| Author | Message | ||
     Victor Prose Unregistered guest |
GRANT MCLENNAN'S 10 WORST MOMENTS 10. Horsebreaker Star's 4-Song 'Boring Stretch' The purist in me doesn't condone US distributors' truncation of Grant's 24-song opus. But while he bemoans the loss of "Late Afternoon In Early August", he certainly doesn't miss the 15-minute nap that always came before "Girl In A Beret". 9. "Orpheus Beach" McLennan's songs on Friends Of Rachel Worth sound strangely pale next to Forster's comeback wonders ("Spirit", "Surfing Magazines") - after all, he had less time to recover from In Your Bright Ray than Forster did from Warm Nights. There's a difference, however, between slight-but-fun ("Goin' Blind") and not-that-good. 8. "Broadway Bride" Watershed's lowlight features the strongest example of McLennan's occasionally baffling lyrical tendencies: "Hung around her like a babysitter/but she rubbed his face in her kitty litter". Inexplicably slated for 'Freakchild'. 7. "Don't Call Me Gone" There stands a fine, fine line between the pleasant throwaway (b-side counterpart "A Little Romance", even "Doo Wop In A") and the indefensibly ridiculous. Blame it on Amanda? 6. "Hope Then Strife" McLennan leads a weird arsenal on Tallulah despite two of his most shimmering successes, but the record is a favorite. Its dreary, pretentious closer is a permanent annoyance. 5. "Hold Your Horses" (vocal performance) McLennan's early songs, though crude, never took away from Forster's equally exploratory experiments. His debut vocal ran the risk. 4. "Heaven Says" This is a fair representation of what happens when choirboys with an ear for melody are bitten by Nick Cave, and the bite becomes infected. 3. In Your Bright Ray, Snow Job and Far Out Corporation (the wilderness albums, 96 - 98) Both McLennan and Forster suffered when the 'tweens broke up, but only one cut a whole album of unremarkable (if pleasant) songs. This is excluding SJ and FOC, two flimsy McLennan side-projects that hold the rare distinction of never having spurred a second listen. 2. "Was There Anything I Could Do" The only song by my favorite group (& songwriter) of all time to which I might easily apply the terms "stupid", "awful", and "ugly". 1. "The Pawnbroker" & Fireboy's two vignettes I readily enjoy all the Real Songs on Fireboy, even genius-free cop-outs like "Fingers" and "One Million Miles From Here", which soar like prime McLennan because he writes them that way. So the pointless, meritless padding of "Things Will Change" and "When I Close My Eyes" irritates and frustrates me - why not essay an economic 10 tunes and step out, like Forster does on the magnificent Calling From A Country Phone? But one-to-two minutes can only go so far. "The Pawnbroker", which is neither smart nor music, is four times said length. The irritation/frustration is likewise compounded. Cheers, V. E. Prose | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1925 Registered: 03-2005 |
Welcome to the board Victor! This is an entertaining list. I definitely agree with your skewering of the "Boring Stretch" on HS (though I get the impression that I might like the album much better than you do). In the case of IYBR, for me, "One Plus One" and "Lamp by Lamp" sit up there with McLennan's best. And I enjoy the adolescent awkwardness of "Hope Then Strife" and its oddly anticlimactic manner of closing the underrated "Tallulah" on which--of course--"Cut It Out" is Grant's real offense. Thank you for reminding me to delete "The Pawnbroker" from my iTunes library. | ||
| Victor Prose Unregistered guest |
Appreciate the 'ppraisal! I have certain 'picks' from IYBR too when I'm digging deeply enough (Sea Breeze, Comet Scar, the ones on Intermission, Can You See The Lights if not for that Milton Berle line) but none of them reach the heights I'm used to from all but the above McLennan tunes. I did attempt to exact some 'critical objectivity' with a lot of these entries - I've certainly sung along with "Hope Then Strife", "Broadway Bride", et al. But IYBR definitely satisfies me the least of any of the 18 GB/solo albums, and since at least 10 are in my top 20 of all time, that constitutes a major offence. Also, I'm well aware I'm alone on this (since Grant passed away, at least) but I've always enjoyed "Cut It Out" - I'm a bit of a pop fiend - just as I love the additionally underrated, additionally 80sified "You Tell Me", which I imagine isn't quite so reviled. | ||
| JunkInTheTrunk Unregistered guest |
There are so few I don't like, this is a tougher list to populate. Having said that, there are a few lesser tracks that tend to assert themselves as eminently skippable: 1) Lighting Fires. I go against the mainstream on this one, I guess, but it seems fairly generic, and I liked it better when it was called, "Was There Anything I Could Do?", which I, honestly, like quite a bit. A GREAT and powerful lyric. 2)Okay, pretty much all of "Fireboy", except "Dark Side of Town". Not GM's finest hour. 3) Unfinished Business. Yawn. 4) This Bud, er Night's for You - Unlike so many of GM's songs, this one is resistible. Also, the seams are showing - it's clearly one of those "Frankenstein" songs, composed of two song fragments that don't really mesh. 5) River of Money. Past the 1st time, I've never had much desire to hear it again. And...that's all I got. I agree, Victor, about "Cut It Out", btw... | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1552 Registered: 10-2004 |
Have to say Victor, I LOVE Hold Your Horses. One of my favorites songs on SMAL. Grant's wavery, confidence-free delivery is endearing, and musically, it's a beautiful song. A highlight. I also think Broadway Bride is one of the few genuinely good songs on Watershed. Not a great song, but nice. Hope then Strife is okay by me. Not a smashing song, but good nonetheless. The only thing that drives me batshit crazy is how the classical nylon-stringed guitar is totally not in tune with the electric guitars. Drives me up the wall because it creates a kind of unintended dissonance that totally doesn't work with that song. It sounds so sour! I don't mind Heaven Says, but to me it sounds more like the Go-Betweens trying (with limited success) to sound like a cross between Gang of Four and Wire. I don't hear the Birthday Party. Of course that song that they wrote and recorded with the Birthday Party, After the Fireworks, is abysmal. There are way too many Grant solo songs that I really don't like, so I won't get into those here. But a few Go-Betweens moments that I've never, ever warmed up to include: Don't Call Me Gone - I know this was intended to be totally silly, but to this day, I still don't get why everyone loves to obsess over country music. The Clock - Generic. And I never got why they *always* included this in their mach-II live sets. Always. River of Money - I know they wrote this as a "f*ck you" to producer John Brand, who was doing all he could to smooth out their sound with SPH, but this song just simply doesn't fit on the record. It's such a drastic stylistic departure that it puts a big gaping hole in what is an otherwise consistent side 2. I always felt they should've stuck King in Mirrors in its place and used River of Money as a b-side. I'm all for being noisy and avant-garde and whatever, but musically this song isn't even that great to begin with. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1388 Registered: 09-2006 |
I've warmed to "River of Money," sort of concurrently in the way I've warmed to SHF itself. Regardless of the actual circumstances of its recording, the finished product has always sounded very transitional to me...the herkity-jerkity rhythms and tunes starting to fade (though they'd never fully disappear, and remain one of the essential ingredients to their sound), the gorgeous melodies coming forward and even if they were resisting it at the time by the next album they certainly weren't anymore. What I enjoy about the best transitional albums is the particular flow of their non-flow (if that makes sense), and when I started listening to the album like that, then "River" sounded just fine and, even though I agree that the Peel Sessions one is my favorite, so did "Five Words" and pretty much everything else. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 462 Registered: 05-2005 |
Victor, I think you had better listen to Snow Job again. Cousin/Angel is one of the best Grant songs IMHO. I agree with you about River of Money - nearly upturns the applecart! I'm trying to guess the pseudoname from the writing. It's not Fsh? | ||
| Dave Dooley Member Username: Aztec Post Number: 5 Registered: 12-2006 |
The only song that immediately springs to mind as the worst song Grant ever wrote is indeed "The Pawnbroker". Its an immediate right tap Fast Forward on my CD player when I'm playing Fireboy. Having it already been mentioned a number of times already...It begs the question - I wonder is there anyone that likes it ? |