HUNTER-GATHERER

The physical possession of music today as just an inhabitant of a hard drive alongside your bank statement pdf’s has perhaps sapped the romance out of collecting music. But there are times where I just marvel at the new utility. I had lost track of BabyBird (a.k.a Stephen Jones) a while back and had pretty much assumed that what material of his I had collected would only be complemented with a future “best of” collection featuring a few b-sides thrown in to sucker me into the purchase.
However, during a recent trip to Amazon, while randomly searching some of my former faves with all too predictable results, I came across a lovely surprise. Not one, but two releases of the mid-nineties lo-fi outfit Babybird (a.k.a Stephen Jones) that I totally missed over the last few years.
For the uninitiated, BabyBird is an artist whose biggest success was an unlikely pop ballad that exploded (in the UK at least) in 1996. Unlikely, because it really did not reflect the beautiful,dark melancholy of the rest of his work. You’re Gorgeous, was one of those ubiquitous pop hits that disappears before an artist’s name is even associated with it. The album which carried the single, Ugly Beautiful, was a regular in the $1.99 bin of your local used cd store circa late 90’s. If you are fan of the gastro-despot Gordon Ramsay, then you might also know the theme song to his show The F-Word which came off the album Bugged. But I suspect few might know it as BabyBird track stateside or even be familiar with the show for that matter.

My own introduction came back in 1996. I had plunked down the $75-$80 yearly subscription to Mojo magazine to track the state of the English music scene from my outpost in Nashville. BabyBird was getting mentioned in the same columns as the Spice girls were and I never gave him a thought. But near my abode was a used cd store with a sympathetic operative who would save any Anglo product worth listening to for my review.
My contact described it as reminiscent of Echo and the Bunnymen, but darker. $4.99?, sold! If that wasn’t enough he had also come across another collection of Babybird’s early 4-track recordings cheekily dubbed The Greatest Hits. I was immediately smitten by the brutally dark honesty and lo-fi ethos. Suffice to say, even with my rabid enthusiasm BabyBird never became a big hit in the states.

Subsequent releases, There’s Something Going On and Bugged came to me via amazon.co.uk, when the exchange rate made new releases in the UK a bargain even with trans-atlantic shipping. Saying nothing of the fact that no one knew if these records would ever see the light of an American release.
I got my hands on everything Mr. Jones released, including a novel he penned during the era. By 2002, the last release I purchased was a collection of brief aural landscapes he had composed for film that were released on mini cd’s.

So it was quite thrilling to unearth additional material from Mr. Jones this week, and the transaction could not have been easier. 2003’s Almost Cured Of Sadness’ 22 tracks, seemingly out of print, were offered as low as 49 cents used or in the form of a DRM-free, high bitrate download for $8.99. 2006’s Between My Ears There’s Nothing But Music was fetching anywhere from $16.35 to $33.99 or as a $7.99 download for 11 tracks. Yeah, the physical artwork and disc would have been great to have. But, having it in under 5 minutes on my hard drive and listening to it would be even better. 33 tracks for $17 after a thorough review of samples, marvelous! The Amazon DRM-free downloads mean that you can move the tracks as you wish and are essentially like tracks that you would have ripped from a cd. Personally, I rip everything at 192k for space and sound quality although purists and audiophiles might take me to task. The Amazon downloads ranged from 176k to 224k on variable bit rate, came with artwork built into the tracks and sound great.
I spent the next few days working through the now 12 hours of my newly enhanced Stephen Jones anthology and fell in love with the stuff all over again.
In lieu of lengthy descriptions and reviews, below are a few vids that provide a sampler. Enjoy.

The first single, Cornershop. TFI Friday TV appearance 1996.

You’re Gorgeous from 1996 TFI Friday TV appearance. Note the less-than-subliminal sunglass message.

AAhhh….the Babybird stuff that I love. The dark, haunting, semi-disturbing Bad Old Man.