Tobacco – Fucked Up Friends 4.7

Sadly, the title of this is the most inspired part of the album. Most of this sounds like leftovers from various Black Moth Super Rainbow Sessions. Not that such a thing is unbearable, but that band itself has issues with movement and evolution. Yes, I know they specialize in retro sounds, but just because it is retro doesn't mean it all needs to be the same. See Boards of Canada for more information. 

What’s here then? Basically you get all the sounds you’re used to from Black Moth with considerably less originality and more beats. Songs like “Truck Sweat” abound, overstaying their welcome at even three minutes long. There simply is too little going on to justify such lengths. “Hairy Candy” does a little better, but only by a little bit. And “Hawker Boat” sounds like a song Tobacco already wrote about 8 times before.

Other songs I do like. “Berries that Burn” and “Tape Eater” probably would be my two picks out of the sixteen odd tracks here. Sadly it gets really hard to pick anything out of the morass of sameness going on here. It works much better as background music than something worthy of your undivided attention. 

A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Scribble Mural Cosmic Journal 8.5

The name is a misnomer. Glasgow doesn’t experience sunny weather ever. Every day has gloom and despair along the UK’s answer to Newark, New Jersey. In case this doesn’t give you a good enough idea of the level of industrialization, they actually have tours so you can see the vibrant factories.

Sun is all over this record from the moment it begins with “Wake up Pretty”. Musically, it is heavily indebted to early shoegaze. Great portions of it remind me of “So Tough” the Saint Etienne album from 1993, updated for the modern era. “No. 6 Von Karman Street” gives evidence of this. Since that album happens to be a favorite of mine, this one immediately won me over.

Each song has its fair share of off-putting studio effects, loud noise, and long ambient stretches. Songs that start out as straightforward rock delve into noisy excursions like “Things Only I can See” which starts out gentle before going insane. “C’mon” would probably be the single from the album if Sunny decided to avoid the shrieking feedback. Giddy and happy, the rhythm moves drunkenly towards pure bliss.

In case this isn’t enough, you can play the album in any order basically. At the end you get “The Best Summer Ever” which probably is the most fitting ending to the album I can think of. The lyrics are almost decipherable, but still under enough distortion that you just miss it. It leaves things off on the happiest of notes.

Personally, this works so much better for me than the more scattershot “Ashes Grammar”.