Needles & Grooves AotM /// Vol. 36 - June 2022 /// Mexico City Blondes - Blush

debianlinux

debianlinux

Well-Known Member
AotM #2 for June is Mexico City Blondes - Blush
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This album holds a special place in my heart for a number of reasons but all of them tied to this community. I discovered a track from this album in the pre-pandemic glory days of the N&G JQBX room. I know @Jonathan Y was in the room at that time because while we were commenting on how good it was he looked it up and discovered that the 500 copy limited press was a very reasonable $18 on Bandcamp. We both sprung for copies right then and there.

From that day forward we were excitedly awaiting arrival and there was even a glitch from the bandcamp email servers that suggested we might receive double copies for free which naturally caused even more excitement. We quickly adopted shorthand like MCB and made regular references which effectively advertised the album to everyone else coming in and out of the JQBX room. By the time we had our copies MCB was on regular rotation in the room and other folks were getting their copies as well. Thus MCB became N&G JQBX zeitgeist.

Fast forward quite some time and @gaporter contacted me trying to chase down a MCB single that disappeared with the Burger Records scandal and subsequent implosion. After checking my usual sources I decided to contact the band directly through Bandcamp and to my delight Greg responded rather quickly with a source WAV file for the single. This impressed me on a number of levels and gave me additional personal connection to the album in general.

Eventually the time to pick an AotM arrived for me and this one was absolutely on the list due to all of the above but I was disappointed to find that the number of available records listed on Bandcamp had dwindled to only 4 copies. I resolved to just promote the album by listing albums it could not be but then I remembered how nice Greg was last time I contacted him so I shot another email to see if they had any intentions of repressing the record. In usual fashion, Greg got right back to me and informed me that they had plenty of copies with them and he could update Bandcamp to reflect that. He was also amicable to doing an AMA and indicated he could bring Allison in too. I, however, didn't see the eamil response until too late. With another AotM already picked and underway I ultimately decided to do an unprecedented two AotMs so this album get could the exposure it deserved and we could be graced with what promises to be a very cool AMA.

As far as the album itself? Well, it's essentially a sublime form of perfection as long as I disregard the choice to place a cover (an oft repeated cover no less) at the end of it. While there are clear influences and well worn genre pressures found throughout, the levity of Allison's vocals juxtaposed with the swirly moodiness of Greg's production generates a signature palate that easily pleases any crowd or setting. In many ways this is an every person's record. The subject matter, the presentation, the history, and the overarching concept of who they are is so immediately accessible and relatable. This is one of those rare albums where every song has equal weight and can serve as dinner background music, headphone study sessions, or well placed entries in a playlist.

I and everyone that I know that is into this album are anxiously awaiting their sophomore effort! I am proud to officially bring Blush into N&G canon. It's rare these days to find such superb quality music on a quality pressing for these prices.
 
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Wrong Answers Only:
Jason Isbell - Reunions (but how?)
Sasha Sloan - I Blame the World (I blame her for just keeping to her formula)
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Babeeeeeeeeeee - Some wounds are just never allowed to heal are they?)
Look I'm not even bothering to respond to the half-baked non album suggestions going on (except I did just respond didn't I?)
Jimmy Buffet - Volcano (this guess is more cryptic than the clues it was not linked to)
Seth - Boy Art (boy, you're not even trying anymore, huh?)
Froth - Bleak (the only thing bleak here is your chances of doing this right)
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers (what is this s/t? why is it bold just cause I copied it? I have many questions and one answer; WRONG)
No Boats, like at all
Tashaki Miyaki - The Dream (somewhat on track with the word dream, also the cover does depict feminine hair, also, thanks or the recc, maybe this can be the AotM in a parallel universe but not this one)
Minnie Ripperton - Perfect Angel (perfectly wrong)
Mazzy Star - So That Tonight I Might See (see the right answer instead of this wrong one?)
 
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You can't stop me now and since this SECOND AotM was already clued up I will open with the same clue sequence from Part 2 (this time I'm not actually playing about the kn-words clue):

Let's begin with a few albums it is knot:
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MC05NDkzLmpwZWc.jpeg
 
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debianlinux said:
This is very wrong but I am curious how it fits any of the clues.
Click to expand...

The Creamsicle reminded me of the song Dreamsicle. I couldn't make any of the other clues work, to be honest. And pretty much expected it to be very wrong, but figured it might build some guess momentum over here by people who are smarter than me and may not be at work and have time to do more proper sleuthing.
 
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