To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.
2001 – #9. Pernice Brothers – World Wont End
(Ashmont/Spunk)
I guess we are doing revisionism, because when I look at my list of 2001 albums, this Pernice Brothers one stands out. I thought World Won’t End was pretty good in the day. It has aged very well. I find myself coming back to it a lot.
I really only came to really get to know this album around 2003/2004, when someone pointed out how many songs on the Reservations first album sounded like songs from this album. And it’s pretty true. My other association with the Pernice Brothers is that Joe Pernice used my amp once, and Thom Monahan – producer extraordinaire – wrote some settings on a peice of tape and stuck it on there. I had the key to the Pernice Brothers sound from then on.
It’s only really in the last 3 or so years that the wonder of this record has really hit me. The occasional appearance on the iPod shuffle always made me think how good the songs were. A couple of dates later and now we are suddenly quite serious about eachother.
So there’s not much else to say here other than I really friggin like this record. It has aged better than the Posies or Apples In Stereo or other similar sounding bands because they try to show off their record collections a bit less. Joe Pernice always had a great voice.
It’s definitely another happy pop record. In places it sounds like the sunshine pop of the Hollies. So odd too, as Joe Pernice has written more songs that make me want to slash my wrist than just about any other artist. Hearing him happy may well have been what turned me off this record in the first place.
For the record – best songs: Working Girls, 7:30, She Heightened Everything, Let That Show, Cronulla Breakdown. How great that they have a song that mentions the Sydney suburb of Cronulla. I wonder why they did that. I seem to recall they would stay down that way whenever they toured.
More interesting I think is how I feel about albums from 2001 that I used to like more than this one. Stuff like Super Furry Animals, Weezer, Pulp, Ben Folds, The Fauves, Lucinda Williams… all artists I love, but they all made so-so albums that year. This record stacks up as a start to finish album. It took it’s time but it has won me over completely.