:: RedHotHalos ::

Our hero's triumphant return, sunny, sweet, SF pop, fuzzy and manic and evocative, one of those rare cases where the hype was worth it, alt-country's peak. (Caution: Hyperbole Ahead.)

10) Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard - Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department

A relief. I had heard Do the Collapse, Guided by Voices' 1999 record, and I feared the worst. I had seen six or seven of this album's cuts live before its release, and I thought there was something missing. And then the package arrived, and I realized that finally - for the first time in five years - Robert Pollard had gone out and created something great. This is what Do the Collapse was supposed to sound like, all three-minute pop songs and potential singles; give the record studio gloss (as opposed to tape hiss caused by mailing tapes from Dayton to Cleveland and back), and it goes gold. Instead, Speak Kindly stays firmly entrenched in the underground, and goes criminally underappreciated, or perhaps, just unnoticed. "Tight Globes" and "And I Don't (So Now I Do)" are probably the strongest tracks among the potential singles, while "Larger Massachusetts," a slow, sweet cut, features a lyrical turn-of-phrase ("The medium-sized world is making a comeback / The world at large is drowning.") that I had thought long since gone from Robert Pollard's songwriting. Meanwhile, "Life Is Beautiful" (opening lyric: "Trapped inside a diamond / we look outside at everything and we forget / Life is beautiful.") is exactly what the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne was going for with "Do You Realize?" but, in this case, it works. In summation, an absolute classic.

9) Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break

So much of the music produced by the late Elephant Six label/collective was endlessly hyped, and eminently disappointing. Amazing, then, that this 1999 release was virtually unnoticed, despite featuring some of the sunniest, catchiest pop music this side of Pet Sounds. Beulah - a band on the label, but not part of the E6 cult, they'll have you know - on When Your Heartstrings Break combine the harmonies and textures of 60's pop with the orchestral leanings of current indie stalwarts like the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and the Delgados. They also find time to fit another 90's rock touchstone - the distorted electric guitar - in the background. There are few tracks here that actually stand above the rest; it's simply a wholly enjoyable, 11-track, 34-minute experience. "Emma Blowgun's Last Stand," which opens with a 2 minutes of organ, adds 30 seconds of brass, and flows into another 2 minutes of pop, is a candidate for top track, while closer "If We Can Land a Man on the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart" probably takes that title.

8) Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island

"A Song Against Sex," the opener on Neutral Milk Hotel's debut, is simply unlike anything I've heard before or since. Basically 3 minutes and 30 seconds of manifesto howled by Jeff Mangum over fuzz guitar and nearly inaudible drumming, it sets the tone for a record that took a few years to reveal its greatness to me. Full of Mangum's lyrical nuggets ("A nice drive in the country finds a nice cliff to drop off;" or "When I put my arms around him, I felt the blushing blood run through my cheeks;" or "with a match that's mean and some gasoline, you won't see me anymore"), "A Song Against Sex" is a peak that can't be matched through the rest of the album's 48 minutes. But Mangum and company do try, notably on "Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone," which opens with fuzz power chords and single strikes of the drums under Mangum's vocals, always at the top of the mix. "Naomi" is one of the sweetest, strangest love songs you'll ever hear ("I'm hoping she will soon explode into a billion pieces / one billion tastes and tunes"). The only misstep is 14-minute closer "Swallowing a Donkey's Eye," a seeming instrumental improvisation played on "various indonesian instruments."

7) The Strokes - Is This Is?

It's difficult to evaluate The Strokes based solely on the music. Their fathers include a fashion magnate and a 70's hitmaker; they were headlining UK festivals on the strength of a three-song demo; they were the subject of a major label bidding war less than a year after forming; they were blessed (apparently) with rugged good looks; they were given a huge RCA advance and then tried to sell themselves as "garage." Quite frankly, it's real easy to dismiss The Strokes. But, if you were to do that, you'd be making a grave, grave mistake. There's a sense of songcraft and melody in Is This It? that's missing in pop music, and Julian Casablancas' raspy, off-kilter, aloof vocals are the perfect front. Lyrically, Is This It? isn't about much, but that's not why it exists. Is This It? was foisted upon us to seep into our consciousness, to make the mainstream tap its toe and nod its head. It exists to let us know that guitar rock can still sound fresh...no samplers here. The strongest track here is "Someday," while late addition "When It Started" is a close second.

6) Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne

The liner notes boast that Anodyne was recorded entirely live, probably because Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy couldn't stand to work together anymore. Get in, get out, get on with our lives (and our new bands). And perhaps it was the tension, or perhaps they were just maturing as songwriters (or perhaps Farrar was getting jealous because Tweedy was now his equal, or maybe better than that), but Anodyne stands as the greatest accomplishment of the alt-country genre. Farrar's "Slate" is a slow, contemplative opener, leading into Tweedy's upbeat and catchy "Acuff-Rose." And Anodyne bounces back and forth like that for the record's entirety, split between (I believe) six Farrar cuts, five by Tweedy, and a cover of Doug Sahm's "Give Back the Key to My Heart," perhaps simply to ease that tension (and provide one of many high points). Tweedy (and his somehow higher-pitched vocal...remember, this was 2,500 packs of cigarettes ago) does provide the album's finest two songs, "New Madrid" and "No Sense in Lovin'." And, as always, Farrar provides a fine endpoint, this time with "Steal the Crumbs." He also foreshadows the dissolution of this outstanding band, as the record closes with the vocalists harmonizing: "No more will I see you," before a quick fadeout and, with it, the end of one of the 90's great bands.

 

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