The Altrok Listener 2
Cool Tunes To Cock Your Ear To
by Bill Stella

Spiraling - Texas Is The Reason - Challenging Stage
"Texas Is The Reason" sounds like it has existed for thirty years and was lost in a time warp until recently. At first I thought it reminded me of an old early Supertramp song, or something more obscure from mid-seventies middle-America. The organ parts bring back memories of the band Focus. (Does anybody remember Focus?) Finally, it all came together: they're mining the same fields as Supertramp, Focus, and The Police, but without each one's distinctive falsetto vocalist. Sometimes one has to go farther afield (like the Netherlands) to locate Spiraling's roots, huh?
 
Architecture In Helsinki - Wishbone - In Case We Die
Is this from a musical? If not, it should be. Somebody hire Architecture In Helsinki to write a Broadway-bound musical! Huh? Who is Architecture In Helsinki? How the hell should I know, I'm having trouble typing the name without stumbling. All I know is what clicking on the song in the player window tells me: The album was released in April of this year (2005, for those losing track), and they're on New Jersey's own Bar None label. (JER-SEEEEEY!!! Ho-BO-keNNN!!!) Lucky me, another freakin' new album that sounds like I can't forget it for what's turning out to be a monster-sized Best of the Year list (>40, and counting; and it's only MAY.)
 
New Order - Hey Now What You Doing - Waiting For The Sirens' Call
Another in the continuing series of songs that refuse to use the most obvious line from the refrain as the title. "You Gotta Hold Your Head Up High" er, I mean, "Hey Now What You Doing" is about as bright a song as New Order has ever released. Forgive me for coming in late, but have they ever had so many pretty acoustic guitars in a song, never mind mixed so high? Are there *two* bass lines? And, is it just me, or does this sound like Matthew Sweet is playing a trick on us all, and got New Order to agree to put their name on his track?
 
Wombats, The - Happily Screwed - MP3 Demo
Later the same day, Altrok played XTC's Stupidly Happy from 2000's Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Vol. 2) , and my sense that somebody before The Wombats should have already written a song about that evolved into a realization that "somebody" had -- sorta. Not that obliviousness is the same as naiveté. But topics in the general vicinity sure ain't exhausted.
 

 

©2005 Bill Stella