albums

Rip It Up, Issue 165, 1 April 1991, Page 22

albums

THROWING MUSES The Real Ramona

(4AD) The spotlight — admittedly fairly dim — mistakenly fell on Rhode Island’s finest for the achievements of their last album, Hunkpapa, their fourth and most contrived attempt at gaining an audience wider than family and friends. It was tasty but tame by writer Kristen Hersh’s standards, and she’s. ended up apologising for the success of ‘Dizzy’, a single with a chorus too cute to be representative of the ghosts inhabiting her songs. By comparison to that — or to anything around at the moment — The Real Ramona is the goods; an album that bites, explodes, laceratesand

finally caresses itself into being, if justice prevails, the turning point in this band’s career.

Recent publicity has focussed on Hersh’s personal traumas, notably her almost schizophrenic personality, but it's hard to direct/attribute those

problems to specific songs. That said, the bristling scene-setting opener ‘Counting Backwards’ and the magnificent, restless but insistent ‘Hook In Her Head' suggest personality

disorder. The sources of the songs are unimportant, the end products here speak for themselves. With Fred Abong and David Narcizo doing whitey funk things with the rhythm section, Hersh is left to roam free on ‘Golden Thing’ as her half-sister Tanya Donelly’s guitar grates your throat and later apologises with the tortured poppiness of ‘Not Too Soon'". ‘Honey Chain’ is also worth singling out with its gentle beginning then

wall-of-granite guitar, but these songs

exist in an album that is a powerful, almost flawless entity where the songs are interdependent. The real stuff2 A corny but appropriate cliche for an album that reflects the gifts of a very compelling woman. GEORGE KAY : MOTHER LOVE BONE . Apple (Polydor) Of all the new Seattle rock acts multiplying like rabbits at the moment, Mother Love Bone would have been classed as “most likely to succeed” before the stupid death of their singer last year. They evolved from the half of Green River that didn't turn into Mudhoney and brought with them all of Green River’s 70s rock sensibilities. Mother Love Bone verge on sounding commercially acceptable. There’s plenty to keep rock fans happy — lots of big guitars and catchy riffs here, while Andrew Woods' vocals sound familiar yet unique at the same time. Apple achieves this ‘classic’ sound very comfortably, Mother Love Bone don't sound as contrived as a lot of recent metal, and there's an easy, pleasant feel to Apple — these guys really believe in this, right down to the dumb-ass trippy lyrics and children’s choir on backing vocals. If utter dross like Love/Hate or Enuff Z'Nuff can be foisted onto the public as “new metal” then something with as much obvious quality as Apple should be huge. KIRK GEE =

THIN LIZZY Dedication (Vertigo) The Yanks never quite figured out Thin Lizzy. The Boys Are Back In Town’, the band’s only substantial US hit, was critically patronised as , “sub-Springsteen”. To the rest of us those huge power chords were more

likely to recall vintage Who, although we knew the song's swinging melody and swaggering braggadocio were purely Phil Lynott's own. The black Irishman was not simply the bassist and lead vocalist, he possessed a gift for songwriting unique among :

hard-rocking guitar bands. After all, sharply observed lyrics and beautiful melodies were hardly the usual fare of metal orientated groups. And Thin Lizzy built its greatness upon Lynott’s talent. That and the band's famed twin lead guitar attack. Through its

succession of guitarists, though most notably in Scoft Gorham and Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy maintained an

instrumental front line that could be as rampantly aggressive or as sweetly

lyrical as Lynott's song-writing required. Lynott specialised equally in charging rockers and tender ballads. Dediication is subtitled ‘The Very Best of Thin Lizzy’. However, by its heavy concentration on those tracks released as singles the selection favours the band’s harder edge. Only ‘Sarah’, ‘Still In Love With You’ and ‘Parisienne Walkways’ among an otherwise generous eighteen tracks, reminds us that Phil Lynott was capable of addressing a prayer-like song to his creator on the same album side as a furious ‘Killer Without A Cause’.

When Phil Lynott died atthe beginning of 1986 he was yet another casualty of a stupid lifestyle that eats

away the talent before killing the body. In 1980 Lynott had released a solo single recounting his depression the night he’d heard of Elvis Presley’s death. After Lynott's own passing that single gained an added resonance. Sadly, its not included on Dedication. However, among the album’s 74 minutes lies a considerable testimony to Phil Lynotts great talent and his magnificent band. PETER THOMSON

ALEXANDER O’NEAL All True Men

(Epic) Let's not try and fool ourselves, soul music has never been the same since Otis died, it's been a slow but eventual decline of its ideal, man alone with his emotions.

Stark, strong and demanding, the soul voice was about the purity of manly emotion. As the decades passed, the voice changed, less

forceful more sentimental, a shift from the masculine to the feminine.

So by the mid-eighties the soul stud had been replaced by the studied soul, the new age sensitive man. Luther

Vandross talked about his sensitivity gefting in the way, and Freddy Jackson positively melted into the background. Then came Alex, he was a man’s man, like sensitive but not dripping with it, he knew where he stood, which side of the bed he laid. . So it's the nineties and Alex makes the perfect soul album for the new decade. Listen to the fitle track (not that awful house mix), with a voice that Teddy Pendergrass lost in his tragic accident, Alex states his case, like anytime you need him, when it's crying time or loving time, we'll be there for you, he’s ‘the secret to being complete in your life/if you're all true woman, you need an all rue man’. Excellent statement of being.

Jam and Lewis have had their highs and lows, but this is a definite big one for them, lots of percolating piano (like a coffe pot, baby) and synth, sturdy bass lines, the whole shebang. Tied in with Alexander O'Neal strong vocals it's a mean lean soul machine.

It does unfortunately falter at times, but only slightly on the top heavy ‘The Yoke (G.U.O.TR.), too much going on to satisfy. There are a few hot fast ones, well not too fast, just slinky like ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’ and ‘Used’, but a real soul man is judged on the ballads, there’s plenty of gems here. ‘Hang On’ and ‘The Morning After’ are perhaps the best, but check out ‘Every Time | Get Up' for class. This is a must for hard soul fans. KERRY BUCHANANREDD KROSS Third Eye : (Atlantic) Redd Kross have been kicking around the LA scene for some time, cultivating an incredible live reputation and producing the odd highly independent recording but generally being ignored by the powers-that-be. Their 70s based power pop metal dementia has-gained such a following that they really could no longer be ignored so now finally Third Eye has been unleashed on an unsuspecting world:

The album is pure Redd Kross bubblegum at its finest but if's also their most polished sound yet. Lots of harmonies, some class Hammond

organ and the sharpest melodies you'll hear anywhere, all offset by some fine punk rock guitars. The whole mess makes you want to buy some elephant flares and sing along. Redd Kross display their influences quite unashamedly, naming a song after Japanese punkpop cult heroines Shonen Knife and throwing casual

mentions of Abba, Trans Ams, halter tops and 8.T.0. around. Toss the Bangles and the Archies into this along with Tom Jones' version of ‘Venus’ and you've got the general idea of Redd Kross. More kitsch than our editor’s wardrobe, and a hell of a lot more fun, Third Eye is an album that deserves to be played and loved to death. KIRK GEE MIDGE MARSDEN Burning Rain (Epic) Older than most of the venues he's played in, Midge Marsden has long since been accepted as the sounding board for New Zealand R'n’B. Adopting a music that doesn’t age but rather benefits from the advancing years and experience of the performer, Marsden has preferred the medium of the live performance for putting across his blues. Meaning Burning Rain is only his third album in a career that's been long but probably more chequered than his recorded output suggests.

Burning Rain may be rooted in whatever indigenous American R'n’B form is available, but with the exception of Jimmy Reed’s ‘| Wanna Be Loved' and the unlisted tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan, ‘Another Man D’An’ Gone’, the songs are

home-grown originals brought to life by Marsden’s fine sense of feel and phrasing for his favourite music. Michael Farrells title track is quality mainstream rock’n’roll and on ‘Elle’ he provides Marsden funk to play with before they combine on the robust R'n’B of ‘Stuck Down By The Blues'. But along with the fitle track, the real honours go to Harry Lyon's subtle and evocative ‘Muscles’ with Chris Nelson’s trumpet adding atmosphere, and to Hammond Gamble’s quite haunting ‘Stranger’s Girl.’ Burning Rain succeeds because it not only allows Marsden to deliver his favourite poison but also to interpret the strong writing of kiwi tunesmiths in preference to the old approach of rehashing black blues standards. Right on. GEORGE KAY CARLENE CARTER I Fellln Love (Reprise) Despite her “first-family-of-country’ heritage, Carlene Carter has always krrown that much of modern country music’s strength lies in its links with rock. In 1976, besides marrying English pub rocker Nick Lowe, she employed

Graham Parker’s band The Rumour for her debut album. Carter has long since returned home but the rock connection remains entrenched. On the one hand she'll reach back to a song by dynasty patriarch A.P. Carter and get her

famous mom to sing harmonies. On the other, she'll use Tom Petty’s keyboard player, a rock session drummer and a one-time Elvis Presley guitarist among the instrumentalists. ~ Ofthe other ten songs, nine are her own and the predominant mood is an exuberant self-confidence long associated with rock'n‘roll. Where step-sister Roseanne Cash spends her current album in melancholic brooding, Carlene Carter struts. Nowhere is this more evident than on the fitle track: / was a two fisted woman looking for a fight/had a boy on my left, a boy on my right. This confidence pervades evena song as hitherto well known as her ‘Easy From Now On'’. Fifteen years ago Emmylou Harris recorded a beautiful rendition which underlined the narrator’s fragility in her decision to end a troubled relationship. Now, Carter sounds far more asserfive — though no less honest— over a driving rhythm seciton. Every track on / Fell In Love has so much to recommend it. Inexplicably the album’s release outside the USA was delayed by several months. Butno matter now. It'll fit into a ‘best of’ list for this year just fine. PETER THOMSON ' GANG STARR , Step Into The Arena (Chrysailis) Rap music has been pretty stagnant of late, there hasnt been a lot around except for a bunch of the usual old second-stringers, either waving their dicks around or tossing flowers about, but always unconvincing. Maybe that's why ‘Step Into The Arena’ sounds so good, its a breath of fresh air — a quality album. Gang Starr have pulled one out of the hat here, a rap album that not only manages to sound interesting, but also steers clear of falling in with any one obvious style. Step Into The Arean has a definite New York feel, laid back raps like Rakim or EPMD coupled with those sparse, nasty beats. DJ Premiere - definitely rules, he’s no turntable on fire but he creates a mood with those wheels of steel. Rather than the usual tired chops and breaks Premiere twists horns and strings in with the weirdest mix of aural odds and ends and wraps the whole lot around G.U.R.U’s laconic raps. Dirty, scratchy and very cool,

G.U.R.U. has an afrocentric bias but it's not brandished like some weapon. He's calm, mannered and very convincing. ‘Step Into The Arena’ definitely counts among those rare beasts, the. thoroughly listenable rap album, with just the right mix of old, new and just plain tough. In a rap scene thatis

decidely limp, Gang Starr are ready and qualified to dominate. -

KIRK GEE