"The title is appropriate, as Weekend's music has one foot in today, and the other in Radio 2 about 20 years ago when it was called the Light Programme."
— Dave Rimmer
In a recent episode of the brilliant Chart Music podcast, host Al Needham and guests Taylor Parkes and Simon Price discuss a Top of the Pops episode from 1983 in which Siouxie & The Banshees The Creatures perform their cover of the Herbie Mann standard "Right Now". Though a half-baked attempt, it is still them dabbling in jazz, something that a number of groups in the UK began doing, one of Needham, Parkes or Price point out, as they moved beyond soul. "Oh, like Weekend," I immediately thought to myself. (I have to say I took a small amount of satisfaction in these former Melody Maker scribes failing to mention the group that immediately sprang to my mind. Then again, I've only been aware of them myself for just a couple months so I needn't be too pleased with my powers of observation)
Alison Statton is not an especially big name in pop and those that are aware of her are more familiar with her first group of note Young Marble Giants, a trio from Wales who were a major influence on Kurt Cobain and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck (among others, I think) and one of the first acts to be associated with the term 'fey'. Of course being influential is interesting — up to a point at any rate — and worthwhile — so long as said acts themselves are any good — but it matters little if their stuff doesn't do much for you. That said, their one and only album, 1980's Colossal Youth, is pretty good listen, albeit one that you're better off only listening to just the once.
Better and arguably just as influential is Statton's next project, the jazzy new wave Weekend. As fey as ever, if not more so, their album La veriete and its concurrent singles, "A View from Her Room" and "Past Meets Present", are lush where Colossal Youth is sparse, matching better with Statton's deadened angelic vocals — a trait that would go on to influence an entire generation of indie popstresses. While Blue Rondo a la Turk were happy to get fans dancing to their brand of party hopping jazz, Weekend tasked themselves with some moody and reflective jazz pop that can be a tougher nut to crack but far more rewarding in the long term.
Jazz is only a part of what's on offer here: it also has a vaguely early-sixties French sound with touches of Baroque (although I must confess that I don't hear the "imaginary Beatles riff" that Dave Rimmer credits to Weekend guitarist Spike; I guess either he just imagined it or I'm not imagining enough). If "Past Meets Present" has a failing it's just that I don't dig it quite as much as cop pick "The View from Her Room" from a previous post. The sax solo near the end is nice but it doesn't quite leave quite as much of a mark the way the Lester Bowie-esque trumpet playing on "View" does. Statton's vocal, as Rimmer notes, is buried among the rest of the music which sounds pleasant but the lyrics are mostly lost on me; its predecessor has a story to tell about, er, views from some girl's room (or something) which makes it the choice of at least one Smash Hits-themed blogger out there.
"Past Meets Present" went nowhere just as Rimmer predicted but just a few months laterSiouxie & The Banshees The Creatures were dabbling in jazz and a new outfit fronted by Jam mouthpiece Paul Weller was touching up his new sound with some Blue Note and the likes of Everything but the Girl and Sade were right around the corner. Give Weekend a bit of credit — or blame them if you are so inclined.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Marshall Crenshaw: "Cynical Girl"
Every pop music scene produces an American singer-songwriter who is widely championed by the music press but ignored by virtually everyone else. The hippies had John Fahey, the more individualist seventies had Randy Newman and the new wave early-eighties had Marshall Crenshaw. (The Generation X equivalent would probably be Elliott Smith although I feel Paul Westerberg fits in with this lot too) Irony seldom works in the hands of Americans so it feels like our Marshall really means it on this one — either that or he really means not meaning it. Good if inessential listening. "I wanna listen to an inessential song / One about love that ain't too long": oh, stop it.
Alison Statton is not an especially big name in pop and those that are aware of her are more familiar with her first group of note Young Marble Giants, a trio from Wales who were a major influence on Kurt Cobain and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck (among others, I think) and one of the first acts to be associated with the term 'fey'. Of course being influential is interesting — up to a point at any rate — and worthwhile — so long as said acts themselves are any good — but it matters little if their stuff doesn't do much for you. That said, their one and only album, 1980's Colossal Youth, is pretty good listen, albeit one that you're better off only listening to just the once.
Better and arguably just as influential is Statton's next project, the jazzy new wave Weekend. As fey as ever, if not more so, their album La veriete and its concurrent singles, "A View from Her Room" and "Past Meets Present", are lush where Colossal Youth is sparse, matching better with Statton's deadened angelic vocals — a trait that would go on to influence an entire generation of indie popstresses. While Blue Rondo a la Turk were happy to get fans dancing to their brand of party hopping jazz, Weekend tasked themselves with some moody and reflective jazz pop that can be a tougher nut to crack but far more rewarding in the long term.
Jazz is only a part of what's on offer here: it also has a vaguely early-sixties French sound with touches of Baroque (although I must confess that I don't hear the "imaginary Beatles riff" that Dave Rimmer credits to Weekend guitarist Spike; I guess either he just imagined it or I'm not imagining enough). If "Past Meets Present" has a failing it's just that I don't dig it quite as much as cop pick "The View from Her Room" from a previous post. The sax solo near the end is nice but it doesn't quite leave quite as much of a mark the way the Lester Bowie-esque trumpet playing on "View" does. Statton's vocal, as Rimmer notes, is buried among the rest of the music which sounds pleasant but the lyrics are mostly lost on me; its predecessor has a story to tell about, er, views from some girl's room (or something) which makes it the choice of at least one Smash Hits-themed blogger out there.
"Past Meets Present" went nowhere just as Rimmer predicted but just a few months later
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Marshall Crenshaw: "Cynical Girl"
Every pop music scene produces an American singer-songwriter who is widely championed by the music press but ignored by virtually everyone else. The hippies had John Fahey, the more individualist seventies had Randy Newman and the new wave early-eighties had Marshall Crenshaw. (The Generation X equivalent would probably be Elliott Smith although I feel Paul Westerberg fits in with this lot too) Irony seldom works in the hands of Americans so it feels like our Marshall really means it on this one — either that or he really means not meaning it. Good if inessential listening. "I wanna listen to an inessential song / One about love that ain't too long": oh, stop it.
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