Music
Perhaps it would be appropriate to start with a bit of music history for you all. For those who are not yet in the know, Zwan are the new band featuring Billy Corgan, the famous bald guy. Who just happened to be in one of the most important bands of the 90s, The Smashing Pumpkins. Gish and Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness were landmark albums in the world of alternative rock, the emotional, melodic counterpart to the noisy squall of Seattle grunge. Of course, Corgan always saw himself as something of a renegade and a revolutionary, and the Pumpkins' career went pretty much downhill on the release of Adore, a more electronica-based oeuvre which attempted to back up the singer's declaration that 'rock is dead'. No-one else noticed its funeral, however, and he was forced to eat his words.
Now, his former group disbanded, Zwan is Corgan's second chance. To be fair, it isn't really just his band, although with his media presence, it will be seen as such: Jimmy Chamberlin returns to the drum stool, and Paz Lechantin from A Perfect Circle takes up bass duties - which is coincidental, since the last great supergroup album was indeed their debut, Mer de Noms (not Audioslave).
And Zwan takes a different approach entirely. From the songwriter who once wrote such vitriolic grunge anthems as 'Zero', 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings' and 'I Am One', comes a heart-warming rock sound. It appears that Corgan has finally realised that he does not need to rely on his past successes, and can thrive in doing as he pleases. Mary Star of the Sea is a fine album. It has upbeat, optimistic anthems-in-the-making in the shape of the opening 'Lyric', recent single 'Honestly', and the carefree 'Baby Let's Rock'. It also has beautiful, mid-paced ballad-esque numbers, such as 'Of a Broken Heart'. 'El Sol' in particular sums up the sound of Zwan - in a word, happy. Anyone expecting the early nihilism of the Pumpkins should look elsewhere. Zwan sound comfortable and warm on all the tracks here, whether encompassing simplicity in songwriting, or sprawling in experimentation.
Zwan don't really sound like the Pumpkins but their career might well last as long, on the strength of this evidence. Mary Star of the Sea will only sit at the bottom of CD collections in the houses of the tragically alphabetised. It's great to have him back.
The Sleepy Jackson are not a band short of ideas. Or influences. These two things, above the soaring harmonies, above the towering piano bursts, above the liberal wah-wah'd guitars, pervade this startling EP. In The Sleepy Jackson the band somehow manages to include elements ranging from guitar based songwriting to country/rock to pop delight to avant-garde experimentation. In the transcendent highlight 'Good Dancers', TSJ rival, or maybe better, Mercury Rev. Elsewhere, with guitarist/vocalist/control freak Luke Steele (he once sacked his own brother) leading the band, different influences and sounds emerge and fall back into the mix. TSJ are the only band alive to blend Sparklehorse's lo-fi country with The Flaming Lips' more adventurous moments with George Harrison's All Things Must Pass phase. If you were starting to lose your belief in inventive, imaginative rock music, The Sleepy Jackson are intending to wake you up, open your eyes and restore that faith.
You will, naturally, already be dropping your OxStu in your rush to buy this album, and you'll have to fight your way to the front of the HMV queue and hope there's still a copy left (oh look, a flying pig). Think of the worst thing that ever happened to you, and the flame of faith that died that day. This is the album with the match to rekindle that fire, and the bucket of water to extinguish it when you realise its power will never be recognised.
Ooberman are a glorious work of genius, a madcap medley of Slavic folk-inspired insanity (SnakeDance, First Day of the Holidays) and impossibly memorable melodies (Bluebell Morning, Hand That Gets Burnt, Summer Nights in June, and the entire rest of the album, to be honest).
Genetic engineering might some day create pigs with wings, and similarly we can hope that people will eventually see Hey, Petrunko! for what it is - one of the most innovative, inspired and inspirational albums of all time. Get out there and buy it.
Mull is an island off the West Coast of Scotland, inhabited by approximately 1500 sheep, 2500 humans, one singer/songwriter and a genuine Historical Society. I'm not quite sure how Mull Historical Society recorded 'Final Arrears' (the studio was probably made out of driftwood and err... wool) but it's not too bad. MHS - the creation of aforementioned singer/songwriter/society-name-thief, Colin MacIntyre - make the kind of melodic soft-rock that, quite simply, makes you smile. This single, however, is solely driven by its B-sides. 'Final Arrears' is over-produced to a Christmassy extent; it has great potential, but the gaudy harps and church bells ruin any subtlety. In contrast, 'Stay Something' is delicate and reminiscent of Aqualung or Badly Drawn Boy, whilst 'Citizen Fame' builds into a crescendo of separate jazz solos much like Radiohead's 'Life in a Glasshouse'. Considering 'Final Arrears' alone, I was disappointed; the B-sides were far better. Perhaps I should suspend judgement of post-2001 MHS until new album Us released in March.
20th Feb 2003