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Seems like the box set is all the usual subjects. Many of the songs are classics but it's not as though it reaches deep into the stew. For instance, it barely touches the C86 movement. Is Sarah Records represented at all? I would have thrown Heavenly in there -- "She Says", "I Fell In Love Last Night", etc. But f*** me, I'm twee. There are very few of us in America who like sugar-smacking bands like this, and apparently Mr. Reynolds is not one of them.
My question is: why should Brits bother to try to imitate music that Americans do so much better? Like DeBeers and diamonds, Americans have a near monopoly on what it is to be cool. Anyone who grows up in England -- I don't care what race or class he or she comes from -- is already at a coolness disadvantage. Have you ever seen an Englishman dance? Son, it's not pretty.
That's why, for the most part, British music is all beatless and shambling. Just as no American band is likely to be able to match Radiohead (who get no attention from Mr. Reynolds) in Werther-like self-indulgence, no Brit is likely to be able to match Jay-Z for his flow. The Streets? Cute, but it wouldn't be a repeat of 8 Mile. We Americans do what we do very well, and the Brits do what they do very well. And rarely do the twain meet.
Those few times when the Brits do rip off quintessentially American music, however, they tend to satisfy. Take Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, and Joss Stone...please! And when the Brits really want to deliver block-rocking beats, they're capable: see, e.g., Portishead and Chemical Brothers. These are just a few singers and groups who don't fit the pop mold complained of here. And let's not forget M.I.A. (How could you, with the current promotional blitz coming at us like the Wehrmacht into Poland?)
Nevertheless, for the most part, the British ought to stay away from the R&B, soul, and hip-hop until they've sorted out the ramifications of the loss of the Empire. Call again in another 50 years. The rock criticism here (and that of Frere-Jones) is really just a lament that the great dream of "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke" still seems a long way off. Well, let's leave the societal criticism to the students of sociology, rather than the students of rock. I mean, is the criticism here that the Brits are racist? Penetrating insight, Mr. Orwell.
Anyway, hooray for My Bloody Valentine. I've got tix for one of the Glasgow shows in July of next year. I was also moved to buy some MVB rarities I wasn't aware of, including Ecstasy & Wine, which has on it a wonderful song that I'd never heard called "Never Say Goodbye". Apparently I was not as much a member of the cult as I'd thought! I highly recommend it. The amazing thing is that it still sounds fresh.
