Françoise Hardy, “L’Amitié” (Light In The Attic, 2015; original release 1965)The melancholy queen of ‘60s French pop, with that distinctive Seine-shimmering-in-high-wind quaver in her voice, is showcased here in an increasingly folk/psych-filigreed style, complete with harpsichord. Like all her ‘60s work, it’s great.Try 1, 74/17/16
Debbie Harry, “Koo Koo” (Chrysalis, 1981)A fine underrated effort from Ms. Blondie. She did this with the guys from Chicag, but this is colder and more angular than anything they (or she) did apart. Some of it is disorienting minimal funk, but there’s some rock and pop too, all with the same dreamlike menace as […]
Juliana Hatfield, “Hey Babe” (Mammoth, 1992)Hatfield’s first (and best) solo album uses a circumspectly adorable approach to mask a forceful powerchord punch, crystallizing a tactic that would influence many. Not only that, the melodies twist and turn in all sorts of peculiar directions, following Hatfield’s fancies, yet always remain coherent and stick to your ear […]
Haysi Fantayzee, “Battle Hymns For Children Singing” (RCA, 1982)Haysi Fantayzee were like a missing link between the politico-musical vanguardism of early Rough Trade postpunk and the flamboyant bric-a-bric pop gloss of Duran Duran, Culture Club, et al. They combined pioneering hip-hop/electro-pop fusion, Afro-beat influences both pop and trad, the Bowie/Roxy Music side of glam and […]
Haysi Fantayzee, “Battle Hymns for Children Singing” (RCA, 1983)Referred to by a prominent critic as “one of the most annoying records ever made” and “like having painful dental surgery performed by screaming nine-year-olds,” this has long been a favorite of mine. On the furthest wild, inventive end of early-‘80s Brit new-wave pop, this might better […]
Hazel English, “Just Give In” (Polyvinyl, 2016)DIY singer/guitarist/beatbox programmer in a vein somewhere in between the spare, ingenuous folk-pop strum of Frankie Cosmos and the more buzzy/dirgey neo-alternapop stylings of Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy, etc., but better than any of ‘em (and I like all those acts). The rhythm pops like a memory of childhood […]
Fuzzy, “Fuzzy” (Seed, 1994)From Massachusetts, this group had brief membership overlap with the Lemonheads, and this debut features a guitar lead by Dinosaur Jr’s Mike Johnson (on 4), and shares some common ground with both bands – that languid-yet-vivid, collegetown-pastoral sort of rolling, noisy guitar-pop. Yet there are similarities to the Breeders as well, in […]
Gap Dream, “Shine Your Light” (Burger, 2014)This has the sun-baked sparkle we’ve come to associate with this label, but in a distinctive mode — surging keyboards and space-age harmonies that recall the glammier/poppier side of ‘70s prog-rock. What makes it brilliant and kind of insane is that the whole thing is enacted in the wobbly/garage-scale […]
Garbage, “Not Your Kind of People” (Stunvolume, 2012)First new one from the ‘90s prime fusioneers of vanguard dance music, shimmering pop and razor-edged rock and roll (since ’01), and it’s quite good. Part of the fun of their ‘90s stuff was how au courant it was, and inevitably the passage of time has left them […]
Gary, “U. S. Bonds, The Best Of” (MCA, 1984; original recoding 1960-62)Great early-‘60s rocker, combining explosive Brill-Building pop with New Orleans stomp-and-roll. Produced to sound hazy and crazy, like you can’t tell if it’s a riot, a party, or both.Try A/5, B/14/4/11