The Foreign Correspondents - Lovin' You Ain't Easy 7" - Brown Vinyl

Outer Battery (2024)

The Foreign Correspondents are a group made up of various indie rock luminaries.  We've got Ted Leo from Chisel and /Pharmacists, Brendan Canty from Fugazi, Michael Hampton from Fake Names and Sohrab Habibion from The Obits.  They got together to cover a couple of songs from Michel Pagliaro, an artist that I'm not familiar with, but was primarily active during the 70s.  They released this 7" with four different covers on four different colors of vinyl and in another time of my life I would have absolutely bought all four.  These days, I'm trying to be better about that sort of thing, so I just picked out the one I liked best.

I have no real context for the original versions of these songs and how the two covers on this 7" compare, but I can tell you that I really like both songs.  Ted Leo takes vocals on both of them and we start off with the A side, "Lovin' You Ain't Easy."This song has a decidedly Pharmacists feel to it, with shimmering, jangly guitar work, upbeat bass lines and a catchy chorus with singalong backing vocals.

On the B side we have "We're Dancin' 'Til It Blows Over."  This one has a bit more of a glammy feel to it, with fuzzy, 70s style guitar riffs.  I can't say I like it quite as much as the A side, but it's still a solid song and it takes advantage of Ted's vocal range.  It's definitely a fun 7" overall and I think my lack of familiarity with the source material actually makes it more enjoyable for me.  For me, it's just two news songs put together by artists with a real track record for putting out good stuff.

The Foreign Correspondents - Lovin' You Ain't Easy:
https://theforeigncorrespondentsdc.bandcamp.com/album/lovin-you-aint-easy

The Obits - Die At The Zoo LP - Pink Vinyl (/300)

Outer Battery (2021)

It feels like this is what it means to buy a new release for me this year.  Rather than a new band with a new album, I'm picking up a live album that was recorded nine years ago by a band that's no longer together.  While 2020 wasn't a high water mark for new and exciting records (with a few notable exceptions), I really feel like 2021 is a barren wasteland.  So, it looks like I'll stick to buying the tried and true for now.

Live records aren't my favorite thing at the best of times.  Sure, Leatherface and Bum had great ones, but there's a lot more misses than hits out there.   I hardly ever listen to live albums as in general, I'd prefer to just listen to the studio recording of a song in the context of the album it was released on.

It's also a real crap shoot on what the live record will even sound like.  So often they are tinny, poorly recorded documents of a sound that was so much bigger in real life.  Luckily, that isn't the case with this Obits live record.  It's recorded impeccably with everything sounding full and rich.  

The band is playing at a super high level as well, with everything sounding on point, like a band really hitting their stride.  I can't say that the song selection is exactly how I would have set it up, as I probably would have leaned more towards some of the band's faster material, but they do roll out hits like "Talking to the Dog" and "One Cross Apiece" towards the end.   

I mean, for an Obits live record, this is a pretty good.  I don't know what they could have done to make it better aside from include a few more of my personal favorite songs, but that's just me being greedy.  That said, I really can't imagine when I would listen to this.  I like having it in the collection, because I'm a broken person with a completist problem and the artwork is great.  But if I want to listen to The Obits, I'm probably just grabbing one of their other full lengths.

The Obits - Die At The Zoo:
https://obits.bandcamp.com/album/die-at-the-zoo