Music Review: 7"s 166-170

 This time we have 5 punk singles circa 1979.

166. Angelic Upstarts - I'm An Upstart 🟢

Despite being listed in my dad's record collection, I found that it was missing from his box of 'A' singles.  Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago he found a box of 7"s belonging to one or both of his younger brothers (my uncles) which included a green vinyl pressing of this single - I wonder whether one of them stole it when they all lived at home as kids.  There's no cover art to review but the neon green vinyl looks amazing so it's for the best that it's in a transparent sleeve.  It's a standard noisy, shouty punk record, the kind of thing that would fit in with DC Hardcore if it was played a bit faster and didn't have a guitar solo in it.  I can't make out a lot of the words but it's got something to do with being alienated by society - definitely aimed at teenagers.  Overall, not a bad record.

b/w Leave Me Alone 🔵
This has the same catchy riff that the Violent Femmes built 'Blister In The Sun' on.  It's very angsty with a "fuck off and leave me alone" in the chorus.  Again, it's very teenage but I like it a bit more than the a-side.  It's a contender for my bad mood playlists, for sure.

167. Angelic Upstarts - Teenage Warning 🟢
I don't love this sleeve.  The ransom note font is cool but it's a big punk cliché - shorthand for Sex Pistols style.  The tattooed orange is really lame but I get that he mentions being a 'clockwork orange' in the first line of the song.  They're very clear that their music is meant for rebellious teenagers, especially when they chant ages 13-18 in the chorus here, like they're channelling some of the danger of rock-n-roll from 20 years earlier.  It's an average song but I can see why you'd like this if you were a teen in 1979.  Hopefully not a National Front supporting one.
b/w The Young Ones 🟡
I hoped this was going to be a punk Cliff Richard cover and the Upstarts delivered!  Unfortunately, it isn't that good.  It's very short because they speed it up and dispense with some of the less punk lyrics that make me cringe ("then we'll teach the young ones of our own" is absolutely not seductive to me and I'm glad they agree) to focus making the idea of not being young for very long sound more apocalyptic.  I appreciate the effort but I think this could have been executed better by their contemporaries.

168. The Art Attacks - I Am A Dalek 🟡
I like the sleeve which has a collage/screenprint feel.  It sounds like a lot of punk songs - from the riff to the vocals, it all sounds familiar to me.  There's nothing wrong with it but there's nothing original about it either and I'm not surprised that I haven't heard of them before.
b/w Neutron Bomb 🟡
Opening with the bassline is an interesting change but again, this sounds pretty uninspired.  It's more subdued than the a-side with the guitarist playing muted chords.  The Art Attacks are obviously big science-fiction nerds which isn't a problem in itself, but unlike other nerdy weirdos in the scene, they haven't brought anything new to the style they're playing.  The best bit is that it ends with a big loud explosion. 

169. Blue Screaming - Bland Hotel 🟡
First off, great name for a band.  Like the Art Attacks, they have a nice cut-and-paste sleeve, maybe because they're on the same record label.  The song is very English - there's a bit of a Madness vibe to it.  The keyboard part makes me feel like I'm in an amusement arcade at a coastal resort jamming pennies into a machine to win a badge or a keyring.  It's tongue-and-cheek and self-referential which is cute; the chorus "we've got catchy little melodies with catchy little words" is repeated so many times at the end that it makes a song which arguably isn't that catchy into something guaranteed to stick in your brain.
b/w Thin-X-Cinema 🟡
The vocal echo on the verse is a nice effect but I'm not excited by this.  It's another very average punk record that I'll forget the second the needle hits the centre of the disc.  

170. Leyton Buzzards - 19 & Mad 🟡
The Leyton Buzzards look really cool on the sleeve, wearing leather jackets like a 50s greaser gang - that Ramones sort of thing.  They've come up with good punk stage names too: Nick Nayme, Dave De Prave, Chip Monk and Gray Mare, which makes a nice change after being served the likes of Edwin, Godfrey and Igor by the last 2 bands.  The Buzzards have also printed the lyrics on the back cover which I appreciate, regardless of the quality of the prose.  I detect a little of their 50s influence in the music, despite the vocal matching that of the other punk bands above.  It has an instrumental break which there was no need for - if they'd taken that out and played it a bit faster, I might want to listen to it again, but as it is, I have no desire to spin it a second time.
b/w Villain 🟡
There's something quite American-sounding about this group; they wouldn't sound out of place with the CBGBs crowd.  Their problem is that they play just a bit too slow - I wonder whether they were more dynamic live and just couldn't translate that to vinyl.  
b/w Youthanasia 🟡
The lyrics to this have all you could ask for when it comes to teenage nihilism - "the world's a cess pit rotting away, things get worser every day"... "teenage genocide"... "no more dole queues"... Suggesting all the teens kill themselves in order to teach society a lesson is a poorly-thought-out take, to be honest.  Again, it's much too slow.  The Leyton Buzzards won me over with their aesthetic but disappointed with their music.  

I was disappointed with this set.  I suppose I know now why these bands have mostly been forgotten when we look back on punk; none of these bands deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as The Clash.  I did add Leave Me Alone to one of my angriest Spotify playlists but aside from that, nothing to impress.  

Music Review: 1416-1420

 This week we're in 1987 which is meant to be a Bad Time for pop music, but on first glance I'm optimistic about this set. 

1416 - Madonna - Who's That Girl 💚
Sleeve notes: I think it's supposed to be like a screwball romcom poster with the fun font and graphics? It does remind me of something specific from a couple of decades before this single but I can't put my finger on it. Madonna looks cool on the front; I'm not sure whether this look is a Reinvention™ for a new year. 
The song finds Madonna in her Spanish phase - a continuation of La Isla Bonita - with both lyrics and rhythm. There's also a bit of a Caribbean vibe with keyboards imitating a steel dream sound. It's a fun, catchy record - not one of her greatest ever but certainly not bad at all, just a little repetitive. I haven't seen the movie that this is the theme for, but I'm betting it's not as good as the song. 

b/w White Heat 💙
I love the gangster movie vocal samples on this - I've never known where they originate from but Google tells me they're from the James Cagney film that gives the song its name. I think this is a better song than Who's That Girl although it's cheesier. It's a cut from True Blue so not a new song that's been recorded for the single or the film Who's That Girl but I can understand why they chose it for the b-side since it ties in with the themes of that movie. Madonna is in control of the relationship here, as she usually is, using the metaphor of robbery/arrest to make her lover submit to her. It's a good song that I have a soft spot for and will definitely talk about again when we get to True Blue. I'd be happy if I bought the single and got this thrown in, as I think it outshines the a-side. 

1417 - Genesis - Throwing It All Away 🟠
I like the minimal sleeve but it doesn't make me think Genesis - if you showed me it but blurred out the artist name, I'd have guessed Pet Shop Boys. The song reminds me a bit of a Boyzone ballad but aimed at dads instead of young girls. It's got that Police staccato to it as well that I don't like; the vibe is middle-aged white men trying to weave in 'world' music. As for the lyrics, Phil Collins is telling a lady that she'll regret leaving him. It's a real downer, and if this is the best he could do to convince me to stay, I'd divorce him too.

b/w I'd Rather Be You 🟡
This is much jauntier! It's got the funky bassline and handclap drums that are typical of a lot of late 80s bands. The lyrical subject matter is a continuation of the a-side though. I spent a lot of this song looking up the state of Phil Collins' marriage and found that he was 3 years into a 12 year marriage when this record was released, which seemed ludicrous until I found out that it was actually Mike Rutherford who was the lyricist of Throwing It All Away. However he was a decade into a marriage that's still going, which is even more shocking! If I was Mrs Rutherford I'd have some serious questions about this record. Like Madonna, the b-side is better than the a-side, but just being better doesn't make this good.

1418 - Terence Trent D'Arby - Wishing Well 🟡
Terence Trent D'Arby is hot. Imagine having a son this gorgeous and giving him the name 'Terence', it doesn't bear thinking about.
I know that he was compared to Prince and Michael Jackson a lot at the time and while he is sexy like Prince and has a good voice, he has the range of neither of those American greats. I was looking forward to this song but sadly it's very average and I don't have much to say for or against it. I just wish it lived up to the sleeve.

b/w Elevators & Hearts 🟡
This one has those gospel choir style backing vocals on it but he still sounds like Primark Jackson. It's a really slow song with one sudden fast bit in the middle, which was such a shock to me that I got a little fright and checked the record player in case it had malfunctions. Aside from that frisson of excitement this is a very dull song. Very disappointed with Terence. 

1419 - Echo & The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar 💙
Not to turn this into 'hot singer review' but Ian McCulloch looks very good on this sleeve in a fey indie softboi kind of way - it's a well composed cover. 
This is indie disco music but in spite of knowing how cliché it is for me to like it, I can't help but dance anyway. The song has one of those big empty indie/goth choruses - "lips like sugar, sugar kisses" which is the kind of meaningless romantic imagery that I'm all about. It has a guitar solo but it's interesting enough for me not to be mad about it. Lips Like Sugar is dreamy and I would like to listen to it again. 

b/w Rollercoaster 🟡
Tonight, Echo & The Bunnymen are... The Doors! The song is fine but seriously, it is very Doorsy, like, I checked the credits in case this was a cover of a Doors song. There's nothing wrong with it but it's not nearly as good as the a-side and it drags on a bit too long.

1420 - Black - Wonderful Life 🟢
The sleeve is stark, industrial, monochrome, Joy Division-esque. It's wrapped in a poster of Black, who looks like he's stepped out of 1955. Despite all of that, the song sounds very 1987. I think it's one of those songs that sounds very morose but is supposed to be uplifting when you listen to the lyrics. Something about it screams 'gay rights' to me - I thought it was maybe from the Smalltown Boy stable of hits to give hope to disenfranchised gay men - but Wikipedia tells me that Black had a wife and when he wrote the song he was being sarcastic so maybe not. Again, the song is alright but nothing special.

b/w Life Calls 🟢
Before I address the song, I need to mention the back of the sleeve, which has a colour photo of him smiling while going down a chute at a funfair. Total opposite vibe to the front cover. 
The guitar part has a touch of Johnny Marr - in fact it sounds a bit like What Difference Does It Make? - but then there's horns. The song is quite fun and the backing singer girls are good in this, much better than Terence Trent D'Arby's ladies. It has a great abrupt ending as well. However, once I'd started daydreaming about what The Smiths would be like with a horn section, I kind of lost interest in Black. Sorry. 

Overall I feel that perhaps my optimism about 1987 was misplaced. A couple of good songs in here - White Heat is fun and I've added Lips Like Sugar to my Spotify playlist - but nothing that's truly great. These are from my dad's collection so I can't get rid of them, but when it comes to Genesis I'd be Throwing It All Away.