Tim Easton - Special 20



Fine storytelling and a mastery of sounds. Still, the one Easton I reach for most.

Liz Phair - Whitechocolatespaceegg

Like Tricky, most people only talk about her first album, but, like Tricky, she actually put out some decent music through her third album. Unlike Tricky, since her third album she's been utter crap and he's been whatever is between "good" and "utter crap".

This is the only Tim Easton album that I'd somehow never heard before. Found it in a used bin this weekend after reading your post. It is really good.

Underrated one from them... good stuff.

From AllMusic Guide
Although the Mysteries of Life released two indie label EPs in 1997, 1998's Come Clean, both in terms of the record's length and artistic depth, is the true follow-up to Keep a Secret, the band's 1996 RCA debut. While the songs on other Mysteries of Life albums are definitely a step up from the material guitarist Jake Smith wrote for his former band, Antenna, Come Clean's compositions possess an emotional resonance and level of craft that far surpass any of Smith's previous work. Lyrically, he's become much more focused, as best evidenced by the title track and the gorgeous, melancholy "A Year Ago Today." In addition, several recent lineup changes have allowed the band to jell into a tighter, more cohesive unit. While on earlier releases the Mysteries of Life could be best described as a group of well-meaning, if not always competent, amateurs when it came to playing their instruments, Smith and crew reveal on Come Clean that they have matured into genuinely sensitive musicians. On songs like "Maya and Luna" and the classic soul ballad "That's How Strong My Love Is," the careful use of space, textural layering and subtle dynamics show that the Mysteries of Life have finally moved beyond the narrow confines of indie rock and into the realm of pure music.

Like any band in '90s Britpop, Super Furry Animals were obligated to release a steady stream of singles buttressed with non-LP songs, which meant that there were nearly two albums' worth of songs that weren't on either Fuzzy Logic or Radiator, especially if the first two EPs on Ankst and two non-LP singles were counted as well. Following in the footsteps of Suede, Gene, and Oasis, among others, SFA released Outspaced, their own compilation of B-sides, in the fall of 1998, a year after Radiator hit the stores. Instead of taking the completist route, which is essentially what Suede did with Sci-Fi Lullabies, SFA constructed Outspaced as an actual album, leaving many very good songs behind on the singles. This is bound to frustrate fans who haven't bothered to collect every single, but the approach results in a better, tighter album -- one that doesn't quite rank with their official albums, but nevertheless amply proves that SFA take more risks and reap greater rewards than most of their contemporaries. Even on the earliest material -- and a fair portion of their Ankst EPs are here -- SFA were gleefully recontextualizing, pulling techno, indie, and classic rock into unpredictable forms. Unlike some bands, they didn't save their riskiest material for B-sides -- unless you count singing in Welsh as a risk, since each single contained a Welsh-language song, about half of which are here. What's really impressive is that the English songs sound as magical, baffling, and unusual as their Welsh counterparts, which only emphasizes the uniqueness of SFA's vision. These sort of revelations are best appreciated by the dedicated, but that's why Outspaced remains an essential addition to any hardcore fan's collection.