Anthologies from the Pale Fountains & the Kinks, plus the Feelies & Kissing Other Ppl – The Aquarian

At least in the States, hardly anyone knows the albums of the British rock band Shack and the subsequently issued CDs from its leader, Michael Head, at least some of which rank among the most underappreciated popular music releases of the last thousand years. Though not quite that good, but well worth attention and even more obscure, are the records of the Pale Fountains, the group Head founded and led before launching Shack. 

Perhaps the Pale Fountains will finally garner some notice following the appearance of a new four-CD box set devoted to this critically acclaimed band, which formed in Liverpool in 1980 and split up in 1987. Called The Complete Virgin Years, the anthology comes with a 20-page booklet that details the group’s history. The box embraces both of its albums on the Virgin label, Pacific Street (1984) and …From Across the Kitchen Table (1985), plus 40 singles, demos, rough mixes, remixes, and alternate versions. Most of these bonus tracks are well worth hearing, and a dozen of them have not previously been released.

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Though recorded when Head was only 20, the bright, upbeat Pacific Street sounds surprisingly redolent of his recent work. Moreover, it’s almost as polished. You can hear all the influences that have permeated his career, including the Byrds, Brazilian jazz, and especially Arthur Lee’s Love, whose “7 and 7 Is” the Pale Fountains cover elsewhere in this box. Highlights on Pacific Street include “(There’s Always) Something on My Mind,” the group’s trumpet-spiced first single, which came out two years before the LP, and “Abergele Next Time,” one of several songs that suggest Head shared Lee’s penchant for the work of songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

…From Across the Kitchen Table is a bit more commercial, a bit less quirky, and just a tad less interesting. But it takes off with a bang with the propulsive “Shelter” and includes more than a few other highlights, including the shimmering “Jean’s Not Happening” and the brassy, exhilarating title cut.

If you’re new to Michael Head’s catalog, you should start with the albums he has released in recent years with his Red Elastic Band as well as with such terrific Shack LPs as H.M.S. Fable. After exploring those records, though, you’re going to want to dig deeper, and this box is the place to do your shoveling.

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The Kinks Complete ‘The Journey’

The Kinks are back with the third and reportedly final installment of The Journey, a 60th Anniversary series of two-CD sets that mine the group’s vaults and showcase material selected by its members. While Parts 1 and 2 predominantly feature previously released singles, B-sides, and album tracks from the sixties and early seventies, Part 3 delivers remasters of a dozen numbers initially issued between 1977 and 1984, plus a previously unheard 16-song concert. Like the two earlier compendiums, it comes with a booklet that contains new commentary about the music from the band’s members.

The studio material in this latest set includes a handful of clunkers. To these ears, for example, the title track from 1977’s Sleepwalker is forgettable, as are such tracks as “Living on a Thin Line,” from 1984’s Word of Mouth; the clamorous “Destroyer,” from 1981’s Give the People What They Want; and “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman,” from 1979’s Low Budget, which was Kinks leader Ray Davies’s attempt to jump on a disco bandwagon.

Other studio numbers here suggest that the Kinks were experiencing laudable artistic growth in the years covered by this set, however. “A Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy,” from 1978’s Misfits, is a melodic midtempo song about a guy who “lives for rock.” Also excellent is the bittersweet title track from the same album, which addresses “losers” and “sad-eyed failures” and advises, “Don’t throw it away / You can have your day…Why don’t you join the crowd and come inside?”

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Even better is the sweetly nostalgic “Come Dancing,” from 1983’s State of Confusion, which produced one of the band’s most commercially successful late-period singles. An atmospheric, horns-spiced number, it conveys vivid memories of Ray and Dave Davies’s sister, Reenie, who died of a heart attack while at a dance hall. 

The set’s nearly hour-long concert disc is noteworthy, as well. Recorded in 1993 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, it includes enthusiastically delivered versions of some of the Kinks’ biggest hits, such as “Til the End of the Day,” “Apeman,” “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” “Sunny Afternoon,” and “You Really Got Me.” Also here are such key early album tracks as “Celluloid Heroes,” “Where Have All the Good Times Gone,” and “I’m Not Like Everybody Else,” plus four songs from Phobia, the group’s final studio album, which came out only a few months before the concert.

If you’re a serious Kinks fan, you’ll probably want to supplement the Journey series with some of the group’s original studio albums. You might also want to pick up one of its many other hits collections, since none of these latest anthologies includes such notable singles as “Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy,” “Something Better Beginning,” “Set Me Free,” and “Don’t Forget to Dance.” Either that or keep your fingers crossed that the Kinks change their minds about ending the Journey series with Part 3.

Also Noteworthy

The Feelies, Rewind. The Feelies, who meld punk/new wave, power pop, garage rock, and a hint of psychedelia, don’t issue a whole lot of music. Though the New Jersey–based quintet formed back in 1976, this is only their eighth album. However, their records tend to be as good as they are few and far between. They produce excellent original work (see 2017’s In Between) but also deliver first-rate covers.

One example of the latter is Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground, a live set from 2023 that pays homage to one of the group’s major influences. Another is the new Rewind, which collects nine covers that the quintet recorded throughout its career. All have been previously released but mostly on hard-to-find discs such as EPs and promotional CDs.

The high-energy program embraces two songs each from Neil Young (“Barstool Blues,” “Sedan Delivery”) and the Beatles (“She Said, She Said,” “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide (Except Me and My Monkey)”). Filling out the set are Bob Dylan’s “Seven Days,” which Ron Wood first recorded; Patti Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot”; the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black”; the Modern Lovers’ “I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms,” which Jonathan Richman wrote with Iggy Pop; and the Doors’ “Take It as It Comes.”

These rhythmic, guitar-driven tracks, many of which are delivered at a faster tempo than the originals, are sharply honed, jangle-pop treats.

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Kissing Other Ppl, Kissing Other Ppl. Viv Leva started out as a solo artist before releasing a couple of albums with her partner, Riley Calcagno. All these records explored a sound that drew on folk and pop as well as traditional country and Appalachian music. Now, the duo have teamed up with the similarly focused singer, songwriter, and fiddler Rachel Baiman to form the zanily named Kissing Other Ppl. 

The album, which delivers a boatload of fine vocalizing and harmonies, isn’t much of a stylistic departure from the trio’s earlier records. While Leva, Calcagno, and Baiman previously relied on original material, however, the new act’s eponymous debut delivers eight covers drawn from wildly disparate songwriters. The best track is arguably Waylon Payne’s “Born to Lose,” a beautifully sung ballad, but you’ll also want to return to such standouts as Wilco’s “Ashes of American Flags,” Joan Armatrading’s “Woncha Come On Home,” “Hold on Magnolia,” from Jason Molina’s Songs: Ohia project, and “A Lesson in Leavin’,” by the late country singer Dottie West.

Clocking in at less than 28 minutes, the album will leave you wishing for more. But that’s not entirely a bad thing.

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Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains five decades’ worth of music reviews, interviews, and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.