Gideon Gaye

''Gideon Gaye'' is the second studio album by the Anglo-Irish avant-pop band the High Llamas, released in 1994 on the Brighton-based Target label. Notable for anticipating the mid 1990s easy-listening revivalism, the album's music was influenced by Brian Wilson, Steely Dan, Brazilian bossa nova and European film soundtracks, and was recorded with a £4000 budget. It was met with high praise by the British press. '' Q'' dubbed the LP "the best Beach Boys album since 1968's ''Friends''". In the US, the album was indifferently promoted.

Background

Upon release, bandleader Sean O'Hagan responded to Beach Boys comparisons: "There are aspects that are blatantly Brian-esque, because I've always been a huge Brian ilsonfan. He has been the biggest influence in my career to date. I was always shy bouthow much I liked him, but this time I decided to be blatant about it. But then I'm also a huge John Cale fan." The album's sleeve art is a homage to Van Dyke Parks' 1967 album ''Song Cycle'', which uses the same Torino Italic Flair typeface.

Critical reception

Scott Schinder of ''Trouser Press'' reviewed: "The result is a homespun, heartfelt art-pop masterpiece, with airy arrangements and gorgeous melodies in richly detailed tunes — 'The Dutchman,' 'Checking In, Checking Out,' 'The Goat Looks On' and the fourteen-minute 'Track Goes By' — that liberally quote Brian Wilson's lost classic Smile''] without sacrificing O'Hagan's purposefully playful point of view." Writer Tim Page called the album "suffused throughout with a gentle wistfulness that is never made quite explicit ... he albumis also intriguing on a purely formal level. The album's centerpiece is 'The Goat Looks On,' yet the entire disc might be described as a study of the creation of a song called 'The Goat Looks On.'"

Critic Richie Unterberger opined: "It's an impressive outing that sounds like little else in the alternative rock world of the mid-'90s. But it only establishes O'Hagan and his various pals as charming emulators, rather than true innovators. ''CMJ New Music Monthly''s Steve McGuirl wrote of the album: "A tad academic, perhaps; but to dismiss ''Gideon Gaye'' as merely retro cheapens a beautiful record and the music that inspired it."

Track listing

Personnel

Per AllMusic.

The High Llamas
* Rob Allum – drums, percussion
* John Fell – bass
* Marcus Holdaway – cello, harpsichord, organ, piano, upright piano, string arrangements, vibe master, vibraphone, vocals, background vocals, Vox organ
* Sean O'Hagan – composer, glockenspiel, guitar, Moog bass, Moog synthesizer, organ, piano, upright piano, producer, string arrangements, vocals, background vocals, Vox organ

Additional staff
* Andre – layout design
* Charles Francis – engineer, producer
* Anthony Lyons – layout design
* Jocelyn Pook – viola
* Anne Wood – violin

Charts

References

External links

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{{Authority control

The High Llamas albums
1994 albums
Art pop albums
Experimental pop albums
V2 Records albums