Search - Jacobites :: Robespierre's Velvet Basement

Sweet and tender hooligans

Boxodreams | district of columbia | 11/25/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"These wonderfully fatalistic, moping fops have, in this, created a near-masterpiece of a very strange sort. It's almost as if the Rutles had, instead of knocking off the Beatles, played beery, ascot-wearing, pot-bellied, rail-thin romance pirates in makeup. Jacobites, and theirs songs, are perfectly ridiculous. Their lyrics are forged from freshman college existentialism, poetry and philosophy. They are forever drowning in a gauzy heartbreak, always choosing gesture (preferably grand) to truth every single song. The music is sad, jangly, twin-guitar strumming, like the kind you might hear from junkies at the end of the line, busking for score money down in the subway. The production of "Robespierre's Velvet Basement" is shimmering and glistening on the re-release. The guitars and the harmonies sound very good. The songs, just about all of them, are disasters -- a step from comedy -- but somehow, some way, in the mixed-up, self-deluded mustiness and shameless self-indulgence, they take hold. And their wrongness, because of the vibe, becomes their right. They are flawlessly flawed gems from the alternative universe where bad songs reign supreme and endless wanderings from bar to bar and drunken, late-night sleeping bag crashes on many a lousy musician's living room floor end with a little opportunistic nookie by cheap wine and candlelight courtesy of a similarly misbegotten bird that's happened to also stumble in -- sweet, sad nectar for the next double album. An album someone in, say, Germany, is always willing to bankroll. Pick hit: "Pin Your Heart to Me.""

File under Jacobites as well . . .

Scott Siegling | West Branch, IA United States | 08/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Originally released as a single album in 1985, this CD release finally restores it to its originally envisioned length and running order. Excellent trading off of songs between Nikki and Dave, each inspiring the other to better and better songs. Highlights: Son of a French Nobleman, Hearts are Like Flowers, It'll All End Up in Tears, Ambulance Station ... oh, never mind, just read the track listing. I once described Nikki to Jeremy Gluck as a cross between Keith Richards, Neil Young and Johnny Thunders. Don't know if that's exactly accurate anymore but it may help those of you who aren't already fans."

Good Stuff

Scott Siegling | 07/03/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This & "Ragged Schools" which I think is out of print, are great songs to listen to alone in your apartment on a cold winter night when all your friends are out of town or are just blowing you off, and your best girl has just run off with the captain of the football team. "Kings & Queens," "Big Store," "Shame for the Angels" are my favorites tracks. Get this album immediately, while someone makes sure to hide all sharp objects!"