Sinister: Re: <WHAT'S THE BEST FELT ALBUM TO BUY?>

Sat Jan 9 14:38:28 GMT 1999

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>From: Ben Parker <ben_hates_penguins at xxx.com>
>To: sinister at majordomo.net
>Date: Wed, Jan 6, 1999, 10:21 pm
>

>
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>Whats the best felt album to get...to get first...or at all...or
>whatever? 
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>Anyone?
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They're all fucking ace, to be quite honest with you. The early ones
‹ Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty and The Splendour Of Fear ‹ don't sound
like any other band in the world, they're totally oblique and opaque in a
way that hardly any other music is, swathed in echo and reverb, beautiful
classical guitar filigree played on electric, really simple repetitive song
structures and inaudible/inpenetrable lyrics. Half the tracks are
instrumentals. They're like the sound of shyness on record, which is not
something that many bands try to get across.And Splendour Of Fear has The
World Is As Soft As Lace on it, as namechecked by Belle And Sebastian on I
Don't Love Anyone'.
The next two, The Strange Idol's Pattern and Ignite The Seven Cannons have
clearer production, more of a nod towards 'pop' songwriting, still loads of
beautiful instrumentals and incredible songs e.g. My Darkest Light Will
Shine, Primitive Painters (with Liz Fraser from the Cocteaus on it).
Actually, 'Ignite The Seven Cannons' has a woeful 80s production job on it
by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, all awful 'big' snare sounds, too
many effects on the guitars etc. but the quality of the songs shines
through.
Then there's the Creation stuff. 1986-1989. Maurice Deebank, the guitarist,
left (he made an OK-ish, rather over-produced solo album called 'Inner
Thought Zone', all instrumental) which changed the band's sound quite
dramatically: Martin Duffy (who's now in Primal Scream)'s organ playing
comes much more to the fore, and Laurence's lyrics get even more
straightforward, although they're still utterly beautiful. The sound isn't
unlike a very Anglicised version of Bob Dylan's mid-60s "wild mercruy sound"
on Highway 61 Revisited or Blonde On Blonde. The first Creation album Let
The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death is just short 'cocktail'
instrumentals, kind of easy listening, which is obviously quite a common
thing nowadays, post-dance music and post rock and Air and people like that,
but was pretty fucking weird in 1986. Next two are Forever Breathes The
Lonely Word and Poem Of The River, which are most people's favourite Felt
albums. The songwriting is fucking incredible on both of them ‹ Rain Of
Crystal Spires, A Wave Crashed On Rocks, She Lives By The Castle, All The
People I Like Are Those That Are Dead. The lyrics are heartbreaking: note
lyrical corespondence between A Wave... and A Century Of Fakers ("People are
crying, What are we gonna do/ People are dying, I don't care about them I
care about you/ In your wisdom, you ruined it all/ You sacrificed me for the
course of the storm...", which seems pretty much the same idea as the lyrics
of Century... It also contains the great couplet "Now it's all over like a
wave crashed on rocks/ I'm not your Jesus, will you get off my cross?" which
I think is genius) Next two are pretty odd: Train Above The City was really
panned at the time, cosisting as it does of Martin Duffy's 'jazz'
instrumentals on vibraphone and piano. The first side is a bit silly,
really, but the second side is more 'ambient' and bits are really great:
Book Of Swords is lovely. One thing that's certainly true of Train Above The
City is that it's proof that Felt were just reading from a totally different
map to any other band in the 80s (or,indeed, before or since). I can't think
of any other band that would have put that out. Then there's The Pictoral
Jackson Review, personal favourite, although that may have mroe to do with
the fact that I listened to it loads when I first left home and that was a
v. intense period in my life and it reminds me of that.One side has two long
instrumentals (Sending Lady Load is 13 minutes long or something) while the
other side has a load of v. short (1:30-2:30 minutes) proper songs. Bit
rougher than the two preceeding LPs, but the lyrics! ACE! ACE! ACE!
And then there's the last album, Me And A Monkey On The Moon, which was
deliberately intended to be their final album, and sounds a bit like a
resume of Felt's whole career. She Deals In Crosses sounds like something
off their first album (their new guitarist sounded a bit like Maurice
Deebank), Never Let You Go is perfect pop, Mobile Shack sounds more like
Denim than Felt. It's wicked. In fact, I'm going to put it on now...

Sorry for rambling on like this, but sometimes, in my weaker moments, I
think Felt are the greatest band in the history of rock, none of my mates
particularly like them, so I seldon get a chance to discuss their merits or
otherwise. If you're looking for a starting point, try either of the volumes
of Absolute Classic Masterpieces (one covers Creation years, the other the
early 80s stuff on Cherry Red). Or if you're rooting around second-hand,
there's Gold Mine Trash (which covers the early 80s) and Bubblegum Perfume,
another Creation comp. Those last two are both deleted and, actually,
Absolute Classic Masterpieces vols. 1 and 2 are both better. They've got
loads of non-album singles which are also fantastic ‹ Penelope Tree, Space
Blues, Ballad Of The Band...

And while we're on the subject, does anyone out there have copies of any
Felt gigs or any of the Peel Sessions they did? I'm also after a few singles
to complete my collection: Primitive Painters/Cathedral CD single, Ballad Of
The Band 12", Rain Of Crystal Spires 12", Final Resting Of The Ark 12' and
Space Blues 12". If anybody's got 'em, or knows where I can get 'em, please
get in touch.

And, on the subject of records that have clearly influenced Belle And
Sebastian, as anyone mentioned John Cale's Paris 1919 album? It's absolutely
marvellous from start to finish, and you can definitely hear echoes of songs
like Anadlucia and The Endless Plain Of Fortune. Ah, that sounds like a Felt
title...

Shit, another post to this list that makes me sound like Record Collector
magazine. Sorry kids. I'm quite interesting really...

love,

Alexis
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