SiNGLeS

Rip It Up, Issue 144, 1 July 1989, Page 28

SiNGLeS

NEVILLEBROTHERS =~ = Sisterßosa(A&M)l2* _ "Yeah,free otlost..” Well, i'ssill afight, buthere'sthe Neville Brothersinaloving _ celebration of one breokin the chains that bind. One day, Rosa Parks just didn'twant tositatthebackofthe bus, shesafupihe frontand caused all them whife-bellied sharecroppersto choke ontheir Bud Light. _ Ananthemioabrave woman, aidedby - abrightand cool Public Ereray mic withs smooth Coltrane wail and deep southern (SHEROCKERS =~ ~ ‘GetUp’ hosan almost Arthur Baker bop soundtrack withthe ‘rockitdontsiopit’ _ refrain. ifsgood, but On Stage'hasthis guitarriffthatis severe. ltcuts throughthe _ mixlike Magic lohnsononaroll, _ FunkyColdMedina _ (Delicious)7&l2* _ Idonfcarewhatsome hip-hophigh priesisthinkaboutthe Tone-Localbum, it sfillates with me. Thisone has Toneina. _ sexymood, withafew pointersonhowto pickupwomen, also o waminglocheck

_yourbeernexttime rugby ke yA i e e R “the free ‘Alright Now guitarbit i shows FoE IR e thatrockmusicstill hasitsploce —jna '~»~*vzc«>,¢,,\?V+">zor‘:(,\»%‘«/’\x%‘bfl‘\’c,”’,\);m‘> hp-hoprecod. ?"(‘”‘A’V&(’vnf%é%&%‘%‘6‘%"@‘\9‘%&f&?fi%fii&ifiog&ifiégg&zfrx;; EDELWEISS Edelweiss(G,6)l2* _ tsdllabitbeyond me Austrians have i the hill with he Austrignshave beenup in the hills withthe CemmEee e R el e e long. A weird mixture of rap, RO SC R R R e Abba's SOS', yodelling and alotof noise. s e e g R e Seemsabifconfused o me, the sortofthings thatbecome novely hits. G g mmmets Nodineme e R S 50 shame there wasn't more Abbaonit. ARETHAFRANKLINGELTON AL e down. 000 Through The Storm (Arista) 12 Adefniteatiempliograbthediy. donding crowd on this one, very Time Of andvery MOR Buthey what ‘wouldtheworldbewithoutboring people? Therewouldbe no-onetokick :kwww«&wwww«{«wwm%;{;x»tmw%»%“«uw{@‘gl@* rouble with Aretho's downwardslideinto R A g es e mediocreduets with peoplewhocont Sendnstememioopey. % 3 AL BIVOS I P S ey S *;ifvéfi*z\%@ifié}}g»w‘f\ s m«vwfiwéwmawa%%%@%g»g@ THRASHINGDOVES Reprobates Hymn | Beingomediaprofessional ihavelo _experiment with many lifestyles see how the other halflives, sotospeak Solputmy e e e s e striped shirt and boatshoes on, andhung _out with the middle classes, where llearnt Gt pEin e s e thotallthat heavy metal lustwasntwhereifs ot Helino, outinthe

suburbs affer a hard day talking about the | _ America'scup, they just want fo kickback withreal musi ke Thrashing Doves. The morestupid the name, the _sociologyafunnythinge = _ BARRYMANLOW ==~ ;fiam%fltflmmflwm} _ Well imdisoppointed.| was expecting _ greatthings. Like, maybe, Barry's thoughts __onaworldwithout Liberace. thetitled | rushed outandbought all these _ fine books on how to improve your life, the _ TmOKßutYou're Not sortofthing. %Tfig%&{o{mmfingsogoffign?w@&; _ Barysthoughfs, and whathappeneds Nothing. Ifsjust another drippy “Ym here MNflfhlfl”WSififidfiOfi‘efénpprmef?&;: foryoubabe®song Nofipson oryeubcbeiiong Noligsen _ selfculfivation, nothing fo help my mid-life cisis Barry, whathappened foyou? MARCALMOND gfis;?fiév}ea{pafiophane3xzfi?§g%é | Ah, thaf's beffer, a bit of optimism about e g gt life's great mysteries. Thisis the sort of rack _ [fe'sgreat mysteries. This is the sort of track ihfesgm}myesgmw»**A“’ _ youusedtofindon old Tom Jones records inhis cabaret period. Mr Marc has good fattoosso, ke Tom, he'saman'smon. THEBANDOFHOLYJOY [ THERANDORMOLYJOC . Wl Wsinterestinganyhow. Sortof liing, ke early Herp Alpert,with he brass sectionbif, and check out the string section. Thisisthesoundof young Britain.

HNGIY 000 _ Devotion (Atlantic)l2” _ Thesound ofyoung Chicago. Marshall deflencn hashesn cealinghese sone. _ mosterpiecesforages butwith Ten City _ he'sfoundtheperfect mixofsouland . technology. From thisyear'sbestsoul dbumsoler 0 JACKHEAD @ Ticking Time Bomb (World) 12¢ _ Stllupsefabout missing this group ive. | _ meanwe're falking aboutthe Sugarhill thythm section, anddub masferAdrion Sherwood. Thisishard fechno-funk witha senseoflurkingevil.Lots of good spoken samples,fike the guy talking about cocaine _ andwomen. Thoseofyouwhosawthem BEATMASTERS&MERLIN Who'slnThe House (Possum) 12 Uptight (Possum) 12® offotigue, om-packed grooveswith nothing going on. The Beatmastersdo goodimitafion House, especially sidetwo withthe pianofinkles butthesongjust reliesonhecafch-phrase Who'sinThe House’and nothingmuchmore. Disco 2000 sound like those dreaded European discorecordsthathelpedgiveitabad name inthelafe 70s. You toke fhings from theirsource and they die. Compare Ten

KERRY BUCHANAN

MIRACLE LEGION Me And Mr Ray (Rough Trade) Mark Mulcahy andßay Neal got an appetite for making their own music after promoting the likes of Husker Du, Mission of Burma and Pere Übu through Ron’s Place in New Haven, Connecticut. From there they dida six-track EP, ‘The Backyard' before Rough Trade president Geoff Travis plucked them out of obscurity in CBGB's and into theirfirst album, Surprise Surprise Surprise and a tour supporting the Sugarcubes. And this brings us to Me And Mr Ray, a weird and wonderful mixture of off-beat love songs, surreal one-liners and compassion without sentimentality. So it's sorta folky and Mulcahy sounds a little like a wired-up Don McLean and the songs are so fresh and uncorrupted by any high-tech fashion. ‘ The inside sleeve is meant to help you interpret what each song’s about butthe whole thing still keeps you guessing. Never mind the lyrics, here’s the music. The Ladies From Town' and ‘Even Better’ are just real joyous hoe-down type songs with great tunes. ‘Old And New’ will haunt your waking hours with a tone so snappy and a line thatgoes “/saw aslave /witha bayonet/ a brand new shirt/and an earto the door” and you're wondering if you heard right, but Dali is mentioned in the liner notes. ‘Sailors And Animals’ is where Mulcahy veers closest to McLean but it's a lovely song, a cryptic view of the importance of animals as is the wrenching ‘Pull The Wagon'. What does afarmer do without his donkey? Don'tanswer that, but listen to a couple of the “lesser” songs like 'You're The One Lee’ and ‘lf She Could Cry’ which are real cute— and that's as bad as the album gets. What's so valuable about Miracle

legionis thatyou getthe authentic folk singer/ songwriter vulnerabilities and concerns without the drippiness and precious mythmaking about dull small town pasts that have been revived by the likes of short haired hippies like Michelle Shocked. These guys can make you laugh, dance, cry and think overthings as diverse aslove and - animal rights. Jeez, | couldn’tkick my cat foraweek. GEORGEKAY VIOLENT FEMMES 3 (Slash) I've gotto admit, i's hard to get interested. The Pixies now rule over Gordon Gano's Milawaukee teenangst territory by making an angry sound to go with their post-acne blues. The Violent Femmes, back “after a two year hiatus” as the press-release says, with - album numberfour, 3, can’t match that, and ultimately do not cutit anyway. The nice thing is that Gano has ‘ ditched the kitschy drama of past efforts like ‘Country Death Song’ and his themes— basically personal spirituality —areall the better enunciated for i, reading well on the lyric sheet as he tangles with traditional metaphysical kinda poetry on ‘Outside The Palace’. But put on the record and they end up failingto moveme. - The trio’s playing works best when it sounds like they’re having fun— maybe astandard Violent Femmes trait— on ‘Fat’ and the single ‘Nightmares’. Howeverthere’s not a lot there to match the best throwaway lines like “going down Niagara Fallsin abarrel offun,” and nothing in the songs to delineate the pathos of Gano’s laments (‘Nothing Worth Living For’, ‘See My Ships’) which end up sounding all the lamerforit. »

PAUL McKESSAR

THEREPLACEMENTS Don't Tell A Soul (Sire) An album every couple of years seems to be Paul Westerborg’s limit, but that's okay as long as he's turning out trash like Let It Be and the real quality finery of Pleased to Meet Me. We'll forget about Tim which was in between these two — not because it was bad but because it was patchy, justin the same way as we'll try and forget about this new fangled album, Dont Tell A Soul. Whenan LPis hardto getinto it can either mean that it's exceptionally deep and durable or that there's little there to hitthe memory. The latter is the case here. The theory is that Westerburg got tired of the band’s hit-and-miss live

reputation and so decided to get real serious on record as a start to reformed character. The trouble is the stark black and white cover of Don’t Tell A Soul merely protects the worst Replacements albumto date. As an opener, the single ‘Talent Show’ slides a tentative foot on the

dancefloor, and that's fine if there's better coming up but Westerburg's playing this straight and things just sorta level off into a mild rockin’ out stupor

that lacks the highs or the tunes of his past efforts. Chords of the power variety threaten to break the restraint on‘Anywhere’s Better Than Here’ and ironically the best song is a durable little ballad, ‘Rock n’ Roll Ghost', a description that could fit Westerburg if he continues to write songs as lame as ‘They're Blind’ and ‘Darlin’ One'. So if getting serious means making music this dull, then Westerburg needs todiscover his old juke-box and paisley shirts— he's got two years to get back inform. GEORGEKAY THE THE : Mind Bomb : (Some Bizarre) If Matt Johnson doesn’t watch out, he’s going to start giving humanists a good name. Mind Bomb, his third album (the other three familiar faces on the inner sleeve are essentially session musos), seems to be a natural progression, or rather, one of about - five possible natural progressions, from the good Sou/ Miningandthe great Infected— it's pretty awesome. Well, most of it is. ; The first three songs are thematically

linked: the misuse of religion to political ends: “The world is on its elbows and knees/ It's forgotten the message and worships the creeds.” Don't confuse this with moral rock, however. Johnson merely observes the decline of man as do the rest of us— he just articulates better than most and writes bloody goodsongs to boot.

The rest of the album s a little more personal, or rather a little less universal, hence the introspective tone of the single (one of the LP’s lesser tracks, although a good half-time “breather”). ~ Mindßombis a collection of great songs and cutting insights, and features about the best production I've heard on arock album since The Unforgettable Fire. Check out the cassette in case ofextratracks. ANDREW DUBBER GYPSYKINGS (CBS) : I must admit to some degree trepidation when | was confronted with an album containing a bunch of French gypsies playing what was described as “updated flamenco” — itallsounded - very ethnic and horrible. Butit's a funny old thing, this pop music stuff, and Gypsy

Kings is fast becoming one of my favourite platters of the moment. Despite having a definite spot for the Latino sound, from the country rock of Conjuto through to the passion of tango bands, I've heard little Flamenco, and it's usually the equivalent of an instrumental heavy metal album, a display of guitar technicality. But the Gypsy Kings bear little relation to this, most obviously in their vocals which buildin rich, melodic waves, lifting the likes of ‘My Way’ (yes, it's that'My Way') to new dramatic heights. The “updated” side of things would appear to be the use of bass and drums that work nicely with the almost percussive guitar and virtuoso handclapping. Somehow the traditional and contemporary fittogether beautifully, with the straight : instrumentals sounding not in the least bit out of place nextto atrack like ‘Bamboleo’, which was a dancefloor smash in the more adventurous London clubs. Although Flamenco Soul may not be the next big thing, Gypsy Kings s an experience worth investigating, an exotic and passionate antidote for those bored by the mainstream.

KIRK GEE