[music] THE MAKE BELIEVE - s/t EP (Flameshovel)

Bummer that Tim Kinsella's horrible, horrible voice is the most obvious thing on this record, as there's a softness (like fur, not like whispering) and a melody to Sam Zurick's guitar-playing that math-rock doesn't have often enough.

Now, I haven't heard all his records, but I get the vibe that maybe no human alive takes themselves more seriously than Tim Kinsella. So no doubt his unrhymed lyrics (what's my problem? I like it when Piebald does that) and hideous gargling have a point rather than just stemming from incompetence (and truth be told, though his singing shoves its untutoredness in your face, no way does mundane laziness sound this way). I have mixed feelings about whether I ever find out what that point is.

[music] THE FONTAINE TOUPS - The Fontaine Toups (Teenbeat)

It somehow tarnishes my memory of Versus a little for multiple members of the band to separately release albums by their new projects which fundamentally still sound like Versus, only not as heavy. (Kind of like when Holiday Flyer broke up into California Oranges and Sinking Ships and man, I still can't remember which one was which.) In this race, The Pacific Ocean have a slight edge over The Fontaine Toups. Oh well.

I have a plan to be more descriptive in these posts, for those who haven't already heard the records in question, but if you didn't know Versus -- who for all the passionate beauty of parts of Secret Swingers never seemed like potential life-changers to me -- you don't care about this one.