Search - Joel R.L. Phelps :: Blackbird

Double the fun...I guess.

10/11/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"So Joel Phelps went solo from Silkworm a few years back which was a downer (pun..sorry) but look at in terms of doulbling our great music catalog. We now get Silkworm, better than ever, and Joel releasing wonderful music. This album is great, not to mention finding it used. (Don't tell Amazon.) Joel is able to pen some very wonderful lyrics that at some points sound painful to sing. But not only does he write beautifully, his voice and melodies are among the best around; which includes Tim Midgett (still in Silkworm) and Sam Coomes (Quasi). Stand outs include 'Wading in the Water' and 'Lost Continent.' Pick it up if you like insightful music and a must have for Silkworm fans."

Antithesis, Mr. Mister

Isaac Turner | Grand Forks, USofA | 10/23/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With a pre-occupation of the death of indie-rock, how could one understand the referntial treatment Phelps et al have provided with "Blackbird"? Let we forget Television, or "The Blue Mask", or are we ignorant enough to think that anything after 1972 ("Marquee Moon" in '77, "Daydream Nation" in '88, and I'd gladly put Team Dresch's "Personal Best" in the same category, much less anything Steve Earle ever blurted, post-incarceration mind you) isn't worth a serious listen? The whole 'bloated corpse of indie rock' scenario is so blinding, so played-out that I thought even Bangs-ian theorists have dismissed it as tangential at best. "Blackbird" is a first-rate rock record. Finely tuned rock songs wind around in a pathos that IS quite heavy, but not wholly unrewarding. Think Aphra Behn's own writings on what it is an artist should do, and I think one has an idea of purpose/direction/intentionality. I will now refuse to talk about Rock music in the context of any other theory, Kant included. Oh, and it rocks fairly well. Specifically, the first half of the album. "Landslide" is a touching, Verlaine-esque rendering of simplicity. And if you can't look past a challengin, troubled rock voice, as screetching and 'annoying' as it may be, please feel free to burn all your copies of "You're Living All Over Me" "Dub Housing" and anything Jesus Lizard ever touched."

1999 album of the year

Isaac Turner | 05/10/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this was my 1999 album of the year, beating out beulah's "when your heartstrings break""