THE GREEN PAJAMAS
Narcotic Kisses
(Camera Obscura)
One of the marks of a great band is that it can release an album of material from the vaults and have it be just as darn wonderful as any of its regular records. Such is the case with the Green Pajamas and Narcotic Kisses, a collection of tunes previously released on now-impossibly rare singles, or recorded for but not used on albums. (In fact, Kisses itself was first issued in 2000 as a limited-edition vinyl package.) But the Pajamas and Camera Obscura realized, no doubt, what a tragedy it would be to keep music this good out of the hands of the majority of the fans.
Leader Jeff Kelly's distinctive muse is in full flower on these 16 tracks. As usual, psychedelia, folk, Goth and pop mix freely and organically for poetic melodies like "Demon Lover" (an outtake from Seven Fathoms Down and Falling), "The Night Wind" (a musical adaptation of an Emily Bronte poem intended for This is Where We Disappear but later reworked for Kelly's other band Goblin Market), "Song For Christina/a nightmare" (originally done for Camera Obscura's MP3 singles club) and "Ballerina" (an outtake from All Clues Lead to Meagan's Bed). Other notables include "Vampire Crush," a horn-laced ditty taken from a limited-edition single, "Deadly Nightshade," from the Ptolemaic Terrascope benefit CD Succour and the otherwise-unreleased-anywhere gems "Drowning," a dark ballad, and "Just Another Perfect Day," one of the group's best pure pop songs.
The uniform quality of Kelly's writing keeps this collection from sounding like a hodgepodge, and the unusually abundant number of great melodies makes the album one of the most simply listenable in the Pajamas' estimable catalog. If you're already a Pajamas fan, Narcotic Kisses is a must-have. If you've never given this unjustly obscure Seattle band a try, this is a perfect place to begin. Michael Toland [buy it]
For fans of: Robyn Hitchcock, the Coffee Sergeants, black tape for a blue girl