Best Record of 2001: Day 20
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at Elbow’s Asleep in the Back as it faces off against The Glow Pt. 2 from The Microphones.
Note: As many of you saw, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challenge and noted that I’d be writing some of these up.
The plan is to do quick hits on each first-round matchup and post them directly to the page. Some will be longer, some won’t, and some might just be a handful of sentences. There’ll probably be a few typos. We’ll also have a few guest posts along the way, so make sure to stay tuned for those!
Check ’em out and let me know your thoughts! Chin wags & hot takes welcome! Sharing and restacks always appreciated.
KA—
Elbow-Asleep in the Back
My notes have all of two lines on them:
- Why this band name?
- Debut record.
I should’ve added a third: I was very surprised to see they have almost 1M monthly listeners. How have I never heard of them?! Part of it again has to do with where I was in May of ‘01. My (now) wife was winding down her time on the corporate hamster wheel and looking to try something—anything—new. I was getting ready to start what was supposed to be a 4-month temporary position back home in Portland. Lots of packing, paring down, and gearing up. A debut record from a band with an offbeat name just wasn’t in the cards…
“Any Day Now” kicks things off low-key. There’s a really solid bassline groove, but a lot of layered vocals, which I don’t seem to have much patience for these days. Okay, so not the best of starts, but it is strangely infectious.
“Little Beast” has that same creeping uncomfortableness that Portishead made famous with “Sour Times.” Is it a pop song? Is it soundtracking a spy movie? Why not both? 4+ minutes is about 90 seconds too long, and that leads to my biggest gripe about this record.
We’ve talked about “sameness” before in this series. Not the worst thing in the world, but it’s a hurdle that keeps a lot of okay records from being good ones. Asleep in the Back doubles down on that, and each song is about a minute too long, but they’re also roughly the same. Look, I’m not expecting a metal song in the middle or anything. No one in Elbow needs to rap (seriously, please don’t do that), but a little mixing it up would go a long way. There are a couple of exceptions, but really, the only variety here is the placement of frontman Guy Garvey’s vocals in the mix. Sometimes he’s right up front, and sometimes he’s further back. I’ll carve out worthy exceptions for “Bitten by the Tailfly,” featuring bursts of jagged guitar hooks, and “Newborn,” which bursts into something really atmospheric…except we have to wait almost 6 minutes to get there. Otherwise, this is 61 minutes of what is often diplomatically referred to as “brooding,” “melancholy,” or intense.”
Doing some reading ahead of this, I saw that they were a live band for some time before heading into the studio. I can absolutely see an Elbow concert as being an incredible experience. A lot of bands are good in the booth, only to see it translate poorly on stage. Elbow strikes me as betting the other way. If only we were reviewing concerts instead of records! These days, Radiohead has cornered this market, but Asleep in the Back certainly gives ‘em a run for their money.
Highlights: Any Day Now, Bitten by the Tailfly, Asleep in the Back
The Microphones- The Glow, Pt. 2
On paper, this is a record I should like. They’re on K records→ It’s Calvin Johnson’s label→ I like Beat happening!→ They’re from Olympia.→ Some of the best bands and the best shows I’ve ever seen have taken place right there in Washington’s capital city.
And to be fair, I do… in parts. There are fleeting moments in songs that very much pull you in. A couple of times, I found myself thinking, “This is peak Olympia” (not derogatory). But while Asleep in the Back was held back by its sameness, The Glow Pt 2 is held back by its variety. It’s all over the map. Also, for some reason, the sort of nasally vowels made famous by Isaac Brock were in vogue here for a while. At times, singer Phil Eleverum reminds me of Stephen Malkmus. Other times, it models the worst parts of Brock’s. Johnson’s voice was a million miles away from both. Why didn’t he say something?! Look, I get that cities like this foster creativity in all kinds of ways, but that doesn’t mean you have to try to squish them all into one song, or even onto one record. This project excels at lo-fi sounds. There’s no reason for MBV-esque walls of distortion to pop up like thunderclouds on this thing. The Glow Pt. 2 is magnificent in parts and grating in others.
Highlights: I Want Wind to Blow, The Moon, I Felt Your Shape.
Bottom Line:
This comes down to choosing a wide palette of colors over a more monochromatic one. Variety is the spice of life and all that, I guess. The record cover looks like the sort of sticker I’d put on my car. Plus, The Microphones are from the PacNw, and like we saw yesterday, I’m not above factoring that into the equation… The Glow Pt. 2 it is.
Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!
Kevin Sent 