Hazy petrol nights, crimson sun on traffic lights
March 3, 2009 7:54 PM   Subscribe

"There's sickly pop, there's cheesy pop and then there's the Lightning Seeds brand of pure shiny pop." The Lightning Seeds mixed slick production with equally compelling melodies and lyrics, and produced a number of critically acclaimed albums in the 1990s. Now there's a new album coming out - their first since 1999's Tilt.

Ian Broudie, a producer in addition to being the lead singer and all-round driving force behind the Lightning Seeds, confirms that the new album, Four Winds, is scheduled for release in late May 2009.

For a trip down memory lane - or to introduce you to their work - here's a selection from their 1994 album, Jollification.

Perfect (Short interview clip preceeds: "Lyrically, it's very Lightning Seeds perfect.")
Lucky You
Open Goals
Change
Marvellous
My Best Day
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (38 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
If there's any more perfect example of must make you happy pop, it's "Pure." I'm glad they're still around.
posted by eriko at 7:57 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


Pure, I think, is pop's sweetest love song. Can't wait for the new album.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:57 PM on March 3, 2009 [2 favorites]


Love Pure, and Lucky You. But in the interests of balance...
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 8:03 PM on March 3, 2009 [2 favorites]


yayayayayayayayayayay! Lightning Seeds are GO! Awesomepost;alkjsd;lfkjas;fdkj
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 8:25 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


Thanks for this.
posted by greasy_skillet at 8:28 PM on March 3, 2009


OMG...maybe you need to listen to some Bowie...sheesh!
posted by gigbutt at 8:35 PM on March 3, 2009


I love the Lightning Seeds, thanks for posting this.
posted by HSWilson at 8:44 PM on March 3, 2009


I think I'll be buying some of this music when I get home.

Stupid mobile networks over here. 500MB/month isn't enough to buy from iTunes OTA straight to my iPhone :(
posted by Talez at 8:49 PM on March 3, 2009


Their song Pure reminds me of the optimism of the late 80s. I wasn't a big fan of the music then but I find myself missing it now...
posted by tenmuses at 8:50 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


Ian Broudie definitely knows his alliteration, assonance, and consonance.
posted by padraigin at 9:01 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


Im sure this is just me but I cant stand vocals with an english accent. Richard Thompson writes great stuff, so do these guys, but heck maaybe I'm just racist and dont even know it.
posted by wheelieman at 9:07 PM on March 3, 2009


I had all of the lyrics to Pure painstakingly scratched in ballpoint on the blue-canvas back of my regulation three-ring binder in tenth grade. I sat on my bed for an hour stopping and starting the cassette to get the words right. Day-um that is a good song.
posted by speedlime at 9:08 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


Wow, i am a freshman in college and i am drunk and a maybe little stoned and grinning goofily at the pretty pretty songs. Wow. S'been a long time since I've heard this.
posted by desuetude at 9:28 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


As one who has been smacked down for a Mefi post or 2... I wonder how its justified that anyone getting off on a band just ups and posts about them.
That said...
I like, I like .. after checking out some of them on Hype Machine.
It's a cut above most indie pop.
Reminds me of of OMD /Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (80's band), also I call Twee Pop like the very, very good Camera Obscura.
posted by celerystick at 9:29 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


oh mefi, first you remind me of glow and now cloudcuckooland [(on tape!) which for the longest time i thought/was sure read 'cloud-duck-cuckoo-land' (signaling my state of mind at the time :)]
posted by kliuless at 9:36 PM on March 3, 2009


I always was fond of Life of Riley...
posted by maxwelton at 10:22 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


Oh my gosh, I had no idea a new album was coming out. I had to import mine to the States from the UK. Look at me, all atwitter and excited. Thanks for posting this!

Also, seconding Pure as a sweet love song. I'm cynical and jaded and I still find it swoon-worthy.
posted by thatbrunette at 10:25 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


Now we're just begging for a Jellyfish FPP..
posted by sourwookie at 10:54 PM on March 3, 2009 [3 favorites]


I'm neither English or a Football fan but I still dig Three Lions.
posted by PenDevil at 11:27 PM on March 3, 2009


Tilt was absolutely dreadful, as I recall. Less pure and shiny, more dull and angstful. The song Happy Satellite ("Every night and every day / I'm stopping planes collide / All alone above blue skies / I'm a happy satellite") remains one of the most uncomfortably embarrassing extended metaphors I've ever heard. I liked the previous couple of albums, but god, I hated Tilt. I appreciate Ian Broudie was trying to branch out from the saccharine pop he'd stuck with for years, but it just didn't work for me in any way. So I'm hoping that Four Winds finds a different direction for his sound to evolve in.
posted by xchmp at 11:32 PM on March 3, 2009 [2 favorites]


Not only do the best Lightning Seeds songs (they're pretty much canned up happiness) excuse the worst Lightning Seeds songs, but Ian Broudie had a very lovely, though surprisingly folky, solo album, Tales Told, a few years back.

No mention of Big In Japan.. or did I miss it?
posted by Mael Oui at 11:51 PM on March 3, 2009


No mention of Big In Japan.

Worst band ever. What possessed Jayne Casey to think she could sing I'll never know.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:30 AM on March 4, 2009


I was just listening to them the other day.
posted by jfrancis at 12:30 AM on March 4, 2009


And bizarrely, I heard 'Pure' this morning on the radio in my local Co-op...
posted by robzster1977 at 4:07 AM on March 4, 2009


Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I purchased their Pure album for starters and it's absolutely fantastic.
posted by Talez at 5:36 AM on March 4, 2009


Ian Broudie's solo song Song for No One is just perfect.
posted by punkfloyd at 7:13 AM on March 4, 2009


Ian Broudie's good, but he's no Gary Clark.

If I were a billionaire, I'd pay Gary, Ged and Kit several million to reform Danny Wilson and come play for me and a few thousand of my closest friends.
posted by willmize at 7:30 AM on March 4, 2009


Far from power, north of desire
Tied and bound, hoping you'll send us
From your mouth instead of lies
The kiss of life, the sleeping giants

I had Cloudcuckooland on continuous repeat the year I discovered Sandman, so in my mind, the two are inextricably linked. Listening to it against the text and art of the comic lends it depth it might not have on its own.
posted by cereselle at 8:26 AM on March 4, 2009


Fantastic! Goes rather well with some World Party or some Mull Historical Society, me thinks.
posted by elmono at 9:08 AM on March 4, 2009


I had a helluva time finding information about this online. One of the articles (linked in the post) mentions Broudie talking to Teletext. Teletext? Who breaks news of an upcoming album on Teletext?

/end sniffy rant about Teletext

Not sure why there's so little promotion about the Four Winds online; the record company needs to get on the P.R. train on this one (or perhaps my Google-Fu was failing me last night).

If anyone spots an online newspaper interview with Broudie about Four Winds I'd really appreciate a link!

(Thanks for all your comments, they're brilliant.)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:00 AM on March 4, 2009


celerystick: "As one who has been smacked down for a Mefi post or 2... I wonder how its justified that anyone getting off on a band just ups and posts about them."

Yes, I thought it was a bit fanboy of me, and perhaps not MetaFiltery enough, whatever that is, but then I thought... nah, people can complain if they want to - I'm willing to take the risk for Lightning Seeds.

I'll try and up the MetaFilter vibe next time around.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:10 AM on March 4, 2009


Thanks for this post. When I get home I'm replacing the Best of James album from my nostalgia CD player and replacing it with Like You Do... while I wait for the release.
posted by subbes at 10:52 AM on March 4, 2009


The song Happy Satellite ("Every night and every day / I'm stopping planes collide / All alone above blue skies / I'm a happy satellite") remains one of the most uncomfortably embarrassing extended metaphors I've ever heard.

I always liked the line "in lakes outside of new towns / I'm watching UFOs drown", but it's offset by the ungrammatical clanger "I'm stopping planes collide". And yeah: not a great album.

Jollification remains, however, the perfect sunny-summer's-day album. It's not all saccharine pop, either; the last two songs, Punch and Judy and Telling Tales are full of regret and acceptance.

(Aside: dear God, lyrics sites are universally awful these days.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:55 AM on March 4, 2009 [1 favorite]


I'm neither English or a Football fan but I still dig Three Lions.

English, not a footy fan, and I always thought it was a great song let down by poor vocals from Baddiel and Skinner. (The two not wearing the shades; comedians who at the time presented a very popular late-night football/comedy chat show; and yeah, I get that it's supposed to be about singing on the terraces but I still wish the singing was a little bit better.)

But what do I know? I didn't rate World in Motion either and everybody went gaga over that one.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:03 AM on March 4, 2009


HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD THIS BEFORE

Fuck damn yes. It's like Pet Shop Boys meets Pulp meets the absolute fucking best of 80's synthpop.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:41 PM on March 4, 2009 [1 favorite]


I like that Song For No One punkfloyd. Thanks!

I'll have to check out his solo album (not that Lightning Seeds aren't essentially him alone).
posted by ericthegardener at 6:10 PM on March 4, 2009


Never heard of these guys before. The early-90's band that filled a similar niche on Australian radio was probably Frente.
posted by Ritchie at 6:12 PM on March 4, 2009


Ahem.

May I state for the record: Woohoo!

Thank you.

The Lightning Seeds are one of my favourites - yeah, they're slightly-overly-cheerful pop, and yeah, they haven't bettered Jollification - well, not yet (although I didn't think Tilt was actually bad, per se - just not as good).

Most of their stuff is definitely singalong-tastic - although I only tend to do so in the car, when no one can see or hear me... :-)
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 6:38 PM on March 4, 2009 [1 favorite]


« Older Bad paintings of Barack Obama   |   Southern Comfort Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments