The Decemberists, “Summersong”

I’ve talked a little about the Four Album theory, which is that some great metal bands (Metallica, Krallice, Mastodon) will push things as far as they can with their sound over four albums, before taking off in a different direction. It’s half-baked, yes, but it’s a theory anyway.

But in thinking about it, these aren’t the only Four Album bands. The Decemberists, for instance, pushed their increasingly elaborate folk-rock storytelling thing further and further over the course of their first four albums, culminating in The Crane Wife, which is really kind of a concept record that stands as the final record of that approach. While The Hazards of Love is maybe more ambitious, it kind of seeks a more prog direction without as much of the folk stuff, so to my ears, represents the same kind of stylistic break as those metal bands.

Pardoner, “Silly String”

There’s something extremely early 90s about Pardoner’s sound on this track. It sounds like a lost track from a C/Z Records band, or maybe like some old Dinosaur Jr. track from the vault. That, of course, means I’m totally delighted by it.

Marvin Gaye, “Pride and Joy”

A single from 1963, with some jaunty piano really driving things here. A real charmer!

Gold Class, “Life As a Gun”

EXTREMELY post-punk stuff here out of Australia. There’s sort of a Discord feel to the guitars, and almost a Joy Division feel to the singing, which is a pretty potent combination. This is from their first album, It’s You, which is a pretty solid record.

Yet another perfect month in the books! The magic date is 10/29, which is the last time I missed a daily update. It would be pretty cool to go a full calendar year without missing one, honestly.

Lungfish, “Non Dual Bliss”

The repeated opinion of the Five Songs cognoscenti is the Lungfish is kinda boring. Like, this song is pretty good…for the first couple minutes. But it doesn’t really evolve, and the groove isn’t so interesting that it can support six minutes.

The Beastie Boys, “Pass The Mic”

Probably the most Beastie Boys song on Check Your Head, this is the kind of thing that anybody who parodies the band is kind of gesturing towards. Given that it was deliberately constructed to be kind of an update of the sound from their first album, it does make sense.

Screeching Weasel, “Falling Apart”

Have I expressed the opinion that I think Anthem For A New Tomorrow is the best Screeching Weasel record? They had a couple albums to refine the pop-punk/Ramones-knockoff sound they were going for, and there are moments that almost sound sincere on this album that work pretty well. Past this point, they kind of got snottier and snottier and it wasn’t pleasant, and before this, the sloppiness can sometimes get in the way.

They Might Be Giants, “The Mesopotamians”

A lethally catchy song, I’ll be humming this for the next several days. I feel like The Else gets really kind of ignored in the TMBG catalog. By that point, they were really kind of becoming known as a kids’ band, and they just slipped in this really lushly produced thing right in the middle of three kids’ albums.

[looks at “kids’”] That looks wrong. I think it’s right? Ain’t gonna look it up!

Bim Skala Bim, “Chief Inspector”

A big part of the ska scene in the late 80s and early 90s was an active trade in compilations. It allowed bands to get their music out and prime the audiences for touring, which is where bands built up a following. One series of comps was the Mashin’ Up The Nation series, which this was part of volume 2 of. It’s an unusually raw track for Bim Skala Bim, but a lot of the songs on these comps tended towards the raw, because many of them were low budget or live.

Marvin Gaye, “Can I Get A Witness”

It’s sometimes a little hard to reconcile the early Marvin Gaye with what he would eventually become. This is from 1963, and yeah, sure, it’s an excellent tune. But it’s just so far away from where he would end up. Popular music evolved so fast in this decade, it’s still hard to wrap my mind around it.

The Young Fresh Fellows, “View From Above”

The first Fellows record, The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest, was kind of tied together with these little spoken word travelogue snippets, as a theme. The Fellows are light hearted enough that the gimmick comes off as charming, and the music is all just kind of loose, happy rock. While there’s plenty to like, they also didn’t really totally have control of their songwriting yet, so the record is kind of just for fans.

Felt, “Bass For Your Truck”

Repeat!

The Smiths, “Is It Really So Strange?”

I really need to get to the point where my kid can have visitors again, because I really want to try and mortify them by singing along to the Smiths really loud.

Belle and Sebastian, “Electronic Renaissance”

It’s tracks like this one that really demonstrate that Belle and Sebastian were still very much learning how things worked with their first album, Tigermilk, which was literally a university project. Luckily, they didn’t convince themselves that this sort of thing was their future.

Tar, “G7”

Well, I just mentioned Amphetamine Reptile Records the other day! Here’s one of my favorite bands from that label, but in their post-AmRep days. They put out two albums and an EP on AmRep and then left to put out some tunes for Touch & Go, producing the same amount of music (two albums and an EP). This comes from the first thing they put on Touch & Go, Clincher, the aforementioned EP. The notable thing about it was that the production was less murky than their earlier stuff, which allowed some of the grooviness that got lost to come forward. While on balance, I prefer the AmRep stuff, their final record for Touch & Go (Over and Out) is brilliant stuff. Tar was good! More people than me should remember them! I still have a shirt I bought at a show of theirs in 1992!

Andrew Bird, “You Woke Me Up!”

A companion piece to Noble Beast, Useless Creatures is an all-instrumental exploration which allows Bird to indulge his more exploratory impulses. As always, everything Bird does is interesting, but this is not one of his more loveable records.

Victoria Monét, “Experience”

Victoria Monét is primarily known for her work with Ariana Grande, which means I know zip about most of her music. I’m very out of touch! But I picked up this album (Jaguar) after it showed up on a bunch of year-end lists, and it’s very pleasant. I also enjoy the kind of electro-funk sounds on this track, I’ll take those any day.