Customer Reviews

Where Psyche Meets Cupid

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It finally happened. Someone went out and made the album that I had been imagining for a long time. For, I don't know, the past year or something I had the idea in the back of my mind that it would be great if someone made songs using samples from old jazz records. I'm talking Al Jolson/Andrew Sisters/prohibition era songs on old crackly LPs. You could sample some horns, make them jump around and do something new, while it still retained that sweet cracklin' flavor! Stephen Coates, the man behind (The Real) Tuesday Weld, did just that.

Mr. Coates actually has a lot in common with another guy who shares his first name, Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields. Just like 69 Love Songs had everything to do with love, so does this album. And just like Merritt writes songs that almost sound like they could've been written decades ago if it weren't for his modern sense of humor, Coates doesn't seem like he was born for these days either. For the most part, these are love songs in the classic sense. They don't mince words. They go straight for the heart, hitting whatever cliches might be in the way. It's the music that gives the words sincerity.

"Am I In Love?" an obvious choice for a single, has some catchy horn and scat samples and says things like "Love makes you a date / Takes you to some wonderful place / Love fills it plate / And leaves you to pay." Is Stephen in love just with his love or with the idea of love? It becomes more clear as the album progresses that it's probably the latter. The album features a lot of sad love songs, a fair share of instrumentals, and just like the Magnetic Fields box set, not many clearly happy love songs where everything turns out okay. One such song though is "I Love The Rain" which features some nice and sleazy horn samples and is about dancing in the rain.

"At The House of the Clerkenwell Kid" is just what I was imagining when I thought of an album like this. It's an instrumental that seems like an original studio recording instead of a collage, which is what it really is. An old guitar sample in the back changes pitch and fidelity every few bars and moves along with train-like propulsion while Coates plays something mysterious on the piano. This is followed by a song with one of the best titles in recent memory, "I'm Terminally Ambivalent Over You," a fun song with a poorly placed soulful synth line.

The second half of the CD is more of the same: Expertly and seamlessly mixed speakeasy-era jazz mixed with electronic effects and beautifully crafted love songs. You could call this "antique radio synth pop" or maybe "electro-Glenn Miller." I'm not sure. Stephen Coates is crossing genres like you've never heard before. Where Psyche Meets Cupid is an great example of modern music that shows what can be done with samples by bringing it all the way back to the beginnings of recorded sound.

If, like me, you occasionally stare at your album collection and look in vain for something not depressing, you might really appreciate this low-key collection of musings on love. Mr. Coates writes deceptively simple melodies, but often layers them on top of complex combinations of retro (80s) electronics and really retro (30s and older) big-band samples -- complete with LP-crackle. Sometimes the effect is melancholy, sometimes funny: "Terminally Ambivalent Over You" could be the soundtrack to a Felix the Cat short.
What distinguishes him from other insecure romantics like Belle and Sebastian or Stephin Merritt is his voice: he half-whispers his way through much of his songs, sitting slightly off-key on some notes, sounding both young and old, both jaded and hopeful, like Syd Barrett channelling Billie Holiday. Pop this album into your walkman and the album becomes truly intimate, as if you had tuned into a radio broadcast from someone's living room -- a broadcast that perhaps had been floating around in the aether for decades. Brings a smile to my face every time.

Tuesday Weld is cut from the same cloth as Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields) and Momus, in the sense that he combines classic pop song stylings with modern production techniques- 78rpm samples propelled by crunchy, bouncy drum programming provide a musical bed for Tuesday to sing and play overtop of. While the album is almost cloyingly sweet at times, the songs stand on their own, and the samples of grainy ukeleles, syrupy strings, and hawaiian guitars add that perfect "days of yore" atmosphere.

....this is an album of songs and beats and surreal retro-romantic sonic landscapes. "Where Psyche Meets Cupid" is both lovely and enticing: a playful love-affair of "cut n paste" methodology filled with yearning and notalgia and wonder. And not without a strong nod to the best of today's finest inventive electronic technology. This album is rather like a cross between Air at their giddy breeziest, and Stephen Merritt's sweetly progressive work in his "Sixths" incarnation. The vocals may seem tossed-off at first, but there is a keen natural gift going on here that only makes it all seem easy and effortless. Even as a debut release, this is a masterwork of wonder and charm and skilled songwriting that will you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. No other recent album has such great promise for taking post-rock ideas into such fertile new territories. Finally! Someone daring to write cutting-edge music in a more light-hearted and generous mode! Is anyone else doing anything even remotely close to this nowadays? I don't think so....especially not when most critics automatically equate any sort of pseudo-angst or ugliness as indicators of REAL art. Well, with "the REAL Tuesday Weld," make no mistake....REAL art has more to do with originality, and risk-taking, and daring to explore new regions for expression, no matter how lighthearted and inventive. And this album has all of these qualities in spades! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

oooh, a good album full of new ideas...it's actually an original-sounding record. well, the influences are obviously loungey-type golden oldies--the crooning stuff--but complemented with cute little beats and breathy feel-good vocals like "it's raining, it's pouring, but i ain't complaining, i like the rain." a fun record, for fans of the elephant six sound.

i don't know what kind of music this is but it sure is fun! sort of groovy/spacey lounge music. has the same sound as pizzicato five in some places. i'd say it's very good eclectic cocktail party music, which is a compliment.

I honestly want to like this album. I ordered it ages ago and waited forever for it. Well, I finally got it and... ehh.
The music and sampling is great, totally smooth, an amazing job. The thing I find so off putting is the vocals (he can't hit the notes and endlessly whispers out of tune) and the lame lyrics (juvenile and predictable). I think mr. Coates would be great if he stuck to the instrumentals. I wish there was a karaoke version available without the vocals.
maybe it will grow on me. I don't know.
This is his 1st album, so maybe things will improve.