564. Scritti Politti - Cupid And Psyche '85 (1985)
















Track Listing

1. Word Girl
2. Small Talk
3. Absolute
4. Little Knowledge
5. Don't Work That Hard
6. Perfect Way
7. Lover To Fall
8. Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
9. Hypnotize

Review

Scritti Politti moved from being a fairly interesting Post-Punk band with interesting and extremely literate lyrics, to becoming soft-pop crap.

The 80s hit them like a ton of bricks, particularly in this album, which sounds more like Savage Garden than anything else.

It's pretty poor, but I can see how it was influential. Sadly it's a case of shitty music being influential on other shitty music. I am going to Portugal until the 9th of May, so don't expect anything until then.

Track Highlights

1. Absolute

Final Grade

5/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The name Scritti Politti was chosen as a homage to the Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci: The name is generally understood to refer to Gramsci's political writings (although the correct spelling in Italian would have produced "Scritti Politici"). Green changed it to "Scritti Politti" as he thought it sounded more rock and roll, like "Tutti Frutti".

Absolute:

563. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Don't Stand Me Down (1985)
















Track Listing

1. Kevin Rowland's 13th time
2. Occasional flicker
3. This is what she's like
4. My national pride (formerly Knowledge of beauty)
5. One of those things
6. Reminisce (part 2)
7. I love you (Listen to this)
8. Waltz

Review

You will possibly notice that the track listing above is different from the one in the book. This is because this track list is from the Director's Cut version of the album, which changes the mixing, adds the first track and changes some of the titles on the other tracks. That said it is a superior version to the one released before.

Dexy's give us an absolute career suicide in the form of this album, tellingly their last album. Something that is career suicide is not necessarily bad, and in this case it is very very good, only you could never release any of these tracks as a single in the mid 1980s.

In an era where music was all about efficiency in production, tight pop-music, often full of synths with very recognisable hooks and so on, Dexy's give us a collection of sprawling, disjointed tracks that sometimes last for as long as 12 minutes, being constantly interrupted by chatter, and it works. The album just creates a totally relaxed atmosphere, you can tell that even if no one else is enjoying their work, at least they were. They jam, tell jokes, take digs at each other, basically fuck about, and you enjoy listening to it. In a deliberate effort not to create another Come On Eileen the might have erred slightly too much on the other side, but what a great work they made.

Track Highlights

1. My National Pride
2. I Love You (Listen To This)
3. This is What She's Like
4. The Occasional Flicker

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

During the mastering process for the Creation release, a stereo enhancer was used, which Rowland felt "ruined the dynamics". As a result, a third version of the album was released in 2002, subtitled "The Director's Cut". The tracks were again digitally remastered, and the CD featured new artwork, further notes by Rowland and the additional track "Kevin Rowland's 13th Time". According to Rowland, the album now sounds to him "as it was intended to sound". "Kevin Rowland's 13th Time" had originally been intended as the opening song, but was left off the original issue of the album due to a "dodgy drum beat at one point". Rowland penned two pages of notes relating to the track, as well as a "foreword to The Director's Cut".

Video for This Is What She's Like, but it is just part of a 12 minute suite:

562. Simply Red - Picture Book (1985)

















Track Listing

1. Come to My Aid
2. Sad Old Red
3. Look at You Now
4. Heaven
5. Jericho
6. Money's Too Tight (To Mention)
7. Holding Back the Years
8. Red Box
9. No Direction
10. Picture Book

Review

Now it's time for Manchester's shame with Simply Red, yes, a band so fucking annoying, with such a fucking annoying lead in Mick Hucknall that no city in the world would be proud to have them, they will share the lower circle of hell with their fellow Mancunians M People.

Simply Red try to make a soul album and fail. The guy is ginger for fuck's sake. We all know ginger people have no soul. So Mick is brought up with punk, being at the famous Sex Pistols gig in Manchester with people like Ian Curtis, but while Ian Curtis creates Joy Division, Mick spawns Simply Fucking Red.

The whole thing sounds opportunistic and little more than a commercial endeavour, which actually worked perfectly in the sense that it made them shit loads of cash. But not a very good album.

Track Highlights

1. Jericho
2. Money's Too Tight (To Mention)
3. Holding Back The Years
4. Picture Book

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Simply Red's roots originate from the 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Manchester art student Mick Hucknall was one of the many young music fans present, along with original members of Joy Division, The Smiths and Buzzcocks, who was inspired to form a band after witnessing that gig. The first incarnation of the band was a punk group called The Frantic Elevators. This band existed for 7 years, with limited releases on local labels, but split in 1984 with only limited local attention and critical acclaim for their final single, "Holding Back the Years".

Jericho, look at the audience:

561. New Order - Low-Life (1985)
















Track Listing

1. Love Vigilantes
2. Perfect Kiss
3. This Time of Night
4. Sunrise
5. Elegia
6. Sooner Than You Think
7. Subculture
8. Face Up

Review

Like Joy Division after a rest cure and a massive dosage of Prozac, New Order brings us 80s dance music that is actually cool. And not many people can do that. To the grave with Ian Curtis went the gothic elements of New Order, all in all it was a bad loss, New Order were never as good as Joy Division.

On the other hand not much is as good as Joy Division, and New Order are able to provide very good music indeed. Probably not to the exact same audience, however, New Order is most definitely pumped up music.

The fact that this is pumped up dancy music does not mean that there aren't moments of extreme lyrical beauty in the album however, the instrumental Elegia is one of those. In general a pretty great album by one of the best and most influential bands in my adopted hometown of Manchester.

Track Highlights

1. Love Vigilantes
2. Elegia
3. The Perfect Kiss
4. Sunrise

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album's artwork is the only New Order release to feature photographs of the band members on its sleeve. On most issues, drummer/keyboardist Stephen Morris is on the front cover. Some re-releases, including the 1993 London Records CD, feature four photographs inside the case and a semi-transparent piece of paper with the band's name on. Owners can choose which band member is seen through the sleeve.

Elegia in an Academy Award nominated short film by Mark Osborne, More:

560. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy (1985)
















Track Listing

1. Just Like Honey
2. Living End
3. Taste The Floor
4. Hardest Walk
5. Cut Dead
6. In A Hole
7. Taste Of Cindy
8. Never Understand
9. Inside Me
10. Sowing Seeds
11. My Little Underground
12. You Trip Me Up
13. Something's Wrong
14. It's So Hard

Review

The Jesus & Mary Chain present us with an interesting proposal, making pop songs and drowning them in feedback and noise. I am interested in their proposal and would like to subscribe to their newsletter.

But interested is really the word, I am not particularly riveted, but I like it, I like the concept of it and I hope they will eventually refine it into something even better. At the moment they sound like Velvet Underground's poor cousin.

Still the fact that they sound somewhat like VU makes them a huge highlight in the mid 80s, and the music is fascinating, it is also particularly fascinating to listen to it at very low volume, where only highest ranges of the feedback come through, but that makes for a less pleasant album. In the end it is a mixed bag, with an excellent concept and some real good songs, curiously the slower and less feedbacky ones, showing that under that wall of noise there is a sensitive and very melodic band.

Track Highlights

1. Just Like Honey
2. Cut Dead
3. Taste Of Cindy
4. Taste The Floor

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Psychocandy utilised the then-radical notion of combining simple pop tunes, à la The Beach Boys, with the searing guitar noise more akin to The Velvet Underground, effectively prefiguring shoegaze. The album is considered to be a landmark recording, frequently appearing in various "best-ever" album lists, such as placed at number 88 in 2000 Q magazine list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 268 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Just Like Honey: