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July 20, 2008
Whoa, "Tally Ho!"
Given my rabid and vocal fandom, it took me a surprisingly long time to track down and digest the lone original track from Love Is All's recent covers EP. But once enough pennies had been sufficiently tossed and "Wishing Well" finally found my earbuds, it was familiar instantly. Not because it had the same giddy excitability of all the band's swell tracks, but because it blatantly lifts two bars of the distinctive organ burst from 1981's indie-pop classic "Tally Ho!" by my Kiwi heroes, the Clean. It was hard to distinguish the exuburant notes in the previously posted live video, but in the studio version's compressed mp3 glory, it couldn't be plainer. So obvious a musical reference that I was pretty perplexed that Marc Hogan's Pitchfork review failed to mention it (especially since Marc's something of an indie pop connoisseur I gather), and other write ups I've seen neglected to mention it as well. Are the Clean still such a well kept secret, even in an internet era?
Now, I'm not accusing LIA of plagarism or anything. I can't believe that Gothenburg's finest meant it as anything more than an homage; one generation of rambunctious savants tipping their cap to another. Its presence on a covers collection might also be a clue to intent. Although I think front gal Josephine Olausson is actually playing the refrain, I'd place their borrowing firmly in the recent tradition of her fellow countrymen. Jens Lekman often places recognizable motifs from well-known pop hits into his tracks, and other Swede pop acts (like my recent crush Air France) are
even more dependent on sampling. For me, their use of recognizable bits usually leaves something to be desired. The best uses of sampling in rap music succeed because they recontextualize a bit of music, recognizable or not, and warp it to fit an entirely new genre. It's making music out of music. But when Jens Lekman borrows a Belle and Sebastian melody, or Love is All swipe from the Clean, they are basically just plopping someone else's work into compositions of a similar type. Sure it sounds good, but it's not exactly illuminating to discover that the "Tally Ho!" organ line sounds great in the midst of an energetic pop song, you know?
Listen for yourselves...
Posted by Jeff Klingman at July 20, 2008 08:18 PM
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Comments
Whether it's plagiarism, theft or a failure of imagination, the simple appropriation of a riff without adding or subtracting anything, strikes me as extremely lame. Elastica did it too. But Elastica did it better.
Posted by: david at July 21, 2008 09:26 AM
Well, I looooove Elastica, so perhaps I'm more forgiving, but I don't think it's quite as bad as you. I think it's pretty clearly a homage, and it is worked into a fuller track. But I think lack of imagination is the right knock. They don't do enough with it to justify doing it in the first place. Especially since their original material (and even the rest of the EPs covers) are extremely fun and inventive.
Posted by: Jeff K at July 21, 2008 09:37 AM
