Camera Obscura Underachievers Please Try Harder (Elefant LP)

It has one of those sleeves you like to keep on permanent display. Well, I do. Like, say, The Girl Who Runs The Beat Hotel by Biff Bang Pow! or Summer Days by The Beach Boys – you leave it at the front of the record pile for others to see. It’s just such a great sleeve, for dozens of reasons none of which I can explain. Two young European ladies toting super-8 camera and teddy-bear, looking at you with such sullen indifference. A big hefty gatefold affair too: you feel you’ve got something substantial in your hands. None of this mp3 business. Within the grooves themselves there’s nothing here to disorientate the Camera Obscura fan although it’s evident that they’re probing into new areas, expanding their sound. ‘Your Picture’ is dark and interesting. ‘A Sister’s Social Agony’ has a doo-wop feel to it. ‘Let Me Go Home’ smiles hesitantly in the direction of Tamla Motown. But mostly it’s just eleven beautifully played vignettes concerning that post-teenage suburban life they distilled so well on Biggest Bluest Hi-fi: from not paying attention in class to drunken phone calls of love, first dates and staying out late. ‘Number One Son’, ‘Keep It Clean’, ‘Books Written For Girls’ and ‘Lunar Sea’ are particularly impressive. I desperately want to tell you that they are Scotland’s best but I fear the abuse I will receive from a Texas fan. You choose: Texas or Camera Obscura? Yeah, exactly.

The Beatles Let It Be – Naked (EMI CD)

There are no candlelit vigils for Phil Spector. No placards are being prepared, declaring the belief that ‘Phil is Innocent!’ It’s possible he is but you won’t see many a celebrity endorsement. And another kick is delivered to a downed man in the form of more McCartney revisionism (that’s McCartney as in McCartney & Lennon.) The rearrangement of the track order on this average LP makes sense. It has always seemed patently obvious that ‘Get Back’ should open and ‘Let It Be’ should close. And the removal of ‘dialogue’ is sensible. And the original of ‘The Long And Winding Road’ is embarrassing, it has to be admitted. But let’s not forget that Spector is the greatest producer of pop records ever and, in my book, he’s never more right than when he’s wrong. An individual spirit fighting against the conservative tastes which mass consumption brings. Maybe Let it Be has been improved, or maybe it just sounds more relevant to contemporary tastes. It just annoys me that McCartney gets such an easy ride. He’s a lousy artist, a cringe-inducing poet, and hasn’t written a single decent song since 1968.

Riders ‘One More Time’ (Kitchen 7”EP)

Earlier in the year Kitchen released a nine track 7” so this 45 seems somewhat modest in comparison with only seven songs on it. And I’m not sure if ‘songs’ is the right word. It’s more a mosaic of verses without choruses, choruses without verses, dangling codas of serious lo-fi loveliness. I particularly like ‘Spider’ for its oooh-ooohs, and ‘My Soldier’ for being a really good song. Actually there are germs of good songs throughout but they only last 30 to 60 seconds. Why not? There’s a lot you can do in thirty seconds. Here they are, the lo-fi idols.

The Party ‘It’s The Small Things That Keep You Awake…’ (Colchester Recordings)

‘Lo-Fi by necessity not design’ is the proviso stamped on the back of this CDR. But I don’t think they needed to worry. The Party’s big ambition is pretty obvious. Sure the ‘busted bass’ on ‘Worry’ adds a flatulent quality but it can’t mar a good song or distract a cool Edwin Collins via Clacton-on-Sea vocal. ‘Your Beautiful Wife’ shows us their punkier side, ‘I Wish I’d Said That At The Time’ their Pulpier side. Passion and bile combine on ‘I Have Become What I Set Out Destroy’ and that’s followed by a witty dissection of a ‘Pious Ex-smoker.’ So in conclusion here is a group who write good songs and have something interesting to say. We should have them stuffed. Alternatively you could visit colchersterrecordings.com for further details.

Various Yeah, it’s supposed to sound like that… A Colchester Recordings Compilation (CD)

There’s also a compilation available from Colchester Recordings too with some interesting stuff on it. Conformist’s ‘Gangster Code’ is a disturbing soundtrack to some cracked up cityscape. Candy Sniper sound like sweet people but are post Sub-Pop anger-merchants, expounding the sort of punk-metal they blast out of Replay Records down in the centre, frightening all the old ladies going to the bus station. Dub Monster need little explanation. Frankie Machine make the quiet and lovely little sounds for which they are so admired. If only they were famous too! Never mind. Epoche’s ‘Elysian Fields 3’ is nice and totally beyond my descriptive powers. There’s loads more besides, before Steve Rudd concludes the festivities with ‘Saddest Girl Ever.’ If you crave diversity in these vacant times write to: Colchester Recordings, 124a (the flat) Old Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, CO15 3AH. According to the flyer both this comp and The Party CD are £4 each or £7.50 for the pair.