1993
CAD 3004 - Frank Black
Released March 09 1993
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Underneath their noise and weirdness, the Pixies had a thorough knowledge of rock history, spanning '50s and '60s' surf-rock, '70s punk's menacing energy and '80s college rock's quirkiness. After dismantling the band, Black Francis inverted his name, collaborated with Captain Beefheart / Pere Ubu sideman Eric Drew Feldman and let his inner rock historian loose on Frank Black. Much of the album nods to Black's inspirations, but his own gifts still shine through. The chugging Iggy Pop homage "Ten Percenter" borrows the Stooges' primitive grind, while the arty, dissonant UFO convention tale "Parry the Wind High, Low" recalls Bowie's Berlin era. However, "I Heard Ramona Sing" -- a Ramones tribute -- is an airy, jangly pop number that sounds nothing like its subject; the Beach Boys' "Hang On To Your Ego" gets a new wave makeover with crunchy guitars and shiny keyboards. Despite his efforts to escape the Pixies' sound, many of Frank Black's songs would have fit on Trompe Le Monde. "Los Angeles" builds on that album's spacy, metallic feel; with its thrashy choruses and dreamy coda, it almost caricatures the Pixies' extreme dynamics. However, whimsical vignettes like "Brackish Boy" and "Two Spaces" sound more like They Might Be Giants -- one of Black's favorite groups -- than his old band, while softer songs like "Adda Lee" and "Every Time I Go Around Here" reveal more emotional depth. Frank Black also boasts an unabashedly big, polished sound; keyboards and brass embellish "Places Named After Numbers" and the epic surf-rock instrumental "Tossed." Just a few years later, new wave-inspired punk-pop bands like Weezer, the Rentals and even No Doubt ruled alternative rock, proving that even if his solo career wasn't as influential as his Pixies years, Frank Black was still ahead of his time. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide
CAD 3006 - His Name is Alive / Mouth By Mouth
Released April 13 1993
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1993's Mouth by Mouth marks a high point in His Name Is Alive's career, consolidating the band's musical elements -- sweet vocals, technicolor production, evocative guitar work, and arty arrangements -- into 16 songs that are as diverse as they are cohesive. Memories of Michigan summertimes, Theodore Roethke's poetry, and sensuality collide, creating the fractured sugar-pop of "Baby Fish Mouth" and "Lip," which sit comfortably beside the stark, cello-driven "Cornfield." The band's sinister side pops up on "Ear," a deadpan retelling of Vincent van Gogh's self-amputation. Mouth by Mouth "rocks" more than any of the band's previous work, thanks to the continued involvement of the Dirt Eaters; they are credited with the album's louder songs, such as the fuzzed-out "Drink, Dress and Ink" and "The Torso." An electrified version of "The Dirt Eaters" rounds out Mouth by Mouth, hinting at the group's increasing pop tendencies. His Name Is Alive's spooky, ethereal side is here too, evident on songs like the spiritually inclined "Lord, Make Me a Channel of Your Peace" and the gamelan-pop of "Sort Of." "Can't Go Wrong Without You" manages to be creepy, catchy, and beautiful all at once (surreal stop-motion filmmakers The Brothers Quay made a fittingly eerie video for this song). The blissed-out cover of Big Star's "Blue Moon" and the Roethke-inspired "Where Knock Is Open Wide" add a dreamy, folky feel to Mouth by Mouth's stylistic mix. A transitional work for a group whose very style is change, Mouth by Mouth begins His Name Is Alive's embrace of more traditional pop styles (for their own purposes, of course) and the departure from their overtly ethereal sound. It's a fresh, fascinating album that improves with repeated listening. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide
DAD 3008 - Red Houe Painters / Red House Painters I
CAD 3016 - Red House Painters / Red House Painters II
Released 1993
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The first of the group's two eponymously titled 1993 efforts is a sprawling, remarkable set distinguished by Mark Kozelek's continuing maturation as a songwriter; far removed from the uniform darkness of Down Colorful Hill, Red House Painters offers an expansion of both emotional and musical possibilities. Working outward from the cutting "Mistress" -- included as both a Spartan piano ballad and as a gauzy rock number -- the record moves through a shifting, impressionistic backdrop of textures and sounds; from the luminous folk-pop of "Grace Cathedral Park" to the epic dissonance of the gut-wrenching "Strawberry Hill," the songs resonate with depth and poignancy, and rank as Kozelek's most fully realized collection of compositions.
The second of two self-titled 1993 efforts, this Red House Painters collects the remaining tracks from the remarkably fruitful sessions which also launched the earlier, superior album. Far more experimental in nature, it opens with "Evil," an almost painfully slow and withdrawn song which acutely sets the album's haunting, dark tone. While not everything works -- the electric version of "New Jersey" pales in comparison to the previous set's acoustic rendition, while the cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "I Am a Rock" is overripe -- both the unrequited love song "Bubble" and the dysfunctional "Uncle Joe" rank among Mark Kozelek's most perfectly realized compositions, and the closer, a marvelously downbeat reading of "The Star Spangled Banner," allows the group's often unsung black humor to seep to the surface. - Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
CAD 3012 - Unrest / Perfect TeethReleased August 23 1993
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Unrest's final and best album is both jangling and lush, and covers many styles of pop music. "Angel, I'll Walk You Home" is filled with pristine vocal harmonies, while "Cath Carroll" is flashy, thrashy punk-pop. "Light Command" is wistful and triumphant. "Breather X.O.X.O." is majestically melancholy, and "West Coast Love Affair" is breezy and tongue-in-cheek. Unrest's experimental and pop leanings come together with terrific success on Perfect Teeth, making it a high point in the band's too-brief recording career. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide
CAD 3013 - Dead Can Dance / Into the LabyrinthReleased September 13 1993
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With a regular American deal in place for the first time ever, thanks to 4AD's linkup with the WEA conglomerate, Dead Can Dance made a splash on commercial alternative radio with "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove," the first single from Into the Labyrinth. Raga drones, a strange clattering beat, a haunting wind instrument, orchestral shading, and Perry's ever-grand voice make it one of the more unlikely things to be heard on the airwaves in a while. It all begins with yet another jaw-dropper from Gerrard, "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)," with keyboards and her octave-defying voice at such a deep, rich level that it sweeps all before it. Wordless as always but never without emotional heft, the song slowly slides into a slow but heavy percussion piece that sounds a bit like "Bird" from A Passage in Time, but with greater impact and memorability. As the album slowly unwinds over an hour's length, the two again create a series of often astounding numbers that sound like they should be millennia old, mixing and matching styles to create new fusions. Perhaps even more impressive is that everything was performed solely by Perry and Gerrard -- no outside guests here, and yet everything is as detailed, lush, and multifaceted as many of their past albums. New classics from the band appear almost track for track: Gerrard's a cappella work on "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," the gentle beauty of "Ariadne," the rhythmic drive and chants of the title song. The conclusion is a slightly surprising but quite successful cover -- "How Fortunate the Man With None," an adaptation of a classic Bertolt Brecht tune about the turn of fortune's wheel. Given a restrained arrangement and Perry's singing, it brings Labyrinth to a satisfying end. - Ned Raggett
CAD 3014 - The Breeders / Last Splash
Released August 30 1993
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Thanks to good timing and some great singles, the Breeders' second album, Last Splash, turned them into the alternative rock stars that Kim Deal's former band, the Pixies, always seemed on the verge of becoming. Building on Safari's driving, polished sound, Last Splash is half-brilliant singles and half-unfinished, uninspired ideas. When it's good, it's very, very good: "Cannonball"'s instantly catchy collage of bouncy bass, rhythmic stops and starts, and singsong vocals; the sweetly sexy "Divine Hammer"; and swaggering "Saints" are among the Breeders' finest moments, and deserved all of the airplay they received. And the charming country-pop of "Drivin' on 9," "I Just Wanna Get Along"'s spiky punk-pop, and the bittersweet "Invisible Man" proved Last Splash had a bit of depth. But underdeveloped snippets such as "Roi" and "No Aloha" drag down the album's momentum; likewise, the band tries to stretch their range on the rambling, cryptic "Mad Lucas" and "Hag," but neither quite comes together as a full-fledged song. Though instrumentals such as "S.O.S." and "Flipside" showcase the Breeders' chops and some nifty production tricks, they feel like filler; worst of all, Last Splash features an inferior, plodding new version of Safari's soaring "Do You Love Me Now" that emphasizes the album's unevenness. One of the definitive alternative rock albums of the '90s, Last Splash is equally inspired and infuriating; that it was the Breeders' last album of that decade makes it even more frustrating. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide
GU 5 - Spoonfed Hybrid / Spoonfed Hybrid
Released November 08 1993
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The Spoonfed Hybrid project sports a number of impressive art-pop pedigrees; the group itself consists of Ian Master (formerly of Pale Saints) and Chris Trout (of AC Temple), and their self-titled album is one of the first releases on Guernica, an offshoot of Ivo Watts-Russel's seminal 4AD label. The record itself lives up to this lineage, and frequently overshoots it -- the duo adds a minimal electronic bent to the flowery dream pop of its predecessors, cutting recklessly between unique and varied sets of instruments (including cellos, harps, tablas, marimbas and loads of electronics). The group's songwriting maintains the hazy dreaminess of 4AD-style pop, but their comparatively clear and minimal arrangement is a big step forward from a genre that occasionally fell into unnecessary density -- without taking too much baggage from that era of music, Spoonfed Hybrid manages to turn out a collection of gorgeous songs in the same vein. - Nitsuh Abebe, All Music Guide
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