Music

Average customer rating:

'that woman'
Great, but not good.
Not Belle and Sebastian, but still good.
I Found The Reason
Dino-Surprise

Absolute Classic Masterpieces
Felt
Manufacturer: Cherry Red UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000242OF
Release Date: 1995-10-31

Tracks:

Primitive Painters
Day the Rain Came Down
My Darkest Light Will Shine
Textile Ranch
Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow
Crystal Ball
Dismantled King Is off the Throne
Fortune
Dance of Deliverance
Stagnant Pool
Red Indians
World Is as Soft as Lace
Penelope Tree
Trails of Colour Dissolve
Evergreen Dazed
Templeroy
Something Sends Me to Sleep
Index

Album Description

UK compilation for one of the most influential indie bands ever, championed by the likes of Belle & Sebastian, Death In Vegas & St. Etienne. Featuring all the singles released on the Cherry Red label. 18 tracks in all. 1992 release. Standard jewel case.

Customer Reviews:

'that woman'.......2005-12-16

felipe echevarria

'That woman' is Elizabeth Fraser from the Cocteau Twins. Wash your mouth out with soap. A beautiful voice, sadly missed

N

Great, but not good........2004-09-16

The problem I personally have with some of Felt's music is that even the best songs they create often have some little fault or annoyance within the song. It's like owning a nice older Jaguar sedan, the refinement and ride are wonderful, but you have to put up with the little electrical system failings which now stand out because everything else is so perfect and seamless. Take the song "Primitive Painters" for instance. It starts with incredible delicacy, a soaring mix of floating guitar work, then the accomodating drum line, then the nice kind voice, and then suddenly at the chorus a woman's voice flattens the original voice. It's jarring to me, and I want to skip to the next song. They should have reserved her voice for the finale. "Primitive Painters" makes me feel like I'm dying, finally leaving my withered body and encountering the indescribable beautiful Light of Heaven, and then a Light Being's voice says, "It's not your time yet, back you go." Yet I give this song 5 stars because even if a song has moments that send me into ecstasy it's easily worth it. This is some of the best music I own. Do you notice the kind of words used in their song titles? Sunlight. Whirlpool. Golden. Light. Scarlet. King. This is glorious work. The level of the music often matches the aspirations of the words. What you will get if you buy this is a collection of breathtaking, wonderfully arranged songs, matched by a few songs containing passages that mar the refinement.

Not Belle and Sebastian, but still good........2003-03-29

I'll admit it. I got this expecting an 80's version of Belle and Sebastian. That, is not what I got, but I don't regret buying it. It's defiantly got an 80's sound. To me it sounds like a mix between the Smiths and the Cure, with a dash of the Fall. Not a bad combanation. But Belle and Sebastian fans beware, there's not a bit of twee in Felt. Just because they're Stuat Murdoch's favorite band doesn't me they'll be your favorite. But I must admit that they're growing on me, there are some brilliant songs on here like 'Penolope Tree' and 'Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow'.

I Found The Reason.......2002-07-29

Felt made 10 albums and 10 singles in the 1980s. "Absolute Classic Masterpieces" contains a selection of 16 songs from the Cherry Red years. The album actually contains 18 tracks. "Index" was Felt's first single - really a solo recording by Lawrence (Felt's founder and frontman) - released on Shanghai Records in September 1979, and "Dance of Deliverance" is taken from guitarist Maurice Deebank's 1984 solo album "Inner Thought Zone." Neither one deserves more than a cursory listening. Of the 16 other recordings, only four are otherwise unavailable on CD: "Something Sends Me To Sleep," "Trails of Colour Dissolve," "Penelope Tree," and "Fortune." The rest of the tracks can be found on the Cherry Red studio albums. But as luck would have it, these are four of Felt's finest songs, all written around the time of the magnificent and ethereal debut album "Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty" (1982).
"Something Sends Me To Sleep" is a four-track demo recorded for Mike Always's Cherry Red Records in 1981. Its funky off-kilter rhythm, impenetrable lyrics - all half-whispered sub-symbolist gibberish - and archetypal lo-fi production make it a gem of the postpunk, pre-New Romantic period in Britain. Apparently, around this time Mark E. Smith accused Felt of ripping off the Velvet Underground, but Lawrence and the band were more influenced by Wire, Subway Sect, Television, and Smith's own band The Fall. Deebank's classically-trained guitarwork has not yet, for example, degenerated into the frilly arpeggios and excessive soloing that pops up on later Cherry Red recordings.
Recorded the same year as the first album, but presumably while Deebank was on holiday, "Trails Of Colour Dissolve" consists only of Lawrence on guitar and vocals, drummer Gary Ainge on bongos, and producer John Rivers on synth bass. Like The Beatles' "Ballad of John and Yoko" (which featured only John and Paul), the song makes a virtue of artistic simplicity. The maniacal tempo and hallucinatory lyrics more than compensate for the absence of heavy production and endless guitar odysseys.
"Penelope Tree" takes its name from the 1960s fashion model. Recorded in early 1983, before bands like The Smiths, The Go-Betweens, and The Jesus & Mary Chain helped urge the British independent music scene towards a reassessment of the `60s, the song has nothing to do with the period or the model, according to Lawrence. Like the previous single, it's also missing Deebank, and perhaps for that reason, remains one of Felt's most finely executed, if overlooked, songs. (Deebank's shining moment, "Primitive Painters" - the music was entirely written down before Lawrence even touched it - gets trotted out as the acme of Felt's achievement, but their lasting impact will doubtless be the rougher, less-produced tracks).
"Fortune" was originally written and recorded for the band's debut album, but this version is a re-recording done in 1984 as a b-side for "Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow." Gone is the earlier charm of barely audible singing and tinny guitars, but in its place Lawrence puts in one of his most heartfelt vocal performances, and Deebank is back with a finely contained exposition of his skill at producing layered and dense musical atmosphere. If Felt had a capsule philosophy (which of course, they do not) it is to be found here: "and wisdom is your virtue/ I hear them all scream/ led away to their own fate/ believe in your dreams."
The quality and uniqueness of these four tracks - as well as a handful of others - more than make up for some fairly notable weaknesses in track selection and order. It's a pity "Goldmine Trash" has been deleted from the Cherry Red catalogue, as it includes all the best tracks found on "Absolute Classic Masterpieces," while excluding the weaker ones. (The only exception is Stuart Murdoch's beloved "The World Is As Soft As Lace," also available on "The Splendour Of Fear"). It should be noted, by the way, that not all the singles from the Cherry Red label are included on this compilation. "Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow" is the album version, not the hard-to-find single version with Ivor Raymonde-style - albeit cheap - string section. Similarly, neither "Mexican Bandits," the double A-side with "The World Is As Soft As Lace," nor "My Face Is On Fire," the A-side to "Trails Of Colour Dissolve, are included.

Dino-Surprise.......2001-01-04

This is a very interesting band. In a way standard slow/mid tempo guitar rock of those days, but with over the top guitar, with intense epic keyboard layers and good vocals. This results in a rather unique style, with fine subtle, melodic songs. There is a fine variation between more and less powerfull ones, which gives an uplifting positive refreshing listening. Because of its harmony it could be enjoyable for any pop/rock fan. It is sweet like sugar to begin, and afterwards shows a good robustness in that it does not get boring, but even turns out to even get better. At least, it didn't disappoint me the last 20 years. I think, with this Greatest you have a very good overview of this band.

Average customer rating:

a compilation of Felt's Creation years
this is actually ABSOLUTE CLASSIC MASTERPIECES VOLUME TWO
Packed with value

Absolute Classic Masterpieces, Vol. 2
Felt
Manufacturer: Import [Generic]
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Jangle Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

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General | Rock | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00000JXD2
Release Date: 1999-06-19

Tracks:

Ballad of the Band
I Didn't Mean to Hurt You
Magellan
I Will Die With My Head in Flames
Sandman's on the Rise Again
Final Resting of the Ark
Autumn
There's No Such Thing as Victory
Space Blues
Be Still

Tracks:

Song for William S. Harvey
Indian Scriptures
Jewel Sky
Voyage to Illumination
Grey Streets
Wave Crashed on Rocks
Hours of Darkness Have Changed My Mind
She Lives by the Castle
Stained-Glass Windows in the Sky
Dark Red Birds
Bitter End
Don't Die on My Doorstep
Darkest Ending
Train Above the City
On Weegee's Sidewalk
Run Chico Run

Album Description

Japanese pressing includes a bonus cd along with lyrics to all 26 tracks.

Customer Reviews:

a compilation of Felt's Creation years.......2006-12-17

Throughout their history Felt released ten albums and ten singles. The first couple of these were released on the Cherry Red label - a compilation compiled from these records is available on that label as "Absolute Classic Masterpieces" (volume 1 if you'd like). After that the band moved on to the legendary Creation Records label, replacing their guitar player Maurice Deebank with keyboard player Martin Duffy (now in Primal Scream) and continued to sophisticate their sound resulting in the release of a couple of utterly classic albums and singles.

This Japanese only compilation is compiled from their output on that label and is a great overview for anybody who'd like to get a good overview of Felt's creation years or anybody who has the albums but would like to get their hands on some of the now hard to find single tracks.

this is actually ABSOLUTE CLASSIC MASTERPIECES VOLUME TWO.......2002-03-21

if you've never heard felt before, think pretty, clean guitar pop, some organ, and midrange, slightly monotone vocals that sound a lot like lou reed. the difference between this and the cherry red period is that these tracks, originally released on the now defunct creation label, are poppier and more upbeat. not to say that poppy = bad, because these are very good jangle pop songs.
yes, this cd is very, very expensive. is it worth it? well, that depends on how much you like felt, and how much you want to hear some songs from their creation singles and albums. disc one covers the singles...one problem: disc one is only about 23 minutes long. they should have at least included ALL of the singles tracks. most of them are here but a few are missing. on disc two we get a "best of" package from the lps. i'm a bit dissapointed that "all the people i like are those that are dead" and "down but not yet out" weren't included. no matter, all of the songs here are good ones, with the exception of the instrumental tracks, which technically aren't really felt anyway. not that they are terrible, but they are far from necessary. oh, in case you didn't know, most of the booklet is in japanese. unfortunately, all of felt's creation material is out of print. so, if you want to hear it and don't feel like hunting down the original vinyl-which is bound to be expensive as hell-get this. i would definitely not recommend this to felt neophytes. save this one for last and buy the four in print cds first.

Packed with value.......2000-09-14

Felt seems to have an unusual way of overlapping their offerings. This record is chock full of Felt non-hits. I say "non-hits" because saying "I will die, with my head in flames" is sort of... dramatic. The lyrics are somewhat tongue-in-cheek I would gather. But I always get a chuckle and the music always makes me tap my foot. There is so much music here. When I first bought a Felt release I thought "sheesh, this is sure expensive." But now I know that the hefty price is worth it... If you're into this sort of thing. If you like Belle & Sebastian... Just go buy it.

Average customer rating:

essential and mandatory listening for all aural efette snobs

Absolute Classic Masterpieces
Felt
Manufacturer: Relativity
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Post-Punk | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Alternative Folk | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000005VHC
Release Date: 1992-08-18

Tracks:

Primitive Painters
Day the Rain Came Down
My Darkest Light Will Shine
Textile Ranch
Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow
Crystal Ball
Dismantled King Is off the Throne
Fortune
Dance of Deliverance
Stagnant Pool
Red Indians
World Is as Soft as Lace
Penelope Tree
Trails of Colour Dissolve
Evergreen Dazed
Templeroy
Something Sends Me to Sleep
Index

Customer Reviews:

essential and mandatory listening for all aural efette snobs.......1999-02-23

This album billed as a "chronological history in reverse" captures the wondrous and elusive sound that this highly original english band created. For those of you who appreciate arty, obscure and pretentious indie pop music, this is for you. Go find a copy somewheres, used most likely and give it a chance... you don't know what you've been missing. If anyone out there knows where to find a copy of "crumbling the antiseptic beauty" on vinyl or what have you, let me know. Bon apetite!

Music:

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