Rating 4.00/5.00
Where 5 is an album which I heard yesterday while making carrot cake and the cake came out brown and smarter
The Telescopes are what I would call pop intellectuals - a breed which owes its roots to anything even remotely cult or obscure but who intend to make music which derives and remoulds their influences into a listenable and entertaining package - I mean they would know their blues and their jazz but would not become Captain Beefheart even for a day! Pop intellectuals make music which is poppy but intelligent; the songs have ambient sounds and traffic noise but if you notice (and that demands more than one listen) there will be a nice melody to compensate for all the abstract bullshit; they won't do instrumentals with someone scraping the bottom of a tin dustbin as the main piece; and they don't eat uncooked flesh on stage.
Pop intellectuals have their poster boys in bands like the Soft Boys, Sebadoh and My Bloody Valentine and like all other movements it was all started by the Beatles and Love and the Stones and the Who and whatnot long time back when pop and rock had no distinctions and any 15 year old boy with a guitar could rock the pop out of anyone who cared to listen. This is safe genetic tree analysis and is meant to ensure that my VERY broad classification and largely ridiculous detailing of the pop intellectual movement goes unnoticed.
This album is a minor pop masterpiece - nice acoustic guitars; smart, emotional lyrics and it is well packaged into brief catchy songs which run after one another like a merry-go-round.. The catchy pop has its eccentric ups and downs to ensure monotony is avoided - and they do succeed most of the time though the B side is not as good as the first 4-5 songs. Its definitely worth several listens and is a solid 4 on my rating scale
Happy new year to all and lets all pray that this journey of adventure and discovery never ceases to amaze and amuse.
Download it!
Allmusic link here
huppy nu ear anna :-)
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