13 Isolation Drills
Introduction
Reactions to my previous post about Do The Collapse were interesting: a lot of agreement with my take on the album, but also a few who rate it more highly than I did. In addition, several people pointed me in the direction of apparently far superior demo versions - which I will get to in due course; but for the moment I am firmly locked onto a 'doing the studio albums with no tangential distractions' course.
Anyway, moving on... Despite my well-established level of ignorance, I am aware that Isolation Drills is a generally well-regarded album. And it didn't disappoint.
The Album
A lot of leg rubbing
'Hits the ground running' is a bit of a lazy cliché, but opener 'Fair Touching' is an undoubted cracker for which that cliché is entirely appropriate. An infectious, REM-ish gallop, it's bouncy and exuberant but also tautly focused with a hint of melancholy. It's one of those songs that you can't help but fall in love with: it welcomes you with open arms into a world where insistently jangly guitars and a measured, carefully paced melody are simply all that matter. 'Under the iron shop, the farewell ladies wink / always promising no one to crush them / always poker-faced before bingo' is a suitably abstract and intriguing introduction, and the song also contains the fabulously portentous 'currently fabulous / and perhaps at last / the song you sing will have meaning.' After that, there's a lot of leg rubbing...
But there's even better stuff here. 'Glad Girls' is just a power-pop masterpiece, one that mashes the Beach Boys, Teenage Fanclub and Big Star into a familiar GBV framework and whips it into a heady blast of unadulterated joy. Although delivered at a slightly more measured pace, 'Twilight Campfighter' is just as uplifting; impeccably, beautifully moving, the way that the heavier guitars kick in at 2:24 is a proper hairs on the back of the neck moment.
Completing the album's quartet of songs that flirt with perfection, 'Chasing Heather Crazy' is a cascade of arpeggios and urgent chords that is at once driving and reflective, and is another blessed with a memorably yearning melody.
Full of ghostly charm
There's quite a rocky, full-bodied feel to the album, with more than a few chunky riffs and rock tropes in evidence, although they never feel heavy-handed or clichéd. 'Skills Like This', for example, is a bit of a piledriver, almost breathlessly relentless in places, although the onslaught is tempered by a gently psychedelic interlude. 'Run Wild' sets off with a prowling predatory air before bursting into an expansively stirring chorus.
To go off at a little bit of a tangent, 'Run Wild' is another song that finds me falling short as far as lyrical analysis goes. I can unequivocally say that I enjoy the well-crafted imagery of stuff like 'Wooden heads on the chopping block / and other hearts pumping ink / it spilled out over dreams of antiquity / stained but full of ghostly charm,' but I can't even hazard a guess as to what it's about. Some artists toss out abstract wordplay in a transparent attempt to signal profundity, but that never seems to be the case with GBV; I always feel confident that the lyrics are actually about something, even if I struggle to pinpoint - or even guess - what that something might be. This is something that has become increasingly the case as I move through the back catalogue chronologically. Is that just me? Answers on a postcard please...
To get back on track... 'The Enemy' - in what feels like a nod to earlier days - opens with a disjointed lo-fi snippet of something unrelated to the main body of the song, before settling into another crunchy, grinding riff. It's far from one-paced though, with another free-flowing chorus akin to (although not quite as uplifting as) 'Run Wild'; plus, there's another little interlude with a hint of prog/psych about it. And, is it just me, or does Green Day's 'Know Your Enemy' bear more than a passing resemblance to this GBV riff? Is Billie Joe a closet Bob fan?
There's also a spot of glam-rock on offer. 'Pivotal Film' deploys an enjoyably stomping riff that recalls mid-period Teenage Fanclub (e.g. 'The Concept') and fluidly meandering bluesy soloing. 'Want One?' is cut from a similar cloth, although it's another that's punctuated by lighter, psychedelia-tinged lulls.
Unapologetically epic
At the more melancholy and thoughtful end of the spectrum, 'The Brides Have Hit Glass' runs with the general model of snappy, full-bodied riff-led verse alternating with a more understated, jangly chorus - but hones it into something particularly touching yet forceful. And although I've said it before, I can't really say it enough: how has this one man composed this many memorable melodies?
'Privately' is similarly moving, but more grandiose, bolstered by sweeping strings and a portentous two-note guitar line - but never feels overblown. The unapologetically epic 'Unspirited', unlike some of the tracks on Do The Collapse, attains an air of everyone-in-the-stadium-with-their-hands-in-the-air without ever sounding like it's trying too hard.
There's no way you're not going to do so
Whilst Isolation Drills is largely characterised by punchy, robust songs, it has plenty of quieter introspection to vary the mood. The brevity, plaintiveness and gently shambolic nature of 'Frostman' is another apparent nod to the past. 'Sister I Need Wine' is subtly intense and focused. Both 'How's My Drinking?' and 'Fine To See You' are brimming with effortlessly emotional heft: they don't need you to raise your lighter in the air, but there's no way you're not going to do so.
In many ways, Isolation Drills is a similar album to Under The Bushes: mostly crisp, punchy songs, quality song writing and production values that feel a long way away from the days of Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia or Same Place The Fly Got Smashed.
Yet there are a couple of backwards glances here: the sparse and fragile 'Frostman', for example, and the intro to 'The Enemy'. These moments did make me hanker a little for the wildly inventive and thrillingly abrasive days of the early 90s albums. But whilst there isn't quite that level of sonic invention here, there's no denying that Isolation Drills is an impressively consistent set of basically very strong tunes. And whilst what I imagine was an expanded studio budget does show its influence from time to time (for example with the use of strings), it's mercifully free of the artifice and neediness that often bedevilled Do The Collapse.
- Fair Touching
- Chasing Heather Crazy
- Twilight Campfighter
- Unspirited
- Glad Girls
- Run Wild
- How's My Drinking?
- The Brides Have Hit Glass
- Fine To See You
- Privately
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