Bobb Trimble

Bobb Trimble’s story is a sad but all-too-common one: a gifted songwriter in the wrong place at the wrong time records brilliant but largely ignored albums only to fade into obscurity and be rediscovered years later by a whole new generation of listeners. In Trimble’s case, the time was the early ’80s, the place, Worcester, MA, and the albums (Iron Curtain Innocence and Harvest of Dreams) are two of the most stunning pop masterpieces ever unearthed by Secretly Canadian, or any label, for that matter. Sounding like some high-voiced Marc Bolan character with a Beatles obsession, Trimble’s introspective, folk-like songs stand in stark contrast to the ’80s world of plastic, videogames and consumerism. Their twists and turns through private mythologies and idiosyncratic fantasies evoke older, simpler times yet strangely enough, also sound entirely modern in 2007. With added demos, restored artwork and detailed liner notes, these reissues are dense, utterly engrossing listening experiences, shedding some welcomed light on two of the most underappreciated, and arguably best, albums of the ’80s.