This album of previously unreleased 4-track tunes incorporates an incredibly diverse variety of styles and instruments, performed exclusively by Bill. Instruments include guitars (electric and acoustic), banjo, flute, drums, piano, keyboards and bass. The songs cover topics ranging from annoyance over truck headlights to relationships gone bad. Bill has a style all his own, although he has been compared to Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground, They Might Be Giants and others. Short instrumentals are interspersed with well-developed pop hooks. Possibly the best indie album of 1999 that most people will never hear!
"Bill Foreman we liked in his 'Global Lo-Fi Underground' appearances and after
having had our appetites suitably whetted, here's the full length version.
As expected it's a mixture of short instrumental tracks and not much longer
folky singer/songwriter vocal tracks. The instrumentals should keep Fred Frith
and George Formby fans happy but how they'll take to the vocal tracks is open
to question.
Personally, I'm a sucker for the Loudon Wainwrith III / Lou Reed approach to
bitter cynicism and it's the vocal tracks that work best for me.
"What Your Heart Can See" is vintage Neil Young with its from the heart lyrics
and brief, cutting guitar solo, and could be 1968 Temptations on downers.
However, if there is one song that lifts this from the good to the great then
that song is "God Pt III". With my well known antipathy to all things U" it
gives me great delight to see their overblown pomposity punctured. Good work,
Foreman fella!"
BILL FOREMAN - MIND MONKEY
"It's been a little while since the last Bill Foreman release I came
across, with a contribution to the Global Lo-Fi Recordings compilation
and also with The Busted Fans.
This is a pretty cool album of great music
apparently recorded on 4 track, which matters little. Production in general
is quite good, but suffers a little from patchy volume changes, taking little
away from the music itself though.
We open up with a great experimental track
called "Backward Cymbal Tune",
which is an excellent atmosphere in which to introduce an album. Also cool
here are the Neil Young sounds I picked on "I've
Maintained My Advantage", the blues influences behind "Queens" & "What
Your Heart Can See" & some slight quirk on tracks like "E-Ticket" & the
closing number "Bad Weather".
A great selection of very diverse styles from
Bill this time around should see increasing interest in his music.
For more information, write to Duckweed Records, 2442 NW Market St
#354, Seattle, WA 98107, USA or duckweedseattle@yahoo.com"