Mull Historical Society is rockin’ the Brit-pop boat
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 2, 2002 9:00 p.m.
By Anthony Bromberg
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]
This is the album that Oasis and their imitators wish they could
make. This is the music that would be on modern rock radio if it
gave a damn.
This is Mull Historical Society’s debut album
“Loss.” Released last year in Britain to critical
accolades, “Loss” finally finds its way across the
Atlantic into local record stores tomorrow, June 4th, courtesy of
XL Recordings.
Mull Historical Society is fronted by Colin MacIntyre, who
wrote, arranged, produced, sang and played most of the instruments
on all of the album’s eleven tracks. The band gets its name
from an actual organization on the small Isle of Mull, where
MacIntyre grew up, which inspired him to write a song.
On “Loss,” MacIntyre wears many of his influences on
his sleeve. From Oasis to the Beach Boys, Mull Historical
Society’s music is firmly rooted in the traditional rock
vein. MacIntyre’s songs are crafted on acoustic guitar, and
are, for the most part, in a verse-chorus form. The melodies are
sweet and breezy and catchy as hell. Every song on the album is
radio-friendly enough to be a single, and the listener is
guaranteed to be humming hooks like, “And can anyone tell if
my stereo’s on,” hours and days after the record is
over.
While “Loss” has a distinctly Brit-pop feel, it
transcends the lame gooey Tim Buckley and whinier trappings of so
many other Oasis-inspired outfits. MacIntyre’s Mull distances
itself from the pack with creative Spector-esque arrangements which
include plenty of wacky and spacy sounds that color the songs with
distinct charm.
Highlights from the album include the two singles,
“Barcode Bypass,” which won the British music magazine
New Musical Express’ Debut Single of the Year award, and
“I Tried,” an anthem rocker with brilliantly vague
lyrics about a relationship such as, “You you you,
you’re determined to be a woman.” The closing track,
“Paper Houses,” showcases both MacIntyre’s talent
at writing simple acoustic melodies and his ability to morph those
into a weird ten-minute opus.
In a month that saw the entire nation of Great Britain drop out
of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the first time in almost
four decades, it’s time for record companies to throw away
the old formulas. Bands like Mull Historical Society and similarly
progressive traditional rock acts Badly Drawn Boy and Matthew Jay
deserve the chance to make a splash on this side of the pond. So
check out “Loss” and help counteract the musical
vapidity that the world of pop music has become.
