Kevin Shields is definately on my list as well. He isn't the "best" in any kind of classical way. He probably couldn't shred if his life depended on it or rock some blues solo......but the things he does are just so unique. I saw MBV this year in Seattle and was blown away with the way he pulled off the "Loveless" material live.
I corrected it in my above post. I meant to write "jangle pop" which was really in your mention of Johnny Marr. Although I loved him with The Smiths, he was still outdone by Frame, IMO.
Ah, fair enough...I'm definitely a major devotee of jangle pop (and its descendant power pop). As for Frame, I think he's great, too, but I guess never really caught on for me like Marr did (with the Smiths, anyway...his later stuff did nothing for me). I should go back and listen to Aztec Camera again...haven't listened to them for years.
What's mindblowing about Roddy Frame is how young he is compared to how world-weary his songs are. I'd look through "High Land, Hard Rain" first; I think his earliest stuff is the best. Tonight I'm going to listen to "The Smiths" (their debut album). I haven't done so in a few months and it's easily in my top 25.
Yeah, Alex Chilton is the same way, in a sense. His voice sounded like an old soul artist as a teen in the Box Tops and then as a young man with Big Star, his voice sounded youthful but the songs were starting to betray a weariness and cynicism (though, since he felt exploited as a teen singer, I guess I can see why). Cool, thanks for the recommendation. And, while all four of the Smiths albums are super, I'd recommend Strangeways Here We Come especially. A lot of excellent ringing guitars on that one and their best song-writing, in my opinion. Edit: Heh, checking my music collection, your recommendation is the album of theirs that I have. I thought I had a best-of comp.
[video=youtube;KXq4GlHgROQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXq4GlHgROQ[/video] [video=youtube;xi8KdTk0u0g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi8KdTk0u0g[/video] Stoked for this film: [video=youtube;Rl9iS2egnC0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl9iS2egnC0[/video]
