Search - Tuesday Weld :: Where Psyche Meets Cupid

We're just like daisies trying to avoid the cow

Ryan Hennessy | Albany, NY | 05/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It finally happened. Someone went out and made the album that I had been imagining for a long time. For, I don't know, the past year or something I had the idea in the back of my mind that it would be great if someone made songs using samples from old jazz records. I'm talking Al Jolson/Andrew Sisters/prohibition era songs on old crackly LPs. You could sample some horns, make them jump around and do something new, while it still retained that sweet cracklin' flavor! Stephen Coates, the man behind (The Real) Tuesday Weld, did just that.Mr. Coates actually has a lot in common with another guy who shares his first name, Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields. Just like 69 Love Songs had everything to do with love, so does this album. And just like Merritt writes songs that almost sound like they could've been written decades ago if it weren't for his modern sense of humor, Coates doesn't seem like he was born for these days either. For the most part, these are love songs in the classic sense. They don't mince words. They go straight for the heart, hitting whatever cliches might be in the way. It's the music that gives the words sincerity."Am I In Love?" an obvious choice for a single, has some catchy horn and scat samples and says things like "Love makes you a date / Takes you to some wonderful place / Love fills it plate / And leaves you to pay." Is Stephen in love just with his love or with the idea of love? It becomes more clear as the album progresses that it's probably the latter. The album features a lot of sad love songs, a fair share of instrumentals, and just like the Magnetic Fields box set, not many clearly happy love songs where everything turns out okay. One such song though is "I Love The Rain" which features some nice and sleazy horn samples and is about dancing in the rain."At The House of the Clerkenwell Kid" is just what I was imagining when I thought of an album like this. It's an instrumental that seems like an original studio recording instead of a collage, which is what it really is. An old guitar sample in the back changes pitch and fidelity every few bars and moves along with train-like propulsion while Coates plays something mysterious on the piano. This is followed by a song with one of the best titles in recent memory, "I'm Terminally Ambivalent Over You," a fun song with a poorly placed soulful synth line.The second half of the CD is more of the same: Expertly and seamlessly mixed speakeasy-era jazz mixed with electronic effects and beautifully crafted love songs. You could call this "antique radio synth pop" or maybe "electro-Glenn Miller." I'm not sure. Stephen Coates is crossing genres like you've never heard before. Where Psyche Meets Cupid is an great example of modern music that shows what can be done with samples by bringing it all the way back to the beginnings of recorded sound."

This record makes me happy

Payola | Chicago, IL USA | 09/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If, like me, you occasionally stare at your album collection and look in vain for something not depressing, you might really appreciate this low-key collection of musings on love. Mr. Coates writes deceptively simple melodies, but often layers them on top of complex combinations of retro (80s) electronics and really retro (30s and older) big-band samples -- complete with LP-crackle. Sometimes the effect is melancholy, sometimes funny: "Terminally Ambivalent Over You" could be the soundtrack to a Felix the Cat short.

What distinguishes him from other insecure romantics like Belle and Sebastian or Stephin Merritt is his voice: he half-whispers his way through much of his songs, sitting slightly off-key on some notes, sounding both young and old, both jaded and hopeful, like Syd Barrett channelling Billie Holiday. Pop this album into your walkman and the album becomes truly intimate, as if you had tuned into a radio broadcast from someone's living room -- a broadcast that perhaps had been floating around in the aether for decades. Brings a smile to my face every time."

12-bit beats and 78rpm samples meet indie rock

andrew | Blacksburg, Virginia United States | 09/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tuesday Weld is cut from the same cloth as Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields) and Momus, in the sense that he combines classic pop song stylings with modern production techniques- 78rpm samples propelled by crunchy, bouncy drum programming provide a musical bed for Tuesday to sing and play overtop of. While the album is almost cloyingly sweet at times, the songs stand on their own, and the samples of grainy ukeleles, syrupy strings, and hawaiian guitars add that perfect "days of yore" atmosphere."