I guess they can't all be as crowd-pleasing as Executive Slacks (that might be the first time that phrase has been uttered). Which is good for me, because honestly this blog series is a little more interesting when there's some dissent, a frisson of debate, even the occasional "I HATE THIS." This US reissue appears to be the second time this record appeared in rotation at KCMU, and there were definitely some who did not approve. (I have in my head this little mini-drama in which our friend Creed tours the station and pops his head in the DJ booth while the 2013 Cherry Red reissue of this same album happens to be in rotation, then shrieks "Nooooooo!" and runs out of the station.)
This band did tread a difficult musical tightrope for the mid-'80s college radio crowd. As the folks at Cherry Red put it: " In the mid-1980s, bands were either in the charts, which meant they sounded like Wham!, or they were alternative, in which case they sounded like The Jesus & Mary Chain. Nobody really knew what to do with a collection of recalcitrant Irishmen whose music evoked Jimmy Webb, Steely Dan and The Walker Brothers, and whose words were consumed with paranoia and disgust." Without noticing the lyrics, I'm catching a little bit of a Tears for Fears vibe, which I totally would've dug in 1986, but I can understand some of the KCMU weirdos being a little less into it.
"Release for U.S. audiences. One new track (2.1). Still good.""God, is this record back? I thought it was banished to the library."
"Side 2 track 1 will move ya."
"Send this back to the lowest abyss where it belongs. I'm not one to use strong words, but I HATE THIS!"
"So. I hate ELP." [I assume this is a reference to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, since Jaime Meline, aka El-P, was 11 years old at the time.]
"Hacks need not enjoy this." [I think that's what this says?]
"Hey, I want at least legible criticism. [Me too!] And I certainly wasn't picking fights, it's just that something about this band rubs me the wrong way, OK? PS ELP forever!"
"This is a masterful record but then again not for everybody!"
R.E.M., who released Reckoning, their second album, almost exactly 31 years ago, were a band for 31 years. They began as a quirky group of Athens weirdos beloved by college radio DJs, and became one of the biggest rock bands in the world, and then they decided to stop being a band, which you have t…
Sometimes a record excites you so much that you lose your critical and verbal faculties, and all you can do is jump up and down and shout "Woooooo-hooooo!" - or perhaps control your muscles just enough to write "Wooooooo-hooooo!" on a little sticker and slap it on said record. Executive Slacks' Nau…
