Bulldog

Turns out I'm gonna be doing three albums per post, and a mixtape after each six. Here goes...


So, first up it's David Byrne's seventh bona fide studio album, presenting as it does a move away from the combinations of tub-thumpingly catchy Latin American vibes, noisy alternative rock and quirky pop tunes (which themselves would go out of their way to turn the rulebook upside-down) and move into a much more relaxed kind of artistic territory. Before I continue though, I think it's worth saying I'm a fairly big fan of David Byrne's work, be it solo, collaborative or with the Talking Heads, but one thing I have against his solo work is that, with a few exceptions, the handful of excellent songs on them aside, the rest of most of his albums kinda tail off into mediocrity. In other words, over the length of his discography as well as on a lot of his albums in themselves, he's a bit inconsistent for me.

I don't have either of his latest, collaborative efforts (we're not even counting those in that little statement of mine anyway) so I couldn't comment on those, but the exceptions to this rule are the Catherine Wheel, Rei Momo and, of course, this album, which finds Byrne in a much more relaxed musical mood, what with the mellow feel of the most part of the album, not to mention the fact that just about the whole album is guided by ambitious string arrangements. Although a few songs deviate from that norm, the majority of the musical theme is laid back, heavuily-orchestrated and propelled by a fantastic rhythm section, all of which provides a great foil for David Byrne's smooth-as voice and the cryptic lyrical rants therein. Despite a weaker moment or two, this one's a great little pop album, and easily the most accessible in David Byrne's solo recording career.


I won't claim to be a huge fan of the Pretenders myself. I don't really have a lot of their albums barring this one after all. What I do know is that lead singer and principle songwriter Chrissie Hynde not only worked in Malcolm McClaren and Viv Westwood's store on King's Road in London, but she also made a few pretty cool contributions to John Lydon's autobiography of the Sex Pistols. Goes without saying then that she started out in the thick of the London punk scene as it grew, what with rumour having it that she was also involved in early, embryonic versions of the Clash and the Damned back in the day too.

All the above matters little though aside from being a nice bit of trivia, as this album's about as far from the punk rock Hynde first moved into the British music industry with as you can get, let alone the new wave she and teh Pretenders first started recording. Well, maybe that's exagerrating a bit, as there are shades of the relentless energy of her musical origins in place on this album, but overall this latest effort of theirs focuses on three very different musical areas. Those are pop melodies (executed with gusto by Hynde's neat little voice), rockabilly and a few dashes of country rock (what with the odd hint of pedal steel you can hear on a few tracks) to spice things up. Basically, the hard-rock swagger of their early work has been substituted here for a head-bopping rockabilyl vibe, and it makes for a very unique and authentic-sounding pop album in itself (at least to this pair of ears anyway). It combines the moods of punk rock and rockabilly superbly to conjure a very American-sounding (for want of a better phrase) album, with the right kind of friendly vibe to make it as accessible as it is.


Given the amount of albums they've released over their 30-odd year career in tandem with an insane amount of lineup changes, it wouldn't be pushing the envelope that much to call the Television Personalities here a kind of anti-Fall, what with singer Dan Treacy being the only constant member throughout the band's entire career. On the other hand, maybe it would be, as if truth be told the Television Personalities sound nothing much like the Fall, but it's nice to draw analogies eh. Truthfully, this album's about a million miles from what the Fall were doing at the time, seeing as it delves into twee pop as opposed to, say, grainy lo-fi garage rock and balls-to-the-wall post-punk.

So, yeah, you're looking at a much more commercially-viable proposition with this one, seeing as I'm mentioning it in the context of this thread. The crux of the whole thing is the light-hearted and playful vibe that dominates the album stylistically and conceptually - it's basically nothing that's going to take itself too seriously then. There are much more downbeat moments like Diary Of a Young Man, but such moments are very scarce indeed, as the emphasis is on an early indie rock sound which is designed to make you smile more than simply be blown away by some of the most amazing music you've ever heard. In that sense, while they're not quite as funny a bunch as Half Man Half Biscuit, the Television Personalities do succeed in making a very convincing, very uplifting and stripped-down album, boasting both the rhythmic energy of early Joy Division and that cross between the melodic prowess and energy that the Buzzcocks had at their finest. Great stuff then.


So, yeah, more on the way whenever I feel like it. If anyone fancies an upload along the way, feel free to ask.