4AD 2002 / Neil Halstead / The Breeders / His Name is Alive / Piano Magic

2002


CAD 2202 - Neil Halstead / Sleeping on Roads
Released January 28 2002

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In which Neil Halstead is finally able to show everyone that he is the real talent of Mojave 3! Hurrah! OK, maybe not: Anyone who has looked at songwriting credits on a Mojave 3 record will tell you that the idea of a Halstead solo record sounds completely pointless. Even a casual fan is led to believe that Halstead's band is his band -- meaning he writes the songs and calls the shots. With a Halstead solo record a reality, you have to fight the urge to throw your arms up in puzzlement because the wrong member of Mojave 3 has made a solo record. History says that the second fiddle goes off to release a work of his own; the one who writes most of the material -- or, in this case, almost everything -- doesn't need another outlet. But apparently listeners have been duped and Mojave 3 is more of a democracy than had been imagined. More importantly, Halstead is too prolific and restless to leave these previously orphaned songs unrecorded. So, after a relationship bust-up that left him homeless, he set up shop in a hospitable studio and made a record with some friends pitching in. One of those friends was Mojave 3 drummer Ian McCutcheon, so it could be said that this record is a la-la-la and a few basslines away from a Mojave 3 record. It certainly doesn't sound that much different from a Mojave 3 record, if not quite as excellent due to the less than prime quality of some of the songs. Aside from a prominent synth shading here, an uncharacteristically loud burst of guitar there, and Halstead's preference to pick instead of strum, this is a logical, if rather slight, progression from the third Mojave 3 record. And that's just fine, actually. - Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

CAD 2205 - The Breeders / Title TK
Released May 20 2002

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For most of the '90s, the Breeders seemed resigned to being just a part of alternative rock's mythology: a lightning-in-a-bottle success story that helped define the era's sound and spawned a classic single before disappearing into substance abuse and a severe case of writer's block. By the end of the decade, hearing new material from Kim Deal and company seemed about as likely as a new My Bloody Valentine album, so the fact that Title TK, their long-awaited return, exists at all seems more than a little miraculous. In a weird way, the long, long wait for them to resurface works in their favor -- at this point, it's welcome to hear anything from them. After a nine-year (!) wait, a new Breeders album is just a nice addition to what's going on in indie rock instead of its salvation. From its very name, Title TK (journalistic shorthand for "title to come") reflects this: it's a surprisingly low-key, self-effacing return that doesn't feel like an attempt at reclaiming Last Splash's glory. Instead, it blends the stripped-down sounds of Pod and the Amps' Pacer into a collection of strangely intimate, feminine garage rock. Steve Albini's quick- and cheap-sounding production throws a spotlight on the weathered, offhand quality of Kim Deal's voice -- which is more sandpaper than sugar nowadays -- as well as every quirk in the band's playing. Even revved-up guitar rushes like "Little Fury" and "Huffer" have a little vulnerability lurking around the edges, and on the sweet "Too Alive," it sounds like you're in the garage with the band. There's a fascinating duality to Title TK, from the way that nearly every song mixes and blends Kim's and Kelley's not-quite-identical vocals to the way it switches between sweet, playfully spiky songs like "Son of Three" and "Forced to Drive" and dark, mysterious tracks. With its brooding, druggy allure, "The She" recalls Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," and "Put On a Side" and the aptly named "Sinister Foxx" have a sexy menace that the Breeders haven't explored since Pod. "Off You," Title TK's first single, is about as far from "Cannonball" as the band can get, a dreamy, breathy ballad that sounds intimate but masks its feelings in beautifully cryptic imagery. Very much a take-it-or-leave-it work, Title TK doesn't even try to live up to fans' inflated expectations of what a Breeders album should be -- though the band may not have spent the entire nine years they were gone crafting this album, it feels like the only album they could make after such a long wait. Title TK isn't always a flattering portrait of the Breeders, but it is an admirably honest one. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

BAD 2212 - Neil Halstead / Seasons EP
Released June 17 2002

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This five-song EP is a lovely complement to Halstead's grand debut solo album. On the surface, only two songs are new, but even the three that are familiar titles are reasonably different experiences. The title track appears in two new guises: It's just as summer-breeze-tempting done "Surf Style" as the LP version, and a rethink remix finds it presented in a third light -- not as light and airy, and infused with a light backbeat groove, scratchy guitar, and female backing vocals, which twice give way to a completely different spaghetti western bridge. The alternate version of "See You on Rooftops" might be better than the sweet LP one, as it relies even more on the circular-pattern picking on the acoustic, and a slightly more relaxed tempo/feel that makes it really sigh and hum. "Sailing Man" and especially "Between the Bars" satisfy and are easily of the LP's standard. The former is full of spatial quiet and the latter folky prize, recorded live at an acoustic gig in Liverpool, shows that there's plenty more in Halstead's pen. Indeed, "Between the Bars" is one of those tracks that hints of cowboy solitude, evoking dusty roads on the old West's deserts/plains: Time passing as the horse walks slowly, the water is scarce, and the throat and heart are equally dry. But the lyrics are not of that travelogue, they're instead full of regret and hankering for that someone who made a singular impression you can't shake. "Still remembered how you danced/Laughing hard between the bars/You always were pretty good at getting high for someone so small/Swear I won't let go this time." It makes you want to go back and find that person; it makes you want to find this EP. - Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover

CAD 2210 - His Name is Alive / Last Night
Released September 23 2002

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Culled from the dress rehearsals for a Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth tour that never materialized, Last Night, His Name Is Alive's final album for 4AD, actually does the late-night soul sound better than the album that sparked it. Allegedly, the group left the label because Someday My Blues... strayed too far from the eclectic dream pop that they spent the better part of the decade perfecting and reinventing; in a way, they were being punished for being too creative. While His Name Is Alive may not have been a success at the level of the Pixies, the Breeders, or even Mojave 3, they were one of 4AD's most enduring and consistently inventive groups. Granted, Someday My Blues... was a radical shift in HNIA's musical direction that found the group immersed in faithfully reproducing slow jams; it was an interesting idea, but the results were as uneven as they were intriguing. By contrast, Last Night sounds much sexier and livelier, more soulful and, paradoxically, more like a true His Name Is Alive album. If anything, Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth now sounds more like a rehearsal for this album rather than the other way around. Beginning with "Deep," a brief, brooding string piece, it's clear that Warn Defever and company are using their full musical palette; though the album isn't quite as much like switching from station to station on the radio or putting an entire jukebox on shuffle as albums like Ft. Lake and Stars on E.S.P. are, it is a nice balance of their eclecticism and newfound soulfulness. The ghostly chorus and strummy acoustic guitar on the cover of the Equals' "I Been Good up Till Now" make it sound a little like a gospel-tinged version of the ethereal style they perfected on Home Is in Your Head, while "Crawlin'," with its sax flourishes and lush electric pianos, is as gorgeously crafted and dreamy as any of their earlier work, albeit in a very different way. Defever's guitars sound as beautiful as ever, whether they're clear and languid on the album's title track, or with a bit of crunch on "I Have Special Powers" and the sweetly soulful cover of Ida's "Teardrops." Likewise, Lovetta Sharie Pippen's vocals fit the material perfectly and shine particularly brightly on "Maybe," one of the most accomplished love songs that Defever has written, and "Storm," a sexy, bluesy number. With tracks as beautiful as the jazz/folk/soul hybrid of "Train" and as incendiary as the funky "Someday My Prince Will Come," Last Night is both focused and diverse, and one of His Name Is Alive's most consistently impressive albums, regardless of whether it's a dress rehearsal or a swan song. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

CAD 2209 - Piano Magic / Writers Without Homes
Released October 06 2002

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A less than engrossing record from Piano Magic was bound to happen at some point, but few could have predicted something as dull, drab, and ultimately powerless as Songs From the Chronic Fatigue Ward -- er, Writers Without Homes. This album features hardly any of the exquisitely formed and solemn pop found throughout the group's rich discography, only showing for the heartbreaking "The Season Is Long," a mournful -- but beautiful and limpid -- ballad played with a fittingly spare arrangement and hauntingly resigned guest turns from Simon Raymonde on piano and the Czars' John Grant on vocals. Most of what precedes and follows is lifeless, meandering wallowing. Even "The Season Is Long" itself is punctuated/punctured with an extended segment of rainfall and distant thunder. (OK, we get it -- the season is long.) There's a fine line between fragile and frail, and this album is much more the latter than the former. Tragic words that are spoken -- like the ones that relate an experience of watching an old film and delivering a personal epitaph upon the realization that the furry critters in it must be dead by now -- might not look bad on screen or page, but when they are stated plainly with an accompaniment of impossibly precious, twinkling melodies, they're hard to take seriously or stomach. The best example of Writers Without Homes' attack on the nerves is actually right at the beginning. "(Music Won't Save You From Anything But) Silence" is Piano Magic's own "Rat Salad" or "Toad," a furious instrumental with the drums taking center stage. But instead of bridging two songs with a brief burst or closing out the album, it blasts for nearly seven minutes and sets up a whole lot of not very much. Listen to this album and feel drained of all energy without actually spending it. - Andy Kellman, All Music Guide