I have recently been expounding my love for a certain record label, the wonderful Tarbeach Records from Astoria, NY with links to home soil in Airdrie. Another of my favourite labels is altogether closer to home. Last Night From Glasgow, and its various offshoots Hive and Komponist have not let the grass grow under their feet during lockdown, with a seemingly endless supply of announcements and releases to delight and excite.
As I’ve recently reviewed two of the latest releases from Tarbeach It seems only fair that I balance this out and expound the virtues of Last Night From Glasgow too. Like Tarbeach, I look forward to the releases from this label and its offshoots due to the eclectic nature of the music and the high standards of quality I’ve come to expect. (There is also a La Chunky link between the Reaction release on Tarbeach and this one)
Paisley Buddies
One of the latest releases I’ve received in one of my most recent LNFG care package is the debut album, Made For Each Other, from Paisley buddies (the town of my birth) The Muldoons. A band that wouldn’t sound out of place alongside a series of well-kent names, including fellow Paisley indie heroes The Close Lobsters, that came to prominence in the mid to late 80’s. Collectively their sound came to be known as C86 following the now legendary compilation album they appeared on.
The Muldoons create a nostalgic vibe for me with their supremely addictive jangly guitar pop. Their sound is effectively bolstered throughout, variously with trumpet, harmonica and (if I’m not wrong) melodica. There is a certain charming kismet that they release this debut in the same year and on the Hive offshoot of the label that has released The Close Lobsters magnum opus.
Love, Lust and Loss
As the album title suggests this is an album for lovers. Or should I say it is for those who have been in love, or lust. For those who have been out of love. And for all the and all the ups and downs in between. I may feel nostalgic for the music, but I don’t feel nostalgia for many of those years of life that is portrayed by the lyrical themes from the songs across the album. Falling in and out of love, looking for the right (or wrong) person, breaking up and starting again.
I should also say that despite my feeling of nostaligia, this album sounds fresh and new, the vibrancy of the music breathing new life into a sound that is familiar to many of my vintage.
In Love Again
The albums opener In Love Again makes me smile wryly. Musically, it has a bit of a country vibe to it with a slight feel of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. The thing that makes me smile wryly though is remembering as a teenager, falling in love with nearly every girl I met almost instantaneously and pining when the feeling was not reciprocated.
The subject of track two, Every Week is the Same is more of a tale of lust, sleeping around and not remembering names. It starts with a melody that recalls The Pastels Crawl Babies before the regretful lyric kicks in and trumpet adds an extra level of texture to the joyful vivacious sound. The trumpet is a signature sound throughout the album, adding that extra element and melody to tracks such as Lovely Things.
Gerry’s vocal on What Do I Have to Do? takes on a timbre not unlike a cross between Andrew of Geneva and Gene frontman Martin Rossiter with the jangly guitars verging on afrobeat. A song I could imagine Frankie and the Heartstrings playing.
The laid-back plaintive groove of Rub It In is an aching tale of loss and regret. A relationship tossed away like “last years Christmas cards”. The melodica here adding that effective element of melancholia.
Side 2…
Side 2 (for the vinyl lovers) kicks off with Don’t Be Like That, Girl which has parts that verge on the frenzied thrashing of The Wedding Present interspersed with wistful trumpet backed parts, both elements melding together perfectly in the track’s climax. Last Time has similar high energy rises and falls, jangly guitars replaced by crunching riffs.
Made for Each Other continues the theme of relationships with its foot tapping exquisite drumming and warm sparkling guitars, the theme of all relationships at some point – you said you’d change, but “you say that every time”. Word for Word recalls US jangle-popsters of recent years The Drums featuring a nod to them with the forever and ever amen refrain.
The epic final track No Pressure is their own multi-levelled I Am the Resurrection or Love Spreads. A slow burn intro blending the ever-present trumpet with squally guitar noise, leading into a Scotty Moore-esque riff that then builds into a tussle of guitar noise, drums and trumpets. The tune morphs into one of funky guitar and drumming overlaid by boisterous riffing, returning to the melee with a continued reassurance of no pressure in the lyric. An epic end to a hugely pleasurable album.