Where's All the Love for Northern Picture Library?

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Well, actually it seems to be mostly in Ned Raggett's corner of the world; nonetheless, I think they're wholly deserving of a thread to call their own. After much deliberation, I can confidently say that I think they're worlds better, in their own way, than the Field Mice (whom I love nearly and dearly), and much of the Trembling Blue Stars too. To say nothing of their being ultimate, irrefutable evidence that indiepop, particularly in England, was not half as backward-looking as its striped-shirts-and-first-names-only image suggests. They must have come as quite a shock back then to Field Mice fans, even the ones who weren't put off by "Missing the Moon," but I think they deserve far more credit and love than they get, even in indiepop circles. Bonus points for liking USA a decade before their rehabiliation!

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:45 (nineteen years ago)

Well, actually it seems to be mostly in Ned Raggett's corner of the world

*shrug* Less love than general appreciation -- the two rereleases on LTM are both nice.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:47 (nineteen years ago)

i think everyone on ilm was busy listening to candlebox and the shamen when northern picture library were around. but they probably would have liked them okay if they had heard them.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 17 February 2006 17:00 (nineteen years ago)

All of Bob Wratten's stuff sort of blurs into one for me. I gotta pay more attention.

― gspm (gspm), Friday, 17 February 2006 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, it was a bit hard to tell where "Alaska" ends and "Her Handwriting" begins, though I guess it's probably something to do with Annemari. I would never have imagined that a single person could write so many breakup songs and have such a high hit-miss ratio.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Friday, 17 February 2006 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

Hmm. For some reason, despite loving the Field Mice and Trembling Blue Stars, I've never been able to get into Northern Picture Library. I have the CDs, and occasionlly do listen, but for the life of me I can't remember a single song of theirs off the top of my head.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:40 (nineteen years ago)

they're lovely and become more so with the story of him offering to write only instrumental music so that they could be in a band together but she wouldn't have to sing onstage because of her stage fright. i suppose most would see that as wet but it's charming. 'skywriting' is my fave bob w song. when 'alaska' came out the big fuss was that it was a trance record but it was just the field mice slowed down for the most part. far too sissy to move anyone near a dancefloor.

― keyth (keyth), Saturday, 18 February 2006 03:34 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

all of the love for northern picture library is in my heart.

― andi, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 01:05 (eighteen years ago)

why was bernard the only one to believe me?

― andi, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 01:33 (eighteen years ago)

i'm sorry. i can't believe my hey. thread came out as a joke.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/193/503521450_52e504b807.jpg
i'm a real person, to the left. why? i love npl and bobby wratten. "catholic easter colours" might be the last song i ever need to hear. why? sorry.

― andi, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 01:38 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

the more time i spend with alaska and postscript the more i realise NPL is wratten's weakest work by miles and miles. if it wasn't for 'paris' and 'catholic easter colours' they wouldn't really be worth bothering with at all

― thereminimum chips (electricsound), Friday, 7 November 2008 01:06 (seventeen years ago)

in many ways the occasional keepers continues in the same vein, though caesar's vocals make the songs even less appealing, and i usually dig what he does

― thereminimum chips (electricsound), Friday, 7 November 2008 01:09 (seventeen years ago)

fifteen years pass...

well hello from the future, electric! you were right about one thing, friend, and that’s the incredible deep cut status of 'catholic easter colours'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ISWdd_ZhM

what an adventure of a tune!

― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Wednesday, 20 March 2024 01:45 (one year ago)

What a great song. I've never listened to this band, I don't think I knew they existed even though I'm vaguely aware of Field Mice and Trembling Blue Stars. This is a nice album, appealingly hazy.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 20 March 2024 02:43 (one year ago)

I find Trembling Blue Stars to be totally unlistenable these days, but man Alaska and the Blue Dissolve EP are classics... just sound fantastic

― the absence of bikes (f. hazel), Wednesday, 20 March 2024 03:26 (one year ago)

there's a lot of cross-pollination from the very end of the field mice + npl. but at the same time, npl predicts the best parts of trembling blue stars.

"lucky" is another fun one in hindsight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc5bZBr2wrU
an (early?) example of an intentional dub+dreampop mashup?

as great as it all is, i have to stand by "dear faraway friend" as the band's best. i know what it's really about, but what a glorious soundtrack/narrative/metaphor for one's descent into proper madness.

― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Wednesday, 20 March 2024 05:32 (one year ago)

Field Mice got a little too happy & peppy toward the end. Northern Picture Library was a welcome return to wistfulness.

― henry s, Wednesday, 20 March 2024 12:54 (one year ago)

One thing I really like about this, discovering it 30 years after the fact, is just how 1994 it is. A particular moment where there was plausible permeability between the realms of dream pop, trip-hop, dub and electronic music, all of it coexisting in close enough proximity for the experimentation to feel like a natural outgrowth.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 20 March 2024 17:31 (one year ago)

Yeah, all those indie bands discovering/incorporating dance music was pretty exciting, Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, hell, even 18-Wheeler. Didn't work much the other way around though.

― henry s, Wednesday, 20 March 2024 18:43 (one year ago)

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