4 posts tagged “pop”

The Like
Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?
2005 Geffen

The Like is a supergroup of sorts, as all the members are daughters of established music pedigree.  Z. Berg is the daughter of Tony Berg, who while more known these days as a big label A&R honcho, made his mark to me as a producer on some of the best output by Wendy & Lisa, Squeeze, and Animal Logic.  Tennessee Thomas is the daughter of Attraction/Squeeze drummer Pete Thomas, and Charlotte Froom is daughter to another uber-producer. Father Mitchell Froom is responsible for work by Suzanne Vega, Cibo Matto, Ron Sexsmith, Los Lobos, Mia Doi Todd as well as his overlooked solo work, Dopamine.  To top it off, this album features production by Wendy Melvoin (Prince, Eric Clapton, the aforementioned Wendy& Lisa), and mixing by Alan Moulder (Curve, U2, Smashing Pumpkins).

Supergroups and all star albums can often be either stunning successes (i.e. the debut from Asia, any album by Me'shell N'degeocello) or uneven collections (all subsequent Asia releases, the last few Santana albums).  I went into this album with very high expectations for a debut, which were for the most part met.

The album is a crisp and adroit exploitation of classic pop with a lot of indie edge.  For a band so young, they seem to have a substantial amount of confidence.  There is not just a little bit of The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde in the proceedings, and more than just a passing bit of Lush and the darker side of Jane Weidlin in spots.

You can hear Moulder's influence in the mix most prominently on the almost-shoegaze shimmer of You Bring Me Down.  We Are Lost has the kind of jangly, chorused guitars I associate with the Sundays, but sounds more like a song written by Kristen Hirsch (Throwing Muses).  The rest of the album keeps the same compact and direct approach, but the songs do not fall into sameness.

ELO
Zoom Tour Live
2001

So ELO was one of the first groups I really got into in junior high.  OK, not really into as much as fascinated with one album, their last before initially disbanding, Balance of Power.  I still recall the video to Calling America quite vividly (it is quite bad).  I think behind all the synths and vocal effects was Jeff Lynne's Beatles fetish, which is probably what captured my interest.^1.

I never got drawn into the rest of the catalog quite as much, although there was always a few songs from each period of their back catalog that I found well worth listening to; much of leaning towards the Beatlesque pop constructions and less on Lynne's occasional retreats into psuedo-rockabilly.  Fortunately, this live set has many of the former and not too many of the latter, like Turn To Stone, Don't Bring Me Down, Mr. Blue Sky and 10538 Overture.

But I was very disappointed that Fire on High was not there.  It's characteristic acoustic guitar riff and string arrangement is a must.

Lynne is not the most intense frontman, and still hides behind a pair of big shades and bigger helmet of damaged hair, but his voice is very much intact, and his band plays a tight support role.  Only one other original ELO member remains, and that is keyboardist Richard Tandy.  The rest are sessioners, including a trio of ladies to bolster the otherwise sex-appeal deficient cast; vocalist Rosie Vela does an above par job, but the two female string players are too far down in the mix to really appreciate.  What struck me was that his backline had the Bissonette brothers, who I always associated with people like David Lee Roth and Joe Satriani.  But hey, take the job where it suits you, and those two seemed well suited to playing bombastic pop.


^{1. ELO leader (well, he really IS ELO for all practiacl purposes) is a Beatle's nut, and subsequently produced solo records for McCartney, Starr and Harrison eventually.  He also was part of the Travelling Wilbury's with Harrison.}