 The Left Banke Here's a CD I recommend wholeheartedly even while admitting flat-out that it has way too many songs on it. The Left Banke's brand of chamber-pop is amazing in small doses—as in the supreme pop brilliance of "Walk Away Renee" and "She Will Call You Up Tonight"—but over the course of almost 75 minutes (26 tracks) it gets quite headache-inducing and you start thinking you're caught in some kind of psychedelic time-warp, albeit not one as annoying as that blasted Austin Powers. This is music that is very much of its time, though it benefits from not having been beaten into the ground by classic rock/oldies radio and nostalgia-fest soundtracks. Even so, I can't say I ever listen to the disc much past like track 5, except for the occasional skip-forward to a random track to see if I'm missing something. The Left Banke sound is characterized by lots of harpsichord (guitars are very wonderfully kept at bay), baroque string interludes, and tons of harmonies, all anchored by stereotypical 60's pop drumming (think Spinal Tap's "Gimme Some Money"). Most of the songs are good, but for every great one there's a lame one ("Walk Away Renee?" – "Barterers and Their Wives." "She May Call You Up Tonight?" – "Men Are Building Sand." "Desiree?" – "Dark is the Bark"). I guess that's the ultimate pitfall of any hippie music, though—there will always be the meandering ones. Still, you can't fault the band for being extraordinarily creative in a bad musical climate (rock mythology burst bubble #3: "Nuggets"-era pop pretty much sucked. Sorry, suckers). And Mercury has done a bang-up job of packaging nearly the total output by the band onto one disc, with lots of good liner notes and photos, and incredible sound. But it's hard to imagine anyone getting too excited about hearing "Bryant Hotel" in stunning remastered sound—but then, there's plenty of Kinks freaks out there, so maybe so. But I've given the CD a lot of listens and I keep coming to the same conclusion—I really love about six tracks, like another four (mainly through familiarity brought upon by trying to love more songs on the disc), and remain totally apathetic about the rest. I will say that nearly every track starts with a tremendously sample-able intro, so DJ's may find more of interest than pop fans. My suggestion is to put yourself in the mindset that this is a really great EP that has like 20 bonus tracks. The great moments are among the all-time best, but the lesser moments are ignorable with no penalty. Still, There's Gonna Be a Storm is one of my mix-disc session staples—one of those few discs that are essential for only a few tracks.
Review by Brad Cancer |