In my review of Black Tambourine’s Complete Recordings, I made a mention of the album soon being re-released with some bonus tracks and the whole nine yards – liner notes, unseen photos of the group, beautiful gatefold sleeve, and high-quality vinyl pressing etc. etc. However, this beautiful reissue is still not in my hands, but I have heard the bonus tracks and I know the album well enough. Besides, these are music reviews! If I wanted to spend hours talking about album artwork, I would probably just write another article, but who has time for that?
For those who aren’t on the Weekly Sunday Nite Record Reviews e-mail list (of which you can always be added, just ask), Black Tambourine was an interesting group. The members all came from some other bands (Whorl and Velocity Girl) and they drafted in a friend named Pam to sing for them. Throughout the brief two year existence they released two singles and a handful of compilation tracks until 1991 they broke up. 8 years later, the handful of tracks was compiled for the album Complete Recordings, featuring a whopping 10 songs in about 23 minutes. What is so amusing though is that even though Black Tambourine were by no means prolific songwriters or performers (throughout the 2 years they only did a couple of gigs), to this day you can hear their influence of groups such as Vivian Girls and pretty much the rest of the Slumberland Records catalog.
The music itself is hard to pin down – loud guitars and drums, vocals that sounded like they were recorded in an echo chamber and melodies that present a perfect and non-embarrassing pop influence. My friend Matt Verticchio says that it sounded like “the Vaselines recorded underwater”. While I might not agree 100% with that, I can say that it’s accurate enough.
Like the original Complete Recordings, all 10 songs from there are here, and they are still in the order they were on Complete Recordings, meaning non-chronological. This rubbed me the wrong way the first time as it’s harder to show the progression of the group. But since it was only a side project, and the sequencing is strong this way (another album like this is Switched On by Stereolab), it still works.
As for the bonus tracks, you have two demo versions (one of “For Ex-Lovers Only” and another for “Throw Aggi Off the Bridge”) and some cover songs. The demos aren’t necessary but the covers sound good enough. I mean, it’s all an added bonus to make sure that people would want to buy it, but since the material is high quality (in regards to reissue standards), and the fact that it’s been out of print for a few years now, I can say that I am eagerly awaiting the day Black Tambourine arrives in the copy center.
OVERALL RATING – Bag of hats/toaster strudel.
KEY TRACKS – For Ex-Lovers Only, Throw Aggi Off the Bridge, Pack You Up
No comments:
Post a Comment