Customer Reviews

Moss Side Story

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Although this album isn't as good as some of Adamson's later works like Oedipus Schmoedipus, I greatly admire it for the risks it takes. Moss Side Story is a concept album: the first 12 songs are a soundtrack for a nonexistent murder mystery (the last 3 tracks don't fit into this concept: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, for example, is Adamson's own interpretation of that show's theme song, "Dance of the Marrionettes").

The songs themselves are divided into 3 Acts (just like late-1960s detective shows) of four songs each. The songs are all instrumentals (except for a "radio broadcast", a chorus of fellow Bad Seeds members going "awwwww" and one line of dialogue) in the vein of scores for spy films, taking inspiration from such diverse examples of the genre as the Avengers, Peter Gunn, Sam Spade, the Man From U.N.C.L.E., etc. The best way to listen to the album is to really get caught up in the concept and pretend you are watching a mystery and make up a story. The songs present moods more than discernable events (except , e.g., the first which is apparently about a woman being followed and becoming increasingly frightened), so you can make up a different storyline each time you listen.

Without this interactivity, the album loses some of its strength as its compositions are generally not as strong as Adamson's later work. But if you do allow yourself to get caught up, it is a fun interactive experience.

When you're out of gift ideas for that special someone, remember that Mr Adamson is here to breathe life into the bleak and unprofessional world of modern music. Sure, we can all thank FSOL and Massive Attack for all the swell albums of beautifully coordinated noise, but on Moss Side Story, Barry has a massive attack of his own. Prepare your ears for a ride into a land of surreal swing where screaming is melodic and industrial sounds seem to get along with jazz just fine. There is something here for everyone-- tracks of ambient noise, slow piano solos, and heel-tapping jive sure to sound nice when you're in a car chase or busy disposing bodies. So, when in doubt, pick up Moss Side Story. It's the best soundtrack to the greatest movie that never was. And while you're at it, pick up The Crime Scene by Ultralounge. Nothing could compliment martini time better than this dastardly duo.

A soundtrack to a movie that's never been made, "Moss Side Story" shines with a grey light that turns the listener's surroundings into film noir. Snippets of conversation, gunshots, and radio news punctuate sweeping, slightly off-kilter big-band jazz numbers that are so tight you'd think they were machined, yet so swinging they must have played live. Moody yet uplifting.

...there was the Moss Side. It was a grainy, cold and darkly spun yarn of every conceivable genre worth knitting together. You can sense the calm before the storm and the frenzied urgency that follows as the characters play their rolls in your head, frantic chords smash into lullabies and mix like a martini of gin and ricin. You may try all you wish to purge the sounds from your head, but the only cure for this addiction is to listen until it becomes enmeshed into your very being and you carry a bit of the darkness with you even in the brightest of passages.