Fed

A bit strange but pretty good.

'Three-Quarters Blind Eyes +2' was released in 1994 by Drag City. Four years later the first full-length 'More You Becomes You' appeared, a haunted, shambolic recording. A session you might expect from the glimpse we see of Liam in the movie 'High Fidelity' (Liam at a piano in a neighborhood bar). The music on 'More You' occasionally soars, as on the disc's closer 'The Sailor', but unfortunately rates as a "great sunday morning record", nothing more.The question is can the guy who rocked with such authority on 'Three-Quarters Blind Eyes, with the range and sweetness of a younger, less sober Alex Chilton deliver this time? Is the man who came on like a mutant Nilsson on 'Found a Little Baby', an astounding singer/arranger out of the gate, capable of living up to the promise of nearly a decade ago?The answer music lovers is yes! 'Fed' is everything this particular music nerd hoped for in '94 and then some. From the opening pageant of 'Whose Blues' with its languid intro and salvo of horns to the sublime resignation of 'No Education', this record was not only worth the wait, but worth whatever you have to pay for it. Mr. Hayes spared no expense in bringing us his masterwork and so it goes that only an unknown patron, presumably Japanese, has had the interest or pockets deep enough to issue 'Fed'.Initial listens might lead you to think you are listening to a Liam Hayes bliss-out (the fist few tracks) only to be shaken from your reverie by the soul-stab of'So Blind' and the single 'Greyhound Bus Staion' with its' giddy aimlessness. It has immediate appeal and with repeated listens becomes almost seamless. You also get some deeply odd cover and insert photography. Liam holding a goat amid a sea of canned goods, standing besides a manic, leaping clerk. The clerk is sporting a button which reads:ONLY LOVE BEATS MUTTON. And what of the woman's picture on the button on the man's lapel, on the cover?Buy and be blown away!