GRANT LEE BUFFALO – FUZZY (SLASH)
For a short while in the nineties this record appeared to represent my pained heart. This is one of a few albums from the era that I consider perfect. Even though time has been kind on it, I doubt there are many people out there who share my affection for it but coupled with the times and my age and all the elements that came with, this was just the best to me.
During my awkward teenage years this was one of my favourite records expressing a kind of tenderness in the world that I was never really able to find or discover. With these songs however there was some kind of suggestion and hope that there was more to be had than what I was experiencing and if I kept looking at the map then maybe I might get there in the end. Maybe.
Grant Lee Buffalo were always favourites of the Q crowd which meant it was an all too adult take on the flannel movement. Despite vaguely qualifying as an alternative rock act (not quite grunge) they were able to tickle the fancy of those that appreciated the REM IRS catalogue. In Grant Lee Phillips was a songwriter with an alternative swing able to put colourfully into words the torment of the times.
Early on a lot of comparisons saw them tarred with the REM brush although the vocals of Grant Lee Phillips are very removed to those of Michael Stipe. Instead this morning listening to this record for the first time in years it actually resembles more some kind of hybrid of World Party, the Screaming Trees and Crazy Horse.
Spread over eleven tracks this is quite a mature sounding record. In the main it inhabits sensible and restrained emotions while at the same time weaving indications that the ultimate desire to kick loose and kick apart. However like the Fonz seldom does the band lose its cool as it even occasionally veers towards wallow. These were acceptable love songs for the grunge audience.
The band emerged during the grunge era and while not being some hulking fuzzed up proposition (despite the album’s name) they did benefit from the scene and climate in general giving over exposure to such leftfield acts. I can’t help but feel those days are sadly gone now.
For me there is a kind of pain being expressed here that I could only get with when I was younger, a kind of passion that now feels laboured even if it was sincere.
Hailing from Los Angeles, Grant Lee Buffalo were not a scene band and with their bass player additionally on producer duties there remained an organic and wholesome sense of construction to proceedings.
“The Shining Hour” opens proceedings like a sunny Sunday morning. A kind of skiffle accompanies swinging vocals that arrive as a celebration to entry. In the mere conceit of there being such a time, such an hour, the band taps into an element of my being that I want to join them in championing. Quite frankly I’ve always found this track empowering and ever since have carried with me the idea of there being a shining hour; a moment when all is good and all is accomplishable. This is existence’s saving grace.
It is without this a collection of great songs. The hooks held within “Wish You Well” and the appropriately titled “The Hook” display a large dose of savvy and consummate execution.
When the album arrives at “Stars n’ Stripes” a new height is furrowed as a haunting and goosebump inducing tangled web is unleashing on the listener which perfectly captures an intimate moment of challenge ending in a mantra refrain of “got you on my Handycam, sits in my hand” which is a ridiculous line made amazing. By the end of the track Phillips’ vocals drift off into Jeff Buckley. A curious link that later feels echoed by the existence of a track entitled “Grace”.
Elsewhere the band shows it is capable of rocky workouts on both “Jupiter And Teardrop” and then “America Snoring”, with the latter being appropriately condemning of its times. This band could indeed be a lurching powerhouse if it so desired.
Further joy is to be found in the piano swing of “Dixie Drug Store” with its carefree swagger and general execution that sounds a lot like World Party and manages to make a person (me) remain feeling young in spirit if not body.
In almost every example the first track that people will have heard from this album was the title track “Fuzzy”. In itself this is a huge slab of work, the centrepiece of the record. Seldom has such considered pain ever been committed to vinyl, certainly in the modern era. It’s a song with a mixed message, with many layers that is much open to interpretation. You could listen to this song all day and be none the wiser with regards to the writers state of mind but you will definitely know where you personally stand within the piece. I’ll defend this song to my dying days.
Listened to know almost fifteen years after its release unlike many albums of the era this record still holds up, still resonates. I would not hesitate a second to recommend this to anyone I gave a damn about. This is a special sound from a special time.
Thesaurus moment: wisdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment