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| Track list: 1. The Queen And The Pope 2. Seven Sisters 3. The Rats 4. Warm In The Knowledge 5. The Song's Remains 6. Safe Sex 7. The Lipstick Maker 8. Maggie 9. Love Is Too Small A Word 10. Ice The Levant 11. Thelma 12. Angst Forecast 13. Heathers In Shelter Running time: 40 minutes Released: 2007 |
More Stump now, such is the way with multi-disc retrospectives. You may wonder, if you are reading in order (as if you are) why I jump from Disc 1 to Disc 3. Where is Disc 2? Well, that is filed under the album it represents, A Fierce Pancake. I'm not sure why but I am not about to go and restructure things for consistency - it simply wouldn't be in the spirit of this band!
Disc one was a mess, but with some interesting bits and pieces mixed in, and I kept more than I thought I might. That was the last post of 2017, this the first of 2018. What does the new year bring?
My first thought is that the sound is more matured than yesterday's fare. There is more obviously a tune, albeit one realised through odd sounds and weird lyrics. The Queen and the Pope is much more clearly a song than Tupperware Stripper was (or many of the other offerings). It feels milder, too... watered down somehow. This is both good and bad. If the more extreme tendencies have been reigned in then there might be some more palatable sounds here, but on the other hand if it dulls the spirit, then it might end up with a bunch of dull tripe.
Early impressions are more the latter.
I was not expecting folksy sounds. The Rats opens with a very exaggerated Irish vocal, and a twangy little string accompaniment. I rather like it, moreso for the surprise, but it really does not belong on the same album as the first couple of tracks. It is over quickly and replaced by more of the quirky electro peaks and troughs that remind me of the small volume of Devo tracks I acquired at some point. It's spikey, hard to get into, but I think it largely works. The fast-paced vocal offsets the janky sounds well, though it goes a little tuneless in places and the end is bizarrely sudden.
This disc is jumping all over the place as the next number goes slower and darker. There is a nice atmosphere to it, the thrum of the bass in particular. The top end is light touch, soft, subservient and layers well for the most part - but then it takes over as a focus, a sort of evil magic tingle (if you've seen the same films or played the same games I have that might mean something) and it's an awkward, unpleasant central passage. Thankfully order is restored on the track so as not to sour me on it.
Then ugh. Safe Sex is just noises, unpleasant noises - bubbling sounds and nasal vocalisations. It does not belong on any record, ever.
It's a struggle not to be distracted by shopping... my brain is clearly in an "acquiring things" mode and with the sales on, I have a couple of wardrobe requirements to fill. Yet I haven't been motivated to look for things when not sat here listening. Classic attention and focus problems that have affected me for a few months now, and I am not sure why. In any case, after the horror interlude, the sounds have returned to something more tuneful. It is all very dated, but there is an 80s charm to Stump when they are palatable, and an 80s horror to them when they are not.
I have not been as immediately aware of, and uncomfortable with, the nonsense lyrics today. My instinct is that they are as all over the place as before, but they are less of a front and centre feature. Now there is a repeat of a track from yesterday... Ice the Levant has improved marginally on this later recording. Like many of the tracks here there is a more definite sense of a tune behind the screams and proclamations of oddity. It's still not worth holding on to, though there is a really pleasing resonance to some of the lower notes that I don't recall from disc 1. The screeches are too much though, as they were before.
Now that I am most of the way through, I will re-assert that yes, this is a more mature sound. By the time these tunes were recorded Stump had obviously refined their songwriting and performance. There is less random cacophony and more consideration. More of a standard pattern to subvert with their randomness rather than noise for noise's sake. There might not be anything as iconic as a man shouting "does the fish have chips?" but I prefer this more harnessed, controlled weirdness. They still have the interesting sounds here, they just use them in the production of tunes that are more, well, tuneful. For all my distractions and reluctance to fit this in today I have rather enjoyed it and am surprised to find myself keeping much more than not. The last track puts me in mind of Laika & the Cosmonauts, which is a very positive thing. Happy New Year.
My first thought is that the sound is more matured than yesterday's fare. There is more obviously a tune, albeit one realised through odd sounds and weird lyrics. The Queen and the Pope is much more clearly a song than Tupperware Stripper was (or many of the other offerings). It feels milder, too... watered down somehow. This is both good and bad. If the more extreme tendencies have been reigned in then there might be some more palatable sounds here, but on the other hand if it dulls the spirit, then it might end up with a bunch of dull tripe.
Early impressions are more the latter.
I was not expecting folksy sounds. The Rats opens with a very exaggerated Irish vocal, and a twangy little string accompaniment. I rather like it, moreso for the surprise, but it really does not belong on the same album as the first couple of tracks. It is over quickly and replaced by more of the quirky electro peaks and troughs that remind me of the small volume of Devo tracks I acquired at some point. It's spikey, hard to get into, but I think it largely works. The fast-paced vocal offsets the janky sounds well, though it goes a little tuneless in places and the end is bizarrely sudden.
This disc is jumping all over the place as the next number goes slower and darker. There is a nice atmosphere to it, the thrum of the bass in particular. The top end is light touch, soft, subservient and layers well for the most part - but then it takes over as a focus, a sort of evil magic tingle (if you've seen the same films or played the same games I have that might mean something) and it's an awkward, unpleasant central passage. Thankfully order is restored on the track so as not to sour me on it.
Then ugh. Safe Sex is just noises, unpleasant noises - bubbling sounds and nasal vocalisations. It does not belong on any record, ever.
It's a struggle not to be distracted by shopping... my brain is clearly in an "acquiring things" mode and with the sales on, I have a couple of wardrobe requirements to fill. Yet I haven't been motivated to look for things when not sat here listening. Classic attention and focus problems that have affected me for a few months now, and I am not sure why. In any case, after the horror interlude, the sounds have returned to something more tuneful. It is all very dated, but there is an 80s charm to Stump when they are palatable, and an 80s horror to them when they are not.
I have not been as immediately aware of, and uncomfortable with, the nonsense lyrics today. My instinct is that they are as all over the place as before, but they are less of a front and centre feature. Now there is a repeat of a track from yesterday... Ice the Levant has improved marginally on this later recording. Like many of the tracks here there is a more definite sense of a tune behind the screams and proclamations of oddity. It's still not worth holding on to, though there is a really pleasing resonance to some of the lower notes that I don't recall from disc 1. The screeches are too much though, as they were before.
Now that I am most of the way through, I will re-assert that yes, this is a more mature sound. By the time these tunes were recorded Stump had obviously refined their songwriting and performance. There is less random cacophony and more consideration. More of a standard pattern to subvert with their randomness rather than noise for noise's sake. There might not be anything as iconic as a man shouting "does the fish have chips?" but I prefer this more harnessed, controlled weirdness. They still have the interesting sounds here, they just use them in the production of tunes that are more, well, tuneful. For all my distractions and reluctance to fit this in today I have rather enjoyed it and am surprised to find myself keeping much more than not. The last track puts me in mind of Laika & the Cosmonauts, which is a very positive thing. Happy New Year.
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