Scott Miller (Loud Family). Other singer Mike Holt sounds a bit childlike but smoother, more like XTC's second singer/ songwriter Colin Moulding ("Wake Up", "Generals And Majors", "King For A Day"). Nobody in the band sings like Donald Fagen of Steely Dan. If someone did, the vocalists would make a perfect analogy for the band sound, which really does come to one of those ingredient-of-influence compotes we critics are accused of inventing. This may not be purposeful, it's just hard to ignore, especially if my technical vocabulary isn't up to explaining this. The ambitious, twisting melodies are XTC-like, but tend to pass up choruses for a Pavement-y semi-resolve. The guitar playing, putting a brittle spin on country-rock and going for an occasional very choppy behind-the-beat power chording (see "Queen Of The Ants"), could often be sonically straight from CROOKED RAIN (with instrumental digressions worthy of "Stop Breathing" or "Unity 5+4="), but with all the chordal sevenths and ninths so approved by Steely jazzbos (and the whirring organ/ Fender Rhodes near-instrumental "Fragrant Rota", apparently a tribute to Nino Rota [who?] misses Steely Dan-ness only by being a bit too good-naturedly cheezy). The Mommyheads also have to Loud Family's ability to use non-4/4 grooves in a natural, non-obtrusive way, with "Bingham's Hole"'s rowdy 7/8, "Lead Balloon"s lovingly picked acoustic-guitar 7/8, and "Pig In A Blanket"'s 6/4 flowing smoothly; if "Queen..."s 5/4 chorus is blatantly off-the-wall, we know that's on purpose.
A lyric sheet would have been a nice gesture, because the lyrics are very intelligent and I have not much talent for memorizing by ear. All of the songs, I think, focus on romantic concerns, and the most notable trait I see is the ability to be both jadedly analytical and sappily romantic at the same time, such as the especially ballad-like "It's Okay", acknowledging "you're a game player, but that's okay, so am I", then openly hoping to lose and get hitched because maybe that's the happiest way to go. Or the hooky 2:23 "Tension": "I believe in cream puffs and apple pies/ I believe in nectarines and tangerines/ I believe in peace and love and understanding/ I believe in loving you eternally/ I believe in everything that you believe in/ but I also believe in tension/ I also believe in tension/ I also believe in tension". Maybe that's not your taste, but when the girl I've been courting (with her permission) picked "Tension" out from a mix-tape I'd made her for special praise, I know _I_ was giving her bonus points for judgment above and beyond the call of musical taste. Besides, it's catchy. Steely Dan, Pavement, those are good bands. And you know? It does sound like XTC, kind of.
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