Jacobites, "Big Store" (1985)

(listen)

Oh yeah "big" is the right word here, might as well put it in the title, because it is just that in so many ways: long, dense, rewards playing loud. The Jacobites—'80s Brits Dave Kusworth, Nikki Sudden, and Nikki's brother Epic Soundtracks—indulged various favorite influences with this project, most notably Stones, Dolls, Faces, and Crazy Horse. It was a little bit of a surprise, as the work before that of Sudden and Soundtracks, in Swell Maps, hewed closer to soundscape elaborations, moody noise exercises that dared tedium and never tried hard to resemble songs. But if the Jacobites represent some kind of commercial feint, or simply a gesture toward a kind of mainstream, well, no problem there. No problems at all as a matter of fact. Sometimes I'm pretty sure the Jacobites was the best band anywhere in 1984 and 1985 and I know that's a tall statement with such as the Mekons and Jesus and Mary Chain gearing it up (not to mention the Replacements, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, and God knows what else you can name from the period). But that's the kind of place one's head is apt to go under the influence of such things as "Big Store," which lasts eight minutes. It blunders in like an elephant, with all the wisdom and dignity as well as imposing size of the beast. Nikki Sudden's vocals are slow and drawling, ambling roaming and feeling the way. The song surges and pounds like ocean waves. It is mysterious and gray like fog. The guitar plucks out ragged notes like pearls on a string. It puts one in a dreamy, analogizing frame of mind even as it eases one's weary wary mind.