100 LPs Shortlist #28: Even - "Less Is More"

At the end of 1996, I'd finished tertiary study and was about to take a leap into the workforce for the first time. On the day I walked out of college, I went to my local indie record store wanting to buy a new LP to celebrate my new found freedom. The album I wanted was "One Hot Minute" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. And I bought it, on shiny new double vinyl.

However, while perusing the racks, I noticed another LP by a band that I'd never heard of, but it looked like it was an Australian band. The back cover showed a Rickenbaker guitar leaning up against a Vox AC30 amp, so right away that should have triggered thoughts about this being a classicist pop record. It was also a limited, numbered edition and it was only around $22 or so. I asked the man behind the counter "What does this sound like?" He said "well it's full of short, three chord jangle pop songs - very Beatle-esque. You'll love it". He'd known I was a Beatles fan, and I was also in a celebratory mood, so I bought this record as well as "One Hot Minute" and then caught the train back home.

The album was "Less Is More", the first LP by a three piece from Melbourne named Even. All the songs are written by lead singer and guitarist Ashley Naylor.

Saying that it is "Beatles-esque" and full of "three chord jangle pop songs" is a somewhat applicable description, and yet it is underselling the music as well. The Beatles may be an obvious reference point, but Even's sound runs deeper than that. Most guitar-pop bands can trace their roots back to the Beatles, so that really is a lazy comparison. Within these songs you'll hear distant echoes of The Who, The Kinks, You Am I, Big Star, David Bowie and T.Rex.

Stylistically this album runs the gamut of pop music, from short power pop tunes, epic sing-alongs, psychedelic experiments, sweet melancholy, to balls-out rock'n'roll, all delivered with the deft touch of Mr Naylor and his fully capable bandmates.

This record has some of the most catchy melodies with an earworm-like quality - and I mean that in a good way. These are songs that you would want to have in your head; that when you can't get rid of that awful Britney Spears song in your head, you can play this record and all those horrible thoughts about crappy music will be washed away. The instrumental playing is such that, while it used the REM-styled jangle pop as a basis, other dimensions are added to make it sound all their own: Wally Meanie on bass adds a bottom-end rumble that is rock solid, while Ash's occasionally self-deprecating lyrics elevate this above the ordinary, capturing the mood of some of those within the "Alternative Nation" at the time.

Even released this album in an extraordinary age of Alternative music in Australia where there were many different bands, and yet very few sounded like each other, making a scene that was fully vibrant, diverse and constantly exciting. Probably the closest sounding bands to them would have been Snout and You Am I, and even then they didn't sound much like Even. There was no rush to have a sound or a style that was consistent with someone else or some other prevailing trend. Within this environment, many great bands flourished and Even were one of the best. This was the start of a series of great albums that went sorely unrecognised by the public at large.

...and despite the fact I purchased this at the same time as a Red Hot Chili Peppers LP, I've played "Less Is More" about a million times more than "One Hot Minute"!

Check it out and enjoy!

100 LPs Shortlist #24: The Kinks - "Lola vs Powerman and the Money-go-Round"

It's amazing the lasting impression some people leave on you. Oftentimes I remember people by their taste in music. Most of the albums in my 100 LPs shortlist I can remember not only time and place where I first heard them, but also who introduced me to it.

Once upon a time I had a high school girlfriend, whose father was Scottish. I've always believed you could learn a lot about a person from their music collection. With that criteria in mind, then ol' Jimmy must have been a nutter* - His taste ranged from Highland accordion sounds of Jimmy Shand through to the Sex Pistols!
* no disrespect intended.

He was an easy bloke to get along with. He loved his music, and that was half the battle won as far as I was concerned. He'd crack me up with his stinging critiques of my then-faves Pearl Jam and Guns n' Roses. He'd regale me with stories of the time he saw The Kinks in Glasgow at the height the "scream" years: when the noise of the hysterical screaming girls was so loud you couldn't hear the band.

Obviously, having seen the band live as a young working man, he'd probably have one or two Kinks records kicking about. Aside from a greatest hits compilation LP, "Lola vs Powerman..." was the one LP of the bands voluminous discography that he had. In the early 90s, Kinks LPs were available but they were not commonly stocked in stores. Even so, this album struck me as an odd and obscure choice. I'd never seen it before in a record shop (not that that means anything), nor had I heard anything from it aside from the two radio singles "Lola" and "Apeman". Looking at it, I thought the front cover looked like crap. Jimmy insisted, as he often did in his thick Glasgow brogue, that it was "brilliant".

It turns out that the man was an astute judge. Upon deeper listening and through further reading, this record really is brilliant. It is rich in sonic detail and scathing in its commentary on the reality of life in the music industry.

The songs, mind you, are also great. You could take a track out here and there and it will still be listenable, but it makes more sense within the concept of the record. A lot of the songs are hints of the stylistic direction the band was to take in the future. Songs like "The Contenders", "Denmark Street" and "A Long Way From Home" have country leanings which would take root in the albums that came immediately after this one, like "Muswell Hillbillies". "Powerman, "Top Of The Pops" and "Rats" are scorching rockers. "The Money-go-round" is a hilarious little music-hall styled track about who gets the spoils of royalties and the like. "Strangers" is a song so beautiful it may just be the best song the band has ever written.

Over time I played this album many, many times since then and even now I still find so much to gain from listening to it. And every time I play it, I still think about when and where I first heard it, who I was with and what we may, or may not, have been doing at the time...

Meanwhile, time goes on, the tape I recorded it on wore out and I bought the CD reissue with bonus tracks. People come and go. Relationships end. I haven't seen Jimmy (or his daughter for that matter) in well over 10 years, but I recently heard through the social media grapevine that he died last year - well before his time, in my view. I present the "Powerman..." LP for your listening pleasure below, in tribute to him.

Enjoy.