The Amps - Pacer (1995) (1 Viewer)

pete

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3.43 star(s) Rating: 3.43/5 7 Votes
Title: Pacer
Artist: The Amps
Released: 1995

Tracks:
1 - Pacer - 2:31
2 - Tipp City - 2:08
3 - I Am Decided - 2:28
4 - Mom's Drunk - 1:42
5 - Bragging Party - 4:32
6 - Hoverin - 2:46
7 - First Revival - 2:53
8 - Full on Idle - 2:18
9 - Breaking the Split Screen Barrier - 3:07
10 - Empty Glasses - 2:39
11 - She's a Girl - 1:50
12 - Dedicated - 4:12

 
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As nominated by @Anthony
 
The offer was put out to suggest albums for the club and for some reason this album came to mind. I got into this on headphones on long bus journeys. It's a ragged listen and I grew to love it. It sounds so spontaneous.
 
The day (maybe in 1999-ish?) I discovered the Breeders had another album I hadn't heard was such a great day. I rushed off to town to buy it and they actually had a copy, I think it was HMV or possibly Virgin but definitely not Tower. Anyway it's all fantastic except the last two songs which are not. Kim Deal is one of the most singular songwriters going, I say 4/5
 
The day (maybe in 1999-ish?) I discovered the Breeders had another album I hadn't heard was such a great day. I rushed off to town to buy it and they actually had a copy, I think it was HMV or possibly Virgin but definitely not Tower. Anyway it's all fantastic except the last two songs which are not. Kim Deal is one of the most singular songwriters going, I say 4/5
I remember the day I discovered it too. It was yesterday.
 
The Amps - Pacer
Recorded at: Easley Studios, Memphis (Easley, McCain), Chicago (Fluss), Pie, Long Island (Goggin), Dreamland, Woodstuk (Agnello, Kappa, McLoughlin), Cybertechnics, Dayton (Doughman), Totally Wired, Dublin (O'Shea, Skerritt), Conway, Los Angeles (Goggin, Kinsley).

And a B-side from Tipp City.

The Amps - Tipp City
Track 1 engineered at Easley Recording, Memphis, TN, February 1995.
Track 2 engineered at Totally Wired, Dublin, Eire, August 1995.
 
Good stuff. I like this a lot. I've listened a good few times. I can't tell any of the songs apart, but when they come on I enjoy them. I'll know them when I hear them again.

Right, that's the forensic dissection done.

I'm lukewarm enough on Pixies. I really like a lot of their stuff. I can't be arsed with a lot of the rest of it. I always got the impression Kim Deal was kinda taking the piss a bit in that band. But I always really liked how prominent she was - which is why Pixies, without Kim Deal in their current lineup, can fuck off.

I always liked The Breeders but I never loved The Breeders (is there a 'The'?) and, tbh, I prefer this Amps album to any of the Breeders ones I've heard. Dunno, they have some big songs, but I've never been totally taken by them. I've seen them live, maybe twice? I think, once in Vicar St and once at Electric Picnic. At one of those shows Kelly Deal started calling the crowd 'little Irish leprechauns' - that'd be the demon drugs. I remember the shows being excellent but they didn't cause me to return to the albums.

I prefer Belly to The Breeders. Belly are great. But, kind of ironically, one thing I love about Belly is the obvious Kim Deal influence on them.

I dunno, none of that makes sense. I should love everything Kim Deal does, but I don't.

But I'm all in with this Amps album. It's great.

4/5
 
Pleasant enough I suppose but it's very boring and feels about twice as long as it is. I keep thinking it's nearly over and there are still 5-6 songs left. The last song is the only one I'd say is actually bad but unfortunately it is also a total earworm, ugh!
 
Pleasant enough I suppose but it's very boring and feels about twice as long as it is. I keep thinking it's nearly over and there are still 5-6 songs left. The last song is the only one I'd say is actually bad but unfortunately it is also a total earworm, ugh!

That last song is bad alright, and the one before it ain't great either.

So here, I think Kim Deal is a songwriter that one really need to get on board with and see things from her perspective to get behind the music. Unlike both Pixies and Belly (or even Guided by Voices to choose another related indie band - I Am Decided on this album is two of their songs stuck together I think?) there isn't much "classic" songwriting going on with the Breeders, it isnt a case of pop songs that have been weirded out by the arrangement, the songwriting and the arrangement are fairly melded together. As an example their biggest hit is obviously Cannonball and even now that has a supremely odd arrangement for a hit song, its hookiness is mostly based on that one guitar riff, not a secret pop chorus.

I get the impression that Kim Deal spends a fair amount of time stripping songs back and rewriting them and it ends up being felt right down to how she plays the chords - most of the time it's just the simplest chugga chugga chugga or a really basic (but often quite rock and roll) riff. I remember for years arguing with friends who hated the Breeders for that reason, why the fuck can't they do something different on the guitar?? It can come across as lazy or uninspiring but I think it's 100% a deliberate choice. It can turn out quite poppy in places, take the title track here, but it can also end up as Hoverin'. There's a Breeders version of Hoverin' that's really only notable because it's the very same, right down to what sound like the accidental notes being played at the start of the song.

Not that i'm trying to talk anyone into changing their mind but it's just something worth thinking out loud about in this thread.
 
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