The Race Is Onā¦ is a legitimate 10/10. Next track a solid 8. Rest I canāt remember.
Better get listeninā
Shall do
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Crystal Nun is kind of Pink Floyd-y, liking it a lot
Lizard on the Red Brick Wall is a great opening track. Also enjoying Unproductive Funk!
Welshpool then. Think itās pretty great! Shows off the muscle and tightness of this lineup but Bobās written better hooks than he has in a while, in shorter punchier songs. Also the couple of solo acoustic tracks dropped in give the whole thing a Mag Earwhig feel. Pretty comfortably in my top 5 post-Tobin albums
Meet the Star hits hard right up front, great little Doug riff leading to the chorus, and the āplectrum strumsā line is very winning. Lovely outro too
Cruisersā gives us the crunchy chime which I think is what this lineup does best. Main riff is one of those timeless ones that sounds like someone should have written it 50 years ago
Romeo has a great opening riff but that is the strongest part. Still good though. Chain Dance could be right off Suitcase or VoT, lovely to hear Bob in this way again, very loose and easy. Sweet accordion or organ drones in the background
Kiss Me is just big and warm and open hearted, packing loads into 2 minutes. Very into the chorus vocals and melody for Animal Concentrate, but one of the less vital tracks - same with Cats on Heat
Mother Mirth is just as good as Chain Dance, either these are old tracks being revisited or heās just tapped into his 90s hot streak out of nowhere. Gorgeous chord progression
Donāt Blow Your Dream Job is such a good title and chorus, well worth the slow steady build up. Love the guitar section 90 seconds in. Does feel like two songs smashed together tbf
Bob sounds fantastic on Rust Belt Boogie! Wonder if he just has more rest time before some albums or actual bothers to do more than one take. Sounds younger on the whole album really
Better Odds is so pretty, lush. Actually kinda stunning this one, like every jangly power ballad theyāve done over the last albums but ā¦ better. Wish it rode on a little longer!
Radioactive Pigeons is fun then breaks into this glorious outro, so good. Title track is a bit of an oddity but interesting, dramatic
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Dunno why La La Land passed me by so much before, itās not a classic but itās got some really good stuff on.
Another Day to Heal is a fun opening stomper, especially the massed backing vocals.
Released into Dementia is a lovely little number, and the organ line in the middle is perfect. Makes me think of Telstar - then into big sky scraping guitar! great. Ballroom Etiquette is nearly as lovely, good pairing, enjoy the big rolling toms in such a gentle track
Queen of Spades is really great, those lush strings - so cinematic and grand. Properly romantic in a way he doesnāt do all that often
Slowly on the Wheel has cool sections at 1:45 and 3:50 and the harmonic outro. Very into those but not how long it takes to get to them
I like all of Cousin Jackie but it also feels like itās too long - that must be some sort of late-GBV paradox . Best part is the really high āDOO DOO DO DOOO DOā Bob does, just makes me smile
Caution Song is a bit different for them too, that watery shoegaze bass leading things. Downbeat sweetness
Not that much from the last two; but not bad either
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Found La La Land another fairly unmemorable one tbh. Caution Song was quite nice, Ballroom Etiquette had a good chorus hook. Otherwise not really fussed.
Welshpool Frillies!
So, I dug this when it came out. I felt it was more consistent and cohesive than, say, La La Land but managed to be more interesting than Crystal Nuns Cathedral.
Meet The Star kicks off with a metallic hard rock vibe but with some Wire-esque tones. Pretty cool. And it segues into Cruiserās Cross very nicely. These are solid tunes, but only really half-memorable. Romeo Surgeon is more promising with a cool hooky riff. The production is great on this and Bobās voice really works on this cut. Iām not totally sold on the choruses, but the rest and the outro is pretty strong.
Chain Dance is almost like vintage lo-fi filler GBV. Quite nice too. Why Wonāt You Kiss Me is pretty great, going from that chuggy verse to that unexpected soaring chorus all while Bob delivers some good, funny lyrics. Iām enjoying this run of shorter tracks more than the first few. Animal Concentrate is pleasant enough but I lose interest in it. Keep it short, Welshpool!
Cats On Heat is kind of great. Fitting some cool turning-on-a-dime riff ideas and good Bob vocal moments into just 1:30. Itās got hooks too. Mother Mirth is very nice as well. A āno frillsā jangly thing that could have been on a 90s GBV album. Donāt Blow Your Dream Job is a different vibe again. The proggiest thing on here so far, which is largely uninteresting, until the hooky refrain at the end. This record is certainly not short of ideas.
Awake Man is one of those GBV stompy tunes they like to do these days. Again, Bobās vocals are strong and the lyrics are decent and quite hooky. Itās not the best thing on here by any means, but it doesnāt outstay itās welcome. Rust Belt Boogie has a Wire meets QOTSA vibe. Great instrumentation as it gets going and builds up and, yes, Bob is in fine voice on this. The production is fantastic. Itās the longest track on here, but potentially the best. A very atypical GBV tune. Maybe would make a good closer.
Seedling is very nice too. Especially where it goes in the second half. Could be a Frank Black tune. Better Odds is very lovely. Bordering on cheesy. But a nice ambience and an unadorned vocal performance from Bob. This is another strong tune, actually. Good little run at the back end here. Maybe they tried to deliberately not front-load this one!
Radioactive Pigeons is one from the GBV Song Title Generator, surely. The tune is a bit AI-Bob too, but the strings and walking bass in the middle eight are decent. The title track is the most experimental moment on here. Something of a poem from Bob with clanging instrumentation and other odd bits. Kinda cool!
So, yeah. Welshpool Frillies is a strong album really. I found writing this that I really had to sit down with it and without any distractions. Itās quite easy to accuse it of being a bit understated(?) and samey if youāve got it on in the background, but actually it has loads of ideas and more than enough decent tunes to make it worth spending time with.
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sounds comparatively good to me, Welshpool Frillies, guitars especially*; songs generally decent but not quite top notch (not even sure where to put them comparatively). Donāt Blow Your Dream Job stood out to me as being actually good, as did Rust Belt Boogie to a slightly lesser extent; Welshpool Frillies (the song) at least interesting. Slightly disappointed by the shorter songs, but maybe thatās because I hoped for more from them. I did like having some acoustic songs though.
Gonna try to bear in mind that I thought this one was a bit above average for this era if/when I revisit, but hard to figure out where Iād rank it. Really hard to break out of the āthis is surprisingly good actually!ā/ānot quite as good as the classic stuff!ā/āwish GBV would do something slightly different but no idea what it should be!ā cycle.
*listened to it through my laptop speakers
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absolutely, think this is part of why Iām so high on ABC because ā¦ having a third of the album be non-Bob songs was actually a new move for them, and it clearly worked well
but yeah at this points its mostly shades of the same thing, some collections of songs slightly stronger and some slightly weaker but all falling into roughly the same category
damn, youāre right it was a cool idea, but in practice I went from ādo something different!ā to āactually no no, not that! more Pollard!ā
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canāt get the fans these days smh
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(I do actually know what I want from GBV in 2024: teenage guitar with better (more song-like) songs, some drunken demos, mix of full band and acoustic, some reverb tank sounds. Or something a full album like best songs from the Grand Rapids thing! Pollard should just do what I want, not what he wantsā¦)
so Nowhere is another one where overall thereās a bit too much stop starting and changing directions mid song, while still dragging things out to 4 mins rather than fun little throwaway bops. Whole thing sounds very good (especially with the horns added in) but just a bit less light than I want, itās a bit heavy. But very listenable and a couple highlights, not a bad entry
The Race is On is very good, @jordan_229 is right there. Feels a little slow sometimes but builds up so many layers and melodies that itās hard to deny
Punchers Parade sounds pretty classic, could have fit into UTBUTS era Iād say, love how chiming and sweeping the main section is
Local Master Airplane is a bit of a stomper! Fun 2 min burst of energy, well placed after two longer slower ones
Really into the horn section on How Did He Get Up There, new sound for them. Bit too much going on overall, though all sounds good
Very cool 70s intro to Love Set, epic build up - best part of the track though. Why is this so long
Few pretty anonymous ones in a row after that - though a lovely bass break in Jack of Legs at 1:30 and epic outro. Thatās something they always do well in this era even for lesser tracks. Drum fills drum fills yeah! That part is properly great
Love For the Home once it kicks in! Great riff and melody and energy - just pummelling along on those floor toms. This one actually probably needs more parts! Not sure why itās so long for just one riff, but Iām having fun
Cruel for Rats is weird man lol, was digging that start then it goes three diff places in 10 seconds. Song and Dance is okay but a bit of a trudge to end things, though once again they smash the outro and end on a high there
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I had to recalibrate my ranking for La La Land. Donāt think itās swung the needle much.
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Nowhere To Go But Up!
I donāt feel Iāve had sufficient time to digest this one yet, really. Good to have a proper sit with it.
The Race Is Onā¦ is a pretty great opener. Got a laid back swing to it, great lyrics, and nice instrumental touches. Very melancholy. A clear late GBV āhitā. The vibe continues with Puncherās Parade. A kind of melancholy, resigned ballad, but with full band instrumentation ā calling back to the early 2000s GBV records.
Local Master Airplane is a bit more propulsive with its palm muted guitars etc. Bobās voice has that similar resigned vibe to it ā which doesnāt suit the track so much. Pretty cool Doug guitars in the outro. How Did He Get Up There? has a bit more going on with Bobās vocals. And, musically, itās the most interesting so far. A bit ploddy, but some cool swelling brass and stuff ā makes for a very dynamic, almost orchestral, track.
Stabbing At Fractions is a bit of a chugger. Iām noticing a theme in the lyrics about reaching for the skies, blueprints, dreaming, strategizing ā which is kind of cool. The tracks arenāt immediately memorable, but Bob is doing a nice job at painting a picture loosely based on the Wright Brothers/early 1900s America. Love Set builds up like The Who, before turning into a start-stop post-punk, thing then some lacklustre chug. It all falls a bit flat, sadly.
Weāre Going The Wrong Way In is cool with itās rolling guitar runs and double-tracked Bob vocal that sits really nicely. Could well be off Earthquake Glue. 2:30, spot on! Jack Of Legs sounds almost Who-like again. Bobās vox are working a lot better here too. But the track quickly descends into rather aimless riff rock ā reminding me a bit of Alex Bell in that thereās some cool bits in there, but a lot of fat.
For The Home is cool. Definitely one of the stronger tunes on here. Again, it sounds like The Who. And again, it doesnāt need to be nearly 5 minutes long, but at least all the parts roll along in service to the tune. Cruel For Rats plods along though. Total filler, really. Before album closer, Song And Dance arrives. This is a pleasant slow burner. Big satisfying slowcore chords. Decent Bob vocals. And it establishes something cool. Before turning it all into something more rockist and ultimately not great.
Itās a funny record this. It lacks hooks, I think. But itās not impenetrable by any means. The theme that runs through Bobās lyrics are really nice ā and you canāt help but feel thereās a story in there even if it loses its way on Side B a little bit. I donāt know if he called this one a concept record, but I imagine it could be listened to like that. It has some good moments, but doesnāt quite reach the highs of the other 2023 records for me ā even if the overarching package is quite satisfying.
3 Likes
Good shout on Earthquake Glue for this one especially, feels like it has a lot of the same stylistic touches without the song quality being there
Letās stay to the schedule even if everyone is abandoning us ā¦ we can only go up from here!
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- The Race Is On, The King Is Dead
- Puncherās Parade
- Local Master Airplane
- How Did He Get Up There?
- Stabbing At Fractions
- Love Set
- Weāre Going The Wrong Way In
- Jack Of Legs
- For The Home
- Cruel For Rats
- Song And Dance
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voters
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Three albums within the last 12 months. And a Circus Devils album. And the Rip Van Winkle EP. Itās quite overwhelming isnāt it!
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Iāll just keeping tagging the usual suspects until we have a decent vote count for every album (ideally 8 for them all)
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