With producer Steve Lillywhite at the helm, Scotland's Big Country managed to deliver earnest, socially conscious arena anthems in a similar vein to U2 and the Alarm. The twist was their trademark bagpipe sound, achieved through the use of e-bow. The unique sound of "In a Big Country" garnered the band considerable attention and a Top 20 single in the U.S. The Crossing, however, is an album whose richness goes beyond the single. The more subdued "Chance" is sparse and its personal lyrics are every bit as heartfelt as the more populist-inclined anthems like the wonderful "The Storm" or the thundering "Fields of Fire." The lyrics are straightforward and, despite the grand themes of many of the tracks, manage to steer clear of being overly pretentious. While this album earned the band a gold record, Big Country's sound and image (reinforced by the members' tartan checked shirts) resulted in them being tagged a novelty and they never duplicated their initial success in America. [An expanded version of The Crossing appeared in 2012 to mark the 30th Anniversary of the formation of the group. The two-disc reissue reissue included a remastered version of the original album, as well as 24 bonus cuts (demos, outtakes, and B-sides)
Hooking up with Malcolm McLaren was a pivotal moment for Adam Ant, since the manager not only introduced Ant to the thundering, infectious Burundi drum beat that became his signature, he stole his band, too. Adam and the rest of the Ants had just worked up how to exploit the Burundi style when McLaren pirated the boys off to support Annabella Lwin in Bow Wow Wow -- using the very same sound they had developed with Adam Ant. It was now a race to get that sound into the stores first, and Adam lucked out when he joined forces with guitarist Marco Pirroni, who quickly proved to be invaluable. Ant and Pirroni knocked out a bunch of songs that retained some of the dark artiness of Dirk Wears White Sox, largely anchored by those enormous Burundi beats and given great, irresistible pop hooks -- plus a flash sense of style, as the new Ants dressed up in something that looked like American Indians with a velveteen touch of a dandy fop. It was a brilliant, gonzo move -- something that quickly overshadowed Bow Wow Wow -- and the resulting record, Kings of the Wild Frontier, is one of the great defining albums of its time. There's simply nothing else like it, nothing else that has the same bravado, the same swagger, the same gleeful self-aggrandizement and sense of camp. This walked a brilliant line between campiness and art-house chutzpah, and it arrived at precisely the right time -- at the forefront of new wave, so Adam & the Ants exploded into the British popular consciousness. If image was all that they had, they would've remained a fad, but Kings of the Wild Frontier remains a terrific album because it not only has some tremendous songs -- the title track and "Antmusic" are classic hits, while "Killer in the Home" and "Physical (You're So)" are every bit their equal -- but because it fearlessly, imperceptibly switches gears between giddy and ominous, providing nothing short of a thrill ride in its 13 songs. That's why it still sounds like nothing else years after its release.
[The 2016 deluxe edition of Kings of the Wild Frontier standardizes the sequencing to the songs revealed on the 2004 reissue, then adds a ton of bonus tracks that emphasize the nervy punk energy of Adam & the Ants. Naturally, the B-sides "Press Darlings," "Physical (You're So)," and "Fall In" are present, along with unreleased demos recorded at KPM Studio that differ from the demos in the 2004 set. The big news is the unveiling of a raucous live Chicago concert from 1981, an exciting show that proves the band was hardly a studio fabrication
Riding the coattails of the John Hughes flick The Breakfast Club, Simple Minds finally broke into America with their theme song "Don't You Forget About Me," and their 1985 release Once Upon a Time captured the heart-wrenching excitement found in bands such as U2. They were now one of the biggest names in music, and Jim Kerr's thirsting vocals became the band's signature. Once Upon a Time, featuring producer Jimmy Iovine (U2, Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen), showcased more of a guitar-driven sound. The band's heavy synth pop beats had relaxed a bit and Charlie Burchill's charming playing style was most noticeable. Also enlisting the choir-like beauty of Robin Clark, Simple Minds' popularity was expounded on songs such as "Alive & Kicking" and "Sanctify Yourself." This album was one of their best, most likely leading the pack in the band's album roster, because it exuded raw energy and solid composition not entirely captured on previous albums. [In 2015, 30 years after the album's initial release, Once Upon a Time was reissued in a five-CD/one-DVD Super Deluxe Edition box set. In addition to the original album on the first CD, the set featured two bonus CDs of B-sides, remixes, and edits, including 7" and 12" versions of "Don't You (Forget About Me)." The double live album Live in the City of Light was featured on the fourth and fifth CDs
Fans of the Orb with a completist bent (and there must be some of you out there) will be thrilled by the appearance of this budget-priced three-disc retrospective of material from the vaults of legendary acid house label WAU! Mr. Modo. This is effectively another way of saying "the vaults of the Orb," the equally legendary production and writing duo of Alex Paterson and Killing Joke bassist Martin "Youth" Glover; Paterson and Youth not only produced the vast majority of these tracks, but appeared as musicians on many of them as well. Featured artists include Discotec 2000, Paradise X, Mystic Knights, Blowfly, Uncle 22, and Sound Iration, among others, and the program includes a few bona fide hits (a demo version of the Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds," a previously unreleased version of Zoë's lovely "Sunshine on a Rainy Day"), but mostly offers obscurities that will be of interest primarily to established fans. That said, there is plenty here that could draw new listeners into the fold: househeads will enjoy Eternity's luxuriously long "Ashram House [Extended Mix]" and Paradise X's subtly samba-inflected "2 Much [Out of This World Mix]"; those whose tastes run more to breaks and reggae will get a bigger kick out of the two versions of Indica All Stars' "Open Our Eyes" and Sound Iration's "Seventh Seal," while those whose tastes range more broadly will enjoy the third disc, a continuous DJ mix that includes some material from the first two discs as well as additional tracks and runs the gamut from house to breaks to dubwise reggae. Paterson and Youth were some of the best producers of electronic dance music in any genre during the late '80s and early '90s, and this set is a fitting monument to their significant achievements.
This is the third time Martin Hannett's production work has been anthologized. Martin, released by Factory in 1991 (shortly after Hannett's death), and And Here Is the Young Man, released by Debutante in 1998, are quite similar to this set (they're also shorter), but they've both gone out of print -- perhaps this disc will slide out of circulation within seven years as well, only to be replaced with a slightly better and more thorough representation. The three discs share a lot of the same material and have some similar faults, and they each provide demonstrative looks into Hannett's career, even if you already have half the material on each one. Zero: A Martin Hannett Story contains 21 tracks and lengthy liner notes from LTM's resourceful James Nice. It rolls through a lot of key moments, beginning with Buzzcocks' "Boredom" (Hannett's first job) and concluding with World of Twist's cover of the Rolling Stones' "She's a Rainbow." (You can almost sense the former sneering at the very idea of the latter, but that's another story.) The average music fan won't hear the imprint of singular production work until the seventh track, Joy Division's "Transmission," where Hannett truly began to use the studio and new effects to alter the sound of the instruments. As Nice says, Hannett used "anything, indeed, that created space, weirdness, and 'sonic holograms.'" His creativity peaked during the post-punk era, and a lot of that had to do with the moods and themes explored by the bands he worked with at the time. New Order's "In a Lonely Place," Magazine's "The Light Pours Out of Me," OMD's "Electricity," and Pauline Murray & the Invisible Girls' "Dream Sequence 1" are other central inclusions, while some less-known tracks -- the Names' "Night Shift," Basement 5's "The Last White Christmas," Kitchens of Distinction's "Quick as Rainbows" -- are just as important to the story. "Quick as Rainbows," recorded in 1990, actually indicates Hannett's slide into indistinguishable work, especially if you compare it to Hugh Jones' production of the same song. ESG, A Certain Ratio, Minny Pops, and maybe even Crispy Ambulance and the Stockholm Monsters are the significant missing bands from this roundup, but they all have compilations or in-print albums that are worth finding. The disc is filled to capacity, so it's not as if they would've all fit anyway.
Unmistakably packaged in a neon pink box, this four-CD survey of the first 20 years of France's New Rose label is an essential guide to the European post-punk underground -- and that's the real underground, the stable and singles that may not have had the critical impact of Rough Trade, Homestead, Hot, or Blast First, but who informed more of those mavericks than you could ever imagine. Like Rough Trade, New Rose started life as a record store alone, named for its founders' favorite 45, the Damned's "New Rose." The label was launched in 1980 with the Saints' live EP Paralytic Tonight Dublin Tomorrow and, concentrating on both local and foreign talent, New Rose was soon issuing up to ten albums a month, together with a multitude of handsomely packaged 45s, many of which swiftly became collector's items -- and a lot of which are rounded up here. From Willie Alexander to Chris Spedding, the Cramps and Gun Club to Sky Saxon and the Fugs, New Rose's specialty was unearthing the cults that everyone thought they ought to have heard of but few had actually encountered before. And, if the quality of the material didn't always live up to expectations (much of New Rose's Johnny Thunders output is distinctly sub-bootleg), that only added to the cachet. Eighty-five tracks across four CDs, of course, tell only a fraction of the New Rose story, but it's difficult to quibble with how well those discs have been stuffed. Besides, a 44-page booklet offers biographies, anecdotes, and a full label discography to let you fill any gaps in yourself.
In a world where even the generally mediocre likes of Snow Patrol can have honest to goodness mainstream pop success, it seems peculiar that Elbow have never broken through beyond a devoted cult following. (Admittedly, the fact that their new labels, Polygram's alt rock imprint Fiction Records in the U.K. and Geffen in the U.S., are their fourth and fifth, respectively, after stints on Island, EMI, and V2, may have a lot to do with their lack of mainstream attention.) Exploring the fruitful middle ground between early Radiohead's mopey art rock and Coldplay's radio-friendly dumbing down of the same, Elbow makes records built on a balance of things not often found together anymore: strange musical textures alongside immediately accessible pop song choruses, or unexpected left turns in song structure paired with frontman Guy Garvey's warm, piercing vocals. It's no surprise that Elbow are regularly compared to old-school prog rockers like Pink Floyd and Electric Light Orchestra: they're proof that records can be cool and commercial at the same time, an idea that's not particularly hip in this day and age. Yet a song like "Grounds for Divorce," which puts a sharp, wryly funny Garvey lyric against a clanging, Tom Waits-like arrangement and throws on one of the album's catchiest tunes for good measure, or "Some Riot," which filters a yearning, lovely melody for guitar and piano through so many layers of effects and processing that it can be hard to tell what the original instruments sounded like, isn't afraid to display its accessibility even on its most experimental numbers. At the album's best, including the spacious, atmospheric balladry of the opening "Starlings" (imagine if Sigur Rós could write a pop song as emotionally direct as Keane's "Everybody's Changing") and the potential radio breakthroughs of the soaring, semi-orchestral epic "One Day Like This" (complete with choral climax!) and the wistful "Weather to Fly," The Seldom Seen Kid is Elbow's most self-assured and enjoyable album so far. [The U.K. version added "We're Away" as a bonus track.]
Before Music of the Spheres was released, Ian Brown touted it as a return for him to the peak form of his former band, the Stone Roses. As things go in the U.K., many members of the British music press jumped on the comments and appropriated Brown's views as their own. Realistically, Music of the Spheres is a strong, mature album, befitted with lush, exhilarating production that easily fits alongside Unfinished Monkey Business and Golden Greats, but it doesn't introduce anything revolutionary or match the excellence of The Stone Roses. The only thing that seems new for Brown on Music of the Spheres is that a number of the songs sound like minimalist tone poem explorations and that he sings in Spanish on "El Mundo Pequeno." One example of the minimalism is "Hear No See No," where Brown accompanies spare electronic notes with whispers of the title lyrics. But the album is at its strongest when he reaches for the inspired hooks and choruses that are his bread and butter. "F.E.A.R." is particularly compelling, with its lush string sounds and Brown's insanely catchy repetition of the letters that make up the song's title. "Stardust" and "Shadow of a Saint" are the album's other standouts, where Brown concocts frazzled poetry like, "I'm made from stardust/The same DNA as stardust," and intones about the "wings of an angel." Less bombastic than Golden Greats and more focused than Unfinished Monkey Business, Music of the Spheres is brimming with charm and accomplished, polished songcraft. There's no reason for Brown to abandon this style of music, and there's also no reason that he should feel the need to match the glories of The Stone Roses. Ian Brown's solo discography includes nothing but vibrant, organic albums. Each is worth exploring nearly as much as those of his former band. Considering the undeniably genius of the Stone Roses, that's extremely high praise.
Things are pretty much as you would expect them to be on the Coral's fourth album as all the usual pieces are in place: vocalist James Skelly still channels the voice of Ian McCullough, the guitars of Skelly and Bill Ryder-Jones still sparkle and shine, and the band is still inventive and interesting. What is different about The Invisible Invasion is the stripped-down and focused sound courtesy of producers Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley (of Portishead). Thankfully no elements of trip-hop show up; instead, they give the songs some rhythmic focus by getting a tight and live drum sound and scale back the often overly ornate arrangements of the first two albums to mostly just guitars, bass, and drums. If the batch of songs the band came up with were at all dull, this approach might have been deadly (as it proved on the somewhat forgettable Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker). Luckily the songs here are among the best they have written and are quite varied as well, ranging from the bouncily acoustic "So Long Ago" to the moody (with a great chorus) "Cripples Crown," the insistent "The Operator" to the musically lovely, lyrically melancholy "In the Morning." Where the group once seemed intent on cramming every song with everything they could fit, the new focus allows the songs to breathe more, at times even reaching levels of emotional depth that didn't seem in the cards before. "Far from the Crowd" with its quietly galloping rhythms and beautiful vocal harmonies is one example; the achingly sad "Late Afternoon" (which is one of the few songs to prominently feature keyboards) is another. More depth, better production, stellar songs performed with high levels of vigor and commitment -- it adds up to the group's best album to date. Despite a work rate that might burn out a lesser group, the Coral show no signs of going away anytime soon and if they can keep making records this good, lovers of tuneful and intelligent pop music should be very glad
