The Greenberry Woods – Rapple Dapple (1994)
purchase this album (Amazon)
Now this is more like it.
It may not seem like it, but this album is the kind of thing I had in mind when I started Cutouts Gone Wild! Á¢€” a jewel neglected by its corporate parents, left to gather dust in remainder bins and two-for-a-dollar racks at used CD shops. Unfortunately for me, there aren’t very many of those albums, at least not in comparison with the number of woefully misbegotten turds, and the turds are usually so much more fun to write about.
Not Rapple Dapple. I have very fond memories of this album Á¢€” if I’m remembering correctly, I received my advance copy in the fall of 1993, right in the heart of the darkest days of the Candlebox Age, and its sunny harmonies and perfect pop hooks were a shimmering oasis in an arid wasteland of gloomy, flannel-shrouded crap. The Greenberry Woods were on Sire, back when it was more than a logo, and this, their debut, was co-produced by Andy Paley, who was in the middle of writing a bunch of songs with Brian Wilson. Power-pop nerds should have flocked to this record.
Then again, maybe they did flock to it Á¢€” maybe there just aren’t enough people who love this kind of music to make a difference. Either way, the Woods only lasted for one more album, 1995’s not-as-good-but-still-worth-hearing Big Money Item, before splintering into a pair of bands which proceeded to sell even fewer records (although it must be said that one of those bands, Splitsville, is still around and making music that I don’t love as much as the stuff on this album).
Thirteen years later, this stuff sounds as good as it did the day it was released. Used copies are shamefully cheap Á¢€” after listening to “Trampoline” (download), “Sentimental Role” (download), “That’s What She Said” (download), and “Adieu” (download), pick one up and hear the rest of the album for yourself.
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