Music Review: #180

 My original plan for this week was to write about a cassette for the first time, but unfortunately the Summer 2018 mixtape I'd picked out is all chewed up from being played so often on my Walkman in the office (not to mention the previous tracklisting that I've painted over). I had to throw the tape out, so instead I'm listening to the Spring '18 mix CD that I recorded a lot of it from.  

1. The 1975 - Give Yourself A Try 💜

 I was so thrilled with this song came out.  It leaked just before its radio debut, when I was on the bus home from work and I was able to find it and play it on repeat as I travelled back to my house to put the radio on.  It reminds me of Busted and the pop punk bands I listened to when I was a pre-teen and it just makes me so happy.  Matty covers all of his neuroses and uses the 3 minutes to bring us up to date with how he's been in the 2 years since the last 1975 album came out, over a simple repetitive bassline and screeching guitar.  
One of the things I mourn most about an alternative, pandemic-free 2020 is this song as part of The 1975's encore.  They used to play it first which was no good because for some reason everyone has their phones out to capture them coming on stage or are too caught up in the excitement of the show starting to enjoy the song and dance, but on the tour they did at the start of 2020 this song was moved to the end of the set which was the perfect place for it.  I went to 4 shows on that tour but they weren't enough, I need more moshpits catapulting me to the front of the crowd to this song (although in one city I bumped into a woman who looked like she would have punched me if I'd stuck around by her, no more of that post-pandemic please).  
The 1975 promoted this song and the album it comes from by posting out a 'manifesto' to random fans and I was lucky enough to get one.  It included a poster with the lyrics to this song which has hung over my turntable ever since.  I love everything about Give Yourself A Try - the timbre, the simplicity, its flippant yet sincere lyrics. .. it's knocking on the door of my 'all-time favourites' list. 

2. Cigarettes After Sex - Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby 🎀

The bassline, the muted drums, the low-key vocal... this is a perfect dream pop lullaby.  Greg Gonzalez' androgynous vocal style is spellbinding.  I firmly believe that this is one of the greatest love songs of this century, if not all time.  It doesn't make any grand statements about true love; it deals in everyday intimate moments like dancing in the living room to 90s songs and feels more real than a big power ballad.  It's the kind of song to listen to in the dark, lying on the floor in between your speakers with the song spinning on vinyl, the bassline reverberating through the carpet.  It's the feeling of being safe and loved.  I saw Cigarettes After Sex play this song in 2019 and it was a special experience. 

3. Dear Boy - Love Interest 🎀

I wrote a previous entry about the Dear Boy EP and how it feels like home to me, but if I had to pick a favourite song of theirs, it would be this one.  It's another romantic song that weaves the everyday through the lyrics but this time with a jangly British indie sound.  The melodies are luscious and Ben Grey swoons and almost whispers this ode to his beloved.  In the middle he yells out the "I'm gonna wait for you!" part of the chorus which is my absolute favourite part of this perfect song.  Love Interest is one of those songs that has been on my playlist since it came out and I still get excited when I hear the intro - it's unfathomable to me that they're not much more well-known. 

4. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Dream Synopsis 🎀

"Isn't it boring when I talk about my dreams?" Usually, yes, but when Alex Turner turns his dreams into lyrics they're captivating.  Again, this is romantic, a late-night lounge song, led by the bassline with a great sax part.  The song is witty, not only self-aware but perfectly conveying the absurdity of a dream which only becomes clear when you reflect upon it after waking ("there was palm tree debris everywhere and a Roman colosseum").  It sounds like American crooners, or maybe European, but Alex expertly reminds us of his roots with references to Sheffield city centre and "you, and me, and Miles Kane, and some prick I went to school with".  I think there's a pretty convincing argument in favour of Alex Turner being the greatest lyricist of his generation.

5. Yazoo - Only You 🎀

Another great love song (a theme is emerging here), I adore Only You in all its forms but I think the original will always be the best.  It's another song that makes me feel all emotional even though it's this fairly primitive staccato synthpop tune.  I think it's the contrast between the cold synths and Alison Moyet's soulful singing style that really elevates this song - I've never been able to piece together the narrative from the lyrics but she delivers them perfectly.  It must be mad to be Vince Clarke and to have this, Just Can't Get Enough and A Little Respect on your resumé, what an achievement.

6. Depeche Mode - Route 66 💜

Depeche Mode aren't a group that you'd expect to hear a great driving rock song from, but it works so well.  I know they can't take credit for writing Route 66 but it's such a cool song and this is an excellent version to dance to.  The instrumental break that's lifted from Behind The Wheel (the single which Route 66 is the b-side to) is a bit long but I appreciate the way that they've smuggled it in here.  I listened to this song a lot in 2018 so I started to get a bit sick of it but now I've given it a couple of years I can get a lot of joy out of singing the list of destinations along with Martin Gore.

7. Pulp - Babies 💜

In a documentary about Pulp's hit Common People, Jarvis Cocker describes the keyboard part at the root of the song as 'toy-town' which I think is also an appropriate descriptor for the guitar riff that opens Babies.  It's low-key and even a little cheap-sounding which matches their 70s charity shop aesthetic.  I think this is one of Jarvis' best story-songs which is saying something as he's a fabulous storyteller.  No matter how many times you listen to this, and I've listened to it a lot, it's impossible not to get sucked in to the narrative every single time.  The climactic "I only went with her because she looked like you, my God!" line gets me every time, it's so funny and delivered with such drama.  I also need to point out the synth stabs courtesy of Candida Doyle which really make the song.  It misses out on being top-tier only because I listened to it so much around the time I made this mix and I've not quite recovered. 

8. Placebo - 20th Century Boy 💜

This is a very straight cover of T. Rex's hit but they have the benefit of a 90s recording studio so everything is that bit heavier, louder and sleazier than Bolan was able to put on vinyl in the 70s.  The whole thing sounds like the film Velvet Goldmine (which it soundtracks) looks, dripping in glitter, and Brian Molko's glam snarl fits the song perfectly.  It sounds like the best Studio 54 party where everyone is outlandishly dressed and having the best night of their lives.

9. Paramore - Passionfruit 💜

Another cover.  Paramore dispense with the annoying false intro of Drake's original and add the supreme talent that is Hayley Williams on vocals delivering the kind of subdued performance that you usually hear on acoustic recordings.  At this point in their career Paramore were making New Wave inspired pop, so listening to them turn this RnB/hip-hop chart hit into something that fit their style is magical.  Drake may be considered the king of being in touch with his emotions in pop, but Hayley delivers a more emotive performance than anything he's come up with.  If you asked me whether I prefer this or the original I'd find it very hard to choose, but Hayley throwing in a couple of lines from Hold On We're Going Home at the end might just win me over. 

10. Prep School - Come As You Are 💜

I love this style of dark, soft, slow-build cover with dreampop vocals, and this has rainstorm sounds which make it even more intimate.  You have to wait almost 2 minutes for the iconic riff (which Nirvana employ from beginning to end in their original version) and for the song to get heavy.  I love the way they play with dynamics to create a really cool take on such a well-known song.

11. The Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way 💜

I love the xylophone sound that runs through this song, it really cuts through the gothiness of Richard Butler's drawl.  Love My Way is used so effectively in the movie Call Me By Your Name that it's hard for me to hear the song and not picture Timothée Chalamet watching Armie Hammer dancing to it.  However the song is actually pretty dark and spooky, the sort of thing you'd expect to hear on the Lost Boys soundtrack rather than in a disco. 

12. Nicole Dollanganger - Tammy Faye 💜

I adore Nicole and this is one of my favourite songs of hers.  It has all of her trademarks - sad-girl-in-love, melancholia, obsession-with-death - but her voice isn't as high here as in her earlier EPs.  The lone guitar has a country vibe, the ideal sound for "a crazy bitch, crying in the kitchen to Tammy Wynette".  

13. Harry Styles - Sign Of The Times 💙

This song is so grand and well put together, it's a great choice of first single to release as a mission statement for what solo Harry Styles will be.  Is it apocalyptic or about the death of a specific character in the song?  I'm not sure but it's another of those songs that sounds like the end of something.  The slide between the solo piano intro part and the full band verses is exquisite, like lifting a curtain to reveal the orchestra.  It's not unlike Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby in that it offers safety and reassurance but where Cigarettes After Sex are minimalist, Harry Styles goes huge.  It's a bit long which isn't necessarily bad for the song but sometimes it's a little bit much for me. 

14. Sky Ferreira - Everything Is Embarrassing 💙

Sky Ferreira's music sounds like it should be the soundtrack to all those neon thriller movies of recent years that have killer synth sounds, it's modern but nods to the 80s.  This sounds like it ought to have been a hit single but for some reason Sky Ferreira isn't a household name.  There's something unusual about her voice that I can't pinpoint but her choruses stick in my head and I think this is my favourite song of hers.  There's an alternate universe where this is a pop radio hit.  I'd live there.

15. Prince - Darling Nikki 🎀

Probably my favourite Prince song.  Darling Nikki is iconic and important in that it made the Filthy 15, the list of songs that outraged conservatives and led to explicit lyrics stickers being added to CS cases, because he mentions masturbation.  Not that it deterred Prince, this isn't even close to being his dirtiest song.  I love the way that the guitar sounds like it's stepping into the scene wearing stilettos, and after a few verses things descend into sexy chaos with some excellent yelping from Prince.  The ending is really weird - it's a backwards message but with the addition of heavy rain, it sounds like the aftermath of the storm where the song is being washed down the drain. 

16. Mazzy Star - Fade Into You 🎀

The all-time number one dream pop classic.  Fade Into You sounds like a teen movie homecoming slow dance scene with gauzy fabric and fairy lights overhead.  Hope Sandoval's voice is even, almost bored, backed by tambourine and country slide guitar.  It feels like it drifts in on a summer night's breeze and drifts back out without being intrusive.  It's a flawless record. 

17. HAIM - Don't Save Me 💙

Something about HAIM sounds like they've been dropped in from the 70s, like they were made to wear flares and hang out with Stevie Nicks but they were accidentally created in the 2010s instead.  Their music is so funky and cool and it's hard for me to describe what I like about them in an aural sense - they're one of those bands who have a whole aura around them, they sound like being out in nature on a cloudless sunny day.

18. College & Electric Youth - A Real Hero 💜

This is on the soundtrack to the movie Drive and it sounds like neon pink signs and city lights at night - the synth stabs are like watching the white lines on the road being illuminated and devoured by headlights.  The vocal is soft and, like Only You, delivers warmth to contrast with the electronics.  There's something uplifting about the delivery of lines like "155 people or more, all safe and all rescued... you have proved to be... a real hero".  It sounds so kind and loving.

19. Dua Lipa - New Rules 💜

Here's a pop hit from the universe I do live in.  With New Rules, Dua Lipa went from just another of the girl pop stars on Radio 1, to a proper star and it's not hard to see why with this.  There's nothing catchier than a song with a counting bit in it and this is a girl power song that doesn't feel too #girlboss and contrived.  One of my favourite recent chart hits.  

20. The xx - Say Something Loving 💙

There's something really satisfying about the vocal melody in this song.  I don't think either of the two singers in The xx are particularly strong vocalists but as a trio this band sound really great together.  There's echoes of Yazoo in the juxtaposition between synth and singing; perhaps The xx are the modern equivalent of that group.  There's an urgency to the melody, almost begging, but it still has this serenity about it. 

Before I sat down and listened to this, I didn't realise how much I've grown to favour music that's slow, subdued, intimate and romantic.  I made this CD almost three years ago so it's interesting that I still love all of this - it's densely populated with songs that I'd shortlist among my all-time favourites. 

I've started a Spotify playlist with all my 'pink' favourite songs which I'm adding to with each entry:

Music Review: 7"s 1856-1860

 It's 1989 and this mix is much more eclectic than what the all-punk '79 set had to offer in my last entry.

#1856 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Knock Me Down 🟡

I'm not really familiar with the Chili Peppers' output prior to Blood Sugar Sex Magik (which came out a couple of years after this single) and even then I only know the hits.  However, what I do know about them is that they always seemed to be in their underwear, or less, so this sleeve is in tune with what I expected. Two of the band members are staring straight out, expressionless, even pinching their own nipple. A bit weird, but ok. Their sound at this time is very similar to Faith No More, but not as exciting - Anthony Kiedis lacks the vocal skill of Mike Patton.  They try to make up for this with 'funky' bass which I am not a fan of.  Due to the flatness of the vocal I can't make out many of the words in this song and it doesn't grab me, although I suspect this might have sounded good live.  There's an unnecessary key change and a lazy fade-out at the end; overall, nothing special.

b/w Punk Rock Classic 🟡

They're playing so fast here that I checked to make sure I wasn't supposed to play this side at 33rpm.  It is almost a good hardcore punk song but Kiedis' vocal is so weird that it puts me right off.  After a minute and a half of trying to make a hardcore record the guitarist closes with a snippet of the Sweet Child O' Mine riff, which is the best part of this 7" so far.

b/w Pretty Little Ditty 🟢

This one is an instrumental jam and I don't usually care for those but this is actually quite pretty, as the title suggests, and it's less than 2 minutes long so unlike most jams, it doesn't outstay its welcome.  The most important thing about this piece is that it contains the riff which was sampled to form the basis of Butterfly by Crazy Town, a song that I love in a guilty pleasure sort of way.  That stopped me in my tracks and I've rated the song higher than I expected because of its iconic contribution to nu-metal.  I have Butterfly on a mix CD so I'll talk about it properly then but I immediately went and listened to it after hearing Pretty Little Ditty. 

#1857 Tina Turner - The Best 🟢

The sleeve for this record isn't particularly exciting, Tina looks good on the cover but the minimalism doesn't really match the music.  This is an iconic song that I definitely thought was from longer ago, but when I listen to the 80s rock drums and synths properly it's pretty clear that it's from this era.  The Best is uplifting and joyous. I was worried that I wouldn't have a good experience of this song from hearing the chorus dropped in to so many adverts and montages, I thought it would just wash over me, but when the chorus is in its original context it works so well.  And there's a sax solo!  Yes, this is a good song and I enjoyed hearing it in full for a change. 

b/w Undercover Agent For The Blues 🟡

This is very bluesy, as the name would suggest.  I don't have much to say about it, it's the kind of song you could imagine hearing sung in a smoky basement club in a movie.  There's nothing wrong with it but it's not a classic like the a-side.

#1858 Dion - King Of The New York Streets 🟡

There's a timeless quality to this which I suppose is the result of an old-school rock'n'roll singer putting out a single in 1989.  It has all the hallmarks of a song from 30 years earlier but updated, so the drums reminded me of glam rock rather than the Spector sound that it was influenced by, and the production sounds very late-80s.  It's a fine record but not memorable - it's only of those bluesy rock songs that keeps going verse after verse without getting anywhere.  Dion comes across as a cool guy but it doesn't rival his original hit about the same subject.

b/w The Wanderer 🔵

This is the real deal, the OG that he's trying to have a second stab at, Dion's 1961 classic about being a slutty man on the road.  The sounds in this record, from the backing singers to the snare and the sax to Dion's snarl are all perfect.  The Wanderer is the real reason that this single is worth purchasing - what a great tune. 

#1859 Goodbye Mr Mackenzie - Goodwill City 🟡

This isn't bad - it's a bit 'big' sounding, like they really want to be a stadium rock band in the vein of Simple Minds.  They're from Edinburgh and feature Shirley Manson on keyboards and vocals, so I should like them more than I actually do.  I didn't catch all of the words but there was talk about viruses which is something I really don't want in my escapist pop music in this decade.  Goodwill City is also much too long for a song that they failed to write a big chorus for.

AA side - I'm Sick Of You 🟡

There's a lot going on here.  It sounds a bit trad with Golden Brown keyboard chords and something I couldn't put my finger on which felt a step too close to a ceilidh band.  The vocals have a 60s folk vibe - a bit Dylan, a bit Donovan perhaps.  It's a mess with six people in the band all trying to do things at the same time.  I think this song would have worked if it had been recorded by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood about 20 years before this, but Goodbye Mr Mackenzie don't do a good job of it.

#1860 - Erasure - Drama! 🟢

This has the sort of sleeve I associate with the Erasure sound - it's bright and colourful with Pop Art leanings. As the title suggests it's quite dramatic, getting more so as the verse builds up to the chorus.  It doesn't have a big hook like some of their other hits but the melody in the last line of the chorus is gorgeous.  The sounds in this are fun, it's an effective dance record that I bet went down a storm in the gay disco of 1989. 

b/w Sweet, Sweet Baby 🟢

I did not expect to get a genuine rave record on the b-side of this single!  There's vocal samples, Italohouse keyboards, a pounding beat... It's a bit of a kitchen-sink record with a lot of motifs coming in and out which make it less cohesive than it could be, but it's good fun and I enjoyed the surprise of Vince Clarke coming up with this. 

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. 

Music Review: 7"s #611-615

 Merry Christmas everyone! It's 7" time again on Music Review and this week we're going back to 1983. 

#611 - The Police - Synchronicity II 🟡

I don't love The Police.  They have a few songs that I think are alright but on the whole I'm not particularly interested in them.  One of the things I have a problem with is their pretentious titles - try doing a quiz and having to remember how to say or spell some of these:

Synchronicity II falls into the 'pretentious song title' category in that it's apparently part two but part one wasn't even a single.  The sleeve looks like the band are in some kind of apocalyptic/outer space music adventure film which I can only assume is some kind of link to the music video for the song but I don't care to check.  The song itself opens with sci-fi battle laser sound effects and then Sting happens.  I usually find his voice and pronunciation annoying but in this song he's not particularly loud in the mix, which is good because I'm not as annoyed by him, but on the other hand I'm no closer to understanding what this song is about.  There's no chorus, the song just keeps going on and I found it lacking in excitement.  It's a shame because I like their guitar sounds but this is boring. 

b/w The Police - Once Upon A Daydream 🟡

There's something weird about how this one sounds, as if part of it is being played backwards or slowed down.  The lyrics are intense - something about a man disapproving of Sting dating his daughter so he attacks her, then Sting shoots him? And yet, the vocal delivery is detached and without any passion at all.  I was really worried that the 'once upon a daydream' line that's repeated throughout was going to get stuck in my head but thankfully a few hours later I've forgotten how it goes.  This is better than the a-side but I still don't want to hear it again.

#612 - Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock 🟣

1983 was the 25th anniversary of Jailhouse Rock being released and becoming the first single ever to reach #1 in the UK on the week of its release, so this picture disc has been put out to celebrate.  It's hard for me to find anything to say about Jailhouse Rock aside from that it's a classic.  I usually write these as I listen to the song but with this one I couldn't help but dance rather than critique, because there's nothing to criticise!

b/w Elvis Presley - The Elvis Medley 🟡

The b-side of the picture disc is covered in photos of Elvis from throughout his career, including a big centre photo of Vegas Elvis in his white jumpsuit.  The medley opens with Jailhouse Rock but with a dance beat underneath, leading me to think this was going to be something akin to Jive Bunny.  That didn't happen and I was led into a verse of Teddy Bear, into Hound Dog, into Don't Be Cruel, into Burning Love, the last of which was a particularly bad transition.  While these are all great songs, the clips we get in this medley are way too short which makes it feel like a little Elvis sampler rather than a medley you'd want to stick on the turntable at a party.  We end on Suspicious Minds which is a much slower song than the others, so we get a lot more of it - verse, chorus, and the slower still middle 8.  Ending on that slow bit is a really disappointing finish, considering all the excitement of the earlier rock'n'roll songs.  It feels less like a celebration and more like a retrospective showing the decline of Elvis.  The songs themselves rate highly and I'm sure I'll come across most, if not all, of the other songs in this medley eventually, but they don't sound good thrown together like this.  A good idea, badly executed.

#613 - Siouxsie and the Banshees - Dear Prudence 🎀

I love everything about this, starting with the artwork - it hints at the meeting of goth and flower-child that we hear in the song with the band's Mackintosh font logo, pink swirls and old portrait photo.  Dear Prudence was my intro to the Banshees when I saw a performance on an old episode of TOTP2 and I prefer this version to the Beatles' original.  It's psychedelic but doesn't feel like a pastiche of that era, and it makes me want to twirl around in a field of flowers until I'm too dizzy to stand up.  There's great vocal echoes and back-up all coming from Siouxsie who is showing here that even though she was a punk rocker, she still has love for what came before the Pistols.  

b/w Tattoo 🔵

Despite the title, I didn't expect this to open with the sort of drumming you might hear at a military tattoo.  This record has a spooky, tribal sound to it.  It's low-key, with Siouxsie keeping her voice low and quiet all the way through, the whole song staying at the same pace and pitch.  I wondered whether it was going to be one of those that's subdued up to a point then breaks into a yell, but it never does.  It's kind of like Synchronicity II in that nothing much happens in the song, but Siouxsie's performance makes this interesting and haunting. 

#614 Pretenders - 2000 Miles 🔵

It's appropriate that we stumble upon a Christmas song when I'm writing this days before the event.  The sleeve for this record is very tacky with an alien spaceship flying over a winter scene, making it look like the Pretenders recorded this for the 1983 Christmas Smash mashed potato advert.  The song opens with a fade in to the lovely guitar part and sounds really pretty.  I've always thought that Chrissie's delivery of the first line 'he's gone' sounds strangled and way out of tune but once we get past that line she sounds great.  It's a good 'blue Christmas' song that I don't object to hearing on the radio at this time of year, or any other time. 

b/w Fast Or Slow, The Law's The Law 🟡

This sounds like the kind of song that would be included on one of those CD compilations of music for driving.  The vibe is a cross between Tom Petty and The Police but not quite as good as either.  I think the problem is that Chrissie doesn't sing this one (it's performed by one of her male bandmates) so it doesn't have her great voice to propel the song to an above-average place.  I zoned out while listening to it so while it was fine, I don't plan on spinning it again. 

#615 The Style Council - Speak Like A Child 🟡

A simple sleeve, with a bit of pseudo-intellectual rambling on the back.  I had high hopes for this, which is the first Style Council single, but I left disappointed.  It's catchy, shiny 80s pop music but not memorable at all. 

b/w The Style Council - Party Chambers 🟡

Again, this sounds very of-its-time.  Both of these songs lack the political edge that I associate with The Style Council; they're just catchy, vaguely alternative/new wavey pop songs.  This one was a synthy solo part that I assumed would be followed by a final chorus but instead it just kept going and going for a ridiculously long time before eventually fading out.