ALBUM OF THE YEAR - SHORT-LIST .... ALBUM #6 - June 2020




The band I have listened to the most in the last two years must be Built To Spill. Catching up for lost time, since I only discovered them two years ago, when they announced a gig in Milan for the 20th year anniversary of their fourth album, the superb 'Keep It Like A Secret' 

I listened to that a lot on Youtube, went to the gig, and then proceeded to hunt down CDs for seven of their eight studio albums (plus the official Live CD they have released) .... I still need to get their debut album ... might have to be a download, not found it under 50 quid yet on CD ...

I'd heard of them before, mentioned in articles alongside Dinosaur Jr, Pixies etc, but never actually heard them. If you haven't heard them, I'd recommend to start with 'Car' and 'Carry The Zero' songs - two of their finest. 

This particular album is a bit different ... its a set of covers, of songs by Daniel Johnson , not someone I was familiar with. During his final tour of 5 dates in 2017, he was being backed by bands who were influenced by his music, and that included Built To Spill for the final two dates. Johnson died in 2019. apparently suffering mental health issues during his life, and his mainly home-recorded music was described as "pure" and "childlike".

So this is definitely not a good example or introduction of Built To Spill in some ways, this is quite atypical. Still despite being a little light, and slight, this is a fine set of songs and a nice summer album as we moved into June. Judge for yourself : 








The relationship with Daniel Johnson goes back to 1994, when they first covered him : 





I do hope to get another chance to see them live - obviously they didn't tour this particular album... seeing them in 2019 was a highlight.  I don't take many photos/video's during gigs - for one reason, I have a shitty cheap phone, the sound quality below is proof. Plus, I just hate gigs where I am trying to glimpse the band between outstretched arms and tiny screens. The worst is seeing groups of 4 or 5 people obviously at the gig together, all recording at the same time... um, file sharing anyone?  its usually very easy to find some gig footage the next day... still, I did two quick vids during the gig : 




The other album in contention released in June was Sports Team's 'Deep Down Happy' which I got only because they dropped the price to 1.99 during the first week for a download, to try to get to number 1. Its fun and different, energetic ... and a bit desperate... six months on, and I'm not entirely sure Built To Spill's effort is better than Sports Team ... but I wanted to write about Built To Spill far more ... 


Next up : July, which is ok, and then August, where the shit hits the fan ... 

  

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