What turned out to be the final
Galaxie 500
album was also arguably the band's most accomplished. Not that the earlier records lacked either charm or ability, but right from the charging, chugging start of
"Fourth of July,"
the amazing single and leadoff song from
This Is Our Music
(even including a cheeky
Velvet Underground
reference from
"Candy Says"
), the trio here sounds like they could take on anyone.
Kramer'
s production and the use of reverb from past releases all once again contribute to
Galaxie 500'
s magic, while the individual members continue to sound fantastic. Somehow, though, everyone aims higher,
Dean Wareham'
s singing is among his finest and his guitar goes for the truly epic more than once,
Damon Krukowski
and
Naomi Yang
are even more perfectly in sync than before, often being very bold without losing their intrinsic warmth. From a generally different approach,
here easily equaled the heights of their U.K. shoegaze contemporaries and often trumped them --
"Summertime"
in particular is a stunner -- while making a lot of contemporary American indie rock seem fairly dull and workaday. The choice of cover version this time out is astonishing --
Yoko Ono'
s
"Listen, the Snow Is Falling,"
with
Yang
singing beautifully over
Wareham's
echoed guitar strums, and
Krukowski's
barely there percussion cascade. The switch to a full-band arrangement, far from destroying the song's spell, makes it even more intense and gripping a listen. The subtle touches throughout the album add immeasurably to its magic -- the soft ringing bells shimmering through
"Hearing Voices,"
the quiet synth on
"Spook,"
Kramer's
self-described "cheap flute" on
"Way Up High."
It all concludes with
"King of Spain, Pt. Two,"
a reworking of the flipside of
"Tugboat"
-- while it wasn't a planned finale, it as an unexpectedly right bookend to a career, and ends both
on a perfect note. [The 2010 reissue of the album on
Krukowski
Yang'
20/20/20
label pairs
with the 1990 live recoding of the band that was released by
Rykodisc
as
Copenhagen
in 1997.] ~ Ned Raggett