I just heard the Clientele for the first time

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early bee gees has some al stewart in it.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 July 2003 08:42 (twenty years ago) link

No picking on the man who came up with "Year of the Cat"!

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 18 July 2003 10:22 (twenty years ago) link

Is it out yet? I'm ready for another Clientele record now I think!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 18 July 2003 10:30 (twenty years ago) link

i described them as "galaxie 500 + love + early bee gees." does that seem apt?

There's also something in there from the late '50s/ early '60s, though I've never been able to put my finger on it. I think the reverb reminds me of the Flamingos or something.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 18 July 2003 11:54 (twenty years ago) link

bit of felt in there, too, I'd think.

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Friday, 18 July 2003 12:27 (twenty years ago) link

perhaps they listen to music from the future. but those bands are just clientele rip-offs of course.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 18 July 2003 13:53 (twenty years ago) link

I really like the guitar part in the third song. Does anyone else think that Alasdair's guitar sounds different? I don't know if it's the production or what but it just doesn't sound like a stringed instrument: it isn't twangy, just opal or pearly but with more light. I guess some other gem all together. So the surface is polished, but the richness is in the way the light refracts. (Sorry, all these horrible (mixed) metaphors...)

― youn, Friday, 18 July 2003 13:59 (twenty years ago) link

early bee gees *are* early '60s, if you're talking about their australian stuff which i am.

yeah, sure, felt too. but the first clientele album is better than anything by felt.

(ducks)

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 July 2003 14:27 (twenty years ago) link

Three terrific articles on the Tangents site. Parabolas - that was the image I was after. Alistair is right - shouldn't let school get you down. Tangents has a great editorial policy to have three articles on the same album. (And what Alistair wrote in his blog about finding directions (and using them, no less!) was cool.) Tim's article - something "made" and "dismantled," craft and "delicacy."

Everybody's Gone 1:18, etc. Is that backwards tape underneath it? (As if you could slap on some paint and run.) And think of how the Sea and Cake would have done Jamaican Rum Rhumba, without the splashes of color and the skittering underneath, or much more heavyhanded. Porcelain should be sinister, even with beauty, like The Conformist, which has both the scene with the leaves in the driveway and all that horizontal white in the scene at the hospital(?).

― youn, Saturday, 26 July 2003 01:46 (twenty years ago) link

What else does this band have besides their new album? They put out a bunch of singles right? Are they collected on a singles comp? Should I seek that out before the new album? Is there a big difference between the two?

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Saturday, 26 July 2003 03:00 (twenty years ago) link

1) a number of singles and a couple of EPs
2) yes
3) yes it's called "suburban light". i think you want the US version rather than the UK version (one of them is missing tracks from singles but has most of a US-released EP on it that is still separately available)
4) not necessarily
5) not really "big" per se

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Saturday, 26 July 2003 03:08 (twenty years ago) link

Is the new album in tune?

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Saturday, 26 July 2003 03:18 (twenty years ago) link

if that helps

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Saturday, 26 July 2003 03:23 (twenty years ago) link

melissa do you know about this mysterious thing called "a human soul"?

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 26 July 2003 03:39 (twenty years ago) link

thanks electric jim. you're a peach.

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Saturday, 26 July 2003 03:56 (twenty years ago) link

melissa do you know about this mysterious thing called "a human soul"?

Does it involve being out of tune?

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Saturday, 26 July 2003 04:08 (twenty years ago) link

tune is overrated. ask david crosby.

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Saturday, 26 July 2003 04:15 (twenty years ago) link

maybe the world is out of tune.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Saturday, 26 July 2003 04:17 (twenty years ago) link

I just finished writing my review. (here) I had never heard (of) the Clientele before a few weeks ago, but the new album is a wonder. Beautiful. I'd be very grateful to hear what some of you wise-ones think of my review... Be kind or cruel as you please.

― Sean M (Sean M), Wednesday, 30 July 2003 00:22 (twenty years ago) link

i don't see the lyrical similarity to felt. the clientele guy sounds like he's singing to himself, felt usually seemed to be addressing someone else. of course i like both bands way too much. the guitar, yes, it wanders around so wonderfully like it does on the first couple felt albums.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Wednesday, 30 July 2003 01:08 (twenty years ago) link

Melissa: no.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 30 July 2003 02:35 (twenty years ago) link

Melissa: no.

No, the album is not in tune, or no, this mysterious thing called the "human soul" has nothing to do with being out of tune?

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Wednesday, 30 July 2003 05:12 (twenty years ago) link

i think amateurist and melissa have finally found a "why was i programmed to feel pain?!" robot buddy to call their own

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 30 July 2003 05:29 (twenty years ago) link

you mean me?

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 30 July 2003 05:36 (twenty years ago) link

I think they could have come up with a more inspired title than "The Violet Hour"? Just picked this up today, I enjoyed Suburban Light but I'm not that impressed with this one. They seem to be treading water. Or maybe my tastes have changed. The lyrics seem to have been written on 'wistful romanticism' autopilot. The whole thing seems a bit shallow. It seems like this should be there xxth record, settling into a groove, like Yo La Tengo, not a career builder.

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 31 July 2003 06:44 (twenty years ago) link

Morrissey, Joey Sweeney, and the Pinefox are good lyricists. Lots of people like indie pop for lyrics. Sundar makes fun of us for that. I don't think lyrics are their strong point, but that's not all there is. (It's only one kind of "intelligence.") I'm interested in their lyrics, I want to know what Alasdair is singing about, e.g., in the third song, because I am already enraptured by their music. That's okay. Would listening to it as something other than a pop record, as Tim H suggests, help? Musically, I don't think they've settled into a groove at all.

― youn, Thursday, 31 July 2003 08:12 (twenty years ago) link

Does anyone else think that Alasdair's guitar sounds different?

He sneaked a Les Paul into the studio for some of the solos.

― Mooro (Mooro), Thursday, 31 July 2003 13:57 (twenty years ago) link

What Mary said.

Melissa: yes, he's often out of tune.

Jess: congratulations, you're being an wilfull idiot. There is out of tune and then there is out of tune. People like Bob Dylan and, um, Dre3000 often go out of tune in a deliberate and effective way. Other people just drift around notes with little control, to more or less grating effect. I actually don't think the Clientele singer is bad at all in this sense, although as Melissa suggested, he does go out of tune quite a bit. And there are some singers with pitch control problems--Shirley Collis for one--who I admire enormously nonetheless.

Or is the very notion of "tune" the product of some robot-hegemony? Well, you're free to listen to Merzbow all you want.

― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 31 July 2003 14:05 (twenty years ago) link

Amateurist, it wasn't just him though that bothered me on the last record, it was the instruments. On Lacewings in particular, every element of the song was in a different pitch universe. To the point that it made me feel incredibly ill.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Thursday, 31 July 2003 14:21 (twenty years ago) link

Hey man, any effect is better than indifference, right?

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 31 July 2003 14:27 (twenty years ago) link

I have the new album now and on first (well, second really) hearing I enjoy it. In my experience - not unrelated to my first hearing of this album - Jamaican Rum is rarely as delicate as the rhumba implies. I rather lost the thread of the record halfway through but this is not an unusual experience with albums and me. A hopeful thumbs up.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 31 July 2003 14:30 (twenty years ago) link

More than Suburban Light Violet Hour is a grower, the tunes are not as immediately AM-radio catchy, but they sink in after a while. The more consistant overall sound (singles recorded at dif. times etc.) is also welcome.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 31 July 2003 14:34 (twenty years ago) link

Melissa: that's why he uses some much reverb, I guess. I think you are probably more sensitive to such things than I--this is not an insult, BTW.

When I saw them live he kept asking the sound man for more reverb, it almost became self-parody after a while. He also kept asking the crowd to hush, even though it wasn't any noisier than usual for a rock show. Combine that with the very soupy sound on the new record, I sort of wonder if the bands knows their own strengths. That said I don't by any means think it is a bad record, I just wasn't as impressed with it on a few listens as I was with their previous material.

Maybe they should just release 7"s.

― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 31 July 2003 15:49 (twenty years ago) link

Aside from 'they should just release 7"s', which is an article of musical faith and (for me) doesn't apply to the Clientele any more than anyone else, I don't think I agree with anything Amst says about the new LP. I especially don't think the sound's soupy, and I love how the reverb breaks up their lyrics. I think "The Violet Hour" is a much better, subtler record than "Suburban Light" (I loved Suburban Light too, mind) and I like it more and more every time I listen to it.

Clientele live shouldn't equal a rock show and they're certainly not beyond a bit of self-parody. Also, more people should tell the audience to quieten down if they feel like it, it's a terrific thing to do (cf Kevin Rowland on "The Bridge").

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 31 July 2003 16:14 (twenty years ago) link

I don't like 7"s better than LPs on any kind of principle, it was just a flippant comment arising from my opinion that their best work has been on singles.

― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 31 July 2003 16:17 (twenty years ago) link

I like 72s better than LPs on every kind of principle.

Well, most kinds of principle.

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 31 July 2003 16:20 (twenty years ago) link

haha 72s

I meant seventy two inches obviously.

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 31 July 2003 16:20 (twenty years ago) link

You can fit a lot of music on a 72.

― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 31 July 2003 16:24 (twenty years ago) link

i like good ol' 78s better

― joan vich (joan vich), Thursday, 31 July 2003 16:29 (twenty years ago) link

TS: 78 RPM vs. 72 inches

― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 31 July 2003 16:35 (twenty years ago) link

self parody

Audience last night: More!

Alasdair: Are you pitch deaf?

Actually, you're at a Clientele gig, of course you are.

(or something like that)

― Mooro (Mooro), Saturday, 2 August 2003 18:01 (twenty years ago) link

one month passes...

on the pointy records site alasdair says 'policeman getting lost' is after a song by the fall. in the film gaslight, there is a scene with a policeman emerging from the fog under a streetlamp. it's supposed to be about 4 am. i haven't been to the beach that early but in the morning there are surfers and that same kind of mist, no slightly different, but both kinds are all right for the song.

― youn, Sunday, 7 September 2003 01:20 (twenty years ago) link

i'm no expert on these things but i think the bass guitar sounds too damped or muffled and is too low in the mix.

― youn, Tuesday, 9 September 2003 18:32 (twenty years ago) link

three weeks pass...

I must say The Violet Hour is a lovely piece of work. I may investigate further. The second tracks sounds to me to have filched the bassline from Verve's "Where The Geese Go", which is a wonderful thing to filch.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 12:19 (twenty years ago) link

cough.

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 15:18 (twenty years ago) link

Wow what a joyless stupuid ass review! Man I swear sometimes that old cliche rings true that critics just do not get it! Thanks for the link!

― Mark Watsinki, Wednesday, 1 October 2003 18:52 (twenty years ago) link

These guys sound like My Morning Jacket if My Morning Jacket was from wherever these guys are from. Except MMJ's singer didn't use studio reverb for his voice, he recorded his vocals in a grain silo. And that whole instruments-in-tune thing. I kinda like it though.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 19:14 (twenty years ago) link

I'd rather shovel bees down my dick than listen to My Morning Jacket...

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 2 October 2003 08:56 (twenty years ago) link

I'm not familiar with that song by the Verve, but when I listened to it yesterday, I thought the bass is what makes it sound like a country & western song.

― youn, Thursday, 2 October 2003 10:08 (twenty years ago) link

It's worth a download, certainly.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 2 October 2003 10:54 (twenty years ago) link

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