The Answer Is In The Beat

R. Stevie Moore: Personal Appeal (Care In The Community, 2013)

August 1, 2013 at 12:07 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

R. Stevie Moore has long been hailed as the godfather of lo-fi home recording, self-releasing hundreds of tapes and CDRs of his music dating back to the ’60s. Most of his vinyl and CD releases tend to be compilations of older material licensed for release by labels (some big, some small), and this appears to be another one of those releases. His website states that almost all of these songs were actually recorded in the ’70s, the only exceptions being tracks 10 (1981) and 11 (2000). The album fittingly starts with “Why Can’t I Write A Hit?”, which answers its own question, starting with seemingly accessible pop-rock with off-kilter vocal harmonies, but ending with slow creepy drone and a grating voice croaking out “the songs are too weird”. “Make Up Shake Up” features RSM singing in a faux English accent over classical strings (his website credits the backing to “Mozartronic”), and ends with a fake radio voice back announcing. “Old” has big bluesy guitar licks, a constant bell-ringing sound, and faux deep/old vocals. “Structure Of Love” is one of the longest tracks here at 4 minutes, and is a steady, slowly paced guitar instrumental, until the music gets interrupted around 2:45 with a faint voice announcing a technical problem with a splice, before the music resumes. “The Picture” is a sad, melancholy ballad about missing someone and masturbating to their picture. “Quarter Peep Show” is a goofy, hootin’ and hollerin’ echo-heavy bluegrass song about peep shows. “I’ve Begun To Fall In Love” is another strange, heartbreaking sick-love song, with melodramatic synth-string backing. “Pretend For A Second That You Are Very Intelligent” is almost sort of an outsider proto-rap song (recorded in 1978), with very spare guitar and drum backing and a steady vocal cadence, and some insulting spoken interludes, and a fuller arrangement towards the end. “Forecast” has another somewhat proto-rap cadence, which breaks into a rock’n’roll rhythm halfway through. “No Body” is another classic goofy RSM song, ridiculously catchy with silly vocals and lyrics about shampoo and washing hair, with very reggae-inspired dub echo every time he says the word “body”. “Man Without A Purpose” is a droney, minimal synth song with a little bit of guitar, drums and vocals. “Treat Me” has squonking jazz sax and another catchy, offbeat rhythm. “What We Did” is a drunken waltz with perverted, mostly quickly-spoken vocals, which pan wildly between the speakers. “Copy Me” is a catchy drum machine pop song where RSM basically dares you to bite his style. The album ends with a minute-long shrug called “I’m Sorry But Goodnight”. I’ve barely begun to explore this man’s catalog, so I can’t really say if this album is a fair or accurate sampling of his work, or if there’s better collections of his music available, but at the very least you should check it out if you’re not familiar with him at all.