singles

Rip It Up, Issue 224, 1 April 1996, Page 34

singles

In a great month for small rotating things, Radiohead just beats out the opposition with yet another track from the magnificent The Bends. With a tune worth giving your last breath for, ‘Street Spirit’ (Parlophone) has a fragile, persistent longing that the other three tracks on the EP valiantly try to match. ‘Talkshow Host’ and ‘Bishop’s Robes’ are sublime enough to have made the album. In this form there’s no catching these Oxford dons, although this month Bowie’s ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ (BMG), radically remixed by the Pet Shop Boys, comes mighty close. It scarcely bears any resemblance to the psycho-industrial version on Outside, as the Pet Shops have transformed it with their customary disco polish into a shining example of danceability. Live versions of ‘Under Pressure’ and ‘Moon Age Daydream’, with Bowie in best Cockney, are added attractions. Major Tom deserves to be back in vogue. , The story behind Supersuckers’ ‘Marie’ (Sub Pop) reads like a. soap opera from hell. ‘Marie’ is the mother of the band’s original guitarist, Eric Martin. When the band moved from Tucson to Seattle, Eric became a heroin addict and was kicked out of the band. He moved back to Tuscon where he overdosed and died; his mother blames the band. Tragic, and the band address this fine song to Eric’s mother. With a chorus of ‘he was a talented boy’, the

lyrics deal with the problems of drug abuse, driven along by a Bob Mould/Husker Du inspired wave of crashing guitars. Essential. Also essential is the Afghan Whigs’ Honky's Ladder EP (Sub Pop). Greg Dull! and his soul mates are back with two throat grabbing, tonsil shredding efforts from from the new album, Black Love. Late night cabaret mutation arrives via The Wizard of Oz’s ‘lf I Only Had a Heart’. Hardcore soul, nobody does it better. Talking of old soul mates, and Iggy confronts mid-life crisis on the best song from his new album in 'I Wanna Love’ (Virgin). It’s vintage Pop rockin’ out, all classic riff and swagger. His New York soul contemporary, Lou Reed, has penned a very likeable, boppy observation about love under chemical skies on ‘Hooky Wooky’ (Warners). Still with the elite, and Britpop wonder brats Supergrass add a dash of organ to complete a dense psychedelic change in direction on ‘Going Out’ (Parlophone), that’s reminiscent of the Beatles ‘Rain’. Interesting but not totally convincing, as is their Small Faces’ music hall derived 'Melanie Davis’. The kids are alright but they’ve been better. Blur take another track from The Great Escape, and this time it’s ‘Charmless Man’ (Food), another of their stock-in-trade punky social dissections and undeniably sharp, leaving poignancy to the non-album ‘The Man Who Left Himself’.

The most impressive of this month’s Australian hordes has to be the inescapable Nick Cave, who finally teams up with a compatible woman, in PJ Harvey, for another murder melodrama, ‘Henry Lee’ (Liberation). Funksters Swoop pleasantly surprise with the instant groove of ‘Apple Eyes' (Mushroom), while the Jaynes show a Go-Between-ish loving care for the four fine songs that grace Minutes Like Hours (Mushroom). Competence abounds on Deadstar’s bittersweet, pop confession ‘Sister’ (White), and on the Redneck Mothers’ jaunty country knees-up ‘Come On Rain’ (Exile). And if Pearl Jam sound-alikes are highly regarded, then Mother Hubbard’s ‘River Friend’ (Outlaw) deserves a top spot with the Vedder afflicted masses. Tailing off and still in the land of the losers of the Cricket World Cup Final. means we have to confront the Hoodoo Guru’s turgid, heavy riff-based ‘Big Beat’ (Mushroom), and then fight off a dreadful weariness after exposure to Chris Wilson and Diesel’s monumentally dull handling of four chestnuts on ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’ (Aurora). The Shock Poets shock with their unbelievably plain guitar pop tunes on ‘Never Should Have Bothered You’ (Roadshow), but this month’s wooden spoon has to go to the US of A’s precocious beach funkoids, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, whose flightless funked ‘Aeroplane’ (Warners) is indeed a turkey. See ya.

GEORGE KAY