The Chills are not really power pop, but they make exquisite music, so tuneful and pleasing, and I’d have to say that they are my favorite among the many great kiwi pop bands. I would also say the same thing about Martin Phillips that I said about Dwight Twilley a while back. When his music caresses my face and body, all my fear and insecurity dissolves, and I know I’m hearing a kindred spirit, somebody who gets me on a deep and intuitive level. He’s quite simply a magnificent songwriter with such a keen and effortless sense of melody and heavenly pop ecstasy. Tonight’s song still feels to me after all these years as if it were plucked from the innermost regions of my psyche. It’s the longing and yearning and desire that get to me, feelings I’ve struggled with all my life, attached to one person or another along the way, the ever elusive need to love, to be loved, to be validated. It can be such a painful sensation, yet Phillips soothes the hurt with his sweetness and empathy. It really does feel like he’s speaking for me, and I love him for that. …Unfortunately, I guess he decided to re-record the vocals for a retrospective Chills compilation, and the new singing is much weedier and far inferior to the original on (the aptly titled) Brave Words. I don’t understand why he did that. Don’t fuck with perfection. It’s like remaking The Manchurian Candidate or Hawaii Five O. What’s the point? There’s nowhere to go but down. Whatev. Martin Phillips gets a pass from me on this one. In fact, he’s earned as many passes as he needs for all the joyful moments he’s brought me over the years. There’s nothing more gratifying than feeling completely understood…
No comments:
Post a Comment