Search - Various Artists :: One Last Kiss

For the early 90's lo-fi indie pop addict

RockerDad | Renton, WA USA | 08/05/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"So...this is something of a rarity now, I imagine. Well, I discovered this back when it first came out, and I was pretty smitten with its content. In particular, I discovered my new favorite band (at the time), suddenly, tammy! spinART was their label back then, and "Lamp" I think was their first single. Anyway, their take on indie pop won me over. I've loved their sound ever since (think Kristen Hersh fronting Ben Fold Five, and you kind of have an idea-but that does them a disservice really).



As for the rest of this compilation, it's a bit hit or miss. There surely are some outstanding discoveries, and a few real duds as well. Somehow, though, the album has a fairly cohesive feel-makes me think of a lazy summer afternoon, hanging out with a bunch of friends in a flowery meadow.



For the dreampop/shoegazer fan, this album holds some appeal: swirlies, lorelei, veronica lake, whorl, lilys, and black tambourine all did their part in trying to get the shoegaze craze going this side of the atlantic. The highlights among these are probably: whorl (quite a droning/noise piece); swirlies (the boston band did their best to take the shoegaze sound and make it big, didn't quite happen-nonetheless they were great, and "Chris R." is somehow addictive); and lilys (truly the closest another band has come to sounding EXACTLY like My Bloody Valentine).



There are also quite a number of indie folk/pop tunes here: one of the finer ones being "Baseball bat" by courtney love. Huh?, you ask? This is actually Lois Maffeo with a backing drummer, before Mrs. Cobain forced her to change the band's name. Anyway...it's got a classic K records sound-imagine Mecca Normal doing a cover of Beat Happening. Magnetic Fields show up here with "100,00 Fireflies", now a bit of an early 90's indie pop classic. Gorgeous piano playing and singing.



Among the oddities: white town's "hair like alain delon" (these guys had a minor national hit in the late 90's with "your woman"; "hair" is just as catchy, if even odder-I mean, really, who writes a song about alain delon's hair?); swirl's "helicopter" (I can find nothing about this band, except that they are from australia; nonetheless this is a great, moody indie pop song with an almost indecipherable chorus); and jane pow's "shutdown" (somehow this song reminds me of Jesus Jones and a totally obscure UK band, the Wendys-not a great track, but very interesting in how it's stuck in a moment in time).



And, of course, Velocity Girl are here with "Forgotten Favorite". Truly an extraordinary slice of feedback-laden indie pop. It's very unfortunate they didn't fulfill their promise, cause this is awesome (I think it even appeared on some hip soundtrack to a teen high school flick).



Overall, not a must buy, but if you love early 90's indie pop, or a fan of American shoegazer/dreampop fans, then you should check it out."