Right time, right place... wrong album

[alan nagsworth]

I'm talkin' 'bout how new musical experiences can be circumstantial, and the incidents in which you, the humble cunt, have been subjected to an artist for the first time and how that in turn leads to a 'non-classic' album becoming your personal favourite over the big seminal titles.

I'll start so you get it: I've never really understood the big hoo-ha around Love's 'Forever Changes'. When I was about 17, a friend of mine came round one day absolutely singing the highest praises about 'Da Capo', and I had never even heard of Love at this point, having only recently dipped my toe into the water discovering the progforcunts of Floyd's 'The Wall'. This guy was big into Pixies and The Smiths and the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack so I trusted his intuition and listened to his most revered selections: 'Stephanie Knows Who' and 'She Comes In Colours', and honestly, as soon as the former kicked in, it blew my mind. The swells and build-ups, the fucking monumental breakdown that follows 'your eyes, your hair, your everything... YEAH!' and makes me thrash about like a mad fish every time I hear it, and Arthur Lee's wild, commanding voice screaming above those tight jams. Unbelievable.

So, anyway I've been living for the last eight years with only 'Da Capo' serving as my comprehensive knowledge of all things Love, and it was only yesterday that I finally decided to give 'Forever Changes' a go. I can honestly say that I was underwhelmed. It's not that it's not any good, because it is undeniably a decent record, but there's a feeling in that first exposure to a band that simply cannot be replicated. Circumstance is everything and being young and often quite drunk/stoned with a group of people that no longer see each other or really care to has a much bigger impact than sitting here on my own in January and feeling some sort of obligation to dig deeper into a back catalogue. In fact I'm fairly sure that the first time my mate played 'Da Capo' we were holed up in a disused fire escape corridor, smoking cheap hash as the tunes spiked out of a pair of portable speakers hooked up to his absolute brick of a 20GB mp3 player, which I'm fairly certain was simply a hard drive with a screen and headphone jack attached. I know it's hardly comparable to... I dunno, watching John Bonham play a two-hour solo with his hands and face, with a head full of LSD and mescaline in a moldy tent at Woodstock, but it was a daft age of discovery for me ppersonally and despite remaining very open-minded about music, you just can't beat that time when you were naive and your brain was bubbling with the unknown and you sweep hot-rocks off your market stall jeans as 'Stephanie Knows Who' first enters your subconsciousness.

Looking back to yesterday, a part of me honestly wishes that I had never listened to 'Forever Changes' because there was all the happiness in the world to be had with 'Da Capo', and now the truth is out about my own denial and inability to let go of the past. I'm a husk of a man. I had convinced myself of one of two things: either that a whole world of amazement lay in wait for me in Love's back catalogue, perpetually ready for me to discover it, or that I knew nothing would evoke the emotions that associated 'Da Capo' with that time in my life and that I should stay away to avoid disappointment. Perhaps it's both, but either way I can seriously see myself not listening to 'Forever Changes' ever again unless subjected to it elsewhere. 'Da Capo' is the one for me and people can bang on about how I'm making a mistake all they want, because I ain't gonna change my mind.

So, what other outsider choices have you made due to circumstance, shunning the majority of recommendations and pleas for a life as a hermit with that specific selection of not-so-popular hits riffing out in your head for all eternity?

[Retinend]

Agreed: Da Capo is fantastic and Forever Changes is underwhelming. I also listened to them in that order, and felt roughly the same things. Listening to the first two albums definitely made me less enthusiastic about the band as a whole, after falling head over heels for the embroidered pomp and raw energy of the later album. I don't think their celebrated cover of Bacharach's Little Red Book is nearly as good as it's made out to be. Maybe it's popularity is something to do with that early punk attitude shining through, but there's none of that to be found on Da Capo, which I love it all the more for.

Didn't really understand what was the question/title all about, though. ?

[alan nagsworth]

Didn't really understand what was the question/title all about, though. ?

Just... y'know, when circumstance dictates that a lesser record becomes a Verbwhores' favourite over a more classic, celebrated title. Examples of that.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It's Unkle's Psyence Fiction for me (though for the purposes of the thread you need to think of it as a solo DJ Shadow record). I know that Endtroducing is a classic, ground breaking album, and it's one I really enjoy, but I heard Psyence Fiction first - at Christmas time, no less. Plus it was the first time I'd ever heard anything like it, which robs Endtroducing of the impact it might otherwise have had.

[momatt]

It's Unkle's Psyence Fiction for me...

That's really interesting.  I got Endtroducing a few months after it came out, after being completely blown away by the Midnight in a Perfect World CD single.  To this day nothing sounds like it, plus I was overwhelmed by the mystery behind the album.  When I bought it I had no way of knowing if Shadow was a man, woman, black, white, individual, group.  And how were these sounds made?  Old records?  What records?  This seemed to add to the experience hugely.

Then when Psyence Fiction came out a couple of years later, it was the same thing but on a much grander scale, collaborating with some of my other favourite artists and I was amazed all over again.
If I had heard them in the order you had, I'm sure I would have felt the same.  Glad It did it 'properly'.

As for Love - Forver Changes in a favourite of mine, but I've never heard Da Capo.  Time to give it a whirl perhaps?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Well I could easily be mistaken, but the impression that I've always got is that Psyence Fiction is generally considered a disappointment. DJ Shadow Lite, if you will - with the guest vocals being seen as a gimmick that waters down the Endtroducing sound.

Again though, that could well be complete guff and it's certainly not how I feel about it.

[CaledonianGonzo]

I think that is the general consensus, Claude, yes.  Certainly the reviews weren't massively kind towards it, but that might have just been the consequences of all the pre-release hype.

I think it certainly has its moments, but these are hampered by weaker tracks like Bloodstain and Nursery Rhyme.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Which, vaguely predictably, are two of my favourite tracks on the album.

The only one I'm not so keen on is Lonely Soul. I wonder whether they'd have bothered to get Richard Ashcroft caterwauling on there if Urban Hymns hadn't been such a high hit the previous year.

[SteveDave]

As for Love - Forver Changes in a favourite of mine, but I've never heard Da Capo.  Time to give it a whirl perhaps?

The 1st side of Da Capo is brilliant. The 2nd side featuring 1 song is not.

[Paaaaul]

Agreed: Da Capo is fantastic and Forever Changes is underwhelming. I also listened to them in that order, and felt roughly the same things. Listening to the first two albums definitely made me less enthusiastic about the band as a whole, after falling head over heels for the embroidered pomp and raw energy of the later album.

Da Capo was their second album.



Da Capo is my least favourite of all the Love albums pre-1975.

Their debut, Love, is a great fucked up rock'n'roll album.
Forever Changes is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. An album that absolutely defines the age in which it was recorded - it's like an aural prequel to Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.
Four Sail is a lovely downbeat follow up to Forever Changes. It doesn't try to match it, but is a great come comedown album.
Out Here is a really long mess but has some magnificent songs on it,running the gamut from folk to proto-stoner rock. The two extended tracks could do with some heavy editing though.
False Start continues in the vein of the rockier stuff on Out Here, and is short but sweet.

Da Capo feels to me like a band that doesn't quite know where it's heading. Some of the choruses on the album irritate me with their trite melodies, and I feel songs like Willow Willow and Gather Round on Out Here hit the target of the folk-psych hybrid they were aiming for with Da Capo with much more success.

If you want Out Here and False Start on CD but can't afford them, there is a decent compilation of the best bits of both called Out There, which can normally be got pretty cheap.

(Love - I Still Wonder (from 'Out Here')

---------------

I loved Psyence Fiction for about 2 days when I bought it, and I don't think I've listened to it since. There was so little in the bag compared to Endtroducing that it had nothing left to give me after about 10 plays. I do still regularly listen to Endtroducing, Pre-Emptive Strike and a bootleg compilation called In-Fluxuations, that gathers together the rest of his early recordings, as there is still much magic to be had from them. I saw UNKLE play on the PF tour and it was James Lavelle DJing spinning discs of the songs while the Scratch Pervertz erm, scratched over them. It was quite entertaining, but still felt like a bit of a rip-off with the lack of Shadow. I don't think I've heard any other UNKLE stuff released since then.

[momatt]

Well I could easily be mistaken, but the impression that I've always got is that Psyence Fiction is generally considered a disappointment. DJ Shadow Lite, if you will - with the guest vocals being seen as a gimmick that waters down the Endtroducing sound.
Again though, that could well be complete guff and it's certainly not how I feel about it.

It suffered a typical UK media backlash.  I actually recall the intitial reviews being very favourable.  After months of hyping it up, the same mags then changed their minds and said everything James Lavelle had ever done was shit.  His musical involvement is often disputed, but the facts remain that this album wouldn't have happened without him.  The organisation itself is quite a feat.

All these people are wrong, the album is amazing (subjective of course, but the backlash was hugely disproportional).  I can still hear new things in it today, I wouldn't change a single thing about it.

Nursery Rhyme is one of my favourites too!
Oh, and Richard Ashcroft recorded his vocals before The Verve had made Urban Hymns, they were actually split at the time.
Badly Drawn Boy was a total unknown.
Radiohead were big-ish after releasing The Bends when this was recorded, but were nowhere as huge as they were to become with OK Computer.

Oi Paaaaul, you are a very lucky so-and-so.  I would have loved to have seen one of those Unkle / Scratch Perverts shows.  The recordings I have are incredible!