The Black Watch - The King of Good Intentions

1999 release from Not Lame. One of Los Angeles` most respected indie pop bands in the 90`s, this release, after a 3 year absence, highlighted their strongest material ever mixing their truly unique blendings of moody, melody drenched hooks colored divinely with violin and cello stringed strummings that breathtakingly beautiful and leaving fingerprints of music1s ability to capture feelings of the soul. Think a very song oriented Yo La Tengo, The Go-Betweens, House Of Love hanging with The Jazz Butcher. Not Lame was proud then and is still proud to highlight this band for pop fans wh have not heard such a great mix of styles.

"4 stars.. Each album, three years apart, has been better than the last, and if the quantum-leap The King of Good Intentions finds a spot in the stereos of discerning pop fans, the Black Watch will have found their oasis at last. For this release, they`ve pared down to the two essentials: singer/songwriter/guitarist John Andrew Frederick and multi-instrumentalist J`Anna Jacoby. They`re aided by a phalanx of L.A. underground musicians playing the other parts, and together the assemblage has made a minor masterpiece. Enjoying by far the best production of his career, Frederick seems to have a Go-Betweens jones on such beguiling, handsome, fertile pop as "The Wrong People," "Hey Hey Hey," and the more organic, skipping "Obligatory Blues." Jacoby`s exceptional violin used to save the group`s weaker work; now it adds translucent sparkle to a freshly painted canvas. And the multiple times a piano drops in for coffee in the background, it`s the sort of ageless pop moment you spend hours in CD stores looking for. As a result, the poet Frederick finally has a backdrop to match his abilities. Always a cutting wordsmith, he`s full of acerbic disregard for those whose lives have crossed his. "I suppose she`ll go upstairs with anyone that mumbles that he cares" he gibes at one point, typical of the austere subject matter. Nothing happening in pop? No talent, no craft, nothing to say in pop today? Buy this, then."-The Big Takeover/AMG.

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