Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 15:00:09 -0800 From: Enrique Jimenez (Enrique_Jimenez@CCMAIL.SGO.SONY.COM) Subject: RHP blue guitar song rundown Here are my first impressions of "Songs for a blue guitar". These could change with further listening. 1. Have you forgotten. Nice acoustic tune. Mark solo. Great stuff. Love that part about listening to Casey Kasem on the radio. 2. Song for a blue guitar. I hate the backing vocals of that girl. I do not know why they are there. He could have carried it out alone. Acoustic song with pedal steel country style guitar. 3. Make like paper. I think this is the one with the "guitar solo". Remember that Ivo did not like a certain song with a ten minute guitar solo (it is not ten minutes actually, probably close to two minutes maybe). Ivo suggested that this solo had to go and Mark got upset because of that (so the story says ...). I am afraid Ivo was right, the solo in the middle of this song plainly sucks big time. The rest is O.K.., 70's mid tempo rock type of song. Big crunchy guitars and all. 4. Priest Alley Song O.K.. we are back in form here. Nice arrangements for this mostly acoustic song. Beautiful nostalgic lyrics. Kill the string synth (maybe this time they could not afford a real violin player). 5. Trailways Another acoustic song. Beautiful licks. Nice background guitar feedback near the end. 6. I Feel the rain fall This a fast cute number. Toe tapping and all. The lyrics are very positive (not as the title would otherwise suggest) and fun to sing. 7. Long distance runaround Another mid tempo crunchy guitar number. Distorted vocals and all. Piano thrown in on the side and then suddenly the song transforms itself into a fast grunge song. Real surprising indeed!!! Hey, where is Eddie Vedder when you need him? 8. All mixed up This one even sounds like a RHP original. Well done Mark. I still kind of have a problem with that girl doing the backup's. I guess it is just a matter of getting accustomed to her voice. 9. Revelation Big Sur This is the "new" song that RHP was performing live on their last 4AD tour in 1994. I remember Mark saying he wrote this song inside a camping tent. Very beautiful acoustic song with nice Spanish style fillings. 10. Silly love songs Oh my god!!, the Macca song also has a long ugly guitar solo at the start. As usual, Mark takes the song and makes it his own but then the song goes on until boredom come. This is a slow tempo rocker. 11. Another song for a blue guitar Another simple acoustic song. Nice song to finish the album. All in all this album is in the vein of OB. Less instumentation maybe, sparse and probably more acoustic than OB. If you did not like OB then don't bother with this one. Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 18:18:51 +1000 From: Geoff Elgey (elgey@FIT.QUT.EDU.AU) Subject: Re: RHP review Recently posted: > I've not put my two penn'orth (that's about three cents in US money) in > on the new RHP LP as yet. Basically, I'm following the maxim - if you > don't have anything good to say, say nothing. It's not all rubbish, but > a lot of it is. Four years ago, 'Down Colorful Hill' left me almost > speechless in admiration. It still has the capacity to move me - but > the new one? Just another record. I still expect great things when they > tour in September (although I don't actually know if the UK tour is > confirmed yet). Hmmm...well I actually think that this new RHP album is their best yet, even better than that 'Rollercoaster' one. I think it has more color to it than previous works. And I do like the female vox on some songs - it breaks the monotony of Mark's voice. As much as I like this new album though, I have to admit it, the guitar solo in the 3rd song is *terrible*. Even I can abuse an axe better than that! I can see why Ivo wanted it to go.... Somewhat more worrying is the abundance of cover versions on this RHP album - there's a Yes cover, a Car's cover and (choke) a Wings cover. Also, the second song is a bit too close to Mazzy Star's 'Fade Into You' for comfort. And there are two long electric songs, both of which sound like the result of listening to too much Neil Young. I mean, even the beginning of 'Silly Love Songs' sounds like 'Cortez The Killer' to these ears. But hey, if you are going to pay homage to someone, who better than Young comma N fullstop :-). And the cover versions sound pretty good, too (I would not have believed anyone if they told me that one day I would be whistling 'Long Distance Runaround' to myself all the time - it's a good thing that Mark K. didn't choose to cover 'Close To The Edge' or 'The Gates of Delerium'!) But overall, I think that 'Songs For A Blue Guitar' is full of wonderfull moments. Just skip past the guitar solos. Cheers, Geoff Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 21:22:54 -0500 From: Steven Venn (svenn@INFORAMP.NET) Subject: The Philly Enquirer review Of Blue Guitar I got this from my friend Kristen and I think the guy (from the Enquirer) about the Red House Painters. Take it for what its worth. Island has still to release it here in Canada...damn! Polygram wake up and smell the coffee, mates. Songs for a Blue Guitar (Supreme/Island ***1/2) \ Mark Kozelek - the guy with the biggest brush for the San Francisco-based Red House Painters - can't decide whetjer to be a folkie or a rocker. The seemingly quiet, delicate songs are often jagged at the edges, while louder, elecric ones reveal vulnerability beneath layers of distortion. The band's fifth effort includes a dark 10-minute rumination of Paul mcCartney's "silly Love Songs," which in anyones else's hands could have been a self-indulgent tribute. But Kozelek transforms it into a statement on both the redemptive power and the limitations of pop songs.The refrain, "some people want to fill the world w/silly love song/what's wrong w/that." seems to be Blue Guitar's mantra. Kozelek is one of those people even if hes not as lovable as McCartney. In "another song for a blue guitar", he tries in vain to save a tenuous choices of chords/and the words are forced." this moment, like many on Blue Guitar, go unresolved like the age-old struggle to make our feelings seem real when they're so easily packaged.