{"id":21021,"date":"2021-05-21T05:30:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T09:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21021"},"modified":"2021-05-19T09:25:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T13:25:23","slug":"album-review-the-armoires-incognito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/21\/album-review-the-armoires-incognito\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Armoires — Incognito"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"There\u2019s a proud and creatively fertile tradition in rock\u2019n\u2019roll: playing dress-up, assuming an alter ego. The Beatles may have done it first with Sgt. Pepper<\/em>, and six months later The Who\u2019s The Who Sell Out<\/i> found them (sort of) taking on the identity of a pirate radio station. Unmasked by no less a figure than Syd Barrett, The Moles\u2019 \u201cWe are the Moles\u201d<\/a> was really Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. Stateside, The Four Seasons released material that didn\u2019t quite fit their established sound under the pseudonym The Wonder Who? (the question mark was part of the name). The Turtles may have made their greatest album ever pretending to be a dozen different groups on 1968\u2019s The Turtles Present The Battle of the Bands<\/i><\/a>. The four-man Utopia adopted a Beatles persona for Deface the Music<\/i>. And of course back in Swindon, England, XTC made an album and a half<\/a> as The Dukes of Stratosphere.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m here today to tell you about a new entry in this curious sub-sub-genre of pop, one that makes a claim to belonging on the shelf along the aforementioned efforts.<\/p>\n

The Big Stir label has established itself as a tastemaker in recent years, releasing a dizzyingly varied swath of music from bands in (and well beyond) the powerpop idiom. They\u2019re on their tenth or so collection of singles compilations, and those discs are staggeringly consistent in their quality. And scattered among those releases are a clutch of \u201cundiscovered\u201d bands with names like October surprise, The Chessie System, Tina & the Tiny Potatoes and several others.<\/p>\n

But hey, guess what: Zed Cats, Gospel Swamps and those other bands seemingly named by a Robert Pollard disciple are in fact all one group: The Armoires. Led by Big Stir honchos (or honcho and honcha?) Rex Broome and Christine Bulbenko, The Armoires now admit that these tracks are their \u201ccosplay singles.\u201d<\/p>\n

These excursions give the group the opportunity to step outside of whatever sonic parameters within which The Armoires supposedly exist. As showcased on \u201cBagfoot Run,\u201d The Chessie System\u2019s countrified style \u2013 one that owes a debt to Mike Nesmith \u2013 is certainly miles away from The Armoires\u2019 customary aesthetic. But it\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n

Incognito<\/em> opens in grand fashion, with an inventive cover of John Cale\u2019s \u201cParis 1919\u201d (by October Surprise) that suggests how The Move<\/a> might have cut it (with the Brothers Gibb helping out on vocals).<\/p>\n

The chirpy vocals and subtly baroque arrangements of The Yes It Is! draw from The Left Banke, The Three O\u2019clock and Stories. Its intimidating title notwithstanding \u201cThe Night I Heard a Scream\u201d is a sonic cousin to \u201cShe May Call You Up Tonight.\u201d (And that\u2019s high praise indeed.) When they apply that aesthetic to XTC\u2019s \u201cSenses Working Overtime,\u201d the results are equally fascinating.<\/p>\n

Tina & the Tiny Potatoes have a musical persona halfway between The La\u2019s and Lisa Loeb<\/a> (or maybe Sixpence None the Richer). The Ceramic Age doesn\u2019t evoke specific thoughts of another act, but the curious \u201cOhma, Bring Your Light Into This Place\u201d is a delight nonetheless. And while the band name Gospel Swamps isn\u2019t especially appetizing, with its chiming Ric guitar, \u201cGreat Distances\u201d is pure pop perfection. And \u201cAwkward City Limits\u201d is a model of alluring subtlety.<\/p>\n

The playful vibe continues as The Armoires remove their masks for three \u201chidden\u201d (as in, not listed on the package but mentioned in the liner notes) tracks. There\u2019s a weird sound collage with an unwieldy title that takes longer to say than the track\u2019s runtime. And there\u2019s a sort of campfire tune. And the disc wraps up with a song that answers the unasked question: What would it sound like if Mark E. Smith fronted the Partridge Family?<\/p>\n

A wacky concept, successfully executed: that in and of itself would be worthy of praise. But Incognito<\/i> is something more than musical self-indulgence; it\u2019s a fun listen, and thus recommended with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a proud and creatively fertile tradition in rock\u2019n\u2019roll: playing dress-up, assuming an alter ego. The Beatles may have done it first with Sgt. Pepper, and six months later The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65],"tags":[4533],"class_list":["post-21021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-the-armoires","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21027,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21021\/revisions\/21027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}