[Tokyo Jihad]

(My stupid list's introduction here)

#19 and #18: Doolittle and First Band on the Moon

As my list came together, I grew quite anxious. Debating between personal favorites making the list over critical classics. Too many of the latter and my list becomes a carbon copy of any list you can dig up from Rolling Stone or Spin; too many of the former and on one will buy that your opinion is well informed. Nice. by Puffy is an album I like an awful lot. Pop doesn’t come more solid than that, but in the grand scheme of things, there are certainly twenty albums I like better. Ok Computer is an amazing record, everyone loves Ok Computer. Certainly I do. But really, I am lucky if I feel like listening to it a half dozen times in a year. As much as I dig it, it doesn’t have as big of a pull on me as an album. (When I ordered past #20, I ranked Ok Computer at #28 and Nice. at #30) The struggle in making sure my list was unique to me and credible showed with my number 19 and 18 albums: The Pixies’ 1989 Doolittle and The Cardigans’ 1996 First Band on the Moon.

It was clear to me that The Pixies were bound to show up on my list somewhere. Virtually every band I listen to lists The Pixies right along side The Beatles as influences. It’s rather disgusting how late I was to getting into them. Most kids go through their Pixies phase in high school, like, that’s when you’re supposed to. I had been in college for two years when one of my friends basically forced them on me. He had come over and we were exchanging tapes of videos and sketches we had shot in high school. He must have brought a CD or portable hard drive because he had the music video for “Here Comes your Man” loaded up on my computer. I was terribly surprised listening to it. “That’s their only song that sounds like that though,” he assured, “They’re more like this.” as he next played “Debaser.”

What can I say about Doolittle that hasn’t already been said? I’m only going to be able to muster a poor impression of a better writer’s recollections of this album. The most striking characteristic of Doolittle is the versatility of the band. An album that opens with the screams of “Debaser” includes that happy surfy “Here Comes your Man,” that sauntering western-felt “Silver,” and the off the wall bounce of “Mr. Grieves.” All the while Black Francis’ voice morphs from stern speaker, a mad man, a jaunty stage singer, a howl for help, and of course his famous falsetto. The real kick I get from Doolittle is how jovial the album is! Much of the perversion and raw energy that you hear on the record is heard more from the backdrops of Come on Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa, the band’s two previous albums. Yes you open with “Debaser,” “Tame,” and “I Bleed” which all have their air of foreboding , but don’t you feel there’s a little sarcasm undercutting these tracks? Maybe it’s just me, or maybe I’m the millionth person in history to point this out. The band then totally pulls the rug from under the listener with the out of place “Here Comes you Man,” further play with your expectations with the levity in “Dead” and just play around from “Mr. Grieves” to “La La Love You.” It’s a very fun and smart record, and Black Francis is a smart guy that knows his music. No song overstays it’s welcome by even a moment. You here the seeds of every alternative and punk band to come in this record. At the very least, I felt more like a college kid as I listened to this record on the bus home every day.

The next album on my list isn’t so much critically heralded as it is largely overlooked. Not forgotten to me, First Band on the Moon is a very important record for me. In the Spring of 1997, I was evolving as a music listener. I had left my Nirvana period, my Beatles period, and was on the way out of my Spice Girls period (to a kid in 96-97, what was bigger?). During these times, I listened to these bands exclusively. Thanks to the Spice Girls I began watching MTV and VH1 fairly regularly. As I watched and watched in the hopes to catch a new Spice video make it’s debut across the pond, the songs that played in the interim seeped into my mind. I began to realize it was perfectly acceptable to listen to more than one band at a time. One night around the time of my birthday, I asked my dad to take me to Blockbuster Music. It was time to expand. I had been there several times before as I completed my Beatles library years back, but this was just about the first time I was looking for contemporary music! That night I bought two singles “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks and Paula Cole’s “Where Have all the Cowboys Gone?” As hilariously “Lilith Fair” as my selections were, it does set an odd precedent for me having a soft spot for “chick rock” that I harbor to this day. There was one more selection I made that night. There was another single I coveted that night, but sadly they did not have it. I worried about my decision, if I wanted the song I would have to buy the album. I feared my dad would not allow me to buy an album on a whim like that. As it turned out, he didn’t give two shits and I walked out that night with my two singles and The Cardigans’ First Band on the Moon in hand.

It was a good thing the store hadn’t carried the “Lovefool” single that night or, like the rest of the music community at large, I might never know the band was so much more than “love me, love me.” The following afternoon, I made on good on listening to the whole record, and just as I realized people weren’t band-exclusive listeners, the record itself opened my mind. As I listened to these happy tunes I quickly noticed the anguish in the words Nina Persson sang. Not even “boo hoo, my love has left” songs, here she sings of topics like: implied infidelity, spousal abuse, low self esteem, delusion. All the while, musically, everything is cheery and sunny! I didn’t yet know the word “juxtaposition,” but if I had I would call this album the best use of it. Even at eleven years old, I recognized a Black Sabbath cover when I heard it. Hell, even “Lovefool” itself is commonly misunderstood. Yes it’s “love me, love me.” but the subject singing is coming from a place of delirium and desperation. She is “crying and begging” as everyone around her is telling her to knock it off, including the object of her affection. Once I listened to the song in the context of the album (in between a song about a lovesick woman in dominating relationship and a song where Nina Persson is trying to hurt your feelings) only then did I actually notice what “Lovefool” was actually about. For the first time I realized music can be expressing two very different emotions at the same time. I learned even if a song sounds like its happy, it can be about some pretty horrific stuff.

It is a grossly underrated and under-appreciated album. Peter Svensson will never get the credit he deserves for this album and it’s follow-up Gran Turismo. The Cardigans played with the audiences expectations too, just like The Pixies did with Doolittle and landed a small sucker punch of their own. There’s little I can do about the lack of accolades for this album. I also take some solace, First Band on the Moon feels more like an album that’s “mine” and I don’t have to share it so much with everyone else like an album like Doolittle. Does it undercut my opinion? I’ll let you judge the music and see!