THE LADYBUG TRANSISTOR - THE ALBEMARLE SOUND

Available on Happy Happy Birthday To Me

This 25^th anniversary edition of The Ladybug Transistor’s third album includes an additional dozen tracks consisting of demos, instrumental backing tracks, brief, work-in-progress fragments of most of the finished album tracks, and a wink-wink, nudge-nudge non-album B-side that helps explain the album’s title! It’s an educational, fly-on-the-wall peek into the album’s creative process, that will be welcomed by musicologists, die-hard fans (not least our own Phil McM.), and completists. Emerging from The Elephant Six Collective’s eclectic stable of avant garde popsters, The Ladybug Transistor shares several members with Terrastock performers The Essex Green and their sound is comparable, but not necessarily interchangeable. A deep love of sunshine pop and everything Brian Wilson stood for in his master class on how to make a feel-good record, The Albemarle Sound oozes fun, smiles (pun intended!), and a great day at the beach.

     ‘Six Times’ sets the stage with a jolly little saxophone motif that propels the song that could easily soundtrack a top-down convertible drive along the Grande Corniche on the Côte D’Azur. The bonus six-minute “full version” improves your journey with an extended “race car” intro and extended coda that ups the fun quotient. A bonus 4-track demo version has a loose, jazzier feel that illustrates how they got from here (demo) to there (album version). ‘Meadowbrook Arch’ whose lyric gives the album its title is closer to the ramshackle kitchen sink approach of fellow E6 artists Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel. A piano-driven 4-track demo is more exploratory and improvisational, offering insight into the final mix.

     There’s a sleepy, Lou Reed vibe to ‘Today Knows’ (perhaps they were listening to ‘Perfect Day’?) and ‘The Great British Spring’ is such a happy-go-lucky instrumental, I want to hop a plane and sashay down the High Street. ‘Like A Summer Rain’ could’ve sat on a Spanky & Our Gang album and is deservedly the album highlight. An instrumental version can hold its head up high alongside Wilson’s Pet Sounds instros and can easily stand on its own. While ‘The Swimmer’ is a tad schizophrenic for my taste (interrupted mid-song by a piano interlude that feels dropped in from another song accompanied by what sounds like someone eating an apple!), ‘Cienfuegos’ is perfect relaxation music for a siesta until it gathers steam and turns into a galloping Morricone-esque outtake from a Sergio Leone spaghetti western soundtrack. The bonus ‘Piano Version’ offers a peak into the song’s genesis and is equally impressive.

     With hints of Zappa and The Mothers, the Residents, and various E6 cohorts, The Albemarle Sound is a loving reminder of Wilson’s arranging and production genius that gave us music to make us smile (again, pun intended!). It adds some shiny colours to a poptastic rainbow of sound and, with the additional bonus insights into its creation (and an untitled ‘Mystery Track’ [oxymoron there] that I’ll leave for you to discover) make this the definitive version of an already impressive burst of sunshine pop.

(Jeff Penczak)

LEE BAGGETT - WAVES FOR A BEGULL

(LP on Perpetual Doom)

The cover caught my eye initially - a sea turtle (presumably the Begull of the title) gliding lazily towards a distant sun. As soon as the needle dropped on the opening track ‘Sea Turtle’ though I was sitting up and taking a considerable amount of notice, since although Lee Baggett is a name that’s previously not been on my radar, his beautifully fuzzy, foggy, swirling guitar tones on this record are the stuff of dreams. If you’re a fan of Neil Young and Crazy Horse at their most rustic you’ll almost certainly dig this album, but I’d also recommend it unreservedly to anyone who is rightly in thrall of the great Jorma Kaukonen. This is one of those records that you’d want to play on a car ride with friends on a trip to the seaside, finally throwing open the doors, grabbing the surfboard, tasting the salt in the air and enjoying the sense of laid-back, boozy well-being, even if the only thing you can actually see is the swirling Pacific coastal fog all around you. As if to give the lie to that fantasy, Baggett then hits us with the joyous, bouncy ‘Enough Sunshine’, a trick that Neil Young also uses from time to time to serve as a counterpoint to the overall theme of a record - I was tempted to dig out and play ’Psychedelic Pill’ after hearing this. And similarly, Baggett also treats us to several extended guitar solos that slowly fade into a glorious oblivion, including the excellent ‘Good Foot Day’, the aforementioned ‘Sea Turtle’ and the title track itself. The album closes with the gentle, introspective ‘Sea Turtle Return’, a song which confirms Lee Baggett is just a great a songwriter as he is a player and arranger. A late contender for the year-end lists perhaps, but an album I personally rate very highly indeed.

(Phil McMullen)