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Refrigerator - Glitter Jazz (1999) [Shrimper, SHR113, CD]
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What Does This Album Sound Like?
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Liner note credits:
Allen Callaci - vocals. Dennis Callaci - guitar, vocal. Chris Jones - drums & percussion. Daniel Brodo - bass. all songs by Refrigerator (BMI) recorded june 1998-may 1999. produced by Refrigerator & Bob Kaufman. engineered by Bob Kaufman. executive engineer Karen Pinkus. recorded at Ben Hur studious. except "Sweet A.M." which was recorded by Bob Durkee at FBE studios. mastered by John Golden. cover photo & inclusive photos by Mark Campos except back cd tray & CD surface art by Amy Maloof. layout by Bill Magdziarz. Franklin Bruno appears courtesy of Scat records. Jodi Buananno couresty of the Secret Stars. John Davis courtesy of Interscope records. Ira Kaplan & Georgia Hubley courtesy of Matador records. Karl Runge courtesy of KSPC.
Indirectly transcribed from various places in the booklet, to summarize:
Look at that list of performers, what a lineup. This is, to my knowledge, the first Refrigerator album to credit Daniel Brodo on bass, and where he becomes a permanent fixture. I got into Refrigerator very out-of-order, so when I realized this about Brodo, I was of two minds: "they did all that without a bassist for that long?" and "he really just got here? are we sure? it just sounds so right for him to be there!" I guess they thought so, too, because ten years later they'd delay recording an electric album for a year when he was sidelined with an injury. Normally I'd go through and describe the flow of the album here, what you can expect, but this one's such a single clear picture. It's cohesive, it sounds great, it's got some of the all-time heartbreakers for single lines. This is the Refrigerator album I most frequently lend out to people who've never heard them before.
I'll try to pick a few highlights:
Lyrics, transcribed straight from the liner notes:
01. Tourists
today the tourists
all came by
i showed them round and round
i showed them to
the hole we fell into
said it look smaller than what they pictured
everybody's in the water
but it doesnt feel like summer
tourists asked
how you were like
like a photograph you keep around
but don't look at much at all
02. Uncertain Someone
so where are you now
you really can't say
somewhere in the background
at the side of the stage
too restless towait
too tired to run
that uncertain someone
that uncertain someone
and you say, show me the road
where second guesses turn gold
and that's where i'll go
this whole worldwide
couldn't change my mind
for to be here with
to be here with you
even if just for this short time
in a worrying car
at the end of the line
that's where i'll go
too restless to wait
too tired to run
that uncertain someone
that uncertain someone
and you say show me the road
where second guesses turn gold
and that's where i'll go
adrift in the storm
too late to return
closing up early
and just going home
too restless to wait
too tired to run
that uncertain someone
that uncertain someone
and you say show me the road
where second guesses turn gold
and thats where i'll go
that's where i'll go
03. Western Disconnection
earlier that day
we were talking you to i
couldn't shake the hour
as the days flew by, fly by
later in the week
thursday in the pm
i pull your pumps off
if only because i can
could i
hearts can take a holiday
as the surroundings decay
throw your arms up in the air and so long
waiting for the breaths to take
tolls on the words we didn't say
here and gone
deeper into night
you find yourself
in a crowd again
with borrowed friends
with no time to reply
the sight arrives
someone decides to begin
you through a lens
and me again, again goodbye
04. Los Angeles
los angeles is no longer los angeles
it never was to be
dreamt apart on a string of events that added to nothing
shows me the world and then to my seat
says take whatever you need
well thanks for the fireworks and now so long
by the time we arrived we couldn't find a thing
nothing but smothered buildings
i started and stopped without even noticing
says los angeles is nothing new to us
replies but it's better than nothing
well thanks for the fireworks and now so long
thanks for the fireworks and now so long
05. Heart of Bone
i stood with a bell jar of belongings
rubberbands, cds, decoding rings
a flood of blood, fireworks that sing
the every everything that had ever befriended me
you had painted your favorite perfume on
and jim mouthed the words to some borrowed song
you can't fit your arms around all wrong
you can't fit your arms around all wrong
somewhere there's a half chamber of mud
trapped in a heart of bone, bone
trapped in a heart of bone
the new language, dots dashes double back slashes
voodoo numerology
the right lines are always unclear in spite of what you hear
they're trick questions invented to keep us
to keep us here appearing
at al your stop lighted for sale signs
on a steep incline without brakes
over kellog hill into a basin of real estate stakes
of real estate stakes
where it is your three thousand watts
three thousand watts keep us sane
in a heart of bone, heart of bone
we're in department stores (you conspire with me)
trapped in department stores (you conspire with me)
all that stakes and stones come chasing after
the poor worthless things
pounded into sediment at the local quarry
let's ground them down, down, down, down
running feet first into the headlights
where vendors search for pink slip highs
owning up the totalled cars
wrecking yards of discarded lives
i started building down, sanding down
building the surroundings away
a fistful of dust with a heart of bone
where others would insist that vision means everything
but the vision that exists
i wish you'd take this horizon down
painted up written out overfilmed on bad stock
ground it down ground it down ground it down
ghost souls in a refinery retrieve sights and sounds
to prop up a facade of downtown
not too high or they'll jump up up up up up up
like ideas running out of air
a number up and then nowhere
engaged between the flesh and bone
stripping the meat and selling the chrome
heart of bone, heart of bone, heart of bone
06. Drowning Out
crying for help in your sleep
in touch and out of reach
how'd it get so cold and so deep
keeping in and floating out
until you're somebody else
hanging by a cloud
as the world weighs in drowning out
and everyone there at your scene
can't decide whether to help or to leave
it's cold and its deep
drowning out
07. Sunnyside Over
these mismatched chairs corner the table
color us in (femurs and shins)
the way it appears that children don't understand
up under cover you can almost make out the shape of this world
as it sputters as it spins
sunny side over
startings begin
resembles this as it ends
that year that could have spanned the length of a decade
had we not cut the cord
just said when, created an end, tied it off
so pleased to see you outlive the regrets that accompanied you in
imagine this as it ends
takes us in, begins
08. Wedding Waltz
i'm going to play our song to the ground
and i'm going to be a little less around
and i'm gonna jump before i can be talked down
and it's almost forever
and it's only just now
she's a fine girl
she's a soft soul
she's all i could want
just a fool would want more
and it's almost forever
and it's only just now
a penny a thought
a dollar a dance
think of me sometime
and sometime i'll think of you
sometimes i'll think of you
09. Left And Gone
she had everything but none of it was yours
you gave her everything but none of it was you
she's in the air now (don't look down)
she's in the air now
so let the blind go on and lead the blind
let the lost go on and find themselves
maybe there's no difference in being left
and being gone
she's in the air now
she's in the air now
maybe she's finally found that new life
that she was always talking about
10. Static On Static
well i tried my best to be there
there was so much in the way
i got off on the wrong exit
so pencilled in i couldn't get out
i know it's static on static
static on static
well i finally hit the ragtime
like you always said i would
and i pulled myself together
with the pieces i had left
i know it's static on static
last i gathered you were living in a desert
with another on the way
i can't stop myself from hoping
i guess i'm crazy in that way
static on static
11. Sweet A.M.
bleeding through my window
coming through my lines
pulling me out, seeing me through
sweet a.m.
oh sweet a.m.
finding me in
finding me out
breaking my door, finding me home
oh sweet a.m.
singing my song
singing my song
sweet a.m.
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