This is an album I cannot ever get tired of. When this album first came out when I was in high school, the hit "Black Metallic" got plenty of airplay on Arizona's KUKQ 1060AM radio station. I didn't buy the CD until about 10 years later. This is unfortunate, but back then, buying a CD was a gamble since it was an unknown whether or not the rest of an album was as good as the hit single it's known for. Little did I know that pretty much every song on Ferment is worthy of being a single. In fact, the album has plenty of songs I enjoy more than "Black Metallic."
Back then, I loved bands like Lush, Kitchens of Distinction, but I was unaware that they belonged to a genre called "shoegaze." I wasn't even aware of the genre label "dreampop," although I sure loved listening to The Ocean Blue, The Sundays, The Lightning Seeds, etc. Catherine Wheel's Ferment album is iconic of the early '90s shoegaze scene. Aside from the title track, the rest of the songs on Ferment are less dreamy and more poppy. Some of the songs are very catchy, like "Indigo," "She's My Friend," and "Shallow." The end of the album has the strongest shoegaze sound with "Bill and Ben" and "Salt." And I must admit that Rob Dickinson's vocals are extremely sexy.
Catherine Wheel's followup album, Chrome, is also worth checking out. But aside from their hit single "Crank," the better songs on that album are "The Nude That Broke My Heart" and "Ursa Minor Space Station." Aside from that, the rest of the album just does not compare to Ferment. Actually, the opening track on Chrome shows quite a grunge influence. I despise grunge music and how it sent decent music into a black hole during the '90s, so hearing its crappy influence on Catherine Wheel is quite a disappointment. In fact, I haven't bothered with Catherine Wheel since their first two albums, since they apparently didn't adhere to writing catchy shoegaze music and instead seemed to follow the trends of music without their roots firmly planted, like a tree swaying in the breeze.
I recently downloaded this EP from this stellar band from Korea. The band is a duet, a married couple living in South Korea with a shared passion for great dreampop music, recording beautiful shoegaze melodies together. I discovered this band on the Half Dreaming: An Asian Shoegaze Compilation album, and fell in love with their brilliant tune "See Her Fall" that they contributed to the CD. Much of the song's lyrics I could not understand, until later I realize that those verses are sung in Korean. After discovering their YouTube channel, I followed the link to their website where I discovered this EP for download. The minimum price for the download was $3, but I paid five times the amount.
I started reading their songs' lyrics on their site and was pleasantly surprised to find out that they are Christian. The only Christian shoegaze band I've ever known was Starflyer 59, and even then only their first two albums, Silver and Gold, are shoegaze. Anyhow, although The Majestic High so far seems to be just a side project, I hope that the band will release a full-length album sometime soon. They also did a great cover of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by The Monkees. Check them out!
Here's another reason to love Sweden and it's incredible indie pop music scene. I was familiar with PB&J's hit song "Young Folk" for a while, and I believe I may have even heard a part of it on a TV commercial, unless I'm mistaken. I finally bought this CD this year, and I wish I had bought it sooner! This album was immediately addicting, and I could not stop listening to it over and over again. From the infectious whistling in "Young Folk" and "Amsterdam," to the cleverly simplistic baseline in "Up Against The Wall" and the inspired drumming in "The Chills," their clever lyrics and genius songwriting stands out.
I began thinking that PB&J was becoming my new favorite band. I loved this album so much that I bought their 2009 followup album and was extremely disappointed. With Writer's Block, PB&J had established themselves as a phenomenal band with excellent music and an endearing sound. It seems that they intended to distance themselves from this image with for some bizarre reason. It's as if they were afraid of being typecast as a great and popular band, and so they took a different direction. When I listened to this album, I just kept saying to myself, "What the crap is this crappy crap?" Maybe diehard fans can feel free to insult me for my inability to appreciate this album, but I just don't get it. I'll just stick to Writer's Block and be ignorant, I guess.
If you love dreampop as much as I do, you owe it to yourself to listen to Moscow Olympics. Hailing from the Philippines, their lead singer sounds to me like a very shy version of Neil Tennant of the Petshop Boys. Singing at barely above a whisper, surrounded by shimmering dreampop guitars, Moscow Olympics paints beautiful, dreamy, impressionistic canvases of color and emotion, complete with great basslines that I'm sure that New Order's Peter Hook would approve of, as well as The Ocean Blue-style guitars. If the mention of record labels such as 4AD, Creation, Sarah, and Factory fills your heart and mind with pleasantness, then you owe it to yourself to hunt down this CD. Check out their songs "Still," "Carolyn," "Second Trace," and "Safe" on YouTube and you'll know what I'm talking about. Moscow Olympics is like an amalgamation of The Ocean Blue, New Order, and at least half the bands on Sarah Records. Released on the Japanese label, Happy Prince.
Thank you, discount section at Book Off! I bought this CD for only about 500 yen or so. I haven't cared for U2 since Achtung Baby. Basically, U2 was great listening before Bono's ego became too inflated and started telling Americans who they should vote for in their elections. I much prefer the raw energy of their earlier albums such as October, Boy, and War. This was back in the early '80s, when Bono was unashamed to proclaim that Christ is Lord. I don't care for the high falsettos of Lemon or the "made to be a soundtrack for iPod commercials How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. I'd rather remember U2 from the years when they made great rock with Edge's genius guitars.
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