Brilliant late 70’s art power psyche jangly post punk pop. If you aren’t familiar with Swell Maps, the first two tracks are a good glimpse. Maps were formed by Sudden and his brother, the late Epic Soundtracks in the early 70’s when mere children. The band split ca. 1980 and this CD contains a cross-section of Sudden’s efforts through the remainder of the 80’s, collaborating at times with his brother and other such notables as Rowland S. Howard, Dave Kusworth. Much of it is dark brooding jangly scarf wearing near acoustic melancholia, but Sudden shines best when he kicks it up a notch into the upbeat realm (my Swell Maps biased opinion). He continues to wield the acoustic guit to this day (Crisco had him live in outer-A about 6 months ago). Related/incestuous material: Birthday Party, Crime and the City Soln, These Immortal Souls, Lydia Lunch/Shotgun Wedding.

1) upbeat driving, remixed version (not the album version!)
2) one of their “thrashier” ones, album version
3) upbeat pretty clean
4) acoustic feeling ballad w/ female vocals
5) lo-fi upbeat psyche
6) brief acoustic strumming
7) upbeat rockin acoustic w/ harmonica
8) minor yet upbeat min ballad
9) pretty waltzy marching feeling

Big Jangle Era Starts:

10) epic heavy beat melancholia
11) classic “hit” quality prettiness, melodic, hooky

Sudden attempts to write the saddest music ever written:

12) huge huge slash your wrists jangly melancholia
13) dear god how sad and morose can a song get? This track follows the previous on the original album as well (the lead-off tracks)
14) 15) super sad solo acoustic/vocs ballad feel
16) amazing dark weird noise ridden RS Howard collaboration
17) another sparse RSH collab, strange w/ organ

Sudden Rocks Again!:

18) upbeat rockin dense pop 19) heavier beat rockin
20) feels like electric version of sad acoustic songs, open chords, minor
21) acoustic ballad, long story telling, sad (surprise!)