Shack - ...the corner of Miles & Gil

And with this new one, there's still a handful of tracks that have a new and different feel (those with lovely bright brass sections on them, certainly...and some which had more playful melodies than I'd expect form shack, and denser, more arranged vocal harmonies), but there's also a lot of reference back...I was hearing various tracks and thinking "this sounds like it's off fable...and this one could've been on waterpistol...and that's really strandsy!" and so on.

Not sure which was which yet, I'll have a clearer idea once I've got more familiar with it. But, you know, the mixture of feels is definitely a good thing. It's kind of like having a shack best-of album, except all the songs are new. Yay!

And as ever with shack albums, I wish the John Head tracks weren't on there. Michael's songs are invariably SO much better than his brother's are.

ahhh fuck it, too easy.

dear god do i disagree. john's songs are my favourites on both the strands album and hms fable, and he contributed a b-side to one of the singles from the last album that was my favourite track of the entire recording sessions.

If I loved HMS Fable and The Strands plus bits of Waterpistol but was utterly meh about Tom/Weather, will I like this?

Loaded Man is the primary source of all my John hatred! If you're going to write an 8 minute dirge during which you do little more than whinge about something as obvious as lad culture, then YOU NEED TO USE MORE THAN TWO CHORDS!

I'll give you Cornish Town though, that was ok.

His songs are :

Loaded Man
Beautiful
Cornsh Town
Miles Apart
Kilburn High Road
Carousel
Not Afraid of Loving You
New Day
Moonshine
Find A Place
Butterfly

Aside from Loaded Man for the reasons made by JimD I think his writing is getting stronger.

Mick's a unique character but without John I don't think he'd get around to much. Although a solo album is mooted.

are two of my very favourite Shack/Strands tunes.

As to Johns songs while I personally thought Carousel & Miles Apart where the best things on Tom/Weather I agree he doesnt quite have the same character as Michael so when the songs/arrangements are not first rate they end up a little bland.

1. this album is really wearing well, after a slow start. I find that with most Shack albums (HMS excepted) it takes me an awfully long time to really distinguish the mid-tempo songs. Kind of feel like a different song sequence might have made it easier to sort out the acoustic-guitar ballads.

2. Didn't want to start a thread on Zilch, but you know after shelling out something like $40 for the Japanese import reissue and thinking that I was throwing money away for the sake of being a completist, I'm not regretting the purchase a bit. Have completely gotten over the problematic production and it's been on constant play for a month or so. I'd had a CDR of a vinyl rip, that I never really appreciated... Wouldn't exactly recommend that everyone rush out and get a copy, but it's turned out to be a surprisingly worthwhile impulse purchase.

I'd kindof like to hear Waterpistol. I remember reading about that a long time ago, critics fawning over it. It was really rare and expensive then. Don't know if it still is or not.

actually it appears to still be in print

http://www.marina.com/mailorder/enter.html