Search - Arnold :: The Barn Tapes

Not bad for a bunch of demos done cheap

01/22/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Essentially a rehearsal for the following year's stupefyingly good Hillside, this mini album has a wayward charm and eclectic spirit which mocks its (reputed) puny budget of £1,000 ($1,400). Musically, the album is all over the place - the distorted vocals and Hendrix pedals of 'Calling Ira Jones' mutate into singing along (badly) with the guitar solo. The band like to mess about with song structure ('Float My Boat') a lot but the trad 'Windsor Park' is as lush and pastoral as you'd guess from its title. An indie classic. 'Sun' and 'Two Chairs' prompted all the lazy Crosby, Stills and Hash jibes. The hidden tracks, 'Medication Time' and the harder 'Rabbit' prototype, hint at directions still unexplored. The central lyrical subject matter - loss - is given unusual and striking treatments. 'Face' is about someone alone with his goldfish at home, cleaning the floor and waiting for a girlfriend who's given up on him. "Give me just one wish, feed my golden fish until they know you're mine." This is great writing. Arnold have a knack for dragging the strange out of the everyday, confronting it and winning it over. "Look out the window. See Clapham Common dreaming," notes 'Dog On The Stairs.'You'll play this record a thousand times and still not get to the bottom of it. Compulsive."