Track 50 - Daniel Johnston - You Made My High School"

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"Amazing. An album that makes you think a minute’s all you need (for all your needs, musical)..."

by Nia Gibbons on 10/25/2006

The idea of this beautiful compilation album that benefits ‘The Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture’,  is to home 50 minutes of 50 artists; so to be spectacular AND useful at the same time. Amazing. An album that makes you think a minute’s all you need (for all your needs, musical). Where to start and what to choose? This must have been a concern of the jury, but it doesn’t stand out as an issue, and the tracks are friendly somehow with one another considering the size of the group and the variations involved.
 
You’d better watch out for Amycanbe’s piano orientated sweet and sad piece, ‘My Ring’. The Bobby McGees’ (who’s album is called ‘fuck me i’m twee’, should explain a thing about them) ‘Please Don’t Dump Me’, “please don’t dump me, […x5…] I’ll hunt you down and kill you in your bed” comes from a contradictory soul so stuffed with saccharin it’s as if the body snatchers got hold of Anneka Rice whilst she was hovering over to help Father Christmas himself. Or something. With all the r-rrrrolling of a Latvian lady, Ladyfuzz remind us what the fuss is all about with “mein kin” of ‘Abendrot’.
 
At the album’s half way point ‘This Time Round’ arrives by Bradford’s Le Tournoi as a sultry tease of a song that starts as it doesn’t mean to go on, but quickly becomes an end of movie/romantic-moment-of-utmost-importance (pleading but with slow resignation: “well, what do you want?”) ploughing through strings, both of the plucking and violin kind. Hot Puppies’ ‘I Left My Heart’ will have you doing the “do do do, do doo do doooo do do,” and then some. Pandatone’s ‘Forrest Dream’ is a shooting star of a song, and is exactly what it says in the title. Tessalations’ ‘I Am Jack’ runs along a similar thoughtful theme. There’s borderline reggae and just about everything else too.  Absolute diamond of this magic collection is Daniel Johnston ‘You Made My High School’ “Drr drr, playing my guitar. Drr drr…”. The “drr drr” doesn’t sound exactly like a guitar, but exactly like a crazy boy trying to sound exactly like a guitar, on stressed volume.
 
Some songs, possibly from their brevity, are saturated by their influences/ similes. Dons Mobile Barbers’ ‘Constant’, for instance, peels as if from the label of Mercury Rev. They all feel complete in themselves, of course, but so much so that one wanders why songs are ever any longer. If there happens to be in existence one track one doesn’t like - and there aren’t any rotten grapes here – the next song soon arrives.
 
Just a little note, when played on a media player or such like, songs not chosen for one reason or other are sectioned for your perusal. There’s a great one about a grocery store. And an addition to that note, Gigwise’s copy stood out at 50 minutes and one second. Keep that on the low, but keep the volume of this cute cultish classics up high.