The Concretes - The Concretes (2003)

Starting the last day of 2022 off with an old favorite. Swedish indie pop/rock perfection. A sugar rush of girl group pop songwriting by way of scruffy, early-aughts-style indie rock. Organ riffs, fuzzy guitars, French horn melodies, and sweet, sleepy vocals. New Years is one of those times when I'm happy to be middle-aged, and therefore no longer obligated to spend the night getting too drunk in a packed bar. My wife and I will be ringing in the New Year by making a huge tray of nachos, watching reality TV, and probably being asleep by 10:30 or so, thank you very much.

Track listing:

1. Say Something New

2. You Can't Hurry Love

3. Chico

4. New Friend

5. Diana Ross

6. Warm Night

7. Foreign Country

8. Seems Fine

9. Lovin' Kind

10. Lonely as Can Be

11. This One's for You

And all the things I had in mind for you and me

If you like this, you'd also like:

Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Camera Obscura - Biggest Bluest H-Fi (2003)

The Apples in Stereo - Velocity of Sound (2002)

Related:

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

The Apples in Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)

It's been long enough since my last post that it feels like I should acknowledge it. But chances are, you didn't really notice, and if you did, you probably assumed that I was doing Christmas stuff, which I was. East coast family Christmas stuff. And now I'm back, and I want to give you something sweet before this cursed year of 2021 comes to a close.

So here's Velocity of Sound, the closest that The Apples in Stereo ever came to making a punk record. The instantly memorable hooks remain, but instead of ornate arrangements, fuzz guitar reigns, with the distortion often bleeding over into the vocals, underlining a surprising link between The Apples in Stereo -- whose most obvious influence has always been The Beatles -- and the joyfully simplistic songs of The Ramones. It's also kind of a breakup record, and the breakup in question is between frontman Robert Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney, who also sings lead on album highlights "Rainfall" and "I Want". The album's not billed as such, but most of its songs seem to address a strained romantic relationship, and the two divorced shortly hereafter. Bitter lyrics and sugary tunes: the classic power pop combo.

Happy New Year to you all. Please, please, please let this year be better than the last.

Track listing:

1. Please

2. Rainfall

3. That's Something I Do

4. Do You Understand?

5. Where We Meet

6. Yore Days

7. Better Days

8. I Want

9. Mystery

10. Baroque

11. She's Telling Lies (Bryce's Mix)

I just wanna have a secret or two

Also listen to:

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

Elf Power - When the Red King Comes (1997)

Papercuts - Mockingbird (2004)

Downcast indie pop from SF songwriter Jason Quever. Gauzy, organ-heavy melancholy with sleepy vocals and a 60s-referencing aesthetic. The kind of earnest, un-self-conscious record that really makes me miss the pre-social media days of the early aughts indie boom.

Track listing:

1. Mockingbird

2. Poor and Free

3. A Fairy Tale

4. My Ivory Tower

5. Pan American Blues Pt. 2

6. Tulips

7. December Morning

8. Oh Nobody's Son

9. Judy

10. Well I Don't

For every kingdom down

Another builds again

They make their maker sigh

And never wonder why

More sad indie folks:

Camera Obscura - Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi (2001)

Thee More Shallows - More Deep Cuts (2004)

How to Dress Well - Just Once (2011)

Still my favorite How to Dress Well record. The Just Once EP strips away the harshly lo-fi textures, beats, and samples, leaving behind just Krell's emotive vocals awash in the stately melancholy of a string quartet.

Track listing:

1. Suicide Dream 1 (Orchestral Version)

2. Suicide Dream 2 (Orchestral Version)

3. Suicide Dream 3 (Orchestral Version)

4. Decisions (Orchestral Version)

What would it mean to live a life that wasn't like this?

If you like this, listen to:

Beacon - No Body (2012) + For Now (2012)

James Ferraro - Cold (2013)

The Clientele - The Violet Hour (2003)

Heavenly English indie pop/rock. Chiming guitars, shuffling drums, and dreamy, whispery vocals, all awash in reverb. I know that we're all paying attention to 5 things at once, and this band's super easy to just vibe to, but I highly recommend actually giving this record the close listen that it deserves; like, read along to the lyrics and everything. Here, you don't even have to Google them.

(Re: previous post: I deleted it, so anyone who commented on it obviously won’t be getting a direct response. Definitely makes me think that I should always do at least a little research about bands before I post about them — I usually do, but sometimes I just stumble across a record, get super stoked about it, and post it without knowing anything about the artist. My bad. Thanks to everyone for letting me know. I’m drunk and on vacation, so I’m gonna leave it at that for now, but might want to share more thoughts when I’m in a better position to do so.)

Track listing:

1. The Violet Hour

2. Voices in the Mall

3. When You and I Were Young

4. Missing

5. Jamaican Rum Rhumba

6. House on Fire

7. Everybody's Gone

8. Porcelain

9. Haunted Melody

10. Prelude

11. Lamplight

12. The House Always Wins

13. Policeman Getting Lost

You're so tired that you believe in everything

Listen to these, too:

The Orchids - Unholy Soul (1991)

Luna - The Days of Our Nights (1999)

Camera Obscura - Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi (2001)

First proper full-length from one of Glasgow's finest musical exports. Breezy, sleepy, 60's-referencing indie pop that's very much in the vein of early Belle and Sebastian, whose Stuart Murdoch helped out with string arrangements. All of this band's records are really great -- there's apparently a new album in the works, too -- but Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi and I go way back.

Track listing:

1. Happy New Year

2. Eighties Fan

3. Houseboat

4. Shine Like a New Pin

5. Pen and Notebook

6. Swimming Pool

7. Anti-Western

8. Let's Go Bowling

9. I Don't Do Crowds

10. The Sun on His Back

11. Double Feature

12. Arrangements of Shapes and Space

Don't get wise to everyone and everything
Leave a little room for some naiveté

If you like this, listen to:

The Gentle Waves - The Green Fields of Foreverland... (1999)

Luna - The Days of Our Nights (1999)

Sunshine Fix - A Spiraling World of Pop (1993)

Related:
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)

Early Elephant 6 magic courtesy of E6 co-founder Bill Doss. If you're expecting this to be warm, fuzzy, wistful, lo-fi indie rock, just because it's an early E6 cassette: you're absolutely right, that's exactly what it is. "Turtle Song" is particularly great.

Track listing:

1. Listen for the Day

2. Love Athena

3. I'll Be Gone

4. You Won't Be

5. Queen Misery

6. Learn

7. Temptation

8. Turtle Song

9. Superman Suit

10. Leonard upon Entering the Fish Market (Speaks of Apple Butter)

But it's not me

That you see

It's only a feeling

That you believe

Similar listening:

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

The Orchids - Unholy Soul (1991)

Jangly Scottish indie rock with allusions to 60s psych pop. Unlike the album art led me to believe when this CD arrived at a record store I worked at a few years back, this is not an obscure goth-rock album, so don't prepare yourself for anything overtly dark.

Track listing:
1. Me and the Black and White Dream
2. Women, Priests, and Addicts
3. Bringing You the Love
4. Frank De Salvo
5. Long Drawn Sunday Night
6. Peaches
7. Dirty Clothing
8. Untitled
9. Moon Lullaby
10. Coloured Stone
11. The Sadness of Sex (Pt. 1) / Waiting for the Storm
12. You Know I'm Fine

Picture this
A thousand people
With no eyes
Staring at you

Also listen to:

The Magnetic Fields -
The Wayward Bus (1992)

Rollerskate Skinny -
Shoulder Voices (1993)

The Magnetic Fields - The Wayward Bus (1992)

Second album of dreamy, lo-fi indie rock from The Magnetic Fields, and their last with Susan Anway handling lead vocals. At its core, early Magnetic Fields' songs had a similarly simple, girl-group-pop-style approach as, say, the Jesus and Mary Chain, but instead of piling on distortion and acid-addled feedback, it's synths, strings, and heartbreak. I absolutely love all of their early records, but this one's probably my favorite.

Track listing:
1. When You Were My Baby
2. The Saddest Story Ever Told
3. Lovers from the Moon
4. Candy
5. Tokyo A Go-Go
6. Summer Lies
7. Old Orchard Beach
8. Jeremy
9. Dancing in Your Eyes
10. Suddenly There Is a Tidal Wave

They say we're too young
I think we're too old

You should also listen to:

The Ocean Blue -
Cerulean (1991)

The Stratford 4 -
The Revolt Against Tired Noises (2001)

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Sweet, fuzzy, lo-fi indie rock. I saw Beulah sometime around late 2001 (maybe 2002) and my big takeaway, other than it being a really great show, was that I'd never seen a band less concerned about looking cool. Truly endearing, and with a seemingly endless arsenal of bittersweet hooks to match.

Track listing:
1. Maroon Bible
2. Law Low for the Letdown
3. Disco: The Secretaries Blues
4. The Rise and Fall of Our Hero's Reward
5. I Love John, She Loves Paul
6. Slo-Mo for the Masses
7. I've Been Broken (I've Been Fixed)
8. Queen of the Populists
9. Shotgun Dedication
10. Rust with Me
11. Delta
12. Dig the Subatomic Holdout #2

If it's any consolation
Remember we're fucked up together
So far

Also listen to:

Circulatory System -
Circulatory System (2000)

Elf Power -
The Winter Is Coming (2000)

The Apples in Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)

Related:
Marbles - Marbles (1993)
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

The weirdest, most psychedelic Apples in Stereo record. Pretty sure this was the first Elephant 6-related album I ever heard, having snagged it from my cooler older sister's room in a quest for non-punk music to help me through a breakup with a high-school sweetheart. Seven song-songs interspersed with a series of instrumental vignettes and sketches. "Strawberryfire" is a piece of Beatles worship for the ages -- it's almost too on-the-nose, but it's executed so beautifully that all is quickly forgiven.

Relatedly: I've been going back and replacing old links with higher-quality rips -- including almost all of the Elephant 6 ones -- so enjoy. And I haven't listened to all of them, so let me know if there are any issues with them.

Track listing:
1. I. Her Room Is a Rainy Garden
2. II. Morning Breaks (And Roosters Complain)
3. The Shiney Sea
4. III. The Significance of a Floral Print
5. Strawberryfire
6. IV. From Outside, in Floats a Music Box
7. Ruby
8. V. She Looks Through Empty Windows
9. Questions and Answers
10. VI. Drifting Patterns
11. Y2K
12. VII. Les Amants
13. Benefits of Lying (With Your Friends)
14. Ruby, Tell Me
15. VIII. Together They Dream into the Evening

I would do anything to be anywhere else

You should also hear:

The Boo Radleys -
Giant Steps (1993)

Beulah -
When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Greater California - Somber Wurlitzer (2004)

Slow-burning, Wurlitzer-fueled indie rock. Quite an apt, if on-the-nose album title, as, despite some sonic references to kaleidoscopic 60s-psych-pop, Somber Wurlitzer is a lonely, nocturnal record defined by its somber mood and the watery sound of the Wurlitzer piano. I know that it can be kinda obnoxious when people tell you 'how' to listen to a record -- especially when it more-or-less amounts to "get stoned" -- but I truly recommend listening to this after dark, and if that means you're stoned, all the better.

Track listing:
1. The Appearing
2. Missing Summer
3. Looking In
4. May Day
5. Jersey Thursday
6. In Scarlet
7. Patterns
8. Reappearing
9. Portuguese Hall
10. Somber Wurlitzer
11. Breathe [bonus]

Knowing nothing at all

You might also like:

Aztec Camera -
High Land, Hard Rain (1983)

The Dead Science -
Submariner (2003)

Circulatory System - Circulatory System (2001)

Related:
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)
Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't - Individualized Shirts (2001)

A glorious, colorful aural tapestry featuring most of a then-recently disbanded Olivia Tremor Control. Comes off less as a collection of songs than a joyously psychedelic celebration of the very act of making music and its endless possibilities. The sheer volume of amazing music that Elephant 6 was churning out around this time is astonishing, and Circulatory System is one of the very best -- right up there with Black Foliage (linked above) and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

Track listing:
1. Yesterday's World
2. Prehistoric
3. Diary of Wood
4. Outside Blasts
5. Joy
6. The Lovely Universe
7. Round
8. Inside Blasts
9. Illusion
10. Waves of Bark and Light
11. Now
12. A Peek
13. Fingers
14. Days to Come (In Photographs)
15. Symbols and Maps
16. The Pillow
17. Stars
18. Should a Cloud Replace a Compass?
19. Time or Dateline
20. How Long?
21. Your Parades

Here comes the perfect day
We're inside the Milky Way

More from E6:

The Apples in Stereo -
Science Faire (1996)

Beulah -
When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Hands - Synethesia (2013)

Idiosyncratically hook-y, aughts-style indie rock. Gauzy synths, chiming guitars, semi-yelpy vocals, and busy, colorfully layered arrangements. As I've said before (regarding a different style of music, but still): many, many bands play this style, but Hands are one of the few bands that use the sound as a conduit for cool, interesting songwriting.

Track listing:
1. Trouble
2. Videolove
3. Elegant Road
4. Brave Motion
5. The Game Is Changing Us
6. House of Jars
7. Lonesome Body
8. Kinetic
9. Nothing But Animals
10. Take It All

If I know you

You might also like:

El Guincho - Alegranza (2008)
+ Pop Negro (2010)

Nightlands -
Oak Island (2013)

The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)

Related:
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)
Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)
The Gerbils - The Battle of Electricity (2001)
Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't - Individualized Shirts (2001)

Essential 90s indie psych pop. A colorful, dizzying sound-journey through a world of Beatles/Beach Boys-style pop, as refracted through a kaleidoscope then recorded onto a four-track. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea aside, Black Foliage is the quintessential Elephant 6 record, and one of my all-time favorite albums.

Track listing:
1. Opening
2. A Peculiar Noise Called "Train Director"
3. Combinations
4. Hideaway
5. Black Foliage: Animation 1
6. Combinations
7. The Sky Is a Harpsichord Canvas
8. A Sleepy Company
9. Grass Canons
10. A New Day
11. Combinations
12. Black Foliage: Animation 2
13. I Have Been Floated
14. Paranormal Echoes
15. Black Foliage: Animation 3
16. A Place We Have Been To
17. Black Foliage (Itself)
18. The Sylvan Screen
19. The Bark and Below It
20. Black Foliage: Animation 4
21. California Demise 3
22. Looking for Quiet Seeds
23. Combinations
24. Mystery
25. Another Set of Bees in the Museum
26. Black Foliage: Animation 5
27. Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)

In the blink of an eye, you get several meanings

You should also be listening to:

Bongwater -
The Power of Pussy (1990)

The Boo Radleys -
Giant Steps (1993)

Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain (1983)

Jangly Scottish new wave. High Land, Hard Rain is a more-or-less perfect record that, like so much great pop music, hides its bitter, sardonic core under a peppy, upbeat veneer.

Track listing:
1. Oblivious
2. The Boy Wonders
3. Walk Out to Winter
4. The Bugle Sounds Again
5. We Could Send Letters
6. Pillat to Post
7. Release
8. Lost Outside the Tunnel
9. Back on Board
10. Down the Dip

It's like a mystery that never ends
I see you crying and I want to kill your friends

Also of interest:

Dwight Twilley -
Twilley (1979)

Care -
Diamonds and Emeralds (1997)

Komeda - Pop På Svenska (1993)

Swedish indie pop/rock that takes cues from jazz fusion and space-age bachelor pad music, with ample amounts of vibraphone, Rhodes, and syrupy strings. So yes: it's gonna remind you of Stereolab. It's worth mentioning, though, that Komeda kinda beat Stereolab to the punch -- check the dates.

Track listing:
1. Oj Vilket Liv!
2. Bonjour Tristesse
3. Sen Sommar
4. Ad Fontes
5. Vackra Kristaller
6. Medicin
7. Feeling Fine
8. Vals På Skare
9. Snurrig Bossanova
10. Stjärna

What makes it go?

You should also listen to:

Monade -
Socialisme Ou Barbarie (2003)

Sean Nicholas Savage -
Flamingo (2011)

The Ocean Blue - Cerulean (1991)

Pristine, jangle-y 90s indie rock. Lush, shimmering guitars and a propulsive rhythm section conjure watery, oceanic images -- as one might expect, given the band and album's titles.

Track listing:
1. Breezing Up
2. Cerulean
3. Marigold
4. A Separate Reality
5. Mercury
6. Questions of Travel
7. When Life Was Easy
8. The Planetarium Scene
9. Falling Through the Ice
10. Ballerina Out of Control
11. Hurricane Amore
12. I've Sung One Too Many Songs for a Crowd That Didn't Want to Hear

A fistful of daisies

You'll probably also like:

McCarthy - I Am a Wallet (1987) +
Banking, Violence and the Inner Life Today (1990)

Luna -
The Days of Our Nights (1999)

The Beautiful South - Welcome to the Beautiful South (1989)

Debut LP from The Beautiful South, a band formed from the ashes of The Housemartins. Jangle-y, sugary, "adult alternative"-sounding songs that belie their sardonic, even nihilistic lyrical content. Also, one my favorite album covers.

Track listing:
1. Song for Whoever
2. Have You Ever Been Away?
3. From Under the Corners
4. I'll Sail This Ship Alone
5. Girlfriend
6. Straight in at 37
7. You Keep It All In
8. Woman in the Wall
9. Oh Blackpool
10. Love Is
11. I Love You (But You're Boring)

I don't know, I don't care
I'm just glad that I wasn't there

You might also like:

Nona Hendryx -
SkinDiver (1989)

Eg and Alice -
24 Years of Hunger (1991)

The Gentle Waves - The Green Fields of Foreverland... (1999)

You motherfuckers ready to get TWEE?! The Gentle Waves was the name that Isobel Campbell, who at the time was still in Belle & Sebastian, used for this, her first solo record, before opting to just use her own name from here on out. The Green Fields of Foreverland... sounds, as one might expect, a whole lot like the songs she wrote for The Boy with the Arab Strap and Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, but with generally sparser arrangements and a more lulling feel; one major exception is the upbeat late-album adrenaline shot that is "Weathershow".

Track listing:
1. Hangman in the Shadow
2. Evensong
3. Renew and Restoer
4. Emanuelle, Skating on Thin Ice
5. Rose I Love You
6. Enchanted Place
7. Tree Lullaby
8. Dirty Snow for the Broken Ground
9. Weathershow
10. A Chapter in the Life of Mathiew
11. To Salt a Scar

Be a girl
See how hopeless she can be

If you like this, try:

Lætitia Sadier - The Trip (2010)

Sean Nicholas Savage - Flamingo (2011)