Thursday, June 11, 2009

Flying the Flannel

From his 1993 album Illiterature, please enjoy Adam Schmitt and his totally gorgeous "Just Listen."





Schmitt was (and is) a pop classicist who, like The Posies, kind of got blindsided by the emergence of Nirvana and the whole grunge thing; I remember hearing this song when it came out and thinking, yeah, wow, it's great, but that guitar sound is needlessly distorted in a sort of chic, trendy way.

I hadn't listened to the thing in maybe fifteen years, but when I downloaded it over the weekend, I was struck by how conventionally accessible it now sounded to me. Unarguable, actually. Although I'd love to hear a band with a more Keith Moon-ish drummer take a crack at covering it.

4 comments:

steve simels said...

Note to self: Obscure early 90s pop guys less crowd-pleasing than predicted.
:-)

TMink said...

I hear what you are saying about the drumming, it is a little tight to be displayed so prominently in the mix.

But then a little Keith Mooni-ish drumming helps almost everything.

Trey

Noam Sane said...

It pleased me - instant earworm.

Beautifully arranged as well. He makes it sound easy; it really, really isn't.

steve simels said...

Beautifully arranged, indeed.

The way the vocals switch from up the middle to split right and left is really subtle and incredibly effective.