Welcome to another busy week in Indie Basement. This time we’ve got: Australia’s The Goon Sax reinvent themselves just a little on their terrific third album; Suede celebrate the 25th anniversary of Coming Up with a new vinyl repress; Matt Berry‘s first two albums get vinyl represses too; Oranger cover Neil Young, Moby Grape and more on their first release in 16 years; Museum of Love (LCD’s Pat Mahoney & Dennis McNany) are back after seven years with their sophomore album; and Quivers deliver wonderful heartfelt guitar pop on Golden Doubt.

If you need more new album reviews, Andrew takes on Half Waif, Travis Scott and more in Notable Releases. Lots of other stuff happened this week too: The Boo Radleys released their first single in 23 years (but without Martin Carr); Tricky seems to have a new Nearly God-style project; Cold Beat have a new album on the way; GOAT have a new rarities comp; and Amen Dunes collaborated with Sleaford Mods (didn’t see that one coming).

Head below for this week’s reviews.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: The Goon Sax – Mirror II (Matador)
Third album from this Australian trio finds them stretching their wings and sharpening their songwriting skills

Australian trio The Goon Sax‘s first two album — 2016’s Up to Anything and 2018’s We’re Not Talking — were made when Riley Jones, Louis Forster, and James Harrison were still teenagers and are wonderful documents of the foibles of youth as strummy indie guitar pop. The band’s third album, though, finds them maturing and stretching their wings, both musically and more literally. The members spent the most time apart from each other since meeting each other; Louis moved to Berlin and worked at a cinema, while Riley and James stayed in Brisbane and formed post-punk-inspired group, Soot.

Two years passed and, with a new set of songs (and influences), the band reconvened to make a new record. They lived in a house together during the writing process and then headed to England to record with PJ Harvey/Aldous Harding producer John Parish at Geoff Barrow’s Invada Studio in Bristol. “The first two albums are inherently linked,” says Forster. “They had three-word titles; they went together. This one definitely felt like going back to square one and starting again, and that was really freeing.”

Mirror II is definitely new ground for The Goon Sax. While post-punk and trad indie is in their blood (Louis’ dad is Robert Forster of The Go-Betweens), they explore darker sounds this time out, making extensive use of synthesizers and drum machines. The songs are more complex and the delineation between whose songs are whose has been significantly smeared, and drummer Riley Jones is an equal songwriting partner this time. They have not forgotten how to write a memorable melody, nor have they lost their ability to look at familiar lyrical subject (namely the ups and downs of love) though fresh eyes, they’re just approaching it in different ways.

“Do you think it’s better not feelin’ any of this at all?” Riley sings over a Cure-like chorded bass riff and woozy keyboards on opener “In the Stone,” continuing, “I explain the situation in a hundred ways / testing what sounds true / and meaning none of it at all.” The song trades verses with Forster, making for a nuanced he-said-she-said where everyone is upset and no one’s talking. Relationship woes continue across the big washes of synths in “Psychic,” the clattering “TAG,” and Riley’s ethereal, lovelorn “Desire.”

While using a new array of sounds and instruments, the arrangements are still spare and not fussed over, even while the themes are more thorny. “Till Dawn” starts like a warm memory of an intimate night set to flickering candlelight but ends in darkness. Harrison’s songs, which have the closest ties musically to The Goon Sax’s first two albums, have an oddball romantic charm but there is something askew, perhaps sinister going on underneath the jaunty melodies of “Carpetry” and “Temples.” The Goon Sax have always offered a lot to chew on, but Mirror II offers acid, bitter and sweet for their most savory, complex course yet.

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Suede – Coming Up 25th anniversary reissue (Demon)
Suede went Britpop to great effect on their hit third album which gets its first-ever US vinyl release for its 25th anniversary

Splits in classic lineups rarely result in a band becoming more popular but that’s what happened with Suede. Singer Brett Anderson and guitarist Bernard Butler were regularly referred to by the UK press as the best British songwriting duo since Morrissey & Marr, so when Butler announced he was leaving the group in 1994, most people figured that would be it for the band. But Suede carried on and replaced Butler with two new members: guitarist Richard Oakes, a young fan who sent the band a demo tape of him playing their songs when he learned Butler had left; and keyboardist Neil Codling. Both proved to be worthy songwriting partners for Butler and, perhaps inspired by the Britpop madness that had sprung up since their last album, Suede went for a more shiny, commercial and modern version of their glammy sound on 1996’s Coming Up. and it proved to be an irresistible combination.

While some of the more nuanced musical touches were lost with Butler’s departure, Coming Up fully embraced the spotlight with big hooks, singalong choruses, romantic “us-against-the-world” lyrics and endless swagger. It was a complete about-face from 1994’s dark, ambitious Dog Man Star, and Suede swung for the fences and connected — the album went to #1 in the UK and spawned five Top 10 singles with “Trash,” “Beautiful Ones,” “Lazy,” “Filmstar,” and “Saturday Night.” The other five songs on Coming Up could’ve been singles, especially the riff-rocking “Starcrazy” and the sweeping, languid “The Chemistry Between Us” (One of this writer’s all-time favorite Suede songs.) Coming Up was also the first album to feature artwork by Peter Saville (New Order, Joy Division), a partnership that would continue on 1999’s Head Music.

Coming Up got a 5-CD 20th anniversary box back in 2016 and for its 25th anniversary they’re reissuing it as a single-disc clear vinyl album, and as a double CD special edition with all 17 b-sides from the singles. (Suede were always great at b-sides and there are many, many great ones here.) This is also the first time the album has been released on vinyl in the US and while American fans may be annoyed that it says “The London Suede” on the cover, the price (and lack of insane international shipping) makes up for it.

The vinyl is out September 10th and you can pre-order it now in our shop.

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Quivers – Golden Doubt (Ba Da Bing)
Australian quartet recall the Golden Age of wistful, romantic guitar pop on their quietly spectacular new album.

Not all bands from Melbourne, Australia are scuzzy dolewave garage punks with home cut mullets and connections to Mikey Young. Four-piece Quivers, who lets face it may have connections to Young, seem miles away from that scene, making sparkling pop powered by expertly crafted songs and the harmonies of Sam Nicholson, Holly Thomas, Bella Quinlan and Michael Panton.” Golden Doubt, their first U.S. release, recalls everything from Aussie bands like The Go-Betweens and and Hunters & Collectors to Prefab Sprout, The Cure (at their poppiest) and R.E.M. The band says it’s about being in love with being in love, as well as being in love with “other albums, and the other bands around us,” which puts in square in the Golden Age of wistful, romantic guitar pop and is quietly spectacular. Quivers manage a tricky lyrical tightrope act of being genuine and heartfelt without falling into saccharine territory. “After all the serotonin’s gone, can you still fall in love with someone?” Sam asks on the album’s opening song “Gutters of Love,” and soon the rest of the Quivers are joining in for a full, soaring chorus of that refrain while jangly guitar leads chime and dance around each other. It’s clear the answer to the question is yes.

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Museum Of Love – Life Of Mammals (Skint)
The duo of Pat Mahoney and Dennis McNany return after seven years and get weird on their second album (which was mixed by James Murphy)

Museum of Love — aka LCD Soundsystem drummer Pat Mahoney and Dennis McNany — are finally back with a follow-up to their underrated 2014 debut. Despite their connections to dance music, this is a much odder duck than their first album, owing more to the arty side of the ’70s and ’80s (Bill Nelson, Scott Walker, The Associates). “There’s house music in there, too,” says Mahoney, “although maybe not on the surface. I felt like our first album was more in that world, but with this record, we’ve ended up making a weird rock LP.” Life of Mammals, is wiry, fanciful stuff — the glammy “Cluttered World” struts around at a cabaret featuring Nick Cave and Lemper, while “Army of Children” is dubbed out early-’70s peace pop — but rhythm is still at the heart of the album. James Murphy mixed the album and it sounds like a million bucks…spent in unlikely ways. You can definitely shake a leg to “Marching Orders” and “The Conversation” but it’s gonna be one strange party.

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Matt Berry – Witchazel & Kill the Wolf vinyl represses (Acid Jazz)
No longer just a cult act, Matt Berry’s out-of-print first two albums get their first vinyl represses

When Matt Berry released his first album, Witchazel, back in 2009, he was mainly known as a comic actor, having worked on cult British series like Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Snuffbox and The IT Crowd. His music was not a joke, but just as niche — autumnal, baroque prog/psych/folk that seemed to have been found in a 1973 time capsule. Matt is much more well-known these days as both an actor and a musician. What We Do in the Shadows has made him a recognizable face (and voice) in the U.S. and his last few albums, including this year’s great The Blue Elephant, have gotten recognition beyond record nerd circles. Perhaps because of that, Acid Jazz is repressing Matt’s first two albums for the label on vinyl.

Both albums inhabit the same world. Witchazel, which was originally released as a digital album in 2009 and then released by Acid Jazz in 2011, has what is probably Berry’s best-known song, “Take My Hand,” that became the theme song for Berry’s series Toast of London (which is moving to L.A. for new series Toast of Tinseltown). It’s also got “Rain Came Down” which features Paul McCartney singing a verse halfway through the song. That said, 2013’s Kill the Wolf is all-around a superior album with better production, better songs, and more fully realized arrangements. But they’re both really good.

Both of these albums only got extremely limited vinyl pressings on their original release and now go for hundreds of dollars in the secondary market, so these represses are extremely welcome. Witchazel comes on caramel vinyl (brown is not my favorite color of vinyl, but it certainly fits the early-’70s earth tones of the album), while Kill the Wolf comes on bottle green vinyl in a gatefold sleeve. Watch a video from each:

You can also read my interview with Matt about new album The Blue Elephant and lots more.

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Oranger – Please Leave Our Mind: Covers Under Lockdown
Choice covers of Neil Young, Moby Grape, Todd Rundgren and more are Oranger’s first new recordings in 16 years and some of the last from bassist Matt Harris who died earlier this year.

Matt Harris, who played in San Francisco bands Oranger and Overwhelming Colorfast (as well as The Posies), died back in February. One of the projects he was working on when he left us was Oranger‘s first new music in 16 years. Just for fun during lockdown, they decided to work on a few covers of their favorite songs, recorded remotely, and that’s now been released as the Please Leave Our Mind, which represents some of the last records Matt made.

The songs all fall generally within the Oranger orbit of ’60s psych pop, ’70s singer-songwriter grooviness and power pop, so it doesn’t really take a lot to make them their own. It’s still impressive, though, how much of an Oranger song Neil Young‘s “Barstool Blues” becomes, same with Todd Rundgren‘s “Couldn’t I Just Tell You.” There’s also Herbal Mixture‘s “Please Leave My Mind,” Moby Grape‘s amblin’ “I Am Not Willing” and Spirit‘s granola classic “Nature’s Way.” (Ever heard This Mortal Coil’s version?) While we may wonder what might have been (and still might be), it’s great to hear Matt laying down basslines and harmonies with Oranger one more time. Rest in peace.

Dig through Oranger’s very rewarding back catalogue if you get a chance, especially 2000’s The Quiet Vibrationland.

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

And check out what’s new in our shop.

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Indie Basement: 20 Favorite Albums of the Year 2000 (Alphabetical Order)

The Aislers Set – The Last Match (Slumberland)

Maybe the greatest Slumberland Records band ever, and certainly one of the most underrated American bands of the millenium era, San Francisco's The Aislers Set sounded like a head-on collision between an Austin-Healey carrying members of Belle & Sebastian, The Pastels and The Jesus & Mary Chain, and a 1965 Volkswagen Beetle driven by Phil Spector with Roger McGuinn and Brian Wilson in the back seat. Don't worry, no one was hurt, everyone became friends and formed a band. In actuality, The Aislers set were led by Amy Linton, who had been in the noisier Henry's Dress in the mid-'90s and who wrote wonderful shambolic mid-fi pop that mixed reverb-y guitar squalls with spun sugar. The Last Match was their peak, featuring one memorable song after another and timeless, charmingly messy production.

Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of the Bewilderbeast (Twisted Nerve / XL)

Are there too many songs on this, Badly Drawn Boy's debut album? Does Damon Gough, who is BDM for all intents and purposes, throw in two too many ideas into some songs? Does it seem like he's sabotaging himself on purpose occasionally? Is The Hour of the Bewilderbeast a wonderful, inventive psych-folk-pop record despite all those things? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Winner of the 2000 Mercury Prize, it remains Badly Drawn Boy's overstuffed crowning achievement.

Bertrand Burgalat – The Sssound Of Mmmusic (Tricatel)

By the end of the '90s, people may have been burnt out on on the whole '60s lounge thing and figured one retro-future French band was enough, but thankfully that never stopped the brilliant Bertrand Burgalat who straddled the line between lush bachelor pad nostalgia and the French Touch disco scene that was pushing things forward at the turn of the century. His debut album, The Sssound Of Mmmusic, is a fully realized sonic world; groovy and glitchy, playful and inviting, endlessly delightful.

Black Box Recorder – The Facts Of Life (Nude/Jetset)

After years playing in indie guitar bands The Servants and The Auteurs, Luke Haines hooked up with former Jesus & Mary Chain bassist John Moore and vocalist Sarah Nixey to make severely subversive synthpop as Black Box Recorder. Their music was so sleek, many listeners didn't really how messed up the lyrics were. Which was the point. On their gleefully twisted second album, The Facts of Life, they actually made it into the UK charts, with the slinky title track reaching #20 on the singles chart. That song had Nixey cooing relationship advice, like suggesting places teenage couples could get time alone such as "a disused coal mine." That's just one of the 11 delicious but deadly poison pop pills in this bottle.

Blonde Redhead – Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons (Touch and Go)

Let's hear it for Blonde Redhead, one of New York's great bands who were around for most of the '90s when there were not very many good bands in NYC. Made up of singer/guitarist Kazu Makino and identical twins Amedeo (guitar) and Simone Pace (drums), the trio's early records were closer to Sonic Youth, but by the late '90s a much wider range of sounds were incorporated into their sonic palette, including electronics, baroque film scores, classical music and shoegazy pop. Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, certainly one of the greatest album titles of all time, was their second time working with Fugazi's Guy Picciotto as producer and where their sound really blossomed. There were still wild screamers like "Mother," but the stunning "In Particular," "This is Not" and "For the Damaged Coda" point to where they'd go on Misery is a Butterfly and 23.

Broadcast – The Noise Made by People (Warp)

After a number of EPs and an appearance on the Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery soundtrack, Broadcast released their full length debut, 2000's best album bar none as far as this writer is concerned. Utterly bewitching, The Noise Made People still sounds like pop transmitted from another dimension, detached from time and space. Every detail is considered, from the eerie synthesizers (part sci-fi, part Italian horror film), to the snap of the snare, the ambient sounds of electricity that hum lowly in most songs, and the artwork that seems to have been made from old computer punchcards. Trish Keenan's beguiling, mysterious voice seals the deal on perfect songs like "Echo's Answer" and "Come on Let's Go."

Cinerama – Disco Volante (Scopitones)

David Gedge put his cultishly loved indie band The Wedding Present on hold in the late '90s and started Cinerama with his then girlfriend, Sally Murrell. Their first album sounded like TWP gone acoustic with synths, but Gedge figured out Cinerama's raison d'être on 2000's Disco Volante: fierce indie rock by way of swinging '60s spy movies, complete with strings, flutes and marimba. Keeping his lyrical M.O. -- love, lust, jealousy and heartbreak -- Gedge reinvented his style, and made trad indie guitars kinda sexy; Disco Volante ties with The Wedding Present's Seamonsters (both were made with Steve Albini) for best record of his career.

The Clientele – Suburban Light (Pointy / Merge)

UK indie trio The Clientele have always been a rainy day kind of band, romanticizing British inclement weather in many songs and through their general air of wistful melodies, brushed drums and frontman Alasdair Maclean's hushed vocals and delicately plucked guitars. The forecast called for weeks of damp weather on The Clientele's magical debut album, Suburban Light, that includes two songs with "rain" in the title and sounds like it was recorded in a cloud, or at least the London fog, with dense layers of reverb surrounding everything. It just adds to the wonderful, wistful atmosphere and you can't help but be swept up in the mise-en-scene of "Reflections After Jane," "We Could Walk Together," "An Hour Before the Light" and, yes, "Rain." Dress accordingly.

Clinic – Internal Wrangler (Domino)

Having released numerous singles and EPs through the late-'90s, Liverpool's Clinic had it all figured out by the time of their debut album, from their look (ahead-of-their-time surgical masks and scrubs), to their sinister sound that combined dubby postpunk, sleazy garage rock, analog synthesizers and motorik krautrock rhythms with Ade Blackburn's acid-dipped vocals. Dark as it was, Internal Wrangler was also kind of a party record, with the throbbing "The Second Line," "TK" (which cribs melody from "Ring of Fire"), and the melodica-soaked "The Return of Evil Bill" -- all surefire dancefloor fillers at any party full of nervous, paranoid people who haven't slept in a week.

The Delgados – The Great Eastern (Beggars Banquet)

Led by singer/guitarists Alun Woodward and Emma Pollock, Scottish band The Delgados were one of the best bands of the 1995-2005 era, making magisterial indie rock that felt both immense and entirely homespun. Their third album, The Great Eastern, is wildly ambitious both in song structure and in arrangements -- songs were prone to left turns of tempo and time signature, and grand orchestration. No doubt influenced by Mercury Rev's Deserter's Songs and The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin (both of which were, like The Great Eastern, produced by Dave Fridmann), songs like "Accused of Stealing," "American Trilogy" and "No Danger" remain perfect indie rock symphonies The Delgados feel a little lost to the era, for whatever reason, but The Great Eastern still wows.

The Fall – The Unutterable (Eagle Records)

Following a weird/bad mid-'90s that saw The Fall reuniting with former guitarist Brix Smith briefly and Mark E Smith blowing up what remained of the classic lineup on-stage in NYC, MES recovered with an almost entirely new lineup of the band and some of their best records in years. The peak of that period is The Unutterable, which has Smith in fine cantankerous form (the most together he'd sounded in years) and the group adding current electronic sounds to their garage/rockabilly/krautrock M.O. There are no shortage of classics here -- "Cyber Insekt," "Two Librans," "Octo Realm / Ketamine Sun" -- but the album's worth the purchase for "Dr. Buck's Letter" alone, where MES reads an apparent actual, unintentionally hilarious, letter from an actual Dr. Buck over a killer, dubby groove.

The Go-Betweens – The Friends of Rachel Worth (Jetset)

Australia's Go-Betweens called it quits in 1989 but bandleaders Robert Forster and Grant McLennan remained close friends, at one point attempting to write screenplays together. That never panned out but Forster and Mclennan reunited in the late '90s for one of the best second acts any indie band has ever had. Made in Portland with Quasi (Janet Weiss & Sam Coomes) in the backing band and the rest of Sleater-Kinney on a track too, The Friends of Rachel Worth almost feels as if both songwriters had been saving up some of their best material in hopes of a reconciliation, here delivering some of their most sublime songs, like McLennan's "Going Blind" and Forster's "Surfing Magazines." The understated production, free of any attempt to get them "in the charts," makes this their best-ever sounding album. I would argue you could take the word "sounding" out of that last sentence, too.

Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain (Mute)

Having sung on records in the '90s by Orbital, Tricky, Plaid and Add N to X, Alison Goldfrapp jumped into the spotlight with Felt Mountain, the debut album from her namesake collaboration with Will Gregory. Drawing from sweeping '60s soundtracks and the downtempo scene she'd been involved with for the previous decade, nothing else sounded quite like it (though Broadcast and Blonde Redhead were clearly from the same galaxy). The album opens with the gorgeously unreal "Lovely Head," Goldfrapp's debut single, that plays like an acid-trip Bond theme featuring whistling, harpsichord, freaky electronics, and spine-tinglingly processed vocals that sound like... an ostrich singing opera? It's an unforgettable start to an record still bewitches and surprises today.

Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump (V2)

Grandaddy really figured out their sound and worldview with their fantastic second album, featuring frontman Jason Lytle's absurdist tales of mundanity and stress in our increasingly tech-reliant world, set to a blend of '90s indie rock, glammy synthphonic flourishes (Flaming Lips/Mercury Rev's influence loomed large in 2000), and twangy country. The concept album imagines a world full of alcoholic robots, sad computer programmers, lost pilots, stuntman Evil Knevil, and forests made of discarded appliances that Lytle makes relatable with his empathetic style and a hard drive full of earworm spacerock pop...somehow it all sounds even more relevant now than it did in Y2K.

The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic (Mint)

They may be the Carl Newman Show these days, but The New Pornographers started off as a true collaborative supergroup, with Newman (previously of Zumpano), Destroyer's Dan Bejar and Neko Case all writing songs, often together, played with a band that also included members of Limblifter and Nardwuar's band, The Evaporators. "How could we lose," Newman told Pitchfork on their formation. "You could just take some interesting elements and put them together. Even taking myself out of the picture, when I looked at the band I just thought, 'This band's got to be great.'" He was definitely right, and their debut album, recorded over a three-year period, is a modern guitar pop classic where every song is a potential single.

Oranger – The Quiet Vibrationland (Amazing Grease / Poptones)

San Francisco's Oranger were popsmiths of the highest order, borrowing the best bits of '60s and '70s psychedelia to create their own brand of sunshine pop. Nicking the title from The Who's Tommy (and drummer Jim Lindsay swiping wild fills from Keith Moon), The Quiet Vibrationland also borrows from The Byrds, Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Turtles and the Kinks, but they do it with panache, punny pop-culture-laced humor and their own fantastic melodic sense. Oranger never really got their due -- they're not too far in sound or style from Fountains of Wayne -- but "Suddenly Upsidedown," "A View of the City from an Airplane," "Texas Snow" and "Stoney Curtis in Reverse" all sound like lost classics.

Primal Scream – XTRMNTR (Creation/Astralwerks)

Like The Fall, Primal Scream svengali Bobby Gillespie has always been able to absorb myriad influences and current trends into his band's own brand of rock n' roll and have it sound like they invented it. They were never more ambitious than on XTRMNTR -- a call-to-arms with revolution (political, musical, everything) in its sights that counted The Chemical Brothers, My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, New Order's Bernard Sumner, and The Stone Roses' Gary Mounfield as part of their band of rebels. The 'Scream had never sounded so urgent, gritty and alive, and crazed, techno-infected songs like "Swastika Eyes," "Kill All Hippies" and "Shoot Speed/Kill Light" were miles away from the ecstasy-fueled good vibes they began the '90s with on Screamadelica. Gillespie may have lost the war, ultimately, but XTRMNTR remains a helluva battle.

Radiohead – Kid A (Capitol)

What is there to say about Kid A at this point that hasn't been said in a million other places? The band could do no wrong at this point, and going from The Bends to OK Computer, to this -- one of the most thrilling hot-streaks of the era -- it became apparent that the only thing you could expect from Radiohead was to be surprised and usually wowed. To wit: the minimal electronic bent of much of the record (like "Idioteque"); when the horns come in on "The National Anthem"; and the ambient beauty of "Treefingers." When they weren't dismantling the the sound formed on their first three albums, Radiohead showed they could still make powerful rock tracks like "Optimistic" and "Morning Bell." Even with all that's come since, Kid A still feels like an amazing curveball.

Super Furry Animals – MWNG (Placid Casual / Flydaddy)

Radiohead (see above) get the credit for being the biggest rock innovators of the late-'90s and early-'00s, but I'd at least give the silver medal to Welsh band Super Furry Animals who consistently pushed the envelope -- musically, visually, everything -- and were never scared to take wild swings while still working within in the boundaries of pop and rock. Take MWNG, which debuted at #11 in the UK albums chart and is sung entirely in Welsh. Even if you don't understand what they're saying on this one (and I don't), there's no denying the melodies, performances and clever production which are super and furry in any language.

Teenage Fanclub – Howdy! (Sony)

Glaswegian greats Teenage Fanclub have never been ones for breaking new ground, but they have one of the most consistent track records of any group that have been together 30 years. Howdy! is the Fannies' seventh album and one of their most underrated. It barely got released in America -- I bet many fans don't know this one even exists -- but Norman Blake, Gerry Love and Raymond McGinley are still cranking out the jangly hits. Everything you love about Teenage Fanclub is here: stick-in-your-head melodies, great harmonies, and really nice arrangements. They were a much mellower band by this point, but that fits them like a favorite sweater.