Only CDs Is Sounding Like These # 18: Marshall Crenshaw, Marshall Crenshaw (1982)

A new occasional series - CDs are coming back baby! And I’m here for it. BIGTIME! Also, some albums just REALLY suit the format, right

I used to own the first three Marshall Crenshaw records — and I regret selling them, especially the first album, this magical self-titled debut. But buying it back on CD was the smart move. Because it comes loaded with bonus tracks, including that killer song, You’re My Favourite Waste of Time, which, really, was what made me fall — heavily — for Crenshaw and his sound.

It was probably his involvement in the La Bamba movie that made me check him out (he plays Buddy Holly, and slays a song on the soundtrack). He had already been in the public, and building an audience for a decade at that point. He started off playing John Lennon in the musical, Beatlemania. Apparently he knocked out Favourite Waste of Time as a demo backstage, killing time waiting to go on. It was a hit for other people. But I love Crenshaw’s version the most.

The Vinyl Countdown # 1163

He might have been cursed by playing Lennon and Holly. He did such a good job of it that his own career and catalogue of songs seemed to just peek around the corner, but never quite peaked. Still, there’s time for you to hear Someday Someway and realise you need this man’s music in your life.

He was a little bit Jonathan Richman and Robert Gordon, he was a little bit Elvis Costello, but probably a lot more Joe Jackson. He was also a tiny bit Neil Finn too. He was (and is) all of these things and it’s like that amazing, finite set of songs is just sitting there still waiting for people to hear it.

But I’ve said all of this — in a slightly different way — before:

From time to time, I just start thinking about how I need to spread the word on this guy. His music from 40 years ago now still shines. And like a more sophisticated Trini Lopez, it’s just happy music; it makes you enjoy your day a whole lot more.

In 1995, Crenshaw co-wrote Till I Hear It From You with (and for) the Gin Blossoms. It was their mega-hit, played on the end credits of Empire Records. So that was obviously a nice payday. And if you listen to it as a Crenshaw song, it’s easy to hear that effortless thing he has — he hated it being called power-pop, but it sure isn’t new wave. He was bringing his version of power-pop to the new wave in the early 1980s.

And that’s what you hear on the album Marshall Crenshaw. A slightly more polished-up version of the rockabilly Robert Gordon was nailing around that time.

I think Marshall Crenshaw is the sort of album you stick in a time capsule. The other albums that followed it are fantastic too — but this one just does not miss. Every song a gem. I love it so.

That’s all I wanted to say. It was my mistake to ditch the LP somewhat. But a huge win to find the remastered, updated, early 2000s CD-version with the bonus tracks.

What an amazing talent. What an album. A gem. Perhaps it’s best that it sits there in CD racks of just a few these days. It’s the sort of album that deserves to be in the “if you know you know” category.