Tag: Music

Listened In Waves, by Jamie xx from Jamie xx

12 track album

In Waves feels like an album. It is not necessarily a DJ set on disc where tracks seemlessly flow into each other. However, it feels like it has intent to the choice of track that help it serve as an overall experience. In an intereview with Sterogum, Jamie xx discusses this intent:

It’s still very important to me that albums feel like albums, especially in this time of streaming and stuff. I always put that one in the middle of all my tracklists when I was trying to work it out. And then I played the album to Kieran Hebden, Four Tet. He told me, basically, to flip it all around — what is the first half used to be the second half. That was a great piece of advice. That was a big part of the puzzle in how to make the album work.

Source: The Story Behind Every Song On Jamie xx’s New Album In Waves by Margaret Farrell

Al Newstead explains the contrast to In Colour:

Whereas the sleeve of In Colour bursts with primary colours, In Waves is emblazoned with a black and white optical illusion, signalling a darker, less vivacious affair. But while the contents are indeed more complicated, they’re no less sumptuous.

Source: Jamie xx — In Waves by Al Newstead

In a review for Pitchfork, Jesse Dorris highlights the references to yesteryear with some of the tracks. I wonder if this is what attracts me to the album, the certain comfort of the familiar. In addition to references to 90’s house, I was reminded of the vocal chops of Telefon Tel Aviv’s ‘My Week Beats Your Year’.

Dorris wonders though, with all its spectacle, In Waves lacks the love and emotion of In Colour.

Waves is bigger than In Colour, in the spectacle of its sound and in the scope of possible audience. This is music that can be effortlessly slotted into mainstream house sets and diced into TikTok challenges, selected as soundtracks for your vacation Insta carousels and added to “memories of 2024” playlists. Nothing succeeds in dance music like dance music about dancing, and on that front, In Waves is the big time.
…
Dance music about dancing works when it inspires movement; dance music about love only works when you can’t help but sink in. Remember when the Idris Muhammad sample swells like a first, best kiss, in Romy’s “Loud Places”? You’ll never forget it, unlike a fair bit of In Waves, which is tasteful and slick, approachable and antiperspirant, less oceanic ecstasy than the pool party of the year.

Source: Jamie xx: In Waves by Jesse Dorris

It was interesting to contrast this with Jamie xx’s reflection upon the challenge of emotion in his music and the importance of finding balance.

The instrumental songs really allow the album to breathe. Were you very conscious about having those spaces throughout?

JAMIE XX: Yeah, definitely. In terms of as a listen as well, I was aware that I didn’t want it to feel too busy. But I wanted to keep the way it sounded because that was what was coming out of me naturally. And I felt like it was a bit of an anti- all of the sort of really popular dance music that’s in the world at the time, which is very spacious. Some of it is not as emotional as it intends to be. It feels a bit forced. There’s only so much of it that sort of busy stuff that I could put on the album that would work where it could still be listenable. It was very much a balancing act.

Source: The Story Behind Every Song On Jamie xx’s New Album In Waves by Margaret Farrell

The Sterogum interview also provides some other insights into the album, such as the hundreds of vocals that were not used in ‘Dafodil’. I am always intrigued by all of the “shit” that left on the chopping board when create any sort of art.

I asked people to do verses based on their memories from a summer in London. I’ve got a lot of versions of this song, and there could be like a 20-minute version somewhere down the line.

Source: The Story Behind Every Song On Jamie xx’s New Album In Waves by Margaret Farrell

I especially wondered about what was left out listening to Charli XCX’s Brat and whether the strength of an album is sometimes what is removed and left out.

Associated with what is ‘left out’, one of the things that intrigues me about the creative process is the way in which you end up with a final product, without any idea of the journey followed to get it to that stage. In particular, the serendipity, where choices are based on feel, rather than a particular technical choice as to what chord is right. This is something that Jon Hopkins has spoken about with regard to making something to break, while Kieren Hebden talks about chance. In Jamie xx’s case it is about making mistakes:

You’ve mentioned a couple times this process of making mistakes. I would love to hear more about what you mean by mistake?

JAMIE XX: It can be anything from hitting a bunch of notes on a synth that suddenly make you feel a certain way. Or, experimenting using software in a way that I’ve never used it before or it wasn’t intended to be used that makes something sonically catch your ear, but also has a certain feeling attached to it. The other chords in “Still Summer,” that are in the first break, that was another thing where I really liked the chords but when I made them it sounded like a very done thing — some nice synthy chords come in at a breakdown in a dance song. Then, I bounced them out and time-stretched them all and messed with them in a way that I would not normally mess with an already nice sounding set of synth chords. It ended up sounding more like a strummed guitar, I think, or something that you can’t quite put your finger on. I just love that. It made it a lot more organic. But all of this was done without knowing what it would end up sounding like.

Source: The Story Behind Every Song On Jamie xx’s New Album In Waves by Margaret Farrell

Jamie xx also discusses some of the more technical elements which is always insightful:

there’s like static running through it, right? I feel like it almost feels like you’re trying to make it seem kind of like a memory.

JAMIE XX: I like that. It’s actually technically a way of making the synths sound like that, where you have to play white noise essentially through a vocoder triggering a synth. But it makes that strange sound. I like that. I’ve never thought of it like that.

Source: The Story Behind Every Song On Jamie xx’s New Album In Waves by Margaret Farrell

Replied to On Repeat by David TrussDavid Truss (daily-ink.davidtruss.com)

I have no idea what song or even what genre will tickle my musical fancy next, but until then, I’ll be choosing between these most recent choices ‘on repeat’.

On Repeat by David Truss

David, I am wondering how these songs end up ‘on repeat’? Clearly, some tracks click, but for that to happen, we need to listen to a wide range of music? Are there times you listen to the radio? Or is there times when your children or wife are playing music that you pick up new tracks from? This is one of those things that intrigues me, especially in the age of algorithms?

Bookmarked The Random Music Hiding On Gold & Platinum Records (Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet.)

“I was looking at it, and I could see it has our label and I could see that it has you whatever like nine songs on the one side,” he recalled. “And I was looking at the actual gold record—it only had four songs on it.”

That was a bit of a mind blow for the trio, which immediately broke the glass, took the record out of its shell, and heard … instrumental piano recordings of Barry Manilow songs. This clearly blew the minds of both the band as well as the hosts. It’s not exactly common knowledge, but apparently the gold and platinum records are just plated and labeled with no care as to whether the actual records contain the artist’s songs.

The Random Music Hiding On Gold & Platinum Records by Ernie Smith

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To borrow from John Laws, records ain’t records?

Bookmarked Barack Obama Shares 2024 Summer Playlist: Charli XCX, Tems, 2Pac, Nick Drake, and More by Nina Corcoran (Pitchfork)

Billie Eilish, Shaboozey, Tommy Richman, and Bonny Light Horseman are also among the former president’s seasonal selections

Former President Barack Obama has shared his playlist of his current favorite songs for summer 2024. Included is Charli XCX’s high-speed Brat song “365”—because not even Obama can resist Brat Summer—as well as Tommy Richman’s breakout single “Million Dollar Baby,” 2Pac’s “How Do U Want It,” and Nick Drake’s “One of These Things First.” Obama also picked songs by Billie Eilish, Shaboozey, Tems, Bonny Light Horseman, Beyoncé, Pharoah Sanders, Bad Bunny, Samara Joy, Charles Mingus, and more. See the full playlist below.

https://pitchfork.com/news/barack-obama-shares-2024-summer-playlist-charli-xcx-tems-2pac-nick-drake-and-more/

Even Barack Obama is bumpin’ it!

Replied to Clive Thompson (@clive@saturation.social) (Saturation)

Are there any songs in your life that got so overplayed you can never listen to them again?

For me, it’s “Everybody Hurts” by REM

genuinely a great song

but it was so exhaustively overplayed back in the 90s — licensed for just about every single weepy scene in any TV show or movie, on infinite loop on terrestrial radio — that I reached some sort of lifetime saturation

I cannot abide it, even decades on now, a single time

it’s like an allergic reaction

I need to *leave* the goddamn *room*

Clive, at fear of oversharing, I thought I would share my funny ‘Everybody Hurts’ experience. For music at school, every class had to sing a song together. Mr. F chose Bryan Adam’s ‘Everything I Do I Do It For You’. I cannot remember it was voted on, probably was. Anyway, my mother was mortified why a bunch of Year 7’s were singing a song about love and romance and complained to the school that it was inappropriate. So instead, my teacher had us sing ‘Everybody Hurts’. I guess that hurt and pain is something does not require age and maturity to appreciate?
Liked Four Tet on making music by Austin KleonAustin Kleon (austinkleon.com)

Four Tet’s Three is one of my favorite albums of the year, so I was delighted to come across an interview with Kieran Hebden on the Tape Notes podcast discussing its making. He rarely gives interviews, so before listening, I really knew nothing about him or how he works. It was a delight to hear […]

Austin Kleon shares his key take-away from the TapeNotes podcast episode in which Kieran Hebden dives into several tracks from Three+.

You’ve got to love records so much, he says, that you want to make something that can sit on a shelf alongside the records you love.

It’s a lesson that is true for all creative people: Your output depends on your input.

If you want to be a great musician, you need to listen to more great music. If you want to write great books, you need to read more great books.

https://austinkleon.com/2024/07/22/four-tet-on-making-music/

This was something that he touched on in his conversation with Jamie Lidell on the Hanging Out with Audiophiles podcast. He spoke about listening to a full album each day.

One of the surprises from the TapeNote podcast was that Hebden does not actually have a strong background in musical theory. He argues that that, compared to say Fred again.., this possible weakness provides more opportunity for serendipity and chance.

Listened 2024 studio album by Charli XCX by Contributors to Wikimedia projects from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

I drink, I smoke, I use autotune

Source: TN:138 Charli XCX, George Daneil & A.G. Cook

Charli XCX’s comment on autotune on the Tape Notes podcast sums Brat up for me. On the one hand, Charli XCX cares, she cares enough to know that she wanted something other than her previous album, Crash, but she also does not seem to care enough to worry about how she might be perceived in supposedly turning from the mainstream. As Alexis Petridis suggests, Brat is something of a ‘palate cleanser’.

Satisfying the contract she signed with Atlantic as a teenager, 2022’s Crash was a conceptual go-for-broke by a pop star who had made her name as a refusenik, save a few uneasy youthful flirtations with the mainstream. She swapped her avant garde collaborators for blue-chip songwriters, mastered slick choreo and duly interpolated old dance bangers. It worked, becoming her most successful album yet. Having simply decided to be successful and then pulled it off, most artists in her position would surely keep at it. Not Charli, who has since admitted that she couldn’t even listen to some of Crash, nor stomach the rictus-grin promo. The sleazy grind of Brat, her superb sixth album, is the palate cleanser, albeit one that tastes like cigarettes, vodka and chemical afterburn.

Source: Charli XCX: Brat review | Laura Snapes’ album of the week by Alexis Petridis

I feel that there is an element of Ian Brown about it all. This is who I am, this is what you are going to get. I am sure there is more to it, but that is certainly how it feels.

Brat wears a prickly carapace as lure and defence. Unlike the crowdpleasing Crash, the textures here are defiantly underground – panel-beating, serrated, darkly bubbling with acid – made with the likes of Daniel, AG Cook, Easyfun, Hudson Mohawke and Gesaffelstein. It plots Charli’s history with dance music, from lifelong Aphex fan to bloghouse teen and PC Music doyenne with a sincere respect for trash.

Source: Charli XCX: Brat review | Laura Snapes’ album of the week by Alexis Petridis

As an album, Brat is rather lean, there really is no fat anywhere. Charli XCX manages to fit 15 tracks on one vinyl disc. I imagine there maybe some remixes drawn out produced from some of these tracks, as there are so many threads that feel that they could be teased out further, as was captured in the PARTYGIRL Boiler Room performance. However, as an album, everything feels like it is in its right place.

What was interesting was that the singles did not really lay out the narrative for me. I was circumspect on hearing ‘360’ and ‘Von Dutch’. I entered Brat as a ‘return to the club’ and wondered what that would mean.

i was born to make dance music.. i came from the clubs.. xcx6 is the album i’ve always wanted to make.

Source: Charli on Twitter, Feb 25, 2024

Yes, there is a clear palette 808’s and 909’s throughout, something discussed on the Tape Notes podcast by Charli XCX, ‘Alex’ Cook and George Daniel. However, as Jem Aswad suggests, “there’s a lot more more besides.”

The album changes moods surprisingly smoothly with nearly every track, not just musically but lyrically: The songs swerve between boastful swagger and shriveling insecurity and vulnerability, and are autobiographical in their conflicted feelings about fame, success and her own worth.
…
But “Brat” would be a masterful album even if all the lyrics were simply about clubbing — it’s melodically and musically sophisticated, with remarkably detailed production. As always, she’s a serial collaborator, and A-list coproducers here include Cirkut, George Daniel, El Guincho, Gesaffelstein, Hudson Mohawke, Finn Keane and others, and A.G. Cook is back in the copilot seat, bringing his shimmering arpeggios and countermelodies to a majority of the songs.

Source: Charli XCX Launches an Exhilarating New Chapter of Pop With the Innovative ‘Brat’: Album Review by Jem Aswad

In some ways, I wonder if ‘the return to the club’ is a distraction in the same way as St Vincent creating a ‘Toolesque’ album? Just as I was unsure about St Vincent’s initial singles, I too was not sure about Charli XCX’s initial releases, however in both cases hearing them as a part of a whole seemed to make more sense.

Charli XCX goes in and out of thoughts and experiences. One minutes she is talking about jealously, then regret, then her own ego. For me, it is an album album, with great tracks, made better as a whole. With this in mind, it is interesting listening to it alongside Taylor Swift’s Tortured Poets Department. I feel both grapple with life, but each in a different way. Petridis argues that Charli XCX grapples with being human.

Most of her superstar peers are busy making unrelatable music about how hard it is to be famous. Yet Charli has never lost sight of how hard it is to be human.

Source: Charli XCX: Brat review | Laura Snapes’ album of the week by Alexis Petridis

Brat though is more than just an album, it seems to be an attitude. There is talk of a ‘brat’ summer, whatever that actually means. For me, this attitude was something that started with George Daniel and Charli XCX’s remix (or reclamation) of Caroline Polachek’s ‘Welcome to my Island’. With Charli’s added “bitch” to the chorus hook, it feels like she is graffitiing a piece of art, making it her own. I cannot hear the original without hearing Charli XCX’s statement, what is heard cannot be unheard.

Place between AG Cook and Caroline Polachek

Continue reading “🎵 Brat (Charli XCX)”

Watched
Not exactly sure how I ended up watching Rick Beato’s interview with James Maynard Keenan, but I did not regret it. I was intrigued by the discussion of the three bands and how the combination of musicians in each allows for a different side, perspective.

The T-Shirt.

However, the thing that really left me thinking was Keenan’s reflections on touring. He discussed the reality of not being able to eat after 3pm and why even though every dietician would cringe, he then eats a meal at 12pm, after performing.

I have to eat either at three o’clock or not until 11 30, after the show, because you can’t eat too close to the show, because I’m carrying it around and you risk your reflux and now you now you’ve compromised your voice for the next three shows. So I have to eat early in the day, knock that out, and then after the show, if you have talked to any dietitians, they’re like, “you’re eating at 11 30 at night or midnight what’s wrong with you.”

Source: Maynard James Keenan Interview (Tool, A Perfect Circle & Puscifer)

This reminded me of the sacrifices that Kate Miller-Heidke makes as a performer.

Watched Looking for Alibrandi (film) by Contributors to Wikimedia projects from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Rewatching Looking for Alibrandi, I feel that there are films, such as Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet, that manage to transport your back to a particular time and place through the soundtrack. I feel that this is different to say Donnie Darko whose soundtrack feels like it is designed to construct a particular past.
Bookmarked Steve Albini, an alternative rock pioneer and legendary producer for Nirvana and the Pixies, dies at 61 by ABC News (ABC News)

The legendary producer who recorded music for bands including Nirvana, the Pixies, and PJ Harvey dies after a heart attack.

Steve Albini, music engineer at Electrical Audio Recording, died of a heart attack. In honour, Austin Kleon shared the following quote:

“I’ve lived my whole life without having goals, and I think that’s very valuable, because then I never am in a state of anxiety or dissatisfaction. I never feel I haven’t achieved something. I never feel there is something yet to be accomplished. I feel like goals are quite counterproductive. They give you a target, and until the moment you reach that target, you are stressed and unsatisfied, and at the moment you reach that specific target you are aimless and have lost the lodestar of your existence. I’ve always tried to see everything as a process. I want to do things in a certain way that I can be proud of that is sustainable and is fair and equitable to everybody that I interact with. If I can do that, then that’s a success, and success means that I get to do it again tomorrow.”

https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2021/9/7/22625278/steve-albini-big-black-sound-engineer-producer-nirvana-success-retirement-hearing

Here is a link to the ‘Steve Albini’ sound. Interestingly, Annie Clark spoke about going to record at Electrical Audio for All Born Screaming.

Checked into https://www.katemillerheidke.com/events/2024-05-11-nunawading-the-round

Kate will be playing her greatest hits and most beloved pop songs, as well as performing tracks from her original musicals Muriel’s Wedding the Musical and the new Bananaland, some unexpected covers, taking requests, and telling stories from across her varied career. Excitingly, she’ll also be debuting new material from her forthcoming 6th studio album, which will dive deep into the genre of ‘gothic folk’.

This is a special opportunity to see Kate in intimate, stripped-back mode, accompanied by her long-term collaborator Keir Nuttall on guitar.

Source: KATE MILLER-HEIDKE: Catching Diamonds Tour 2024 | The Round

I feel like there are artists that you think you know, but never get beyond a superficial listen. I am not sure if it is because of the sources of music, such as radio, or something else, but I feel like I always appreciated Kate Miller-Heidke’s unique talent, but never dived in much further. I think that this changed after seeing her perform ‘Wuthering Heights’ as a part of the ABC New Years Eve concert, streaming music and Child in Reverse with its minimal production.

Although I listen to a lot of music, not much passes across the generations, Kate Miller-Heidke seems to be that exception. After missing out on Taylor Swift tickets, I bought tickets to see Kate Miller-Heidke for my daughter’s birthday, her first live concert. In part, this was because for the Catching Diamonds tour, Miller-Heidke was performing a cut-back show at theatres in the suburbs and in the country, meaning that it was all ages. I actually did not know what to expect from The Round. My wife suggested it might be a bit more dressy. There were definitely no band t-shirts. It felt more like the theatre.

It was also good to discover another great support act, Georgia Mooney.

Mooney’s music exists beyond the bounds of time and space. An avowed Star Wars nerd who presents as a 40s movie star – she seems both from a long time ago and a galaxy far away, while speaking directly to the present. Influences from every member of the Wainwright family, Joni Mitchell, the sophistication of the Great American Songbook and even classical composers sift through her songs seamlessly, alongside fuzzed out guitars and production that evoke the unsettling genius of Kate Bush – both her idiosyncratic wall of sound instrumentation and unexpected turns of chords and melodies.

Source: Georgia Mooney

I had never heard her music before and never seen a dulcimer played. This was also made more interesting listening to her album, Full of Moon, afterwards.

With the sound stripped-back, I wondered what impact that might have on the sound? Interestingly, aided by an array of effects pedals, Keir Nuttall on acoustic often managed to fill the sound of a whole band. While with the support from Kate Miller-Heidke on piano and guitar, I was left wondering if a full band was even needed? Even with her tracks from Child in Reverse, with their programmed loops, I feel that these would have been the same with or without the band, especially as she was supported vocally for these tracks by Georgia Mooney. I actually feel that the stripped-back sound allowed more flexibility to improvise. This all then served as the perfect foundation for Kate Miller-Heidke’s voice.

My (poor) memory of the setlist

  • Fire and iron
  • O Vertigo
  • Sarah
  • The Tiger Inside Will Eat the Child
  • Humiliation
  • Caught in the Crowd
  • A Simon and Garfunkel track
  • Last Day on Earth
  • Hectic Glitter
  • You Can’t Hurt Me Anymore
  • Simpatico
  • Zero Gravity
  • Words / Paint It Black
  • Psycho Killer
Listened All Born Screaming, by st. vincent from st. vincent

10 track album

“You’re either alive or you’re dead,” she tells Double J. “And if you’re alive you better live life to the fullest.”

Source: St. Vincent – All Born Screaming) by Al Newstead

I remember when Daddy’s Home was released reading a passing comment from St. Vincent about nearly making a Tool-inspired album, but instead going all 70’s.

Appearing on Radio.com’s New Arrivals show (via Uproxx), St. Vincent explained that she was “dead set” on creating a “heavy record” as the follow-up to 2017’s ‘Masseduction’). “Like just heavy the whole time – like, ‘Hey kids, you like Tool? Well, you’ll love the St. Vincent record’, you know?” she said.

Source: St. Vincent reveals she almost made a “heavy” Tool-inspired album)

I was intrigued what that would actually sound like. When I heard the first few singles, ‘Broken Man’ and ‘Flea’ I was a bit taken back. It was dark and brooding, but not the Tool-inspired album I expected. I was therefore unsure in listening to the album. I felt a bit lost.

I listened to a couple of interviews, one with Zane Lowe) and the other as a part of the Tape Notes podcast. Both spoke about the beginnings in playing industrial dance music, but this foundation was brought to the fore with Tape Notes, especially when she started remixing her tracks on the fly. After this I felt that Tool may have been a distraction in part and that the electrical modular underpinnings is what makes this album.

I was reading a BBC article) about the return of the album over singles. In it, there was a quote from Billie Eilish about why she is against singles:

“I don’t like singles from albums,” she admits. “Every single time an artist I love puts out a single without the context of the album, I’m just already prone to hating on it. I really don’t like when things are out of context. This album is like a family: I don’t want one little kid to be in the middle of the room alone.”

Source: Billie Eilish Would Like to Reintroduce Herself) by Angie Martoccio

I was left wondering if the initial singles associated with All Born Screaming where a help or a hindrance? I feel that this albums is definitely better as a whole.

Much like the album’s artwork, it’s a dark, fiery listening experience that will win you over with its sonic surprises and sense of raw urgency.

Source: Best new music to hear from St. Vincent, Ngaiire, Kamasi Washington and more) by Al Newstead

In an interview with Karen Leng, St Vincent talks about inventing an alphabet around electricity and chaos, with a balance between the raw and the perfect. I think that like all languages, St Vincent borrows from many places to make her own. Zooming into the different parts on the Tape It podcast, these influences are made clear, whether it be Massive Attack or Tool, however as a whole the album is definitely St Vincent.

All Born Screaming certainly lives up to that philosophy. It’s the sound of an artist rediscovering the most vital parts of themselves, a musical chameleon forging renewed purpose from primal instincts.

Source: St. Vincent – All Born Screaming) by Al Newstead

Also, a part of this new alphabet is an element of urgency.

Grief shaped much of the album, says the notoriously private Clark, who was rattled by an unspecified personal loss during the album’s making. But All Born Screaming is animated by a sense of urgency, not melancholy.

Source: St. Vincent – All Born Screaming) by Al Newstead

Watched Love in Bright Landscapes: The Story of David McComb of the Triffids by Contributors to Wikimedia projects from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

Love in Bright Landscapes: The Story of David McComb of the Triffids is a feature-length documentary, depicting the life and times of late Australian songwriter David McComb (February 17, 1962 – February 2, 1999) best known for his work with the Triffids, a band he co-founded in Perth, Western Australia. The Triffids were active between 1978 and 1990.

The film was the directorial debut of Melbourne-based writer/broadcaster Jonathan Alley, who also wrote the documentary screenplay. The film was produced by Atticus Media and The Acme Film Company and distributed in the Australian/New Zealand territory by Label Distribution.

The title Love in Bright Landscapes refers both to the Triffids’ compilation of the same name, released in 1986, and the poem by Spanish literary figure Rafael Alberti, who published The Coming Back of Love in Bright Landscapes] in 1973.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_Bright_Landscapes:_The_Story_of_David_McComb_of_the_Triffids

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I had watched Great Australian Albums episode on Born Sandy Devotional and listened to Kirsten Krauth’s Almost a Mirror episode on ‘Wide Open Road’, so I was aware of The Triffids story. However, what Jonathan Alley brought to the table with were some of the voices closest to David McComb. What was weird though about this was that by the time this documentary was released in 2021, how many of these voices were long past, a point made by Alley in the credits.

One aspect that I felt Alley made more light of was McComb’s life after ‘Born Sand Devotional’. I had not realised that the record company wanted to seemingly replace the band in the recording process for Calenture, their Island Records debut. It makes you wonder in this circumstance where David McComb stops and the band begins, a similar experience I had reading Love & Pain by Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou.

Another interesting aspect to this sort of documentary are the voices that are included and the subsequent ones that are excluded. For example, Bleddyn Butcher is not a part of the discussion. Maybe as he has his own book Save What You Can, then he did not feel the need to be involved or was not asked?

Listened Respect All Lifeforms, 2020 album by Australian band Custard by Contributors to Wikimedia projects from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

Respect All Lifeforms is the eighth studio album by Australian alternative rock band Custard “Custard (band)”), released on 22 May 2020 by ABC Music.[1]

The album was preceded by the release of the single “Funky Again”, which was accompanied by a video directed by longtime collaborator Andrew Lancaster.[2]

Source: Respect All Lifeforms by Wikipedia

Gone are the days when the band would painstakingly labour over the creation of the album, the basis for Respect All Lifeforms, was recorded one weekend at Poons Head Studio in Fremantle while the band were in Perth to play a festival. As Dave McCormick explained:

“This album was pretty easy, we were about to fly over to Perth to play a festival, and we went over the day before because we hate the three hour time difference in Perth. You end up feeling like it’s 4am in the morning by the time you play.

“We had a day to kill, and Glenn Thompson booked us a studio in Fremantle, and we went in and we recorded eight songs on the day, and six of them we used on the album, so it was a productive morning.”

…

“We were less prepared than we normally are,” he explains. “Traditionally, Matthew Strong, guitar and I would get together and write, we’d show each other some chord ideas, send it around and everyone would have a listen and have a think about it.

“This session, no one had heard anything that any of us were working on, so it was all ‘first listen’, ‘what can we play?’ I didn’t even know what my songs were, really. I was thinking, ‘Maybe there’s a chorus here, a guitar solo’, but it was all very much a work in progress.

“I think this album is very immediate, and that’s the way I like working now. In the ’90s, we’d spend weeks and weeks on tracking the album, and mixing the album, but I don’t want to do that anymore. I just want to keep it all in a sense of falling forward where no one quite knows what’s happening, and I like that energy.”

Source: Custard: Still Full of Surprises by Tyler Jenke

While Glenn Thompson spoke about the spontaneity associated with learning and recording at the same time.

“We hadn’t played the songs before recording, so it was learning and recording at the same time – which is great. That spontaneity helps to make something interesting.
“We’ve played together for so long that there’s just a feeling, you know the direction in which things are going to go, and you all go in a similar direction at a similar time.”

Source: Custard’s ‘Respect All Lifeforms’ Is One Of The Best Albums Of 2020… Trust by Bronwyn Thompson

Discussing the album with Lindsay McDougall, McCormick explained that what makes a “Custard” song is when a song is played and the band hear it and add their additions in return, the organic interchange.

Respect All Lifeforms feels like a return to the ebbs and flows of We Have the Technology and Loverama. Unlike the last two albums, which opened with slower more somber tracks and a touch of country, this albums kicks off with a bang with ‘Couples Fight’, making something of a statement. The album then bounces around from there. Gone is the lap steel and harmonica. It does not wear the criticism of ‘Adult Contemporary’ made against their last two albums so well.

One interesting aspect about this album is that McCormick, Thompson and Paul Medew each take writing responsibilities. This itself brings a point of difference. With Thompson providing his usual infectious whimsical observations of the world with ‘A Cat Called No’ and ‘Wishing’, Medew providing some pace with ‘Wishing’ and ‘Like People’, while McCormick fills out the rest with his usual mix. They also provide a cover of Camper Van Beethoven’s ‘Taking the Skinheads Bowling’.

It was interesting reading David Lowery’s thoughts on writing ‘Taking the Skinheads Bowling’, in which he described it as “weird non-sensical”.

So it should not surprise you that I never thought  that Take the Skinheads Bowling would become a Hit.  If someone had traveled from the future and told me we would have a hit on our first album I would not have picked this song as being the hit.  Not in a million years.  I would have more likely picked Where the Hell is Bill.

Why?  we regarded Take The Skinheads Bowling as just a weird non-sensical song.  The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning.  Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line.  It was the early 80’s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning.  It was our way of rebelling.  BTW this is the most important fact about this song.  We wanted the words to lack any coherent meaning.  There is no story or deeper insight that I can give you about this song.

Source: #74 Hits are Black Swans-Take the Skinheads Bowling by David Lowery

This is probably a good way of describing a lot of Custard’s music.

Noel Mengel argues that what makes a Custard album is the ebb and flow throughout.

But what is so enjoyable about Custard’s music is not that it can be defined in any neat way but that it can’t. Pop-rock with guitars it might be, but there is a lot going on that rewards play after play. And it always sounds just like them.

Source: Respect All Lifeforms. Custard by Noel Mengel

He also summarises the album as follows:

A lovers’ tiff, ills ancient and modern, great records past and present, the lengthening shadows of loves, record shops, hangovers: it’s all fuel for Custard.

Source: Respect All Lifeforms. Custard by Noel Mengel

On a side note, the picture on the cover was taken during the recording session in Fremantle of a man called ‘Cowboy John’:

“At this Poons Head Studio in Fremantle, there was this character called Cowboy John who was hanging around the studio,” he recalls. “He looked about, maybe [in his] 60s, and he was known to the studio owner.

“He came into the studio, hung out with us a little bit, and then he bummed some of Matthew’s cigarettes, and then he was gone. And as he left, he said, ‘Respect all lifeforms’, and that was it; he just walked out of the studio. And we just looked at each other and said, ‘That’s the album name, Respect All Lifeforms‘.

“And the studio owner, Rob [Grant], said ‘I’ve got a photo here of Cowboy John playing this monophonic Roland synth thing, and he’s wearing a crown.’ And we said, ‘We need that photo, that has to be the cover of the album.’

“So it was a productive morning. We had the album cover done, we had the title of the album done, and we had six songs recorded.”

Source: Custard: Still Full of Surprises by Tyler Jenke

Tracklist

Couples Fight

The last two albums started off with slower more subdued tracks. Couples Fight feels like something of a statement. It has a Ballroom Blitz feel, before breaking out the synthesiser. I am left wondering about categorising Custard’s songs, I think that this fits into the category of ‘observations’, especially with the line “playing Blood on the Tracks … via bluetooth.” It tells a story, but not a specific story.

Funky Again

I asked AI to create me a song that combines The Cure’s Let’s Go To Bed, Britany Spears’ Toxic and Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice. It responded that the song already exists in the form of Funky Again. After listening to Dave McCormick on Take 5 podcast, I can hear the influence of Britany Spears’ Toxic in this track with some of the guitar lines, while it would be fascinating to hear Funky Again mashed up with Weapon of Choice.

Harrlequin Records

Category: biographical, maybe auto? Love the line, “I’m so dumb, people think that I am smart.” It has the big feel that was a part of the previous album.

A Cat Called No

Glenn Thompson has the ability to write the quirkiest songs with the most infectious harmonies.

Wishing

Paul Medew starts this song hard and drives it all the way through. It has an Elvis Costello feel.

Take the Skinheads Bowling

This is a cover of Camper Van Beethoven’s track. Here is David Lowery discussing the song:

So it should not surprise you that I never thought  that Take the Skinheads Bowling would become a Hit.  If someone had traveled from the future and told me we would have a hit on our first album I would not have picked this song as being the hit.  Not in a million years.  I would have more likely picked Where the Hell is Bill.

Why?  we regarded Take The Skinheads Bowling as just a weird non-sensical song.  The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning.  Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line.  It was the early 80’s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning.  It was our way of rebelling.  BTW this is the most important fact about this song.  We wanted the words to lack any coherent meaning.  There is no story or deeper insight that I can give you about this song.

Source: #74 Hits are Black Swans-Take the Skinheads Bowling by David Lowery

It was interesting to go back and listen to the original track and another cover by the Manic Street Preachers. I think that Custard capture the quirkiness of the track and really make it there own. I saw that Adalita, Phil Jamieson, Tex Perkins and Tim Rogers are touring The Rolling Stones Sticky FIngers, it made me wonder if McCormick could actually front his own covers band, similar to Billie Joe Armstrong’s The Coverups.

The Min Min Lights

This is a story song that focuses on ‘Veronica’, but it does not make completely clear why she is crying. This song is story without all the information, instead it is about the emotion.

Talkative Town

Another song by Glenn Thompson. It contains Thompson’s penchant for passing comments on the world around (‘We live up in the trees, Or where they used to be’ and ‘I buy all my stuff with my digital thumbprint’) and society in general (‘I think there’s a more equitable system, I don’t think it’s called capitalism’) all on top of a bed of infectious pop.

Like People

Another song by Paul Medew about a relationship that we are brought in on. Moments are pieced together to place us in the situation of wanting things to change. As with Wishing, the song flies through.

Watcha Waiting For

We are ‘here’, but never quite sure where ‘here’ actually is. The ambiguous nature and slow feel of this song make it feel like it could have been the closing track for the album.

Come Tuesday

Category: (Auto)Biography
Come Tuesday is a reflective track from McCormick about life on the road. It touches upon how ‘come Tuesday’ everything can change. It is a slower more somber track and really closes off the album.

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It was Swift who threw out the “we” for the “I.” She didn’t do it with her words, mostly. Swift is ever-gracious in her awards acceptance speeches, always enthusiastically crediting her collaborators and acknowledging her competition. But as she stands in the eye of a hurricane of popular fetishization and media hype, Swift can’t help but block out everything and everyone around her. She knows it, or at least the attack of the 50-foot Tay in the “Anti-Hero” video suggests she does. But that doesn’t stop it from being true. She wants to continue to present herself as an ordinary musician who loves the studio more than the spotlight, but crowd hunger – for a distraction from the world’s horrors, a hero who doesn’t wield weapons, a boost to the economy, a symbolic antidote to the shrinking of women’s rights – has turned her into the strangest kind of star: a mutli-dimensional monolith. In popular culture right now, Taylor Swift stands for everything, yet she also stands firmly for the center, unmoving, unable to share the light.

Source: February 18th 2024 by Ann Powers

Listened The Common Touch, album by Custard by Contributors to Wikimedia projects from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

The Common Touch is the seventh studio album by Australian alternative rock band Custard “Custard (band)”), released on 6 October 2017 by ABC Music.[1]#citenote-NLACommon-1) It was supported by the singles “In the Grand Scheme of Things (None of This Really Matters)” and “2000 Woman”.

Source: The Common Touch) by Wikipedia

—

Some albums make you want move, I found The Common Touch a bit more subdued than some of their earlier albums, but it feels like this space gives the opportunities for the hooks and harmonies to really flourish. For me, it is one of those albums that the more I listened, the more I could not help sing along with.

“In the ’90s it was much more of an ongoing concern that we were a professional music group, so you had to constantly think about how to make people interested in you again. How could we get people to our gigs? How do we get songs on the radio? And none of those factors really come into the equation now. Now it’s like, ‘What’s the most interesting songs we can write and record and release?’ “

And there’s no shortage of those on The Common Touch, a varied and focused record that shows the band’s eagerness to move beyond their quirky slacker pop “golden days”.

“This is the first time I sat in my spare room in Bexley and just went, ‘Right, every day I’m going to sit down and make myself available to write songs.’ So for about three or four weeks, five days a week, I’d just sit in the room and make stuff up.”

Source: From the ’90s to now, Custard haven’t lost their common touch by Bronwyn Thompson

Sonically, The Common Touch is a mixture of the old and new. There is the familiar sounds, whether it be the lap steel and acoustic guitar, but there are also new ingredients (or old ingredients given more room), such as female harmonies, piano and harmonica. Interestingly, the mood of the music does not always match the songs.

Reading some of the interviews, one of the contrasts with The Common Touch was the speed it was recorded. Although the initial 30-40 ideas were carved out over weeks, the album itself was recorded on a weekend.

“Glenn also mixed the album and says it’s an old-school 70s retro album. You stick the headphones on at 10:30 at night, just before you go to sleep, and just cruise into it. All will be revealed with headphones – secrets and messages. It’s all very deep, like an onion.”

Source: Interview: Custard’s David McCormack sums up everything that’s ever happened in music with The Common Touch by Tim Byrnes

Tracklist

  1. In the Grand Scheme of Things (McCormack) – As with Come Back, All is Forgiven, The Common Touch too opens with a song beginning from the start. It also sets a similar slow groove. However, this is disrupted with the trumpet / harmonica solo.
  2. Hailey’s Comet (McCormack) – A slow groove reflecting on having a moment while watching Hailey’s Comet. It is another example of a song that tells a story, while captures odd moments.
  3. I’m not Well (McCormack) – This song introduces the big backing vocals, with the ‘ahhhs’ and ‘ohhhhs’ reminded me of Pink Floyd, although the song is not necessarily a Pink Floyd song. It maybe a soul thing, not quite sure. I also wonder how this song would sound mashed up with Tiffany’s I Think Were Along Now.
  4. Princess Highway (McCormack) – The slow beat, strings and lap steel help create a big airy feel that reminds me of Mercury Rev’s ‘Holes’. It creates a bed for McCormack to reflect and reminisce.
  5. Sinking Feeling (McCormack) – The introduction had me thinking of Blondie’s ‘Rapture’. I love the contrast between the driving bass in the verse and the chorus with its sing song lyrics. This is one of those songs that can be construed as both positive and negative, drowning or waving.
  6. You Always Knew (McCormack) – The loose talking lyrics reminded me of Robert Forster the Go-Betweens.
  7. Hands on Fire (G. Thompson) – Thompson with a song that gets your leg tapping away. Reminds me of Methyl Ethel’s talk louder the way in which it locks into the groove, but does not necessarily go anywhere.
  8. Armegeddon (McCormack) – just when you thought Custard could not rock out any more, that they have entered the world of ‘Adult Contemporary’ they crank it up just so you know.
  9. Dr Huxley Creeper (McCormack) – oh yeah and they can play up tempo pieces still too. 
  10. 2000 Woman (McCormack) – This could almost be an LCD Soundsystem song
  11. Police Cars (G. Thompson, Wintah Thompson, Nellie Pollard-Wharton) – The chorus synth reminds me of Bigger Than Tina or Regurgitator. I was left wondering about ‘my’ communism. Interesting how one word can change everything.
  12. Take It From Here (McCormack)
Listened Come Back, All is Forgiven, album by Custard by Contributors to Wikimedia projects from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

Come Back, All is Forgiven is the sixth album by Australian band Custard](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard(band)) “Custard (band)”), and their first new material in 16 years. It was released on 6 November 2015 through ABC Music “ABC Music”) on CD, vinyl, and digital.[1]) The album features the classic line-up of David McCormack “David McCormack”), Glenn Thompson](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlennThompson_(musician)) “Glenn Thompson (musician)”), Paul Medew and Matthew Strong. The songs were tracked at Horses Of Australia Studio on a weekend in February 2015. Overdubs were later added by David at Sonar Studio and Glenn at Horses Of Australia Studio. Glenn mixed it over the following couple of months.[2])

Source: Come Back, All Is Forgiven by Wikipedia

I was recently listening to the All Songs Considered podcast in which Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton and Daoud Tyler-Ameen reflect on Green Day and their legacy. The question that they grappled with throughout is how does pop-punk grow up? I was left thinking about the same question thinking about Custard and what it means to come back after a hiatus. This is something that Andrew Stafford addresses in his review of Come Back, All is Forgiven:

A comeback record was always going to be a more difficult proposition for Custard than most. That’s because a key part of the band’s appeal was an innocence that often tripped over into a playful sense of anarchy. Their early recordings, especially, are full of the exuberance and abandon that marks one’s late teens and early 20s. And anyone who’s ever grown up knows how difficult that feeling is to recapture.

Source: CUSTARD: COME BACK, ALL IS FORGIVEN -Notes from Pig City by Andrew Stafford

In a conversation with Jamie Lidell, Jon Hopkins said that he wishes that he could ‘choose’ the music he writes. Instead, he argues that we have no choice over what we do, the choice is about what our body gives energy for. All we can do is appreciate the outcome. I thought this was pertinent listening to Custard. Their music often feels a little random, however maybe it is simply the music that their collective bodies gave energy for. Interestingly, this collective energy was actually recorded quickly and managed by Glenn Thompson.

“Glenn is too modest to tell you this, but Glenn recorded, produced and mixed this album,” McCormack says. “All Matthew, Paul and I did was go to his studio for one and a half days to record and then he sweated on it for weeks and months.”

Source: Dave McCormack’s Custard comes back (and all is forgiven)) by Craig Mathieson

Although the various musicians have done various things since Loverama, coming together again it feels that they have a particular sound. As Stafford suggests, things have changed.

Come Back, All Is Forgiven sounds exactly like what it is: four guys in their mid-40s, casually knocking out a bunch of songs most bands half their age would kill for. Just don’t expect to do the Wahooti Fandango to it.

Source: CUSTARD: COME BACK, ALL IS FORGIVEN -Notes from Pig City by Andrew Stafford

Come Back, All is Forgiven begins with a more laidback country rock feel, maybe it is country or western or Custard Goes Country. As is Custard’s way though, they often lull you in before throwing a spanner into the mix, that being the up tempo ‘If You Would Like To’. This stretch allows the album to pivot to ‘1990’s’, a track whose bass and drums groove makes way for a chorus that reminded me of Sonic Youth’s ‘Sunday’. The rest of the album then bounces around. Offering up Thompson’s ode to ‘Contemporary Art’ (“You want something new for your hall? Dude, I only do stuff that’s like 10 metres tall”), the stream of consciousness associated with ‘Queensland University’, and ‘Factual’ which sounds like Jarvis Cocker listening to the Carpenters. (For a different perspective, Leon Bambrick has written a lengthy commentary breaking down each track.)

I like how Craig Mathieson captures the album. Gone is the dream of world conquering success or a big record deal, instead we are left with a ‘welcome visit’:

Despite the title, for Custard the new album isn’t so much a career comeback as a welcome visit

Source: Dave McCormack’s Custard comes back (and all is forgiven)) by Craig Mathieson

Place between Bob Evans and Pulp

Tracklist:

  1. “Orchids in Water” 2:59
  2. “We Are the Parents (Our Parents Warned Us About)” 3:52
  3. “Warren Rd” 2:48
  4. “Record Machine” 3:03
  5. “If You Would Like To” 1:03
  6. “1990’s” 4:52 – Sonic Youth’s ‘Sunday’
  7. “Contemporary Art” 2:27 – Lou Reed / Jonathan Richman
  8. “Queensland University” 2:12
  9. “Rice & Beans” 4:11
  10. “Factual” 5:10 – Jarvis Cocker listening to The Carpenters.
  11. “Get in Your Car” 7:54
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In the end, what matters about music writing is exactly the same as what matters about music: It isn’t leading anywhere productive. Instead, it’s offering a break from the grind, a free zone for thought and a few glorious, rejuvenating moments of fun. This is a different kind of pleasure than the quick nervous kind TikTok brings, always moving on to another source of stimulus, always ratcheting up the competition for attention. Music writing says: Slow down. Pay attention. It witnesses the unfolding of meaning within measured time, and calls back to it.

Source: Pitchfork’s peril and the purpose of music journalism by Ann Powers

Listened Loverama, album by Custard by Contributors to Wikimedia projects from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

Loverama is the fifth studio album by the Australian band Custard “Custard (band)”). It was released in June 1999 and peaked at number 19 on the ARIA Charts; the band’s highest charting album.

Loverama was the band’s final release for 16 years, until 2015’s Come Back, All Is Forgiven. Some copies came as a two-CD set, with the companion disc called Custaro Musico.

“Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us) “Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us)”)”, “Ringo (I feel Like…)” and “Hit Song” all featured in a Hottest 100, with Girls… in 1998[2] and the other two in 1999.[3]

Source: Loverama by Wikipedia

Recently, when asked about album reviews and music criticism, Caroline Polachek suggested that:

Music criticism is not a review of the album you just made, its a review of your career up to that point. – Caroline Polachek

Source: This Generation’s Caroline Polachek by Switched on Pop

It is a strange experience slowly listening through a bands oeuvre one album at a time, I feel it is impossible by nature of the exercise not to judge each album against the previous. Sometimes I wonder if you start to hear ghosts after awhile. For example, I would find myself making assertions, such as this album is more straight-forward or has a different feel when it comes to instrumentation, only to then question myself as many of the ingredients are present in their earlier work.

It was interesting reading in ‘Preview for Loverama’ in Cuszine 2 that some of these ‘new’ songs were actually old rejects, such as Ringo. This left wondering about the difference made by Magoo as producer. I wondered if that although the same ingredients are present, whether it be distorted guitar, slide guitar, weird effects, quirky lyrics, that it was the placement of the drums and bass in the mix that actually hold these songs together and provide some sort of semblance of continuity? I fear though that if I went back to the past albums I would possibly hear the same pattern, however I feel that with Loverama whenever there is some sort of dalliance with some strange guitar line or even a harmony that it is the rhythm that grounds it all.

The other difference is that although the album is approximately the same length as say We Have the Technology, there are only 13 tracks, while some were instead included on a bonus disc Custaro Musico. I wondered if the extra length allowed the songs more time to hook listeners? Or maybe it is an example of a band that has come to grips with their potential.

Overall, this was the album that really grew on me the more I listened.

Loverama

  1. “Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us)” 3:11 – The warble bass used throughout this album reminded me of Bowie. Then I went and re-listened to Bowie and I could not hear it. Funny how when you follow up text-to-text connections that they can make a mockery of our memory.
  2. “Hit Song” 2:22 – Love the comment in Cuszine 2 “Soon Custard will be writing a song about writing songs that are about songs they are trying to write.”
  3. “Monkey” 2:26
  4. “The New Matthew” 4:18 – The chorus really makes this song, the harmonies and the way the guitars really fill out. The ending is only track on the album that goes off in a tangent. I was not sure if this saying something like even with all the new quiet ways, the old remains.
  5. “Ringo (I Feel Like)” 2:50 – Listening to Ringo, I felt it could have been a Disco Machine song. I was also reminded of Twinkle Digitz’ Blackmail Boogie.
  6. “Nervous Breakdance” 3:57 – It is interesting comparing the two versions of this song, this one and the electronic version on Custaro Musico. It highlights how their music could so easily be so different if they had made different choices.
  7. “Funny” 1:57 – classic Custard, the song feels over before it has even started
  8. “Pluto (Pts. 1 & 2)” 2:55 – This song ebbs and flows throughout, I feel it could sit in a playlist alongside Blur, Parklife era, but then again, I could be wrong.
  9. “Almost Like A Song” 3:57 – There is something about the idea of ‘hitting’ you with this song. The wall of distorted guitars and harmonies ‘hit’ you at the same time as the chorus.
  10. “Correctional Facility Of Love” 4:12 – I had no idea what this song was about when I first listened to it. I thought it was implying that being in a relationship was akin to being in jail, until I read that it was based on a Four Corner’s program about prisoners who swallowed objects so they had to be sent to hospital to avoid being raped.
  11. “Genius” 3:47 – Song by Glenn Thompson.
  12. “Kinder Whore” 2:50 – This song is driven by a really strong bass line which I feel prevents it from exploding.
  13. “Ladies And Gentlemen” 3:22 – The big dramatic strums have a Pulp feel. Magoo discusses this in Cuszine 2: “The highlight of recording this song was the violin. We decided to try and make the song as dramatic as possible, to suit the lyric. Strings were talked about and Glenn told me about this guy he knew. John Bone was his name. Everyone I spoke to about this guy said he was amazing. It’s pretty strange when people build someone up to be great You get a picture in you’re head that’s pretty hard to match. Anyway he came to do the track. He didn’t really even want to hear the song before he went in to record it. No one mentioned keys or the vibe required. He just did his thing and It was truly amazing.”

Custaro Musico

  1. “Umlaut” 2:59
  2. “No Te Escribi Ninguna Cancion” 2:18
  3. “Pablo Tiene Novia” 1:53
  4. “Gato De Nueve Colas” 1:14
  5. “Nervoisa Danzarota II” 5:00

Marginalia

Loverama is the fifth studio album by the Australian band Custard “Custard (band)”). It was released in June 1999 and peaked at number 19 on the ARIA Charts; the band’s highest charting album.

Loverama was the band’s final release for 16 years, until 2015’s Come Back, All Is Forgiven. Some copies came as a two-CD set, with the companion disc called Custaro Musico.

“Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us) “Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us)”)”, “Ringo (I feel Like…)” and “Hit Song” all featured in a Hottest 100, with Girls… in 1998[2] and the other two in 1999.[3]

Source: Loverama%20-%20Wikipedia by

Loverama, the fifth studio album by the renowned Australian band Custard, was released on June 14th, 1999, and marked a significant milestone in their career. The record achieved remarkable success, soaring to new heights and reaching a peak of number 19 on the ARIA Charts. It proudly stands as the band’s highest-charting album to date and has become a beloved favourite among fans.

Source: LOVERAMA%20%26%20%20CUSTARO%20MUSICO by

Recorded and produced by Magoo at The Dirty Room in Brisbane and Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne during the optimistic summer of October and November 1998. Assisted at The Dirty Room by Andrew Lancaster. Assisted at Sing Sing by Dave Davis. Mixed at Sing Sing by Magoo with Glenn Thompson and David McCormack. “We Wanna Party” recorded and mixed at 192 Musgrave Rd, Red Hill, Queensland. Artwork by Glenn Thompson withinterference from David McCormack.

Source: LOVERAMA%20%26%20%20CUSTARO%20MUSICO by

If something’s bad, that’s what they meant to do, it’s them having fun.

Source: Custard%20-%20Loverama%20(album%20review%20)%20%7C%20Sputnikmusic by

I think that this could probably read as “if something seems bad.” I think that you have two choices with Custard, you either accept them and their music and come to respect it for what it is or you do not.

“I was happy to do something that wasn’t as throwaway as some of the other ones [songs on earlier albums],” McCormack said, although he was aware his intentions might not land in the same way for listeners.

“I’m sure everyone else would think it’s an overtly happy and quirky Custard record. But I think for us, we could listen to it and go, ‘ah yeah that’s right, that was fucked when that happened.'”

Source: Classic%20Album%3A%20Custard%20%E2%80%93%20Loverama%20-%20ABC%20listen by

[Correctional Facility of Love] was inspired by a three-part ABC documentary series that revealed the stories of prisoners who would swallow contraptions made with rubber bands and paperclips that would cause terrible internal injuries so they would be taken to hospital, and in doing so, avoid being raped.

As chilling and horrific as that sounds, the fact that people are in a position of having to contemplate such actions is even more disturbing and makes one stop to reflect, something that McCormack explains that the band was ready to explore on Loverama.

Source: Classic%20Album%3A%20Custard%20%E2%80%93%20Loverama%20-%20ABC%20listen by

“It’s that whole realisation that people like The Go-Betweens can have on you,” he said. “On the balance of things, no one wants to hear a happy throwaway song. I don’t really. I wanna hear a sad, melancholy song that you could listen to a few times. That’s something we came to realise and therefore that’s what we wanted to do.”

Source: Classic%20Album%3A%20Custard%20%E2%80%93%20Loverama%20-%20ABC%20listen by

It would seem that there was a choice to include some of their quirky tracks as a bonus disc.