SOUNDTRACK: THE FRATELLIS-Here We Stand (2008).
Because I TiVo, and since I don’t have an iPod, I never heard the Fratelli’s smash hit when it was a smash hit. However, when I saw them on the Brit Awards, I was impressed enough to check them out. And I really liked the debut a lot. Costello Music was brash and snotty and a whole lot of fun.
The follow up, Here We Stand, shows the Fratellis maturing somewhat. And by maturing that means mostly, slowing down a little and, unfortunately, making their songs a little bit longer. Now, as anyone who has heard “Flathead” knows, the Fratellils write a great pop song. Short and to the point. The songs are simple, concise and very good. However, on the more mature version, the songs aren’t any more complex, but they are a little longer. And that’s not really a good thing. Longer songs are good when they have different parts, but just repeating the same parts MORE doesn’t make the song any more dynamic.
Having said that, the album overall is pretty good. The songs are solid, if a little less catchy than Costello. When I listened to it as background music I enjoyed it very much, for multiple listens. (It was only under closer scrutiny that i didn’t like the longer song format).
Unlike most albums, I found that the last few songs were much stringer than the rest. The first half simply doesn’t resonate. It’s not bad to listen to, and can be quite enjoyable, it’s just doesn’t stick. Starting with “Mistress Mabel” (the 6th song!) the album perks up a bit and the songs become more fun. “Acid Jazz Singer” and “Lupe Brown” are the two real highlights of the album for me. On these songs their raunchy/ silly/devilmaycare attitude really comes out. It’s a shame it was hidden for much of the rest of the disc.
I hate to be part of the bandwagon that dislikes 2nd albums by bands. It must be hard to know if you should repeat yourself or branch out, but I think a bit more repeating and a bit less branching would have served them well.
[READ: July 10, 2008] “Call Me Lloyd”
I don’t write about every article that I read in magazines, because honestly, that’d be ridiculous. However, this piece, a memoir, read enough like a story that it would be fun to include here.
In it, David Owen, whose dad’s name was Loyd, was given the nickname ‘Loyd’ as a kid. His reminiscence includes all of his friends and families who have had nicknames in his past. It continues into his school days where the teachers had nicknames: well, the really good and really bad ones did…the dull ones in the middle were never given one.
I found this story interesting because I never had a nickname (I was given my name specifically because it doesn’t really have a nickname… I was Paulie to a few people in my life but for the most part it was Paul). I also don’t know many people with nicknames, not this kind anyway: Boym, Twig, Dab, Piller, Soz, Gordo, Wheezer etc. It seems like a sign of the times, maybe we just didn’t give out names like that…? Although I do have some friends who go pretty exclusively by nicknames (Hi Boomer, Pookie an Schnookie, but they are all in one family so that may just be an anomaly).
As Owen’s life progresses he gradually loses all of his nicknames. In fact, he tries to get his kids and his kids friends to call him Dave, rather than any other kind of cozy name, while his wife prefers something along the lines of “Nannie.” This leads to the funny thought of his grandkids saying “we’re going to visit Nannie and Dave.”
This was a nice piece; a “memoir” that I actually liked.
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