THE FANTASTIC SOUNDS OF THE PICTURES - SELECTED TRACKS 2000-2005 - The Pictures (Illustrious Artists)
The Pictures main man Davey Lane is perhaps best known as the second guitarist/referee for enduring Aussie icons You Am I. The Pictures themselves have been around for seven years, producing a string of singles and an album. This collection compiles some of their rarer output, along with demos and different mixes.
Think of The Pictures as a beat band - a damn fine one - and you can't go wrong. Sometimes they cross over into freakbeat/psych territory (like The Creation), otherwise they come across as an Antipodean version of mid-period, Keith Moon Who. The latter's a tag they might duck these days but there's no mistaking those fills on "Run & Hide" or chords on "Don't You Wanna Know" (which could have benefitted from a little backwards-played guitar.)
I was told The Pictures "real" album ("Pieces of Hate") was top heavy with the Who but I've never heard it so i can't say. But as far as "The Fantastic Sounds..." is concerned, variety is a byword. "How Do You Feel" actually recalls Super K's "Recurring Nightmare". Since "A Thousand Years" and "Silence" are positively Lennonesqe and "Little Brown Bottle" is a dirty garage rocker. Pigeonholing The Pictures isn't a fruitful exercise.
There are some great moments here. Lyrically nonsensical it may be but "I Dealt A Rollercoaster" is a great little single in anyone's language. "You'll See" rocks with an English sensibility (must be in the strings and harmonies) that recall the best output from Abbey Road. "Skinny Ass Bop" and a couple of other rockers keep it down and dirty. "You Don't Care Much" and "Downhill From Here" sound like they would have been fine singles if the EMI affiliate The Pictures had been signed to hadn't gone belly-up. (There's also the occasional intriguing shot across the bows of past management in the liner notes which tend to reinforce some scuttlebutt that had been kicking around.)
Asa you might guess, given that some of these songs are experiments or demos, production is up and down but it really doesn't matter much when the band hits its straps and you turn it up loud. The Pictures' love of what they do is palpable - and your love of what they do should be be similarly manifested by putting down your heard-earned for a copy. –
The Barman
