The Album Review Club - Week #144 - (page 1893) - XO - Elliot Smith

[mancity2012_eamo]

I can’t help but feel disappointed. I was really hoping for a revelation with this week’s pick, but I just consistently got bored. I tried their first album as some have said it is better.
And in fairness it wasn’t bad, but halfway through after having played Strange Times first, I just lost interest again.

I don’t really know why. I think they were of their time and if I was scoring them back in the early 80’s I would have appreciated them better. Maybe a 7. But having hindsight and realising there were a number of innovative bands around doing similar but better, I can’t see past a 5 this week.

They just don’t muster up any enthusiasm in me. Bland seems unfair, but it’s the overriding feeling I get everytime I put this on.
I also think it’s too long and the second disc is pointless.

 

[GornikDaze]

I can’t help but feel disappointed. I was really hoping for a revelation with this week’s pick, but I just consistently got bored. I tried there first album as some have said it is better.
And in fairness it wasn’t bad, but halfway through after having played Strange Times first, I just lost interest again.

I don’t really know why. I think they were of their time and if I was scoring them back in the early 80’s I would have appreciated them better. Maybe a 7. But having hindsight and realising there were a number of innovative bands around doing similar but better, I can’t see past a 5 this week.

They just don’t muster up any enthusiasm in me. Bland seems unfair, but it’s the overriding feeling I get everytime I put this on.
I also think it’s too long and the second disc is pointless.

Similar feelings for me too. Can’t help thinking it’s one of those albums that’s of its time. If you ‘grew up’ listening to it it would probably have more personal meaning and still retain its original edge. Hearing it fresh it just seems to lack and real originality and sounds rather familiar. I’ll persevere…

 

[PinkFinal]

As a Chameleons fan (and 99% of us are absolute fanatics I must admit) of almost forty years l would recommend the second album What Does Anything Mean Basically it's much more immediate than their first and third albums
The EP Tony Fletcher Walked On Water is also well worth a listen

 

[journolud]

As a Chameleons fan (and 99% of us are absolute fanatics I must admit) of almost forty years l would recommend the second album What Does Anything Mean Basically it's much more immediate than their first and third albums
The EP Tony Fletcher Walked On Water is also well worth a listen

I’ve found this week’s pick growing on me and listened to the first album tonight which I thought was really good. Will give the second a go tomorrow

 

[bennyboy]

I had the 12'' of this in vinyl.

 

[PinkFinal]

I had the 12'' of this in vinyl.

One of the greatest songs of all time !

 

[RobMCFC]

Thread Admin Notes

A quick note to say that tomorrow's changeover will probably happen early because this week's nominator has work commitments meaning that the new album choice will be posted around lunchtime. Please get your votes/reviews in before 11.00AM tomorrow morning.

Purely down to the times I'll be out at the hospital, and not because of any illness on my part, @Coatigan will be handling the changeovers for the next few weeks.

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

By tights this should be right up my street but I just can't get into The Chameleons.

I find the production a bit dated really and it feels like I've heard all the songs before but by other people. In fairness, I can imagine a lot of people have been inspired by them but it does sound dated to me.

Swamp Thing is their best known track but it just blends in with the other songs. I do quite like it on its own but in the album it felt more like one of many.

It's not my cup of tea this I'm afraid

5/10

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

1986 and it’s Monday night at The Ritz.
A song comes on. The crowd go mad and sing a long to every word. I instantly love the tune and dance along not knowing the words. At the end I ask someone near to me who it is by and he says ‘The Chameleons” - a name I recognise from the NME as a band that is big in Manchester but no where else.

A few weeks later and another tune comes on and again everyone knows the words except me. I love the song especially when the singer shouts “stop” and momentarily the song stops before continuing. Again I ask someone what the tune is and again am told it is The Chameleons…..
As much as I loved the tunes for whatever reason I didn’t buy them.

Fast forward to 1992 and I’ve been doing a round the world thing (like you do) having finished a 2 year course at The Poly in 91, I’d spent 15 months working at kids camps in the US, Oz and NZ. I’ve been living out of a rucksack during this time and carrying with me maybe 15 cassettes and a Walkman. I was gagging to hear different music than the 15 cassettes I’d travelled with and found myself in a second hand record shop in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Browsing amongst the many cassettes I come across a cassette Strange Times by The Chameleons UK which made me laugh at the UK bit. And it had Swamp Thing and Tears on it and was on sale for $5.

For the next month it was all I played. Excellent album with Mad Jacks Eyes and Soul In Isolation as well as the two singles mentioned - it even had bonus tracks including the acoustic version of Tears and a cover of John I’m Only Dancing.

I got to see the reunion gig in Middleton at The Civic in 2000 or 2001 and since then Chameleons Vox (lost count the number of times) the last being earlier this year in Tampa with Theatre of Hate and The Mission.
Last year Mark Burgess played an intimate acoustic tour of the US and he played in a very small back room in a pub in Melbourne, Florida (20 mins down the coast from Cape Canaveral) to around 20 of us.

I still play Strange Times frequently and cast my mind back to the Summer of 92, spent working at a kids camp called Rock Creek Farm in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania and recall the joy I had with a lovely married woman called Joy during my 9 weeks there…..

It certainly was a strange time (but that’s another story!)

Mark Burgess and I, Melbourne, Florida 2022

 

[journolud]

I feel I should write something clever about how the Chameleons have disguised themselves and remained undetected by me, or anyone else for that matter but that if you looked (or listened) hard enough you would be able to make them out. I couldn't really think how to word it though so I haven't bothered.

And anyway, it wouldn't quite be true. I mentioned before I'd seen them in concert twice, at the behest of my wife and the last time I saw them at the Devil's Arse we were with a long time friend who I think is in that group of fans who are bordering on the fanatical.

The Devil's Arse gig was good but the venue adds to that. I could remember nothing about the time I saw them at the Academy or even which Academy it was. And I didn't knowingly listen to them in the years inbetween apart from in preperation for going to see them again and thinking I ought to be a little bit familiar with at least some of their songs. Oh and a half hearted effort after that last gig as an acknowledgement that it had been decent really.

But, well, as many have hinted at here, it all felt a bit nothingy and first couple of plays here that hadn't changed. But, to introduce another slightly tortuous animal analogy type thing, or whatever, they say a leopard can't change it's spots, but can it change it's ears or... nah forget that.

Something happened third or fourth time in on listening to this and I think I've become something of a convert. A proper one. I'm not going to become one of thier fanatical fans but I found a lot to like in this album and whereas I might have stuck to the original ten tracks I've been quite happy to let it run on to the bonus ones. There isn't a noticeable "join" where you think you're getting a bit of cutting room floor stuff just to pad it out. Well, apart from the pretty pointless and poor cover of John I'm Only Dancing. Either a musical joke or a poorly conceived idea. Tomorrow Never Knows is a much better cover though.

The stand out tracks are on what would presumably have been side one of a long player so by definition side 2 must have been slightly weaker. It's not a big drop off though. I get the Mark Almond comparisons, up to a point but it feels like they come from a very different musical base.

I listened to their first album, only once so far and my initial thoughts were that it was better and I had a distracted listen to their second earlier, too early to have formed an opinion about that.

All in all though, this is a belated find for me. It's a solid 7 but it's possible that with more listens it would go higher than that. I shall look forward to them touring again and going along wit my wife with more enthusiasm than previously.