Vandaag opnieuw op 2LP uitgekomen. Heb hem besteld. Het album kwam dus in 2004 op CD uit en ook op LP, al was de LP versie destijds niet volledig, en stonden er minder nummers op dan op de CD versie.
Nu is dat dus gecorrigeerd en bevat de 2LP alle nummers. Hier wat meer achtergond over dit album:
The slow gestation period of the popularity of the songs of Bill Fay should give hope to many artists who have their music ignored or undervalued on release. The English singer-songwriter made two albums in the early 1970s to modest acclaim before he disappeared completely, only re-emerging in 2012 with Life Is People. In between time he hadn't exactly been doing nothing - the period 1978 to 1981 saw him working on the collaborative album Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow which only got a modest release in the early 2000s.
The release history of Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow could perhaps be compared to Big Star’s Sister Lovers. Issued a few times but with varying tracklists and quality, it seems such an oversight for a work from such an enigmatic and not exactly prolific artist not to get the proper treatment. So, is this Bill Fay’s Smile or was there a reason for it to spend years on dusty shelves forgotten by the world? This new version on Dead Oceans aims to put any wrongs right with a definitive version.
Firstly, it is quite a different beast to his early 1970s albums (and his more recent works) as he performs as part of a larger group and blends his simple, earthly style with more elaborate jazz-rock and psych-influenced playing. Rather than his typical simple piano or guitar accompaniments, you get grander sonics and a cosmic otherworldly feel that at points resembles another legendary ‘lost’ album in Gene Clark’s No Other. Whether the additional instrumentation helps or hinders may well depend on your musical taste, but it’s clear from the get-go that Bill Fay’s songwriting chops are in good condition throughout and the album is ambitious in scope and experimental in both its arrangements and textures.
It opens with the gorgeous ‘Strange Staircase’ which immediately takes the listener to a different plane of consciousness to standard songwriting. The jazz-rock feel of the arrangements is grounded by Fay’s vocal which holds the thing together and prevents any progressive rock type overkill. The other noticeable thing is how brief these tracks are. The overall sound isn’t altogether that far from mid 1970s Pink Floyd, particularly on ‘Goodnight Stan', where early day synths provide a bedrock for Fay’s matter-of-fact vocal. The difference being that Fay eschews the over elaboration and pretension which could sometimes affect Floyd recordings and keeps everything down to earth despite the often galactic sound. You can see why the album is justly lauded. It uses the same ingredients that a lot of artists were using at the time but does something different with them - Fay's songs are always touching and relatable yet the album also has a mysterious air rarely heard elsewhere. The important thing is that the musicians look to share Fay’s vision and never over play and fit around his songs rather than attempt to dominate them. The more the album progresses though, the stranger it becomes. Initial tracks seem to be a take on cosmic 1970s music, yet further on are lo-fi experiments like the brilliant ‘Just A Moon’ and ‘Sam’ which both seem to bridge some of Paul McCartney’s homespun solo efforts and Guided By Voices' later no-fidelity take on classic pop.
Bewilderingly, Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow was hated by critics at the time but to be fair they hadn’t heard Daniel Johnston, R. Stevie Moore or The Flaming Lips either so it’s very hard to find a pre - 1990s reference point. The album is as experimental and collage-like as any of those artists but was made at a time when production meant more than madcap creativity. With this lavish reissue, Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow joins a long list of often undersung albums which appear to show an artist doing just what the hell they like a world away from the corporate rock machine. I’m thinking Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, Skip Spence’s Oar, Julian Cope’s Fried and, yes, the scattershot and unfinished sounding experiments of Big Star’s Sister Lovers.
A remarkable album that unwittingly foregrounds the way artists would go on to make albums in years to come, Tomorrow… cements another feather in Bill Fay’s already well-adorned cap. Essential.