MUSIC
V ALBUMS
I The Beautllul South: Choke (Gololsos) They‘ve got attitude in abundance, but sometimes The Beautiful South overreach themselves. Paul Heaton‘s attempt at pulling offa soulful ending to ‘Love Speak Up ltself’ drags and eventually flops. But the band have enough going for them to make up for lapses like that: their different voices give them an ensemble feel almost unique in white pop, and they avoid sentimentality as decisively as Cher shuns body hair. Ironically, Paul llcaton‘s desire to present people as they are, and life as a bit of a bitch, leads him to pen some lines that are the miserabilist‘s counterpart to ‘Baby, everything‘s gonna be all right'. But he‘s not ashamed. The highlight comes with ‘A Little Time', probably the most truthful love song to make the charts in the last five years. Cherish them for that. (Alastair Mabbott) I Joset K: The Only Fun in Town/Young and Stuptd (both Les Temps Modemee COS) And here it is, on two CDs, the entire recorded history of Edinburgh‘s underground legends: the hard-to-find first LP, a greatly expanded version of the Young and Stupid compilation that was released last year and the first legitimate appearance oftheir unreleased debut, Sorry for Laughing. A hefty wad of angst to deal with ofa Wednesday morning.
Listening now, we might snigger at their youthful self-importance, deride their limitations, or ponder how neatly they fell into place alongside Joy Division, Howard Devoto, even Fire Engines and Orange Juice, but these discs throw up some enthralling moments that none ofthe participants has bettered. Their white-knuckled funk-rock, powered by Malcolm Ross's taut, wired and precise guitar playing, rarely flags, and that shortness of breath brought about by tracks like ‘Crazy to Exist‘ or the towering ‘Sorry for Laughing‘ (three versions each here) is testament to the endurance of much of their material.
At the end of forty tracks, the impression is that they really had said all they could in that form, and the payoff was pure rock‘n‘roll: they lived fast, died young and had a good-looking corpse. Even now. (Alastair
Mabbott)
I Heatwave: Gangsters ot the Groove (Telxtar) Was the world really waiting for a re-recorded. re-mixed version of ‘Boogie Nights"? Was the world really waiting for
the original? Heatwave's ‘ sound was very much a
marker of late 70s disco, John Travolta stances and
i all that, so don‘t be misled ; by the album‘s subtitle.
‘The 90‘s Mix‘. All that
3 meansisthat today‘s
omnipresent upfront
drumbeattakesoveron the re-recorded numbers
and that producers like Norman Cook and Simon Harris have a more prominent billing than
a band members. While
some of the lesser known ; tracks go some way
towards doing justice to
j the band‘s heritage, the
; best 30 seconds of the
: album (a Steve
Williamson sax solo) occur on ‘Feel Like Makin‘ Love‘, the duct with Jocelyn Brown. But as this title shows, the
3 whole package is cliched ‘ and out ofdate. (Alan
Morrison) I Eno/Cale: Wronp Way Up (Land) Brian Eno‘s ability
.; to come up with a tune
5 that gently tongues the
earlobes whilst opening a
bottle of Moet & Chandon and rt ning out fora
curry has always been erratic, though when he hits them, they do all this and slip a warm palm
; inside yourshirttoo. He 3 hasn‘tdone it toomuch
here, but overall it‘s an
F no-flavoured album, leaving John Cale to insert his sombre contributions
. as though tryingto
undermine his collaborator‘s jauntiness. Best is ‘Empty Frame’, a nautical clap-along with a rolling gait and immense charm, where you can start to connect the dots between Eno‘s love of gospel and his usual, seemingly uninvolved, style. That aside, Wrong Way Up sounds like a project that never quite left the ground, and lacks the electric sense of occasion that surrounded Songs for Drella, Cale's collaboration with Lou Reed, earlier this year. Are we meant to stick it on and then go elsewhere? With Bri, you never know. (Alastair Mabbott) I The Brilliant Corners: Hooked (McQueen) The Brilliant Corners have four viable claims to musical distinction: they are the indie chart‘s most tenacious pop teenagers; they are responsible for the most aesthetically appealing record sleeve ever (for the single ‘Delilah Sands‘); Brian Rix once appeared in one of their videos; and they are Belinda Carlisle‘s favourite British indie band. Sadly, that isn't
enough to save Hooked. The silly titles are still there, the sixth-form lyrics occasionally rear an endearing head. but the naive sparkle that graced ‘Tecnage‘ and the hot-headed energy of ‘Meet Me On Tuesdays’ is slipping. They don‘t leave you empty-handed, but ifl were Belinda, l‘d search for more dedicated perpetual adolescents. (Fiona Shepherd)
I Immaculate Fools: Another Man's World (CBS) Back after having had a serious word with themselves, the Immaculate Fools‘ have released an LP that looks likely to fulfil that lost British potential. From the opening title track to the explosive climax of ‘Stop Now', it takes a journey through a middle world somewhere between Aztec Camera and The Psychedelic Furs. Kevin Weatherill‘s committed songwriting is lyrical and melodic, but what sets the album apart is the consistently strong use of ‘other‘ instruments. like Barry Wickers‘s violin and Brian Betts‘s mandolin. ‘Come On. Jayne‘ is perhaps the obvious choice for a single, but for me the standout ‘Falling Apart Together” is a late entry for album track ofthe year. Worth the wait. (Alan Morrison)
I Duhh Chapter: Silence, Cunning and Exile (E6) There comes a point when to describe a record as ‘pleasant‘ becomes downright offensive. So here I use the word deliberately, conscious of its connotations; this is a pleasant record, unchallenging and easily palatable. It makes no demands on the listener. stretches their imagination not one bit, doesn‘t leave any after-taste. Eleven tracks drifting aimlessly together, 40 minutes of gently strummed guitars lightly wafted by smooth vocals, all adds up to a whole lot of nothing. If you‘ve heard the singles ‘Happy is the Bride' and ‘Touch and Go‘ you‘ll already have the general picture — a rough division between vaguely spirited Irish-influenced rocky tracks and sensitive, wispy numbers, bloated with over-sincerity. Nothingto trouble yourselfabout. but maybe that‘s the point. (Fiona Shepherd)
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The List ‘) 23 November 190035