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The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

c.layne

[#] The Sun Will Come Out to Blind You (2005)

Reviewed May 30, 2025

In fairness to Victor, I like his solo work a lot better.

The Sun Will Come Out to Blind You album art

Not content to marinate in psychedelic pop, c.layne made a pretty quick switch to a sorta inky downtempo feel for his third (proper) album, The Sun Will Come Out to Blind You. This is also the first and to date only c.layne effort to feature help from an outside producer, namely ccMixter bigwig and fellow Magnatune artist Victor Stone. Unfortunately, it's kind of a dud. Victor took the existing demos for Blind You and reworked them into a sort of orchestral, brass band style (sometimes), oftentimes jettisoning neat melodies and ear-catching ideas for far less interesting ones. Normally, an adventurous remix is what you want, but I just don't think these do the material any justice.

On the good end of things, the sole triumph of the remix sessions is the opener "I Don't Care If You Lie", going from a grubby, droning rumble accompanying c.layne's voice to a pokey, quirky, stage musical sorta backing which I think works well with the lyrics and delivery. Towards the front of Blind You, it's fairly similar to the demos, which is to Victor's credit, but as things go on, big hooks (like the lead synth and general propulsion of "Vertigo Blues") get left on the cutting room floor for sleepy trombone leads and walking basslines. Least forgivably, take note of how c.layne's vocal audibly lags the beat on "Everybody's Going Underground" (as also happens on "Vertigo", and "How Soon I Forget"...). Not pretty, and easily fixed.

Essential:	Quintessential:	Non-Essential:	Rating:
"I Don't Care if You Lie", "Just My Luck", "She's on My Mind"	"Vertigo Blues"	"Everybody's Going Underground"

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