From the AMG: R. Stevie Moore's first album upon moving to New Jersey and immersing himself in the burgeoning New York new wave scene, 1978's Delicate Tension is quite a leap from 1976's , both in style and execution. Where has a definite progressive rock feel, Delicate Tension is dominated by short, punchy power pop rockers like the breathless, witty opener "Cool Daddio," the sly -like bounce of "Schoolgirl," and the sarcastic blur of "Apropos Joe.
" Elsewhere, Moore's instrumental arsenal (as before, he plays every instrument himself with the exception of about half a dozen drum parts and the flutes on the anguished "You Are Too Far from Me") expands to include an adorably rinky-dink electric piano on "Funny Child" (which sounds as if had suddenly decided to write a late-era song) and more synthesizers, which underpin forward-looking early synth pop experiments as varied as the ghostly "I Go into Your Mind" and the frantic voice-modified robo-bop "Horizontal Hideaway." However, even with all these modern accoutrements, Moore still isn't interested in making it easy for himself. In 1978, when the "disco sucks" backlash was making casual racism fashionable, Moore wrote an explicitly anti-racist faux-disco song, muddying the waters (and possibly obfuscating his honorable intent) for listeners by deliberately giving the song the shock title "Don't Blame the N-----s.
" That piece of social commentary aside, Delicate Tension is an album of surprising emotional depth. Most of the songs were written in the aftermath of a particularly bad breakup, and along with Moore's usual surrealism and snarky one-liners, songs like the acoustic ballad "Norway" and the simply lovely, -like "Zebra Standards 29" have the startling immediacy and plainspoken beauty of a late-night conversation over several empty wine bottles. Best of all, the album's sound is an enormous improvement over the extremely lo-fi ; it stands next to 's , , and as one of the best one-man-band albums of the '70s.
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This download consists of the newly remastered version of the original Delicate Tension album, plus a whole lot of absolutely spectacular bonus tracks, including the "Stance" EP. They bonus tracks double the length of the original album and they are all essential listens- I think overall they might even surpass the album itself!
The download is in two parts, but you can unpack them seperately (i.
e., they're not a .part1 and a .
part2).
Get the first half .
Get the second half .
And visit if you're so inclined...
he's got literally dozens of other albums worth hearing!
Happy holidays!
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