you are invited : the dismemberment plan

I came across the Dismemberment Plan in a bit of a roundabout way - certainly hadn't seen them written about in the UK music press (but who knows... can't remember everything). Anyway, it started with Little Champions being recommended on one of those new music sites like PeopleSound or Listen. At the time I was new to the MP3 world and had more time for these sites - you soon get exhausted of every 'great' recommendation. Anyway Little Champions were the first I bothered to investigate, and pretty good they are too... and they were the tip of a huge iceberg.

So Little Champions led to Death Cab For Cutie (same label) - who's Photo Album I have enjoyed this year. Alan and I saw them in Manchester this summer - but that's another story. So, lightly scouring the net one bored lunch time I came across reviews and interviews from the Death & Dismemberment Tour. Well who could resist a catchy title like that? Turns out certain writers at Pitchfork, which I was just starting to read, are totally hooked on this band I have never heard of. I'm a sucker for a review written with a certain type of passion (can't quite define it), and it meant I had to investigate further.

Of course there will always be records you should like but you don't. Sweetheart Of The Rodeo and Exile On Main Street always leap into my mind - I just don't get them. After a while I start to resent them. Yes, it's irritating that patchy fair like Sgt Pepper gets all the plaudits, but at least it's got Within You Without You. But those two Byrds and Stones albums leave me stone cold, so why do I have to hear about them all the time?!?

Anyway, I'm way off the point. The point is that back in the last days of AudioGalaxy I downloaded The Ice Of Boston and What Do You Want Me To Say? by the Plan (note the affectionate shortening of name - this rambling crap has a happy ending!). Now if you're a Plan fan, you'll know that The Ice Of Boston - although it is great, it is not very typical. But there's that line about the Gladys Knight song on the radio "talking about how she'd rather live in his world with him than in her own world alone", and when it climaxed with "I thought to myself oh Gladys girl I love you..., but GET A LIFE!". That was it for me - I was... well sort of in love, I guess.

What Do You Want Me To Say (whadyawanmetodo) is also a little atypical, but more typical than Boston. The initial feeling I had was that Joey Santiago (Pixies guitarist) was flirting with Curiosity Killed The Cat or Hue & Cry! There's this rawk guitar in there, but the bass, drums and voice are syncopating and being a little dirty in that blues way.

So I went down to HMV, and they had Emergency & I. Yeah, I must have been having a ball...

This is the point where I wish I could also write that impassioned review that I was talking about earlier. From the moment the laser hits the disk (never going to be as good as 'needle hits the groove', but never mind) I am hooked - and I still am. A Life Of Possibilities starts without any of that pointless preamble that my r'n'r colleagues and I also like to avoid. We have a squelchy synth bass, a simultaneously conversational and melodic vocal, and the feeling you should be dancing. Travis Morrison is suddenly my hero, and I don't know who he is.

OK, so one song is a lucky hit yeah? No. As soon as the second track (Memory Machine) starts, you're hooked again. I don't understand how the bass, drums and vocals mesh so well, but that is the key throughout this album. The bass leaves space, the vocals weave in and out of that space, the drums compliment it, and keyboards and guitars overlay that stuff . Throughout the album, the dynamics change, but those tenets seem to hold. There's bits that are harmonically quite bare, but so rhythmically strong; there's bigs choruses; there's subtle counterpoints that bring these things together.

I've read stuff saying this album has no precedent, but that's not really true. The band have their influences, but they pull in different directions, and that's what makes for such a fresh sound. The punchline is: this year two of my favourite bands (that's The Lips and The Kinneys) have turned in albums that are quite good - that's right, not life enhancing, and The Plan have made it not matter too much.

After I had let Emergency & I digest for a bit, I had to buy Change (the latest album) as well. I've seen this put down a little - I guess because it would be very hard to meet the expectations of Emergency & I. It's mainly more sparce and "straight". There are times on Emergency & I where your Cheesometer says 'what the hell is this?!' - but it works (check out The City's synth parts). I think that is the element that is missing from Change.

But Change includes Superpowers - one of the best ever pop songs. And they're giving it away for free on Epitonic! On the whole, this album is almost as good as Emergency & I, but it doesn't have as much of the 'dance! now!' euphoria - so it seems understated compared with it.

'I'm an Old Testament kind of guy...' sings Travis (working in and out of the bass and drums again!) on Sentimental Man, and I feel I am needlessly doing down this album. Look, I love it, but it doesn't make me grin quite so inanely as Emergency & I. If you're not converted, check 'em out.

One final point - on their site, The Plan have set up a section where you can download the basic tracks to remix some of their songs. Don't you think this ego-free approach is exactly what you were looking for when you heard Hellfire Sermons?

I've been knocked down flat by joy that makes my face pulse like a sugar high...

Neal, 19th Oct 2002.