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  • Infatueighties #73: Squeeze’s “Tempted”

    Infatueighties #73: Squeeze’s “Tempted”

    Squeeze Tempted Album CoverI discovered Tempted in 1994. As someone who was not listening to college radio in 1981 (cut me some slack, I was five), the only Squeeze I’d heard was (what I believe was) their lone Top 40 hit, 1987’s Hourglass. So, if I can thank the Reality Bites soundtrack for anything at all, it would be for introducing me to the greatness that is this song.

    Ever listen to a song and have a nagging suspicion that “this voice sounds familiar but I just can’t place it”? Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that the voice behind this song (most of it, anyway) was Paul Carrack, who scored a handful of hits as a solo artist (Don’t Shed a Tear almost made this list), in addition to being the lead singer of Seventies one hit wonders Ace (How Long) and the Genesis side project Mike & the Mechanics. The guy gets around, yeah?

    His soulful delivery, combined with the superior storytelling skills of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook and the production of Elvis Costello (who knew?) has made Tempted a modern-day classic, even though it never hit the Top 40 on the American pop charts (wow, that was a run-on sentence).

    As a bonus, here’s the video for How Long, which would have made it pretty high if there was an Infatu-seventies column. Hmmm, that doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well.

  • The New Music Files 10/28/08: John Legend, Pink, Snow Patrol and More!!!

    Today marks the first “Super Tuesday” of the 4th quarter, where the labels start bringing out their super big guns. Lots going on this week, so let’s get right into it!

    John Legend–Evolver

    …In which the stately piano man gets frisky. Legend has called this album a slight departure for him, and indeed, first single Green Light sounds like nothing he’s released before. However, diehard fans who loved the smooth sounds of his first two albums needn’t fear, there’s tons of smoove balladry amid the club bangers on this album.

    Pink–Funhouse

    I love Pink. I think she’s got one of the best voices of any current pop singer, and I love the fact that she’s not afraid to have a little fun on her albums and in her videos. I must say, I’m a little underwhelmed by the single So What (which puts me in the minority, since the song hit #1), but then again I didn’t like Stupid Girls, and the rest of the album it came from, I’m Not Dead, was great.

    (more…)

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #9: Desperados Under The Palapas

    AFGHAN WHIGS  “Conjure Me” b/w “My World Is Empty Without You” (Sub Pop Records SP142, 1991)

    All roads lead to Cincinnati, if you believe the cover art of this single, a not-so-subtle take-off on the old Motown label design.  In this case, however, you’d be right, because this week’s slab of ancient wax comes from Greg Dulli and the Afghan Whigs, one of the finest musical outfits ever to emerge from the Queen City of southwestern Ohio.  Combining grunge power and Sonic Youth-style dissonance with a passion for classic R&B, the Whigs were the first non-Northwestern band to sign to Seattle’s prestigious (and, at the time, financially hemorrhaging) Sub Pop label.

    Pressed on delicious-looking milky-white vinyl, this early Whigs 45 gives us the original track, “Conjure Me” on the A-side, which later appeared on their debut LP, Congregation.  A straightforward, uptempo rocker, very much within Sub Pop’s usual vein of things at the time, “Conjure Me” finds Dulli & Co. swimming in thick walls of guitar distortion and beefy vocal hooks.  This promotional video, which probably landed on 120 Minutes once or twice, combines all that with dark images of sex and death.  Ahh, the early ’90’s…

    AFGHAN WHIGS \”Conjure Me\” on YouTube

    Now the real prize here is the B-side, a cover of the Holland/Dozier/Holland-penned Supremes classic, “My World Is Empty Without You.”  Originally a non-hit for the Supremes in late 1965, “My World…” has been covered by everyone from Jose Feliciano to David McCallum.  But it’s this Whigs’ version here that I find the most compelling of all, mainly because of Greg Dulli’s excellent interpretation.  Here he’s using his best John Lennon-meets-Joe Cocker (or is it John Belushi?) vocal, skewering right deep down into the meat of the song’s lyrics, then turning it all upside-down and bashing the living shit out of it.  By the time he & the band reach the second refrain, the song becomes positively unhinged.  This rehearsal tape sez it all.  (And by the way, ladies and gentlemen, notice that Greg Dulli is so good, he can deliver a vocal like this while SEATED.)

    AFGHAN WHIGS \”My World Is Empty Without You\” on YouTube

    The Whigs went on to record many great albums before disbanding in 2001.  Dulli (along with Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan) continues in The Twilight Singers.

    NEXT WEEK: I can see for miles and miles, from Portland to the Space Needle and back again.