Illustration by Hal Foster from the Sing with King at Christmas sheet music collection, 1949
Some albums are best described with the words Ian Hunter used to describe the third Mott the Hoople record: "The sound of a band tearing itself apart." For Mott the Hoople, it was their third record, but some bands never even make it that far and implode (or explode) during the making of their sophomore record. It makes sense in a way - the chemistry of a first LP is often a "lightning in a bottle" thing that is impossible to recapture. I've been listening to Suede's Dog Man Star a lot lately, and it's definitely a record with this kind of sound. The same could be said of Big Plans for Everybody by Mitch Easter's band Let's Active.
Let's Active wasn't really built to last. Mitch Easter was already becoming pretty well-known as a producer because of his work with REM, and he formed the band with girlfriend Faye Hunter. The two then recruited the teen-aged Sara Romweber on drums when they recorded their first EP Afoot and the 1984 debut album Cypress. Shortly thereafter, Romweber flaked out on the band on the eve of a big tour of Europe - she'd been unhappy in the band for a while and was coerced to drop out by her mother. I don't know if Easter and Hunter were having relationship problems by this time - that could have figured into Romweber wanting out - but they were no longer a couple by the time Big Plans for Everybody came out in '86. Hunter was technically still in the band when recording began, but it was more or less an Easter solo project by the time the recording sessions wrapped up.
Big Plans for Everybody is the sound of a band tearing apart, but in a subtle way. It has all the power-pop hooks and shiny production of Cypress, but the songs have a strangely compressed and airless quality to them. I think you can kind of hear Easter withdrawing from the world as the album progresses (not that they are necessarily presented chronologically.) The first three songs on the record are excellent upbeat pop - "In Little Ways" and "Talking to Myself" our out in a rush of melody, and "Writing the Book of Last Pages" adds some drama. After that, things get a little weird - the songs start to bleed together and take on a walls-closing-in vibe, which is really odd for a power-pop record. The last song, "Route 67", is an instrumental with some heavy and emotionally affecting guitar soloing on it - I don't usually "get" emotive solos, but there's something really cathartic about the clarity "Route 67" brings at the end of a tense record.
"Fell" is not the best song on Big Plans for Everybody, but I think it captures the weird feel of the album pretty well. The hooks are there, but they are jumbled together in a song that is driven by an uncharacteristically muscular rhythm track and some pretty bitter-sounding lyrics. To me, this song is the sound of what's left after a band has torn itself apart.
"Fell" by Let's Active
2 comments:
Hey, Let's Active!
They were one of my first concerts (St. Andrew's Hall, Detroit, 1984). I recall having a little crush on Faye Hunter. The crowd play-heckled the group, requesting Herman's Hermits and "Pleasant Valley Sunday."
Come to think of it, that last request would probably have been pretty great.
Let's Active would have done a great "Pleasant Valley Sunday"! Although, judging from other versions I've heard - particularly the cover by the Wedding Present - that song is pretty indestructible.
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