Various Artists - Do Not Fear the Future
(Grimsey)

Back in the dark days of 1999, even as we toiled nonstop in preparation for the worst, oiling the Grimsey windmills, cleaning the Grimsey automatic weapons, and hauling case after case of canned fruit cocktail and reasonably priced Minnesota bottled water into the Grimsey bunker, an idea was born. "If we make it through all this alive," we said, "if the center holds, if the banks don't fail, the government doesn't collapse, and the countryside isn't overrun by bands of bloodthirsty marauders who look like less well-groomed versions of Dolf Lundgren and the governor, we shall release a compilation such as the world has never seen or heard, one suffused with love of the future and joy and sweetness and light and all that."

I bought this compilation for one reason: Pinback is on it. I had heard of a couple of other bands on it but had never actually heard any of them. When I got it in the mail, I was very disappointed to see that the Pinback song is one of the songs from their full length. Thanks to the extremely pessimistic attitude I've been blessed with, my hopes for this compilation to meet my expectations without a new Pinback song weren't terribly high.

And, other than a few moments of a good idea here and there in a few of the songs, the compilation doesn't prove that a positive attitude is a better way of thinking. Aside from Pinback, the Autumn Leaves' song, "The Light Brigade of Fireflies are Dazzling Midnight Suns" is definitely the better of the tracks. It's a nice acoustic based pop song, with a Füxa-esque rhythm guitar playing open acoustic guitar chords, while an electric guitar steadily plucks out some parts of chords with a little melody thrown in. A piano lower in the mix augments the guitar's melodies nicely, while both round the edges of the vocal melodies. The drumming keeps it all interesting, adding dimensions and dynamics to otherwise similar parts. No single song sticks out as particularly unlikable, I just didn't really like any other than Pinback and Autumn Leaves.

The Spanish song "Galaxia" by Ana D and Ibon Errazkin which was recorded live on KCRW sounds nice the first couple of times but sounds emptier and emptier after each listen. But, I never liked songs that had a Spanish sound to them. The acoustic guitar parts are nice, just not enough to make the song appealing to me.

I can't help but think that the opening track "Leaf Node I" by Seacreature belongs in a Tom Hanks - Meg Ryan movie in a part where it shows the two soon-to-be-lovebirds shopping or walking dogs or doing just anything to the accompaniment of the upbeat piano part. But, I don't mean that as insulting as it sounds.

Simply, there's nothing on this album quite good enough to make up for the fact that I already have that Pinback song.

dick baldwin 2000 jun 16