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Although Moose are usually remembered as just another low-level group from the heyday of shoegaze, they were actually capable of something a little deeper than most other Kevin Shields-influenced guitar pedal worshippers. Their first album, 1992's ...XYZ, had some of those atmospheric guitar sounds that you would also find on your Slowdive, Telescopes and MBV records but Moose were more into using them as accents intended to embellish their songs, which were just as influenced by jangle rock, country twang and 1960's British pop as they were by their Creation Records contemporaries (a cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talking" - made famous by Harry Nilsson via the Midnight Cowboy Soundtrack- gives you a pretty good idea of where their head was at). For every sweeping bit of guitar miasma there's something a little more earthbound like a mandolin, flute or a string quartet. While the band wrote some really good songs a lot of the album's success can be placed on producer Mitch Easter's work behind the boards. Perhaps best known for his work with R.E.M., Easter gives the album a seemingly endless depth of texture and color, that raises it into near-classic territory. Slap on a pair of good headphones and listen to "Polly" or "Soon Is Never Soon Enough" (which features backing vocals from Delores O'Riordan of The Cranberries) to hear just how important he was in taking a good song and making it even better with strings, vocal overdubs and other tasteful effects. In addition to the original 13 song album this reissue adds seven songs from the EP's that preceded ...XYZ. These songs veer a little closer to shoegaze territory, with jet-engine guitars and an overall higher volume, but are just as fully realized and affecting. An essential reissue.
DAVID MANSDORF
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