RIP David Berman

RIP David Berman

January 4, 1967 - August 7, 2019

Spoon - Everything Hits At Once

In the scheme of things, a Spoon "best of" compilation isn't the worst thing that's ever happened, but it's legitimate to question whether it needs to exist in 2019. Streaming having taken over music consumption, you can listen to any of thousands of playlists on Spotify or dive into the band's catalogue itself.

As these things usually do, Everything At Once presents a skewed version of Spoon's history. Casual listeners can get by without hearing the band's first two albums Telephono and A Series of Sneaks and their least regarded album, 2010's Transference (none of which get a look-in here), and the band would prefer to steer the next potential super fan away from those albums while keeping the compilation concise. The selection is tilted disproportionately towards Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and They Want My Soul rather than consensus favourites Girls Can Tell and Kill the Moonlight. This might be the band's personal taste for their own work. When it comes to omitting the first two albums, the argument could be made those albums' comparative rawness would stand out, but it's harder to argue that "Anything You Want" or "All the Pretty Girls Go to the City" couldn't easily take the place of "Do You" and "Inside Out".

Purely on its merits as a collection of songs, Everything Hits At Once holds up. Quibbles over what could have been included or excluded only underscore the strength of Spoon's catalogue. Its sequence competently corrals a bunch of songs recorded over a 20 year period, but the title almost inadvertently alludes to one of its shortcomings; by design, everything hits not so much at once, but one after the other without reprieve. There's nothing wrong with that approach, but I prefer the push and pull of Spoon's albums, and you don't get that here without the minimalist atmospherics of songs such as "Paper Tiger" and "The Ghost of You Lingers" or acoustic numbers such as "10:20 AM" and "Vittorio E", but hopefully Everything Hits At Once will implore people to discover that for themselves.

RIP Dr. John

RIP Malcolm John Rebennack 

November 20, 1941 - June 6, 2019

Happy Birthday to the Following Albums (6)

The following albums all have significant birthdays this year.

Happy 5th Birthday, Run the Jewels' Run the Jewels 2!

Happy 10th Birthday, Dappled Cities' Zounds!

 Happy 20th Birthday, Blur's 13!

Happy 25th Birthday, Nas' Illmatic!

Happy 30th Birthday, The Cure's Disintegration!

Happy 40th Birthday, The Clash's London Calling!

Happy 50th Birthday, Scott Walker's Scott 4!

Spotify Playlist: eatthepuddingeatthepuddingeatthepuddingeatthepuddingeatthepudding

RIP Scott Walker

RIP Noel Scott Engel

9 January 1943 - 25 March 2019

Dr. Giraffe's Cellophane Cruise Ship: Courtney Love - Uncrushworthy (1990)

K Records' Courtney Love was a duo consisting of Lois Maffeo and Pat Maley, whose output was limited to a few short EPs and singles in 1990 and 1991 and some later compilation appearances. There's nothing else to say about the duo, so here's "Uncrushworthy" from the EP of the same name.

Wait, what?

Reports vary as to the name's origin. Maffeo claimed in 1990 that it came "out of nowhere", Love claimed she and Maffeo were roommates and Maffeo found the name in her diary, which she stole, while an unsourced claim goes that the two were indeed roommates, but came up with the name together. Another unsourced claim states that Love and Maffeo were never roommates and that Love angrily told K boss Calvin Johnson to force the duo to cease and desist. In any case, Maffeo began her solo career under the name Lois soon after. Love didn't release anything under her own name until 2004's America's Sweetheart. Snail Mail covered "The 2nd Most Beautiful Girl in the World" from the Uncrushworthy EP in 2018.

 
https://ravenandcrowstudio.com/journal/seven-inch-sunday/