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also from www.absolutepowerpop.com
#1 Album Of 2009 - Plasticsoul Peacock Swagger
http://absolutepowerpop.blogspot.com/search/label/Best-of%20Lists%202009
by Steve Ferra
1. Plasticsoul-Peacock Swagger. It seems that at its roots, power pop is a search for the Beatlesque. Not a pure aping of the Beatles per se, but the ability to capture the mix of melody, musicianship and innovation in a more or less traditional rock form that was their hallmark. Lots of artists and albums try for this, but fall short in way or another. But I daresay that Steven Wilson, a/k/a Plasticsoul (fittingly named a McCartney phrase that inspired the titling of Rubber Soul) gets pretty much all the way there. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a voice that sounds eerily like John Lennon either. And on Peacock Swagger, Wilson manages to capture the right mix of tunefulness, attitude and eclecticism that's found on most Beatles and Lennon albums.
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#1 Album of 2009 (tied with Roger Manning's Catnip Dynamite)
review by Aaron Kupferberg
Ugh, Always late to the party. This one just got by me because I did my top ten list early this year, and but it gets special consideration -- and I'd like to amend my list for it. Plasticsoul hails from L.A. and this album just blew me off my chair when I popped it in. Then Absolute Powerpop put this as his #1 album of the year. It's hard to argue against this... it's simply a work of genius. Opening with "Sentimental F**ks/ Life On Other Planets" is rich with Beatlesque guitar riffs, music hall piano and a drum break that Ringo would envy. The loud "Cock Rock 101" is exactly what you think it sounds like. The following tune "Champion Tragic Boy" channels a bit of Jellyfish, with it's catchy mid tempo harpsichord melody. A sweet pastoral "Fishwife" full of sitar and bongos follows this, and then the tragic ballad "Cancer" which double tracks lead vocalist Steven Wilson and adds backwards guitar for further effect. The aching chorus of "Cut it out/ Please cut it out. Cancer is breaking me down." is unforgettable. The album settles into a more laid back groove, with acoustics opening the next six songs, including "Shame" and the very Michael Penn like "New Town Different Day." The orchestral sweep of "San Francisco" is another easy listening winner here. A duet with Wendy Wang on the countrified "You're Not Free" has plenty of soul. The album's mood shifts perfectly into psychedelic pop on "My Three Friends" which follows a rhythm similar to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and then continues with the groovy "Rainy Season." This is the most sophisticated power pop album I've heard this year. Don't miss it.
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http://absolutepowerpop.blogspot.com/2009/11/cd-of-day-112709-plasticsoul-peacock.html
Absolute Powerpop - Steve Ferra
We interrupt your Black Friday shopping to
bring you an album you can't buy on Black Friday. That's because Plasticsoul's
Peacock Swagger, the brilliant follow-up to 2005's Pictures from the Long Ago,
won't be released until this coming Tuesday, December 1. But it's so good that I
have to review it early, to give you that kind of pre-Christmas anticipation you
had as a kid.
Plasticsoul is Steven Wilson, a California artist who falls squarely into the
Michael Penn/Jon Brion wing of power pop. His 2005 debut was such a treat that I
went back and reviewed it even though I didn't start this blog until a year
later. The follow-up was worth the wait. Whereas the debut didn't stray far from
the Brion/Penn template, Wilson paints from a larger sonic palette here. The
two-headed opener "You Sentimental Fucks/Life on Other Planets"
answers the musical hypothetical "What would have Uncle Albert/Admiral
Halsey have sounded like if Lennon wrote it instead of McCartney?" (The
fact that Wilson sounds quite a bit like Lennon helps answer that question as
well.) Speaking of Lennon, "Cock Rock 101" is to, well, cock rock, as
"Yer Blues" was to the blues, simultaneously sending it up and
reveling in it.
We then come to as strong a trio of tracks as can be found a disc this year:
"Champion Tragic Boy", which Michael Penn fans will love, featuring
Brandon Schott on the chamberlin in the Patrick Warren role. Next up is
"Fishwife" (which made its debut on the IPO 12 compilation), a jangly
sitar-laden track that's instantly unforgettable, and rounding out the terrific
trio, "Cancer", perhaps the definitive track on suffering with the Big
C, complete with Revolver-styled backward guitars and sound effects in service
of a great melody despite the subject matter.
Wilson lets us catch our collective breath with the gentle, acoustic-based
"What Do You Know About Rock & Roll?" and the midtempo
"Shame", which is borderline alt-country complete with pedal steel.
This sets us up for the rocking "New Town, Different Day", replete
with "sha-la" backing vocals in the chorus, and the gorgeous "San
Francisco", perhaps the best paean to the city since Tony Bennett's.
Closing out the disc are the wonderfully psychedelic "My Three
Friends" and "Rainy Season", a "Hey Jude"-styled number
featuring a sing-along outro.
My only quibble: The disc doesn't include "Throwaway", the absolutely
brilliant track that was on last year's IPO comp (#11). Not that Peacock Swagger
suffers by its absence, but the now apparently ironically-titled track would
have made a nice addition. And that quibble aside, I'll note that the race for
the #1 disc of 2009 remains wide open in my book and things just got a bit more
complicated.
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http://toopoppy.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-do-you-know-about-rock-and-roll.html
What Do You Know About Rock & Roll? - Too Poppy
Been sitting on this review for too long
now...
The new album from Plasticsoul called Peacock Swagger plays like an educational
piece highlighting some of the most interesting aspects of late-era Beatles:
variety, surprise, chatter, noise, mystery, melody, innovation. And there is
quite a bit of real soul in Plasticsoul.
For me Peacock Swagger's most striking track is Cancer. Lyrically, Steven Wilson
makes us feel the pain. "Cut it out; please cut it out" is either a
plea to be left alone or a literal request to get that shit outta there. Either
way, it hits hard. Even more brilliant though is the backwards guitar, which for
me represents just how discordant the disease can be in one's life. It doesn't
quite fit, but it's there and you must deal with it. Absolutely brilliant.
No worries, though; this is not at all a bummer of an album. How can it be with
an opening track as irresistible as Sentimental Fucks / Life on Other Planets?
Try resisting the chiming of Champion Tragic Boy from consuming your brain all
day. Go balls out for Cock Rock 101. Feel the spirit of Elliott Smith in My
Three Friends. Finally, cleanse yourself with the life-affirming Rainy Season,
the perfect antidote for Brandon Schott's award-winning Fire
Season. How appropriate, then, that Brandon happens to be a member of
Plasticsoul. Brandon keeps good company and has the honor of being involved in
two of the best releases of the year (the other being his very own Dandelion).
Peacock Swagger has already hit notable
best-of-09
lists and if I bothered to put one together, it would undoubtedly be in a good
fight for the toppermost of the poppermost.
Buy
TheirSpace
Disclaimer: The artist provided a preview copy of the album for consideration of
a review. I wouldn't have bothered writing one if it wasn't genuinely as good as
it is.
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http://www.powerofpop.com/?p=2798
Kevin Mathews - Power Of Pop
A little bit of pop trivia before we begin. “Plastic Soul” is of course, a term originally coined by an unknown black musician to describe Mick Jagger. Paul McCartney cited it as an influence on the album title of Rubber Soul. Whilst David Bowie described his excursions in soul and funk with the Young Americans album also as “plastic soul”.
So now you know.
Which does indeed help to put pop underground band Plasticsoul’s classic pop agenda into some perspective. For fans of genuine powerpop (and NOT the pathetic modern rock/emo punk posturing calling itself “powerpop”), Peacock Swagger is a mini-godsend as the album is chock full of the right influences viz. the Beatles, the Byrds, the Kinks, the Stones, Badfinger, Nick Drake, Todd Rundgren and every other top-notch classic pop follower down the line & through the intervening years.
Definite highlights include the ambitious opener You Sentimental Fucks/Life On Other Planets, the folky Cancer, the pastoral What Do You Wanna Know Rock and Roll, the countrified Shame, the fragile soft pop channeling San Francisco and the blistering Cock Rock 101.
It’s gratifying to know that the pop underground that gave me so much solace and excitement in the late 90s remains alive and kicking with bands like Plasticsoul.
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http://www.happyrocker.net/weblog/?p=3
The Happy Rocker from happyrocker.net
For years, Steve and I have compared every new album, to something older. I think we all do that, and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just a way to associate something, give it a classification, and file it in our minds when we want to get back to it later…
As I listen to the new Plasticsoul album, Peacock Swagger, I can’t help snickering, knowing it would please Steven to no end if I started name dropping our ultra-cool favorites, in comparison. He knows me, I’ll bet the very notion has him grinning that million-dollar grin of his. But I am not going to analyse too much, or use names today, the mention alone, is implying too much about what I think, too soon!
Steve is a songwriter, who loves other songwriters. And in a lifetime of studying his favorites, from the ultra-obscure to the greats, he has managed to reach into their souls, pick among the essence of their works, to perfect and use them for his own master plan. Peacock Swagger takes many of Steven’s favorite elements of rock and roll goodness, mixes them into assorted potions, brews and other concoctions, then delivers up a mixture that very few, if anyone, could serve up the way he does.
Fully aware of how to present himself in public, and what to say when he speaks, his music is no accept ion. I can’t speak for Steven, but having known him since the early 1980’s, I imagine on stage and on record, he has expectations of what a performance should be, and puts on the show he would like to enjoy, himself. If Pictures From The Long Ago was an introduction to Plasticsoul, telling us a little about him and where he came from, then Peacock Swagger is certainly the update; where he’s at today, and where he might be going.
The fact that this album covers so much in so little time, has me wishing I could live in Steve’s brain, even for a moment. When he comes to that musical place in his mind where he’s asking, ‘Is this too much?, is this pushing it too far?’, he must say no, every time, and gives us all of it. I reckon if he didn’t, that wouldn’t be 100%. It wouldn’t be honest, it wouldn’t be him, it wouldn’t be Plasticsoul.
No punches are pulled, he goes for the knockout, every time. From the very first track (’You Sentimental Fucks / Life on Other Planets’), you’re already reeling, and not sure if you should keep on, or just give up and fall to the floor. Even the lighter sounding tracks (’Cancer’ comes to mind), has some kind of surprise waiting, something that just flat-out kicks your ass. I seriously had to stop after each track. I wanted to keep going, but each song was leaving me out of breath, exhausted. I felt like I was hit by something huge, and wanting to go back and find it, so it could do it again.
‘What Do You Know About Rock & Roll’ and ‘You’re Not Free’ stood out as new directions for Plasticsoul (does Steve have directions?). They kept my toes tapping and my mind moving. There was something more mature about them than the other tracks, as if they didn’t belong. Plasticsoul is just getting started, this is only the second formal release (right?), but these tracks seemed to come from his veteran future, as if he’s been writing albums for decades, sophisticated, experienced, wiser…
While Plasticsoul throws us everything we know and love about rock, it always seems careful with what’s said.
An excellent wordsmith, Steve seems to possess magical lyric-powers that tell stories, suggest colors and conjure emotions… Using what he doesn’t say has just as much punch as what he does (yes, he’s just that good). Careful with each letter, he’s a hunter with a quiver of lyrical arrows, hiding, waiting. Carefully placing each trap that you’re oh, so willing to walk into. That is the essence of Plasticsoul, knowing what to use, how and when.
I had heard ‘Cancer’ and ‘New Town, Different Day’ months ago, but these were fresh versions; redone (?), perfected and given that little bit extra that I have mentioned. It was like hearing brand new songs that blew me away as much as they had the first time.
I have to mention ‘Cock Rock 101′, because Steven has finally done something I have wanted to hear from him for years; belt out a rocker. I always knew he could, but at the same time, never expected it to be like this! The pounding begins and keeps going consistantly to the very last note. This song rocks so hard, you can almost hear the guitar strings breaking and the snare drum popping. To me, that is just bad-as-hell. In fact, if one or two strings didn’t break at some point in the songs recording, I’d be surprised. I’ll have to ask next time I get the chance.
If I was asked to pick a song that stands out from the rest of the record, I would have to say ‘My Three Friends’, because it’s the one track I have replayed most. It touched me, and I keep going back to it. I feel proud knowing this beautiful piece is by the same I guy I spent a major part of my own life growing up with. I realized the brilliance of Plasticsoul while listening to this track. I become aware that Steven has fully pulled me into the spell, and I am not even to the guitar solo, yet! Of course, the solo is brilliant, that goes without saying. But the song as a whole, left me defeated, weeping, yet hoping it would go on a little bit longer.
And that’s whe I realise I have been fished-in by it’s brilliance. Peacock Swagger has invited me inside, roughed me up and thrown me back out to deal with it. This is indeed one of the best records I own. There are very few albums I have listened to that have left me feeling as if something physical has happened, and wanting to go back for seconds. Having been taken through Peacock Swagger’s menagerie, I was left emotionally spent, enlightened, aurally excited, and dead tired! Yet, I am already wanting more, just to see where Plasticsoul could possibly take us next…
This album has everything I like about music in it, and some new things I wasn’t aware of.
Plasticsoul paints a vivid scene with each track, able to move you in every way. The fact of the matter is, there’s a time where the influenced becomes the influence, and that’s what makes a classic. Steve is becoming one of those classics, fermenting like a fine wine, doing it’s time.
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http://popdose.com/cd-reviews-ellis-paul-plasticsoul-and-more/
Jeff Giles - www.popdose.com
Name your band after a phrase rooted in Beatles lore, and you’d goddamn well better come with some top-shelf poppy goodness — and that’s what Plasticsoul does on the L.A.-based collective’s second release, the aptly named Peacock Swagger. Like a musical Jackson Pollock painting made up of splashes of the Beatles, Michael Penn, Jellyfish, Elliott Smith, Badfinger, and Todd Rundgren, Swagger struts from psychedelia-tinged torment (“Cancer”) to countrified balladry (“You’re Not Free”) to hard-charging power pop (“Cock Rock 101″) to baroque-flavored, Jon Brion-style chamber music (“Champion Tragic Boy”) without breaking its stride. It’s the kind of album that would have been made and promoted with an enormous budget if the record industry had a brain in its head — but as Loudon Wainwright III once quipped, “the world is a terrible place,” and Plasticsoul doesn’t have a label, or even an official e-mail address not ending in “hotmail.com.”
It’s a sorry state of affairs, to be certain, but unlike the members of Plasticsoul, you aren’t cursed with a compulsive need to write and record brilliant pop music in virtual obscurity; all your lazy ass has to do is buy the stuff and listen to it, and believe me, listening to it is perilously easy. If you love pop music and you’ve never heard of Plasticsoul, one listen to Peacock Swagger should be enough to make you doubt the existence of God, because only in a cold and random universe could these guys be shucking their wares on a website that looks like it was put together with Dreamweaver and a migraine instead of trying to see the back of Wembley Arena through the blizzard of women’s underwear being hurled at the stage where they’re playing for 90,000 screaming fans.
Buying Peacock Swagger won’t make the world fair, but it will make your speakers happy. Go get some.
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David Cowling - www.americana-uk.com
When the synthetic meets the metaphysical,
there’s only one winner
There are some truly beautiful spaces, minimalist lofts or opulent palaces,
places that you might like to visit but not dwell in. Plasticsoul are like a
house impeccably designed by the architect and one that looks like no one has
ever stepped over the threshold, box fresh, crisp.
I think that their name must be ironic, these songs, though they teem with
hooks, treat melody like it costs around four pence per bar and harmonise as
easily as a sardine in a shoal, there is something a little sterile about them.
Again I think that the title is also ironic, Peacocks are of course beautiful
birds, fabulous plumage, all strut, eyes drawn to them so that we tend to
forgive how they sound. I’m not suggesting that Plasticsoul sound terrible,
they don’t, they have that Rubber Soul that every power pop band from the
Beatles onwards have had, I am suggesting that there is a good deal more surface
then there is depth.
This is a hugely enjoyable record, a quintessential power pop sound, the songs a
confection boasting a massive sugar rush. ‘New Town, Different Day’ sounds
like the Replacements cleansed and hopped up on Jesus; it is an object lesson in
generic songwriting. Each move is impeccably made, the fresh harmonies and
tautening strings of ‘My Three Friends’ sound bright and punchy as these
things usually are. The first minute of the opening ‘You Sentimental Fucks /
Life on Other Planets’ is taken up with that staple of scanning up and down
the radio dial until you find something that sounds like just what you were
waiting for. That’s what they deliver time and time again, they may be better
at this than Noel Gallagher but it is the same heist that they are pulling.
For the first few listens the gloss is enough to get you through, it’s a trip,
subsequent forays lead to ears skating over passages or whole songs, however,
‘Cancer’ continues to arrest the ears with uncharacteristic clunky
percussion, tender vocals and bright slashes of guitar it hits an altogether
different target to most of the other songs. The almost obligatory ballad
arrives trailing ribbons of steel guitar, the same sound also launches
‘You’re Not Free’ which travels much the same path the only difference is
the welcome guest vocal from Wendy Wang. There are flashes of something beyond
the generic. In truth this band from LA have made in many ways the perfect LA
record.
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DOWNW7 - www.babysue.com
The second full-length release from Los Angeles, California's Plasticsoul. In perusing the promotional materials that accompanied this CD we were surprised to see the repeated comparison to The Beatles. Not that the songs on Peacock Swagger don't bear similarities to the band...but in our minds Plasticsoul sounds much, much more like Redd Kross (who were not mentioned at all in the package). In fact, songwriter/vocalist Steven Eric Wilson can at times sound so much like Jeff McDonald (of Redd Kross) that it is almost eerie at times. It's probably just a coincidence as we don't get the impression that these folks are in any way trying to be a copycat band. Swagger offers twelve nice solid jolts of modern melodic pop...delivered simply and without unnecessary overdubs. Nice slick sound...and the soaring vocal melodies always take center stage. Our favorite tracks include "You Sentimental Fucks/Life On Other Planets," "Fishwife," and "My Three Friends." Cool stuff.
Tim Hinely - www.daggerzine.com
Had not previously heard this L.A. band before but when heralded power pop blog ABSOLUTE POWERPOP raised a cold one and toasted this as their pick for #1 record of 2009 I figured I’d better take notice. Don’t wanna be left out in the cold, know what I mean? The band is basically songwriter Steven Wilson and whomever he wants to have help him on the record .Starting out with the Beatle-esque , swagger of “You Sentimental Fucks/Life on Other Planets” is a good way to begin a record which then jumps right into another confident rocker, “Cock Rock 101” with some raucous, over-the-top guitar playing and Wilson’s sneering vocals. “Champion Tragic Boy” is one of the discs best songs and even includes the use of a chamberlain (sounds kinda like a harpsichord) while they add some sitar to the terrific “Fishwife” (you might even think it’s High Dials record for second). Elsewhere the deeply moving “Cancer” (“Cut it out, please cut it out, cancer is breaking me down”) and the alt-country track, “Shame” (with some gorgeous pedal steel) are two gems as well. There’s 12 songs on here and only a few clunky moments (I coulda done without some of the wanky guitar but there’s not too much of it) and while it was not my pick as best record of 2009 (didn’t even hear it ‘til 2010) it’s still a strong record with some terrific songwriting. Stand up and take notice music fans.
