Chills "Submarine Bells"

Chills “The Oncoming Day” (mp3)

Chills “Singing In My Sleep” (mp3)

I know I’ve gone on in the past about Flying Nun Records and how I think that basically, as far as being a label is concerned, it was that best thing since sliced bread. Better than Factory Records? Check. Better than Creation? Check. Who else am I missing?

However, I also think that it goes without saying that the material the label put out in the eighties and very early nineties was unquestionably superior to what was released afterwards, much of which I feel was marginal at best. However, as a whole, Flying Nun will always be remembered for both the music and scene that was created around it so yeah, I think that that says something. I believe that the label is now owned, as a whole, by Warner Music by way of Warner’s purchase of Festival Mushroom Records, whom Flying Nun was a subsidiary of, in 2006.

All that rhetoric aside, it was a joy to sit down in front of the computer the other night and watch the Flying Nun Heavenly Pop Hits Documentary that aired in New Zealand sometime in 2002 but can be viewed via the always wonderful (at least for things like this) Youtube. One thing that I gleaned from the documentary, besides the fact that Chris Knox evidently loves himself, is the somewhat disregard that Martin Phillipps has for the Chills’ 1990 release, Submarine Bells; a Ditching Boy Top Five of the 90s finalist.

I almost threw the laptop across the room in blasphemy upon hearing this but figured that I should at least hear the man out since he’s provided not only myself but also the whole world a lot of great music over the years. Mr. Phillipps’ reasoning was that he felt the record and it’s recording hadn’t adequately captured the band’s (at least who the band were at the time) powerful live presence. And I will say that some of the footage I’ve seen of the Chills from this period performing the Submarine Bells material live is really quite dynamite.

However, I also feel that a lot of the time what makes an album so great is the different direction the artist can take the album’s material in a live setting; using the recorded version as an almost template for what a song can really be when performed in front of an audience. I’ve never been one to think that there’s only one definitive version of a song as I feel that any such mentality can really trap an artist in how they could otherwise grow by respecting the material and where it could take both the performer and audience alike.

All that, and Martin Phillipp’ comments, aside, I still consider Submarine Bells one of the greatest recorded works of music ever and equally on par, if not more so, with albums such as Pet Sounds, London Calling (although I’ve always preferred Give ‘Em Enough Rope myself) and Loveless. At the time of its recording, that particular line-up of the Chills had been together for nearly three years and were working well as a band, with all four contributing to the songs, no one (or in this case two) of which can do the rest of Submarine Bells justice as far as representation goes. Here are a couple that have always been favorites. To this day the Chills remain the band that I most regret never having seen.