debut album<\/a> of the same name was as much their work as hers, or at least that they were due more credit and compensation than they received for their roles in it. (And that\u2019s honestly all I want to hear about that particular subject ever again from anyone who wasn\u2019t in the room for the sessions in question.)<\/p>\nTwo years prior to the Tuesday Night scene taking shape, singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Gilbert, bassist Guy Pratt, guitarist Tim Pierce, and drummer Brian MacLeod were finishing up session work with keyboardist\/producer Patrick Leonard on Madonna\u2019s 1990 album I\u2019m Breathless<\/i> when the five started talking about forming a band of their own. Ultimately only Gilbert and Leonard signed on as band members, though by then Pratt had co-written four of the tracks that made the resulting album, and all five players are featured on Toy Matinee<\/i>. The fact that this creative, passionate and often entertaining album ended up being a one-shot, fronted by an iconoclastic artist who subsequently became embroiled in controversy and died young, has over time lent it a \u201ccult masterpiece by tragic figure\u201d veneer of unassailibility (shades of Jeff Buckley).<\/p>\n
Our job, then, is to cast aside the legend, with all its trappings and trapdoors, and just listen.<\/p>\n
Toy Matinee presents a clever, musical, and often heady meld of XTC-ish quirky pop-rock and more explicitly progressive fare. Not Yes-and-Genesis-style prog, though; more like Zappa-and-Beefheart, as in, a commitment to making the unexpected choice just because you can.<\/p>\n
The closest Toy Matinee travels to the mainstream is on opener and lead single \u201cLast Plane Out,\u201d complete with ringing, radio-friendly chorus, whose big hooks anchor an otherwise somewhat meandering five-minute-plus philosophical number. Next up, the Dali tribute \u201cTurn It On Salvador\u201d again features a rather affected lead vocal from Gilbert, this time over choppy, chunky, endlessly playful guitar from him and Pierce. It\u2019s clever, and fun, and features Julian Lennon on harmony vocals, but is otherwise resolutely off-kilter (one might even say Daliesque) in its steadily transforming structure and exotic guitar gymnastics. Oh, and it closes out with a clarinet trio\u2026!<\/p>\n
Next, they tighten things up for \u201cThings She Said,\u201d a serious-minded number that opens with layered acoustic textures before accelerating into a punchy chorus. The addition of tambourine adds subtle heft to the chorus hook while illustrating how meticulous Leonard and Gilbert were about arrangements. \u201cRemember My Name\u201d is where another point of comparison crops up, sounding like a lost Tears For Fears number with its airy backbeat, percussive piano, and slightly squirrelly, skronky guitar. <\/p>\n
The fact that Leonard contributed keyboards and songwriting to the 1987 Pink Floyd album A Momentary Lapse Of Reason<\/i> feels relevant when title track \u201cThe Toy Matinee\u201d arrives awash in gentle electric piano, airy vocals, and oh-so-Gilmouresque reverbed guitar, pinpointing the elusive nexus between melancholy and macabre. By contrast, the upbeat \u201cQueen Of Misery\u201d feels more like So<\/i>-era Peter Gabriel with its densely layered instrumental and vocal arrangements and tidal push and pull. <\/p>\n
Toy Matinee veers back closer to the intersection of XTC and Tears For Fears with the elaborate, at times rather precious \u201cThe Ballad Of Jenny Ledge\u201d; it feels like it wants to be an epic story-song, but the big melodic number at its core wobbles under the weight of an overcomplicated arrangement. Penultimate track \u201cThere Was A Little Boy\u201d is both a highlight and genuinely disturbing, a boldface, possibly autobiographical story-song about childhood abuse and parental rejection. Regardless of how much truth it contains, it\u2019s a gripping, haunting tale of \u201cthe sickness of a world whose eyes are blind.\u201d Mostly acoustic closer \u201cWe Always Come Home\u201d has a bit of a campfire singalong sway to it, a relatively reassuring finale after its harrowing predecessor. <\/p>\n
Overall, Toy Matinee<\/i> is a solid effort, rich with sharp playing and clever arrangements. That said, songwriting turns out to be somewhat of a soft spot; the dizzying mish-mash of ideas captured on these tracks sometimes gels and sometimes founders. In the end, Toy Matinee<\/i> is an album well worth seeking out, as long as you temper your expectations; it\u2019s consistently interesting and occasionally brilliant work even if, to these ears, it comes up somewhat short of its reputation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6078],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46446","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-toy-matinee","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46446"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}