Camper Van Beethoven: Popular Songs
Thursday, 19 Jun 2008 16:37
Camper Van Beethoven: Popular Songs
Cooking Vinyl, out June 23rd.
In a nutshell...
Sunny, funny Californian new wave.
What's it all about?
Popular Songs, or Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty if we must, is an 18-track compilation celebrating the best of Camper Van Beethoven's brand of oddball, ska-tinged indie rock.
Taking in tracks from their earlier albums and adding a few carbon-copy re-recordings of later work, the album revisits the band's biggest underground hits for a new century - and quite possibly a new audience.
This is the first release since the reunited Campers' 2004 concept album New Roman Times and it attempts to bring together the many diverse threads of the bands sounds under a single 'best of'.
Who's it by?
Treasured to this day by many a muso, Camper Van Beethoven remain one of the most revered of the groundbreaking grandaddies of 1980s alternative music.
Emerging from California's folky college rock scene, they put out five well-received albums culminating with 1989's Key Lime Pie before finally calling it a day.
Singer and guitarist David Lowery went on to front one of the 1990s great lost indie bands, Cracker, but he and the rest of the crew never really emerged from the shadow of the Camper Van - so they're revving it up once more.
As an example...
"There's not a line that goes here that rhymes with anything." - Take The Skinheads Bowling
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Don't expect a summer of Beethovenmania but for those of us (just about) young enough to have missed the boat - or indeed camper van - first time around, Popular Songs is a handy taster of what those older kids were going on about.
What the others say
"If you love Camper Van Beethoven and want a convenient compilation to listen to then get hold of Popular Songs. If you have never heard the band but love music that has absolutely no interest in playing to the masses then also give the album a chance." - Americana UK
"Popular Songs... shows that Camper were a band that shook hands with the New York garage scene while dosey-doeing with a million other genres." - musicomh.com
So is it any good?
The Campers' smart, snappy songs stack up pretty well against today's new wave-tinged indie hopefuls. Their bookish, eccentric style can be heard resonating in many of America's bright new things, from the choppy melodies that have informed Vampire Weekend and Tapes 'n' Tapes to Lowery's laid back, half-singing half-drawling delivery that brings to mind Craig Finn of the Hold Steady.
Taking their own inspiration from Talking Heads and REM, CVB drew on folk, country and ska backed with a punk ethic - and a lead violin.
It still makes for a remarkably fresh mix, the laconic preppiness and 60s-infused surf rock of Take The Skinheads Bowling sits alongside a stomping version of psychedelic, done-up-like-a-Christmas-tree-era Status Quo hit Pictures of Matchstick Men.
There's also fiddle-led instrumentals (ZZ Top Go To Egypt) and good old new wave, although the verse dedicated to our then-Soviet cousins in Good Guys And Bad Guys hasn't aged so well.
8/10
Andy Jowett
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