- Artists:
- Sweet Baboo »
- Label:
- Businessman Records »
I wish the diplomats who argue against the need for negative music criticism would spend a bit more time sucking on bogeys like Sweet Baboo's Hello Wave. Yes, you can download anything you want for free on the internet, but the pounds you save in your pocket can't buy back the time you've just wasted. Occasional exposure to albums like this are actually to be recommended for anyone pretending to be a music critic; they give you a grounding. If your listening diet is nothing but critically lavished and 'important' albums, it's easy to lose sight of where the borders of Sturgeon's Law are to be drawn. Sturgeon said that 90 per cent of everything is crap, and he was right; but his 90 per cent doesn't apply to the vaguely disappointing third albums from your favourite band, or slightly underwhelming debuts from hyped-up new scenesters. It's stuff like this, Hello Wave, that floats under the water waiting to sink your ship.
It makes no-one feel big or clever to lay into a well-meaning musician who operates entirely for love not money. Sweet Baboo's Stephen Black is probably a good guy who'd buy you a pint if you shook his hand and told him you enjoyed his music. And that must be why this album, his second, exists, because of stingy, thirsty sycophants. It's only 36 minutes long and it's difficult to get through. The first song, laboriously titled 'If I'm Still In Love When I Get Back Home From Travelling (America)' is the same knowingly cheesy novelty song the every-night resident at your local live music bar plays under the presupposition that the simple act of playing a guitar and singing is entertainment enough for folks. That's why you avoid that bar, because it isn't. Here is also where the first signs of Sweet Baboo's tedious 'quirkiness' arise: he nonsensically interjects "cheese!" after referring to the city of Philadelphia har har; he claims to have shot a seagull and then admits to making it up, cos he's wacky like that; and you know when he twice concedes he was "quite drunk" that it can't be a winking understatement because these drunk stories are rubbish. But he decided to write a song about them anyway.
It's got to get better and it does, kinda, marginally. The following song sports some niftily agile fingerpicking and third track, 'It's Three Let's Go', is a shuffling Broken Social Scene intro extended into a pleasant enough three minute-long instrumental. But don't lose track of your standards just yet. Stephen Black's voice has yet to show any more expressiveness than my dog's, and his personality is somewhat harder to locate too. In 'Hello Bullfrog, Hello Wave' -- we're at track seven now - Black fantasises about being washed away by a river into the sea, drearingly singing "take me from here, to there, from there, to here, from here, to there" for, god, ages. At 5:05 it's hardly an epic, but it's the longest song on the album by a full minute, and it really feels like it. He's melancholy, because pretty girls don't reciprocate his feelings, and his rabbit died and there's other odd references to death, but he still hasn't given me a reason, in his lyrics or his melodies, to give a fuck. "In the night sky I hear him calling me," he begins the next song, and if you read that in a booming Nick Cave voice it could seem quite dramatic: "and although my hands aren't tied and I tried with all my might, the demons have a hold and I've got no place left to go." But Sweet Baboo isn't Nick Cave, so he's singing it lightly over a jaunty two-chord campfire singalong strum. I could be listening to 'Stagger Lee', but no, I'm listening to 'Kumbaya' instead.
And then he interjects "Steve!" after "I hear him calling me", to further demean his own declared demons, and I wonder if even the Monday night guy down the road would sing this song to three punters and the barman. It's hard to think of a 36 minute-long record as indulgent, but Hello Wave is about half-an-hour longer than it ever earns.
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I've been on the recieving end of my fair share that 90% you talk about and Sweet Baboo isn't part of it.
Thirded
This is certainly in the 90 percent of DiS that's crap, and is also plain wrong to boot.
imbecile
ive never read a more WRONG review. massive fail
You can't argue with an opinion
But you can argue with a willingness to rip someone's work to shit. And the gleeful way in which it's done.
This: "It makes no-one feel big or clever to lay into a well-meaning musician who operates entirely for love not money" is at complete odds with the rest of the review.
So
i don't get it - do you like the album or not?
For fucks sakes
this is a top album.
Guff
It's worth remembering that this is just one person's opinion who has no more or less credentials to judge this music than any other. Here's another person's opinion on this album who holds the same set of credentials.
It's been a constant on my stereo since it was released, and for me is easily one of the best albums of 2009.
you hate it
fair enough,
So equally fair enough (to counter): this album is def in my top 5 of anything i've heard this year.
proper music journalsist?
no chance mate.
the fact you site stagger lee as an example of a good nick cave speaks volumes about your alleged knowledge of the kind of music you're attempting to right about in an informed way.
also using broken social scene as a reerence point. You simply don't get this album. The nods to american folk of the 40's and 50's, filtered through a view point which isn't obscured by a fake american or working class english accent.
what you call dreary singing, I consider refreshing to hear a north walian accent singing some heart wrenching lyrics and conjuring such obscure and literate imagery.
it's embarassing and annoying to read a reviewer condescending to an artist who clearly has much broader and less trend orientated tastes.
never mind I'm sure whip or whoever one of your fabled ten percent are this week will be making a new album soon.
"And that must be why this album, his second, exists, because of stingy, thirsty sycophants."
as far as i'm aware, the people who run businessman records are doing so out of their own pocket as they love the music they are promoting. There must be easier ways to get someone to buy you a drink. the album is a delight. You, sir, are wrong on at least two accounts.
i forgot to say...
It's your second ever review on a national website (one click on your name suggests) and you choose to be lay in to something self-funded, virtually unknown, completely independant, and clearly not to your taste. I can't begin to understand the thought behind this. What a fucking prick.
I'm guessing
it resulted from getting the same "who wants to review what" email that all the writers do, taking a punt on something very probably unfamiliar, thinking it sucked and then saying so in the form of a review. Not endorsing the sentiment therein, per se, just saying how these things tend to come about
christ
it never ceases to amaze me how people still mistake "reviews they don't agree with" for "bad reviews". After seeing the negative comments on this review (and after having agreed with the author before from afar) i decided to listen to the artist in question. Fucking hell.. to think that people actually like this sort of thing. This bland, irritating, devoid of all but the most base elements of music sort of thing
keep up the good work author. Keep fighting the good fight
Ah DiS!
Shamelessly rip off Thurston Moore and get a guaranteed 9/10.
Dare to pick up an acoustic guitar? FUCK. OFF.
It's not the greatest record of the year but 2/10 only serves to make the author look like a bit of a cunt.
Unless Sweet Baboo is completely different now . . .
. . . then I can see where this review is coming from.
I saw Sweet Baboo a couple of years ago supporting Euros Childs at King Tuts. He wasn't originally supposed to be the support act and i have to say i though at the time that this was a joke act rigged up by someone at the last minute.
It just had a feeling of the muzical equivalent of an episode of the Office. As such the bloke i was with thought it was pretty funny and rather enjoyed it. Personally I though it was a load of old cobblers.
Still I have to admit I'm bemused that such an act could have become something to be taken seriously - although we had differing opinions on how much we enjoyed it we both were convinced that this was a joke act. Maybe it's evolved into somehting else over the last couple of years - but if it hasn't reviews of 2 out of ten don't suprise me in the least.
so wrong....
... oh yes
Sturgeon Smurgeon
I feel a bit like you sometimes; often blurting out a desire for musicians to apply for a license before being allowed to release music. I suppose it would reduce the 90 percentile by a good margin. However, after reading this dross (having listened to most of baboo's back catalogue) I can't help feeling I've been wrong all along. After all, if we were to introduce a ridiculous system of licensing there is the distinct possibility that the pass n fail rates would be decided by someone like yourself. If you can't hear the references (BSS?FFS) or appreciate playful lyricism then you should stick to reviewing music you are comfortable with. Debate about the right to an opinion is only relevant when the opinion in question is an informed one. Sorry, I guess spewing bile is contagious.
Well...
I saw Sweet Baboo play the other day and I thought he was embarrassingly awful, the worst thing I've seen in AGES. I've nothing against comedy-type music that is actually good, ie HMHB, Frank Sidebottom, Tom Lehrer, Ivor Cutler. Even the Colbert Christmas album is pretty good. But this was student zaniness, for fuck's sake. He thinks he's funny and cute and he's neither. So I can quite believe the album is as bad as the review says.
Hmmm...
I think the review was well written -- fully constructed sentences with punctuation in the right places. Well done.
I do however, think that aspects of Sweet Baboo's album have been overlooked. It's terribly easy as a reviewer to be cynical, and expect bands to have some awful gameplan with contrived 'quirkiness' as a way towards world domination -- but I think 'Hello Wave' is genuinely funny with poignant moments worth focusing on.
I think the album reflects where the artist is from and captures his landscape and yearning for the pastoral imaginatively. Yes, Sweet Baboo is playful with his lyrics, and there are comedy aspects, but there are some lines and imagery used in his songs which I think are really rather beautiful. On the Neil Young(esque) 'Hello Bullfrog, Hello Wave', the song starts with the line 'Out in the country, I make my own grave out of leaves'. I think that is a lovely line, and I feel jealous that I didn't write it. I also like the idea of being a tired bumblebee and wanting to escape the city walls to somewhere greener and better. And 'Little Bernadette' is a corker -- one of the best songs ever written about a death defying cat. I think there is an honesty and sensitivity to his songs really worth pondering.
It's true Sweet Baboo's voice isn't the warmest of vocals out there -- but he can carry a tune, and what he has to say is personal, and true. If you want to find unhackneyed songs of lost loves and dreams and a desire to escape, then this is a fantastic album. Definitely one of my favourite albums of the year.
so I guess what most of you guys are saying is....
this really deserves a 3, right?
Are you another failed musician from the gutter after open mic night?
Ally Brown, if you cannot assess music objectively without being overwhelmed by selfish hysterical emotional cynicism, you should not be reviewing anything. You boring infant. You are no journalist, sir. Your writing is appalling. Stick to YouTube video blogs about the latest from Nick Cave, he's so alternative, isn't he? Daft winnit.
Did you get booed off at open mic night?
Ally Brown, if you cannot assess music without being overwhelmed by hysterical emotional cynicism, you should not be reviewing anything ever. You boring infant. Your writing is appalling. Maybe stick to the trailer park of the internet posting video blogs about the latest from Nick Cave, he's so sophisticated, isn't he? Daft winnit.
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