Staying in the Southern Hemisphere, my next fave album is Submarine Bells by The Chills, which was released in 1990. A proponent of Flying Nun's Dunedin sound, this album was their major label debut and got lots of airplay on US College Radio. The first track, "Heavenly Pop Hit" may be one of the best songs of all time and always makes me happy when I hear it. There are a variety of song types on the album to keep things interesting, from the urgency of "The Oncoming Day" and "Familiarity Breeds Contempt" to the beauty of "Don't Be - Memory" and "Submarine Bells." I love the swirling keyboards throughout, and jangly guitar solo on "Part Past Part Fiction" is a definite musical highlight. Lead singer Martin Phillipps' lyrics are also quite good, and I will never understand how he manages to get all the words out on "Efflorensce and Deliquensce" without getting tongue-tied.
I did get to see The Chills live once when they opened for Split Enz at the Millennium shows (yes, that's right- I went to New Zealand for Y2K and lived to tell about it). And if you have ever wondered where my Twitter handle (@softbomb) comes from, it is one of their album titles.
Favorite Lyric: Deep and dark my submarine bells grown in greens and grey ("Submarine Bells")
Favorite Song: "Heavenly Pop Hit"
2 comments:
It's a wonderful album but I've drifted towards Brave Words in recent years.
I don't think I've heard that one- will have to check it out.
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