the Clientele Suburban Light
Format: CD.
Year Of Release: 2001.
Label: Merge.
Label reference #: mrg187.
TK Mailorder Reference ID: M9988
Approximate release date: May 1, 2001.
Genres: Rock/Pop
Price: $12.45 [Out of Stock]
List price:$14.97
1 unit in cart. Remove from cart.
Description: Soft, atmospheric, but upbeat pop with hypnotic male vocals and an undertone of jangly guitars. This differs slightly from the original UK release in that the 3 redundant tracks from 'A Fading Summer' have been deleted and replaced with 3 new ones!
Track listing:
1. "I Had To Say This"
2. "Rain"
3. "Reflections After Jane"
4. "We Could Walk Together"
5. "Monday's Rain"
6. "Joseph Cornell"
7. "What Goes Up"
8. "(I Want You) More Than Ever"
9. "6am Morningside"
10. "Five Day Morning"
11. "From A Window"
12. "As Night Is Falling"
13. "Lacewings"
Twee Kitten review of Suburban Light
by Keith Mclachlan
I wonder if those lucky enough to have voices that can make people tingle are born with them, or do they have to work for years to develop them into instruments of emotional manipulation? Did Alasdair Maclean simply open his mouth one day and instantly realize his voice was ghostly, magnificent and romantic? On the strength of the evidence of this LP/Compilation I'd have to say no.
'A Fading Summer' was a wonderful ep, it made me return to my days as a shoegazing past when the four song ep was the source of a constant stream of youthful thrills. Upon release of records from 'Sunburst' to 'Today Forever, my life was continually being defined by the four song ep. Now of course the four song ep has effectively been banned by regulatory dictate in England and so the Clientele do the next best thing by releasing their "debut". But it isn't really because all but three of the songs released here have seen the light of day before now, and truthfully it is actually the exclusions that are more glaring than the inclusion of the so-called rarities, where is 'Driving South' or '6am Morningside'?.
Early Clientele songs, nearly all of which are present here, seem, ultimately, to be defined by their production values which, during most points of their infancy, seem to have specialized in making records as thin and tinny as those which have ever been made. Alasdair's voice sounds a bit wayward on a lot of the songs, as if he knows he possesses an emotional MX missile but at the moment he only wanted a flashlight in the darkness. Following that mode then many of the songs here are very nearly bad and the mood is all too similar as well, for the same four or five notes are plucked atop a shuffling jazzy beat for most of the record and it gets somewhat tiresome by the end of the day. Still the best songs are those that have been released most recently including 3 of the 4 songs on 'A Fading Summer' and 'I Want You More Than Ever'. Whether this means these are examples of their most recent songwriting output is unknown to me but if that is the case then this record will soon be more easily characterized as an archaeological document than a definitive opening statement.
They have the voice, and the surrealism/automatic writing would have once appealed more to me, but for now it is simply the voice, and if Alasdair can continue to hone its effectiveness the future then promises very great things with a new focus on the wonderful concept of lush and placid production ethics, then only wonderfulness awaits. Probably.
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Format: CD.
Year Of Release: 2001.
Label: Merge.
Label reference #: mrg187.
TK Mailorder Reference ID: M9988
Approximate release date: May 1, 2001.
Genres: Rock/Pop
Price: $12.45 [Out of Stock]
List price:
1 unit in cart. Remove from cart.
Description: Soft, atmospheric, but upbeat pop with hypnotic male vocals and an undertone of jangly guitars. This differs slightly from the original UK release in that the 3 redundant tracks from 'A Fading Summer' have been deleted and replaced with 3 new ones!
Track listing:
1. "I Had To Say This"
2. "Rain"
3. "Reflections After Jane"
4. "We Could Walk Together"
5. "Monday's Rain"
6. "Joseph Cornell"
7. "What Goes Up"
8. "(I Want You) More Than Ever"
9. "6am Morningside"
10. "Five Day Morning"
11. "From A Window"
12. "As Night Is Falling"
13. "Lacewings"
Twee Kitten review of Suburban Light
by Keith Mclachlan
I wonder if those lucky enough to have voices that can make people tingle are born with them, or do they have to work for years to develop them into instruments of emotional manipulation? Did Alasdair Maclean simply open his mouth one day and instantly realize his voice was ghostly, magnificent and romantic? On the strength of the evidence of this LP/Compilation I'd have to say no.
'A Fading Summer' was a wonderful ep, it made me return to my days as a shoegazing past when the four song ep was the source of a constant stream of youthful thrills. Upon release of records from 'Sunburst' to 'Today Forever, my life was continually being defined by the four song ep. Now of course the four song ep has effectively been banned by regulatory dictate in England and so the Clientele do the next best thing by releasing their "debut". But it isn't really because all but three of the songs released here have seen the light of day before now, and truthfully it is actually the exclusions that are more glaring than the inclusion of the so-called rarities, where is 'Driving South' or '6am Morningside'?.
Early Clientele songs, nearly all of which are present here, seem, ultimately, to be defined by their production values which, during most points of their infancy, seem to have specialized in making records as thin and tinny as those which have ever been made. Alasdair's voice sounds a bit wayward on a lot of the songs, as if he knows he possesses an emotional MX missile but at the moment he only wanted a flashlight in the darkness. Following that mode then many of the songs here are very nearly bad and the mood is all too similar as well, for the same four or five notes are plucked atop a shuffling jazzy beat for most of the record and it gets somewhat tiresome by the end of the day. Still the best songs are those that have been released most recently including 3 of the 4 songs on 'A Fading Summer' and 'I Want You More Than Ever'. Whether this means these are examples of their most recent songwriting output is unknown to me but if that is the case then this record will soon be more easily characterized as an archaeological document than a definitive opening statement.
They have the voice, and the surrealism/automatic writing would have once appealed more to me, but for now it is simply the voice, and if Alasdair can continue to hone its effectiveness the future then promises very great things with a new focus on the wonderful concept of lush and placid production ethics, then only wonderfulness awaits. Probably.
Previous page
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