The Clientele - Best Band Since The Smiths

My two favorite things about the letter are:

1. Even in Alasdair's letters it's raining. Truly, the man knows no hot summer days.

2. The deft way in which he leaves open the possibility that he didn't like Barbarians.

the original opening sentence in the letter had all sorts of references to puddles and bicycles and balloons but it just didn't flow.

saw alasdair yesterday in his amor de dias incarnation and they were probably the quietest band i've ever heard.

also this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_Gabba_Gabba!

I love Bonfires On The Heath, better than God Save The Clientele... Perhaps it's the same level as 'Strange Geometry' was.

i did them injustice seven years ago. it must have been the singer's soft voice which didn't appeal to my younger self. or maybe i confused them with another band. i have eight songs by them on my ipod and at seven of them are good. their music evokes three notions in me. the expression "it is raining cats and dogs", the buzzcocks title "harmony in my head" and a fairy tale in a forest with a rainbow rising over the trees of a clearing.

at least seven

Bonfires On The Heath completes a nearly-flawless run of five albums.

it is a real beauty. i have this and the new espers lp on my shuffle and they compliment each other perfectly for droney autumnal rambles. it does remind me of the violet hour in tone more than any of their other efforts, only with added disquiet and creepiness. and less hiss.

solo session on wfmu: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/11/alasdair-maclean-of-the-clientele.html#more sounds lovely. w/o the rest of the band his guitar sounds quite Robyn Hitchcock-esque in parts.

New album is kinda disappointing.

That's been the mini-review for every album since the Violet Hour.

finally heard the newie.. it's good, inasmuch as the sound is there and the quality is consistent, but tbh it does feel like treading water. if this is indeed their last album it's certainly not a bad note to go out on, and probably the right one.

i'm loving this record ...

never paid much attention before to this brian o'shaughnessy chap who produced the last few clientele records and am surprised and rather pleased to see he's produced a shitload of stuff i like..

it's their last album?

they kind of hinted it would be unless it goes triple platinum.

what i'd kind of be interested in if they wanted to shake their sound up a little is a more guitar-heavy kind of thing -- i love the rare occasions when alasdair lets loose with a psychedelic guitar solo ... maybe that's just me ...

yeah i love it when alasdair does that too. it happens live quite a bit, wish they would do more of that on their records.

two acoustic gigs tomorrow:
http://www.theclienteleforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=160&sid=dd369aa0e556d3015c19847011eedb8a

they better tour the US again before they break up, I've had to miss them every time they've been here.

That "we're going to break-up" line sounded fairly noncommittal to me. Maybe I'm hearing what I want to hear.

I hope they stay together. Best since The Smiths? Hard to say. But what a band.

" hope they stay together "

i think an Alasdair solo career/in different, new band could be great change too.

Yeah, that's certainly possible, too. Change can be good, I suppose.

here's his side project, which might even be *mellower* than The Clientele http://www.amordedias.com/

cause, y know, it will be hard for The Clentele at this point not to repeat themselves imo, and personally i'd prefer a change
xpost

Wow! Hadn't heard of Amor de Dias. Thank you.

where can i listen to their music?

dunno ....

in the future probably..

here is Alasdair's blog, where i found out they recorded most of the Amor de Dias record.
refardless, his blog looks interesting:

http://theclientele.blogspot.com/

Yeah. He's a smart guy. I've read his blog, and I like it. Another good blog is by dj/rupture.

No connection between the two. My mind works in mysterious ways (when it works at all).

Alasdair used to post here in the early part of the decade.

lupe from pipas is in his new band.

which of course i see now is made clear on his blog, sorry.

Alasdair used to post here in the early part of the decade.

I've read that before, but I've never seen one of his posts.

(Can't remember seeing one, at least)

I love the new album, but still hold out hope that they'll decide to record an album-length Ariadne EP.

after liking each album before this one more than the previous i can't get to grips with this one. it is clearly their most accomplished record but it isn't all that likable to my ears. they used to be the model of economy but this is luxuriant in comparison and yet maybe that's merely covering up their weakest set of songs.

really? i feel like God Save is more "lush" than the new one -- but maybe that's not quite what you mean. And "God Save" -- even though I love it death -- might be the only Clientele that verges on self-parody a little bit. This one feels more natural to me ...

I can see that. Still, sometimes I think the last song on God Save -- Dreams of Leaving -- is the best traditional song the band ever released (I say "traditional song" because I think a non-traditional spoken-word piece -- Losing Haringey -- is the best thing the band ever released).

self parody might not be the right term -- again, I love that record. Maybe it just has a somewhat lighter touch than other stuff by them?

Xposting a bit. I too was really thrilled when I saw them live, (relatively) kicking out the jams, and it completely changed the way I think about about them. Maybe the ultimate "soft" band who ought to cut loose more often. "Never Anyone But You" from the new one is as close as they're probably going to get to a "What Goes On" and it's fantastic.

The Robyn Hitchcock comparison above is interesting, especially given the totally Hitchcockian line "There's a phantom in the space between my bones."

"gaps" not "space." Shouldn't go by memory when drinking...

maybe 'luxuriant' or 'lush' is the wrong term, perhaps I meant 'busy'. it seems the rest of the band had much more to do with how this one sounds, I could just be against democracy.

re: Hitchcock, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if Alasdair didn't name him as an influence, but I do think there's a similarity at times in the guitar style and the kind of magical melancholy vision of England both of them have going on ...

(i didn't know alfred hitchcock played the guitar!)

there's footage of the tiny acoustic lexington gig up on youtube. i was sat downstairs minding the coats...

oh goodness Strange Geometry is still soooo good. "Spirit" is divine. I guess I should get the new one. I've been listening through their whole library again over the last week or so, and Strange Geometry stands out (though they are all wonderful): these songs are taut, as though they were trying to play Motown songs, lovely but concise, with nothing to spare.

yeah, it is a wonderful record,especially during the winter -- just listened to it a week or so ago. the songs kind of seem simple and hummable on the surface, but when you start paying attention they're sometimes super complex!

I just listened to God Save The Clientele for the first time in ages, and it is a letdown after Strange Geometry. Well, it leads off well, but "Isn't Life Strange?" kills the momentum. And I think I get the earlier remarks about self-parody. Take "The Queen of Seville". The sound is gorgeous, but the lyric is empty, and actually kinda lazy, Clientele-by-numbers: pick a geographical location, make it kinda "olde England" by invoking royalty. And then the song is goes on about being lonely.

I'll get the new one, though. I just looked at the album art and it's gorgeous! It's an Archimboldo! I keep running into Archimboldo paintings lately, prob. b/c artistic references like that are more common coin in France; my kids just got an Asterix comic book with a parody of an Archimboldo painting in it. I guess kids here know that kind of thing? The painting in question hangs in the Louvre (I saw it a few weeks ago), so maybe it's not unreasonable for kids here to get that kind of reference. Well, that's the painting in the comic; I'm not sure where the one on the Clientele album cover is from.

much as i love strange geometry, it had the distinction up to now of being the only clientele record i could say with any certainty wasn't my favourite. it is strong, has a strident, television-y kind of clarity, i can see why it's regarded by many as their best. god save the clientele, on the other hand, is just flawless, victoria street aside. i like the new one an awful lot but it does suffer by comparision a little.