BRIEFS

Rip It Up, Issue 52, 1 November 1981, Page 24

BRIEFS

Def Leppard

John Cooper Clarke Me And My Big Mouth (Epic)

Manchester's Poet Laureate and ideal support artist, JC Clarke. This is his compilation, a collection of the ditties that made him, his backing band, the Invisible Girls, and producer MartinlHannett, quite notorious between 1978-80. Clarke's adenoidal Northern English drone is ideal 1 for slipping across his vulgar satires and send-ups. .’Twat" is the ultimate in insult send-ups, 'Kung Fu International' a hilarious account of being a victim to a tupenny fart"martial arts expert, and Beasley Street', Clarke's squalor epic. Every home should have at least one JC album. Make it this one. GK Bauhaus ’.'WtfKUtßßKgm In The Flat Field (RTC) . If jagged shards of sound and fractured bellowing are to your taste i then dir The ';Flat Field will be an essential purchase. Bauhaus, from Northampton took its name from a German functionalist art movement,.and come equipped with an excellent track record in the UK indie charts. To these ears Bauhaus are both emotionally and intellectually dry, but definitely not dull. GD Roy Buchanan ; <

My Babe (Polydor) Roy Buchanan serves up a mixture of old rockers (eg 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy'), an exquisite , treatment of the old pop hit 'Secret Love', mediocre originals from vocalist and keyboards player Pat Jacobs, and the excellent Buchanan originals 'My Suntan' and 'Blues : For Gary'. The former is a tranquil guitar piece, the latter stamped • with Buchanan's trademark of scintillating runs in the higher/egisters. Superior to his last studio outing, but his continued retirement from the vocal mike is a . retrograde step. DP 999 ' Concrete (Liberation) Fifth year of operation, and fourth album for the hardworking, no-frills English postpunkers, who have occasionally ('Emergency' and 'Homicide') shown an ability to create something noticeably out of the rut. This time, 'Break Up' recycles Homicide' as one of the standouts, and while the more adventurous 'Obsessed' was the single, the cover of Sam The Sham's 'Little Red Riding Hood' appeals as the’ one to give to the radios. RC Dynasty

The Second Adventure

Midnight Star Standing Together Klymax

Never Underestimate The Power Of A Woman (Solar)

Solar, a black Los Angeles based record, company, has simultaneously released three albums from among their newer acts. The poppiest of the three, Dynasty, have produced a great single, Here I Am', and although most of the rest of the album falls below that high standard, the second side has a nice pop-soul feel similar to British band, Linx. The funkiest of the three is Midnight Star. From their loud silver suits to their instrumental attack, they echo early Commodores. And like the early Commodores they have a tendency to hammer a groove for too long. But a lot of what's here is pretty outstanding stuff. Funk fans should investigate. Duds of the bunch are Klymax. They don't have the voices or strength of playing to cut it in this company. AD Carly Simon Torch (Warner Bros)

Who was it that said a good Carly Simon album should be seen and not heard? Forget her flat-voice glossyrock of the seventies. She is phrasing better than ever and, aided by gorgeous arrangements, delivers glowing

renditions of a few deservedly classic songs (Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael et al) and a couple of respectable originals. A warm, smouldering Torch and a pleasant’ surprise. PT Rod Stewart Tonight I'm Yours (Warner Bros) . Rod Stewart has been living on past glories for a long time now, and while this album is an improvement it is no return to the glory days of 'Maggie May' or 'You Wear It Well'. To be brutally honest Stewart seems to have written himself out, and it will, take a lot more of the inspired cover versions he used to include in good numbers on his albums to recover the lost ground. PG

Patti Austin

Every Home Should Have One (Warner Bros)

In which Quincy Jones aims for' the over-30's sophisti-set while continuing to mine the motherlode he struck with Michael Jackson's Off The Wall. Austin, long one of the dude's featured vocalists, now get’s her name up front even though her voice remains under the thick spread of process. Quincy and Patti provide the perfect music for that cocktail party you've been planning to christen the new patio on your Herne Bay split-level. PT Peter Baumann

Repeat Repeat (RTC)HfPfjH| It is too easy to dismiss ex Tangerine Dreamer Peter Baumann's latest as disco for socialite androids. However, sharp production by Robert Palmer and some superb synthesiser programming by Baumann cannot disguise . the paucity .of ideas on’ this album. The opening track says it all: "We have heard this song before, didn't we, didn't

we? There's nothing new at all

repeat, repeat." GD The Clarke/Duke Project; (Epic) In the early seventies these two individuals represented the best music happening at the jazz-funk interface. George Duke used to play the loveliest synthesizer on record; now it's merely the slickest. Similarly, Stanley Clarkes ultra-nimble basswork has been sounding sterile for years. Here they pretend they're the Brothers Johnson imitating the Commodores. And no, the smirk-ridden version of 'Louie Louie- isnt

funny either. Def i Leppard

High 'n' Dry (Vertigo) Coming from nowhere last year with the much-touted On Through The Night, this young five-piece from Sheffield show even more steel on this second album, which bulleted into the US charts at number 43. From the opening metal classic, 'Let It Go', recently on RWP, there is no let up. Excellent production, too, from Mutt Lange. Go on, bash your head against a wall. It's therapeutic! GC

Jah Malla, Jah Malla (WEA) Jah Malla is reggae shaped by a giant record company. File off all the rough edges and file under 'ethnic'. At the same time, remove anything in the sound that just might have given it some distinction, some bite, some emotion. Their reggae is dressed up for the town, LA rather than JA. Sessioners present here include David Sanborn, Dick Wagner (ex-Lou Reed and Alice Cooper) and Blondie's Jimmy Destri. The result is a travesty of the sound, so smooth and seamless and soooo boring. DC Thin Lizzy Lizzy Killers (Vertigo) Lizzy seem like a spent force in the 80s and so it's easy to forget just what they did deliver in the mid 70s. This album is virtually a foolproof resume of their rise and fall. Starting with the Celtic overtones of their beginnings, 'Whisky In the Jar' and the 'Wild One', the album then traces the band's ascendancy through 'Jailbreak' and 'Don't Believe A Word' to the mediocrity of 'Do Anything You Want To Do' and finally to the staleness of 'Killer On The Loose'. One important omission The Rocker'

otherwise this is an ideal introduction/overview of a band that once was (something). GK Australian Crawl Sirocco (EMI)

Australian Crawl are potenti-

ally Australia's best singles band and with hitmaker Peter Dawkins at the helm their second album is chocker with radio fodder. Good lyrics, melodies and Jim Reyne's highly distinctive voice are let down, however, by a rather patchy rhythm section. Compensation, though, comes in the form of newcomer Guy McDonough, who relieves Reyne of vocal duties on three tracks. McDonough is an equally fine singer. JD Nils Lofgren Night Fades Away (MCA)

Producer Skunk Baxter has organised some very tasteful assistance for Lofgren on’his debut for Backstreet, but they don't disguise the essentially limited nature of the man's writing. Covers of 'I Go To Pieces' and 'Any Time At All' are included. Stick with that stunning early stuff,, the first two Grin albums especially. RC John Entwhistle,

Too Late the Hero (WEA) Entwhistle, alias the Ox, the inanimate Who bassist has always alternated between occasional turgid solo albums and contributions to Who forays. With the exception of the deliberate dumbness of 'Boris the. Spider* and the deadpan perfection of 'My Wife', his songs have been stolid, squarejawed and predictable. Too Late the Hero follows the same pattern l with Joes Walsh and Vitale rounding off the power trio. Dull. Entwhistle can add this to his growing queue of dispensable sideman albums. GKMick Fleetwood The Visitor (RCA) Nick Mason and Phil Collins have proved that albums by drummers don't have to be boring. This debut effort by Mick Fleetwood, however, is a limp affair. Drab versions of 'Not Fade Away' and 'Rattle Snake Shake' combined with dull originals make for ordinary listening. GD The ByVdsPUSHH The Original Singles 65-67 Vol 1 (GBS)EYjaHiiiMM

The Byrds were one of the five most important bands of the 60s. There have been compilations before but this is certainly the most intelligent. Here, in chronological order, are the first eight singles including the often equally brilliant B-sides. There are also excellent liner notes. If you were around when these singles first appeared, your copies must be worn out by now. If you weren't, these are some of the most magnificent moments that rock has ever produced. PT