My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves (2003)
Short albums are nice to listen to. They’re usually direct to the point and don’t strain your attention. But on the rare occasion albums do exist that are over an hour long and still worth nearly every minute. This album is one hour and twelve minutes long yet I can’t imagine it being any shorter. It Still Moves sprawls and it sprawls gloriously. What makes this album so engaging and inviting is the timeless feel of the music, it sounds like it could have been recorded any time within the past forty years or so. The band also sound like they are making music for no one but themselves, never compromising or cutting songs prematurely short and sometimes even breaking into extended jams. Every song is so engaging that the album’s entire one hour and twelve minute duration passes you by before you know it. It Still Moves certainly has no shortage of great songs. The wonderfully uplifting ‘One Big Holiday’ is an alternative-country classic and features some thrilling, spiralling lead guitar work and Jim James’ distinctive reverb-soaked voice is in fine form. ‘Just One Thing’ has a feeling of timelessness and warmth that Fleet Foxes could only dream of. ‘I Will Sing You Songs’, ‘Rollin Back’ and ‘Steam Engine’ bring some sprawling moments to the album, each of which are over seven minutes long. The epic ‘I Will Sing You Songs’ in particular has a deeply nostalgic feel that invokes distant childhood memories and any other great memories you’ve had since.
It Still Moves sounds completely alien to today’s current musical trends and will long outlast them. This album seems like some kind of time-warp that takes you to a place where time moves so slowly as to not exist. It’s an album to retreat into, and take yourself on a trip back to distant memories you wish you could live in forever. To me this is one of the classic albums of the 2000’s.
Recommended Songs: ‘One Big Holiday’, ‘I Will Sing You Songs’, ‘Just One Thing’
Pale Saints - The Comforts Of Madness (1990)
I have many, many reasons to love 4AD Records. Cocteau Twins’ first six albums is one of these, This Mortal Coil is another, and even because of more recent albums from artists like Bon Iver and Deerhunter. It is a label with an incredible back catalogue and has been an essential part of indie and alternative music since 1979. Another little gem from that label is The Comforts of Madness, the debut album by Pale Saints. It’s a wonderful collision of jangly indie and dream-pop textures, a colourful and otherworldly sensation of sounds. The production does however sound a bit murky and dated, but then again this washed-out feel makes the album sound like a relic from the start of the 90’s. It’s a great slice of post-Stone Roses/pre-Britpop UK indie. The album contains some great overlooked indie gems such as the gorgeously dream-like ‘Sea Of Sound’, the uplifting and infectious ‘Insubstantial’, their swirling, psychedelic cover of Opal’s ‘Fell From The Sun’ and last but not least the classic ‘Sight Of You’.
The Comforts of Madness sat nicely alongside albums released by the likes of their label-mates Lush and Creation bands such as Ride, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. While Pale Saints were inevitably grouped in with these bands, at the same time they were just a little bit different to them and they seemed to occupy a space just outside the shoegazing bubble. But for some classic early-90’s British indie you can’t go wrong with this.
Recommended Songs: ‘Sea Of Sound’, ‘Insubstantial’, ‘Sight Of You’