It’s true. I couldn’t resist adding another column in hopes of turning you cats and kittens on to more music. This is going to focus on discs primarily from the 80s (and early 90s) that have long been hard to find or sort of fell through the cracks of the collective consciousness. They will also be true records in that you should own the whole thing and not download just a few songs. To make life easy, I will focus on spending some of your eMusic credits. The service is still spotty with new releases but an amazing array of back catalogues have come on-line and digging through ebay or gemm has now been simplified to single clicks at a fraction of the cost. Sit back and enjoy!
Love and Rockets “Express”
Following the break-up of Bauhaus, the various players pursued a multitude of projects until 3/4ths of the band re-convened, sans singer Peter Murphy, as Love and Rockets. Named after the comic book and decidedly less glam and showy than their previous group, they set out to make some of the most enduring goth pop of all time. This would culminate in two major hits for the group – the oddly Jethro Tull influenced “No New Tale to Tell” and then the sexy purr of the mega smash “So Alive.” Likely now doomed for inclusion on various era specific compilations with this minor piece of what they were doing, the group sort of lost its path. Soon, everyone would see the benefit of re-forming the now iconic Bauhaus and Love and Rockets would be pushed to the background until a surprise re-uniting to play Coachella this year with a set drawing heavily from this disc.
The band made spotty records at best, with the high points being amazing but surrounded by lots of filler. In the iTunes era, their album sales would likely be diminished. However, before their radio breakthrough, they managed a wonderful record that only received recognition for the 12” remix of it’s single – with that being a cover of a minor Supremes song. Now don’t get me wrong; “Ball of Confusion” is a killer concoction that seems all too timely once again. Martial drums and slinky bass with their trademark reverb soaked multi-track blended vocals. It is not particularly easy to dance to but it does benefit from the extended workout, and was quite successful as a standalone. The track remains a favorite of oldies alterna DJs and their Saturday night dance parties.
The attention of the single served to distract the music press from a beguiling collection of originals. Brushing away the fog of their debut disc of dreampop, they establish Kevin Haskins mechanical drumming augmented with clattering percussion and Daniel Ash’s swirling T.Rex guitar – both with more bite than their earlier effort. The sound of “Kundalini Express” is huge and expansive, yet still rooted in the reverb soaked darkness of the band. The real shift is in the propulsive nature Haskins brings to the songs. Brother David J and Ash are wrapped up in mystical imagery, but not to the detriment of the listening enjoyment. “All In My Mind” shimmers with multi-layered acoustic guitars and cutting and swooning backing vocals to serve as the album’s actual single before being dwarfed by “Ball of Confusion.”
Ash sprinkles some showy guitar portions through “Life in Laralay” and “Holiday on the Moon” before the chugging joy of “Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man)”with its skittering brush beat and acoustic rush into the abrupt build of the chorus. “Love Me” is somewhat of a predecessor to “So Alive” bringing a dreamy snap and upfront acoustic guitar - a very different version of “All In My Mind” and the slow-picked haze of “American Dream” close things out with a sleepy nod.
Love and Rockets somehow made their odd collection of influences, from 60s psychedelic folk to Bowie to industrial clanging, merge with their book read mysticism and eyeliner to form something more serious and unique than that hodge-podge would suggest. They would soon be surprisingly rewarded…
RIYL: other Love and Rockets, The Church’s “Starfish” album, slow Pink Floyd, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
Shitbirds! I think that is new on this disc. It is sort of an important song. If you only have a second to sample listen to Ball of Confusion then Yin and Yang and then All In My Mind.
That makes me mental.
August 26, 2008 at 4:27 pmgood call, john. i own this (plus earth-sun-moon and hot trip to heaven) and it’s good.
August 26, 2008 at 5:33 pmI saw them play Constitution Hall in ‘89, with the Pixies opening. I liked L&Rs but at that time the Pixies were a hard act to follow.
August 26, 2008 at 7:13 pmI think that was the “Earth, Sun, Moon” tour. The Pixies would have sounded like they were from another planet at that point. On the “Express” tour they had some poppy openers with my favorite being The Lucy Show, who might make an appearance here at some point.
August 26, 2008 at 10:39 pminteresting. i have to say, this column is consistently interesting. frustrating, because i feel like it’s always 2 degrees off center.
for instance, picking the album up last year for the first time in years, i was stunned at the perfection of “yin and yang.” quite near perfect. “all in my mind” harks back to the church’s “seance,” but earns a perfect place in my pop heart. i don’t really hear “so alive” in “love me” - maybe because it’s so much more filled with blissed-out shoe-gaze and shimmering?
but still, “haunted when the minutes drag” blew my mind away when i first heard it, when i heard it again in that soundtrack, and every time since. i don’t think i ever tried harder to learn lyrics that made less sense in my life. hang on…
HAUNTED BY YOUR SOUL.
sorry, perfect moment, even with it pumping out of my ipod and through the terrible speakers on my computer monitor. wow.
September 4, 2008 at 5:20 pm
TRACK UNAVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
One or more tracks from this album are unavailable for download at this time.
I hate when they do that.
August 26, 2008 at 4:21 pm