By Lin Clark
@the_annus_artist
Fantastic Mr Fox is my favorite movie and I just absolutely love it. It’s so aesthetic and comforting and this piece really just made me happy and I love the characters so much.
Category: January 2021
By Jonathan Gibson
University of Arizona
I wasn’t alive in 2000. I have no way of knowing what the indie scene was like, what passed as important music in those days. Thus, that year exists in a sort of void that separates indie music I remember from my childhood (Phoenix, Franz Ferdinand, and the like) and ancient history (Pavement, R.E.M., Britpop).
Out of that year came Suburban Light, the debut album by English indie poppers the Clientele, released 20 years ago today (November 28th). A compilation of singles and B-sides released on small British indie labels, it takes influence from a number of bands and scenes I only enjoy somewhat, largely 60’s psych-pop filtered through the mystery and atmosphere of 80’s indie like Felt and Galaxie 500. From this stew of sounds comes something that is, to me, absolutely intoxicating.
Despite being a compilation, Suburban Light is a strong, cohesive album with a particular sound and style. It’s impossible to talk about the record without discussing the production, which makes the record a warm, lo-fi, reverb-saturated glory. Although recorded cheaply, Suburban Light sounds fantastic, and the coating of reverb gives it a truly timeless, ethereal feel despite the minimalist approach, befitting of the mysterious black-and-white photo found on the cover. The sound of the record is dominated by just three instruments—frontman Alasdair Maclean’s guitar, James Hornsey’s bass, and Mark Keen’s drums, with the occasional keyboard thrown in, and a 12-string guitar on just one track, “Rain”.