DENIM:
Back in Denim
boys own recordings 828349.2 (50 min)
Lawrence, the surnameless frontman of the now defunct band Felt
is back with an homage to the K-Tel decade so fierce that the 70's
Preservation Society couldn't hold a candle to it. The album "Back
in Denim" showcases his new band Denim, and ends years of speculation
as to what one of the most cerebral indie- rockers in Britain was
planning for the 90's. What he devised is a real shocker for both
the uninitiated and Felt fans alike, despite the proverbial writing
on the wall since Felt's swan song album "Me and a Monkey on
the Moon" with the lyrics on Mobile Shack intoning, "I'm
gonna shoot out of this decade in a spaceship, failing that, an
old hippy bus". He obviously missed the spaceship, so not coincidentally
listening to Denim is like taking an unexpectedly thrilling roller
coaster ride back to the era of 70's rock and roll, with a little
hippiness tossed in.
Perhaps the
most involving cut is the beguiling The Osmonds. The name promises
a light romp, instead the song delivers a dizzying barrage of
overt and obscure 70's references, from Lee Perry dub to fat Moog
and Roland sounds to guitar licks to crazy horses to crushed velvet
flares to, well you guessed it, the Osmonds. Another spangled
masterpiece is Middle of the Road, the only LP cut to also appear
on the EP. Lawrence lyrically and musically thumbs his nose at
rock and roll heroes and culture, enumerating all the people and
things he specifically hates. The infectious melody and buzzing
synthesizers create a real pop singalong, except that it's hard
to karaoke through a mad grin. When Lawrence fronted Felt he was
constantly compared by the music press to early Velvet Underground,
Tom Verlaine, even (choke) Morrissey. His new band is so whimsically
odd, outlandish and unprecedented that the musical press will
have to mine the 70's for parallels. A close approximation would
be Be Bop Deluxe meets "Me and a Monkey...", with a
lot of sublime and obvious musical references to 70's rockers
like Steve Miller or Styx. Felt fans will be stunned and converted,
the rest simply won over. College disk jockeys take note: spin
Denim and your late night audience will never be the same again.
And could
somebody please tell me what a star jumper or a brutus shirt is?
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