John's Top Ten of 1998
I've waited until nearly the last minute of 1998 to decide on my best
for the past year, but here it is. For what it's worth.
- Robert Wegmann, Red
Hair
- Far and away my favourite for 1998. An excellent EP (or mini-album) in
which Mr. Wegmann turns from straight Beach Boys and Beatles inspired pop
to something a little grander. Elements of King Crimson and Peter
Gabriel pop up in these rich tableaux of sound, with bits of world
musicks thrown in as connecting passages. Mr. Wegmann has taken up the
Stick and married a concert accordionist from Russia, both of which
feature prominently in this recording. Really, I cannot recommend this
highly enough. Mail order from Fumiko Records (http://mayflyglimmer.com/).
- L'affaire Louis Trio, Mobilis in Mobile
- Okay, so this one's from 1993, but I didn't discover it until this
year, and I've played it quite a bit. I suppose it would help to
understand French, but so far I've enjoyed the album quite enough in my
ignorance. My sister tells me they sound like XTC. I suppose they do,
in that they mine that vein of power pop, but their influences are more
varied than that. In any case, I have been playing this one a lot
lately.
- Brian Wilson, Imagination
- The production is a bit on the cheesy side, but Mr. Wilson writes
and sings some great songs here. And it's not all nice. He plays with
the production for a bit of the ugly underneath, especially on the album
closer "Happy Days".
- Nick Heyward, The Apple Bed
- Not as good as his previous, Tangled, this one is still chock full
of Beatles and 80s pop inspired tracks. Mr. Heyward may wear his
influences on his sleeve, so that one can list them easily (The Jam, The
Beatles, XTC, My Bloody Valentine...) but his melodies are infectious,
his performances are convincing, and his lyrics are never trite, though
they may lean that way. Basically a good solid listen. And this album
contains one of my favorite tracks of this year, "The Man You Used To
Be".
- Chalkhills' Children '98
- Perhaps there's a little bias involved, or perhaps it is, as has
been said, that this album is the best we can do until the new XTC album
comes out. In any case, CC98 is the third in a series of XTC tributes
compiled and performed by subscribers to Chalkhills, the official XTC
fans 'net mailing list. And it is by far the best of the series. This
tribute contains some excellent interpretations of XTC songs. (For
ordering details, see http://chalkhills.org/product/children98.html)
- Slapp Happy, Ça Va
- Yes, it's true. Slapp Happy reunited for an album, after more than
20 years. And it's a good one. Dagmar Krause, Peter Blegvad, and
Anthony Moore have definitely not been sleeping for those intervening
years. And yet they have managed to remain both outside the mainstream
and interesting. Another of my favorite tracks of this year are on this
album ("Scarred for Life").
- Yazbek, Tock
- This Yazbek guy is a nut. A nut who writes some twisted and eminently
hummable pop. Ya gotta love songs like "Tool Calendar Girl" and "Here
Come The Ducks".
- The Negro Problem, Post Minstrel Syndrome
- Not without its problems, this disc had its share of memorable
melodies. I usually programmed out the "bonus tracks", but nonetheless
this album spent a lot of time in the player.
- The Bevis Frond, North Circular
- This double album has some of Mr. Frond's best work in a few years,
but it's also sprawling and overwhelming. And has one of the best rants
I've heard in ages (since Ice-T's "This One's For Me", perhaps). And the
live gig at the Great American Music Hall in San
Francisco was one of the best of this year. Nick Saloman's electric
dulcimer solo had to be heard (and seen) to be believed. (P.S. I was
joking when I said "Mr. Frond".)
And honorable mentions go to the following:
- Happy Rhodes, Many Worlds are Born Tonight
- The Eels, Electro-Shock Blues
- Mary Lou Lord, Got No Shadow
- Clockwise, Clockwise
- National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest 97
- Orchestraville, Orchestraville
Happy New Year!
Back to John Relph's Decade in Music
2 November 2005
/ John Relph