RECORDS

Rip It Up, Issue 27, 1 October 1979, Page 13

RECORDS

SIMPLY XTC

XTC Drums and Wires Virgin

To be honest I thought XTC had peaked with the unparalleled cleverness of the first side of Go 2. Keyboards player, Barry Andrews, had left earlier in the year and took with him (or so I thought) an important facet of the band's sound. The decision to replace him with a guitarist was greeted with consternation as it appeared to be a self-imposed restriction, a move backwards and a relinquishing of their status as the fastest most inventive group around in favour of a more conservative bid for chart popularity. How wrong could I be? And looking back now over their two previous albums it’s quite obvious that beneath their endless rhythm changes there lurked the fettered makings of one of the best beat groups of the seventies. And Drums and Wires reveals the best. The single that preceded this new album by a few months was a Colin Moulding song, "Life At the Hop”, released after Andrews’ departure and an indication that XTC were invading rockland proper: Prepare yourself for the boys in the band at the hop The cheap guitars, too young for the bars at the hop.

Effervescent, exuberant, youthful sixties’ energy and dash. Moulding emerged as a potent songwriter in his own right on his trio of

greats on Go 2 "Buzzcity Talking", "Crowded Room" and "The Rhythm” all on the first side. On Drums and Wires he does everything but steal the limelight from Partridge with his brilliant flashes of conventional insight, "Making Plans for Nigel”, “Ten Feet Tall” and “That is the Way”. The album though ultimately belongs to Partridge who has retained much of his highly charged electric fidgeting especially on "Helicopter” "Scissor Man” and the irresistibly love-sick "When You’re Near Me I Have Difficulty”, but he has expanded his ambitions on the slow, amorphous "Millions”, and on "Roads Girdle the Globe”.

After listening to the greatness of Drums and Wires (the title probably refers to the fact that the band have now three guitarists and a drummer although new-comer Dave Gregory does contribute keyboards) it’s apparent that XTC had reached the height of their particular style on Go 2. It’s probable that a Go 3 would have been greeted with a series of catcalls and comments like “marking time” and it’s with this in mind that you must view the new album. Dave Gregory has added a desirable edge to the band without subtracting anything from their original qualities or causing the band to abandon their essential style. XTC have not only become one of the most inventive guitar bands around, they have also emerged with one of the best albums of 79 to boot. George Kay

ROLLING BRIMSTONE

Bob Dylan Slow Train Coming CBS

A good many stones have rolled around this world since the release of a new Bob Dylan album hustled up a storm either in the critics' dens or amongst the buying public. Dylan’s recent albums are not ignored; but no longer are they met with the automatic deference once deemed due.

Now, as if to put the lie to possible tales of aged decrepitude, back the old boy has come with Slow Train Coming, probably his best and most consistent album in years, and providing lots for all concerned to chew upon. Musically it is distinctly redolent of older Dylan. Coming out of the studios at Muscle Shoals, the album was made under the direction of Jerry Wexler, a producer responsible for Ray Charles and many others in the past. The backing band is small and includes Mark Knopfler and Pick Withers from Dire Straits, along with a horns section and a good-sized choir of back-up singers. Even so, the feeling is spare but powerful.

The real push is coming from Dylan himself

and his emotive singing of a bunch of heart-felt lyrics. For Dylan, you see, has converted from non-practising Judaism to evangelical Christianity and he’s not letting one song slip by without pinning a message to its back. The single from the album, “Gotta Serve Somebody” starts Side One. With the modest use of gospel singers in the background, Dylan runs through a multitude of options for life whether you’re rich, poor or ugly, pretty or weak, powerful. Still like every page of The Bible will tell you "It may be the Devil/It may be the Lord/But you’re gonna have to serve somebody." "Precious Angel” is a beautiful song delivered in aching devotion seemingly to both God and the woman who’d introduced the pair. His voice, in this song especially, harks of a return to the days when every strained muscle was audible; it's strong and gnarled and quite superb. Throughout almost all the album Dylan is in fine voice, but it’s weighty stuff he's preaching. Starting off Side Two with “Change My Way of Thinking”, he announces the "golden rule": "There’s only one authority and that’s the authority on high.” To be soon followed by “Jesus said to be ready/For you know not the hour in which I come ... he said/Who’s not for me is against me.” "When You Gonna Wake Up” is similarly harsh, painting a grim world of seduction and fakery by the evil and corrupt. The message is never clearer: "There’s a man on a cross/And he’s been crucified for you/Believe in his power/That’s about all you have to do.” Such righteousness will be unacceptable to some. So too will- Dylan’s preoccupation with retribution. But lyrically looking beyond the obvious religious aspects Dylan is still hitting targets for derision with the same accuracy as in his early days of protest. And, from Arab oil interests (“deciding America's future from Amsterdam and Paris") to the hippies of yore ("I don’t know which is worse/doing your own thing/or being cool”) no-one avoids the arrows.

Mercifully a couple of tracks escape the Old Testament tinge. "When He Returns” is positively devotional, but unthreatening for the non-believer; "I Believe in You” is about withstanding persectuion for religious beliefs; and "Man Gave Names to All The Animals”

the only track on the album which I really don't like is a silly song of stories making fun of mankind’s reasoning. But these are the exceptions. Elsewhere Dylan comes on like the sledgehammer/cross wielded on the album cover. It may be a slow training coming, but he’s certainly not shunting. Nor, God be praised, is he really selling his conversion to his audience; he’s not crazy. Rather, he’s telling them what he believes in the best songs he’s written and played for many years. Louise Chunn

*

Dave Edmunds Repeat When Necessary Swan Song ■ Nick Lowe Labour of Lust Eadar

Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe are rock brothers of different mothers and it’s appropriate to consider them together. Their band, Rockpile, is now billed as “featuring Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe 1 ’ and, moreover, the same musicians appear on both albums.

Each man has handled production for his own album and it shows the differences in their musical characters. Edmunds’ work is perfection itself, running close competition to his landmark album Get It. A precise vocalist and guitarist, he has a command of rock forms which enables him to turn unfamiliar songs into instant classics (witness his magnificent reading of Lowe’s “I Knew the Bride’’ on Get It). No writer himself, Edmunds has a finely honed facility for finding new or neglected material. Repeat When Necessary numbers among its better songs tunes by Elvis Costello (“Girls Talk”), Graham Parker (“Crawling from the Wreckage”) and Cliff Richard (“Dynamite."). While Lowe will never have Edmunds' voice or his meticulous approach to his material, Lowe has a goodnatured sloppiness that fits his "have a go" approach to songwriting. Standout tracks on Labour of Lust include “Cracking Up”, “Big Kick, Plain Scrap” and a truckers’ la ment, “Endless Grey Ribbon”. I find “Cruel to

be Kind”, the most catchy song, also the most disposable. There’s enough material between these two blokes for more than one terrific album, but less than two. Who falls short? It probably comes down to a matter of choice between a polished gem (Edmunds) and a rough diamond (Lowe). Myself, I would opt for Edmunds, whose craftmanship gives him the edge. Perhaps next time they will consider a Rockpile album with the spotlight shared. It could be the answer to the problem of selection when you have to choose between two albums by such complementary geezers. Ken Williams 8.8. King Take It Home MCA, . The Blues boy is again teamed with the Crusaders. The album takes a similar route to ther previous collaboration, Midnight Believer. Perhaps it is a shade too close. There is a nagging feeling of deja vu throughout. One song is titled “Same Old Story (Same Old Song)” and that about sums it up. What seemed fresh and exploratory on Midnight Believer has settled comfortably into a fusion formula. Not all is lost. He handles an absurd encounter with the "Queen of England in “Better Not Look Down" with tongue-in-cheek aplomb ■and he injects “I’ve Always Been Lonely” with the depth of feeling that stamps his - best material. It’s also one of the few occasions when his guitar penetrates the dense arrangements. To relegate Lucille to the background is to misunderstand that the complement of voice and guitar is integral to 8.8.

King’s work

On the superb title track (a reworking of Wilton Felder’s “Way Back Home" which I used as a theme on the Big City Music Blues Show) Felder takes a singing sax solo which hints at what the album might have been if 8.8. had asserted himself more.

Sadly, Felder’s fading sax closes the album. This moving fragment serves to underline that too much time has been spent going through the motions. Ken Williams

The Ramones/Various Artists Rock'n'roll High School Sire This is an oddly mixed bag to be sure. What we have here is the sound track from the movie Rock'n'roll High school which features The Ramones. Side one boasts three new Ramones’ cuts and a live medley of their past greats. On the flip side is a selection by various artists loosely centre around the theme of youth. For the Ramones’ fan side one is pure joy. The titfe track is the Beach Boys in overdrive right down to the gorgeous backing vocals. Quite simply it is a latter day classic. Though the other two newies are less rave worthy, they are still good fare. As for the live medley, “Blitzkrieg Bop”, “Teenage Lobotomy”, “California Sun”, “Pinhead” and “She’s The One”, that’s five songs in ten minutes. The only break comes when Joey delivers one of his two lines in the movie and appropriately he mumbles it. This is the best side of dancing music in a long time. The rest of the album is certainly pleasant enough. Highlights are offerings by Nick Lowe, Devo, The Hot Rods and Chuck Berry. About Alice Cooper and Brownsville Station you can make up your own mind. By now any Ramones fans are on their way to the record store but for the rest it’s not to late to start having fun. Dominic Free The Sinceros The Sound of Sunbathing Epic The art of making good summer music seems to have been lost in recent years, and more’s the pity. The last really good-summer single was Bob Marley’s “Waiting In Vain”, and that was nearly three years ago. So what is the summer sound? It’s that sparkling clean feeling, like emerging from the surf after the first dip of the season. It sounds magical blaring from a thousand trannies on Piha Beach. It should be as sweet as a cold ale when the temperature hits the 30’s, and as memorable as a roll in the sandhills.

Maybe the Sinceros have rediscovered the art. Their previous claim to fame is helping out on Lene Lovich’s album. Now, on their own, this nifty little four-piece has enlisted the help of Boz Scaggs’ producer Joe Wissert, and made a platter that deserves thrashing to death in the coming months. They have high, clear voices, harmonise beautifully, and write concise, catchy pop tunes that are not too heavy, not too light, and are just made for the radio. The title says it all. Londoners they may be, but,the Sinceros have sand between their toes.

Buy this record, petition your station to play it, and pray for a long, hot summer. Duncan Campbell

Nils Lofgren Nils A &M~ Nils is Nils Lofgren’s first studio album in over two years and happily, marks a return to form after the serious tapering off in quality evident on his last three albums. Lofgren emerged from his several year’s stint with Grin and his work as guitarist and piano player with Neil Young with a larger reputation than audience. As a result his first solo album, Nils Lofgren, was an unjustly overlooked work. He allied his ability to write nifty pop songs with hard-hitting power chords and turned out several minor masterpieces “Back It Up”, “I Don’t Want to Know”, “Keith Don’t Go” and “The Sun Hasn’t Set On This Boy Yet”, It was a style that was only to become fashionable in the hands of

new wave brigade a couple of years later. Lofgren’s albums after this first displayed a sorry lack of awareness of his strengths as the guitar work became more dominant, the songs became less interesting a process which reached its nadir in his last release, the live album Night After Night, where many of the songs were undermined by the overemphasis on solos and a curiously lifeless attack. The new album marks a change in several respects. For the first time Lofgren works with producer Bob Ezrin whose earlier work includes Peter Gabriel’s first album, Lou Reed's Berlin and several Alice Cooper albums. Here, Ezrin’s everything-and-the-tubular-bells approach is often at odds with Lofgren’s modest songs. His use of ring-side sound effects on “No Mercy”, a song about the rookie taking on the champ, succeeds only as parody. But Ezrin’s method has its successes here too: on the beautiful “Shine On Silently” he provides a brilliant gloss that enhances the translucent melody.

But for all the unevenness of the remainder of the album, it’s heartening to see Lofgren back on course doing what he does best making quality pop music. Welcome back. Alastair Dougal

Earthquake Ted Nugent Levelled State of Shock Beserkley Epic Two faces of heavy metal. Over the years Ted Nugent has carefully nurtured a wild man persona, a tough guy who eats raw meat and strangles buffalo with his bare hands just to keep in shape for his women. The ultimate chauvinist, but he sells records. Initially, Nugent’s play-acting was great fun but his lunkheaded stance has stifled and ran rough-shod over his music for too long. Okay he’s a good guitarist, flashy, and that’s what heavy metal’s all about but I’m tired of his albums being all the same and all designed to advance the folklore of Ted Nugent. If you're a fan then Nugent will never disappoint, but if you’re looking for something new from this man then forget it. Try Earthquake instead ...

When Matthew Kaufman launched the first big little label, Beserkley, in 1975, he pursued a policy of variety-is-the-spice-of-a-successful-record company when he signed up his superheroes. So he grabbed hold of the Milky Bar Kid (Jonathan Richman of course), all-rounder. Greg Kihn, Raspberry-ites the Rubinoos and, to add good rock’n'roll muscle, he- signed Bay Area’s Earthquake.

A five piece, Earthquake, by their very name, the title of the album, Levelled and the send-up photo of the band on the sleeve, make it plain that their aim is fun, not the heavy metal credibility martyrdom that Nugent has adopted.' Playing just as a good mainstream rock band they zip through worthwhile covers of “Kicks” and “Emma” and they play popular HM with the same sense of good-naturedness that has made Handsome Dick Manitoba and the Dictators household names. Yup, Nugent sure could learn from these youngsters, if it’s not too late. George Kay

Leah Kunkel Leah Kunkel CBS Louise Goffin Kid Blue Asylum

Carly Simon Spy Elektra Joan Baez Honest Lullaby Portrait

Four lady vocalists, two of which are new to the game and two which are almost establishment figures these days. Actually Joan Baez doesn't come off too badly for nothing seemed to develop from her fine Diamonds and Rust of a few years back. On Honest Lullaby she sings for the most part other people’s songs such as Janis lan’s "Light a Light” and Jackson Browne’s "Before the Deluge” (not a bad version, although as always Baez’s distinctly folky voice is a thing one has to get accustomed to). Her own three songs are pleasant: “For Sasha” is an anti-war number (after all it is a Baez album), and "Michael” explores a similar folk styling. The title song, “Honest Lullaby” is indeed curious being just a little too close to Janis lan’s “At Seventeen” for comfort.

Carly Simon is obviously more assured of an audience and stylistic approach than Baez, and her style is more contemporary having really come before the public when artists were 'singer-songwriters’ rather than ’folksingers’. With a very smooth Arif Mardin production and class names in the ranks of the backing musicians (John Hall, David Sanborn, David Spinoz.za) it is certainly not a lack-lustre album. The only thing that I find hard to take sometimes is Simon’s over-personalised approach to most of the songs. “Vengeance” has some treatment of the material in the third person, but elsewhere the enforced viewpoint of Ms Simon becomes a little overpowering at times. And this seems a carping criticism really when songs such as “We’re so close” and “Memorial Day” have a genuine strain of lyricism to them. But back to this personalised approach, even the Anais Nin quote on the in-

ner sleeve reads “I am an international spy in .the house of love.”

Leah Kunkel’s first album has been a long ■time coming for a lady who has been round the business since the early 70s. Apparently no relation to Russ Kunkel, the noted LA drummer who is playing during these sessions, Leah has written a number of songs including "The Road is No Place For a Woman" for Mama Cass. As a vocalist she has backed James Taylor, Carly Simon, Jackson Browne, Dan Hill and Art Garfunkel. Her material is mainly by others including of all things the Gibb brother’s “I’ve Got to Get a Message to You”. A pleasant voice, a pleasant album but a somewhat tame follow-up to Karla Bonoff's first album of a year or so ago.

Louise Goffin is the 19 year old daughter of Carole King and Gerry Goffin and her debut album absolutely reeks names. Produced by Danny Kortchmar, the backing musicians include Waddy Wachtel, Kenny Edwards, J D Souther, Don Henley, Andrew Gold, Peter Asher and mother Carole King. The songs tend to cover a teenage experience, ranging from the whimsical “Kid Blue" at its best to the raunchier “Jimmy and the Tough Kids”, which seems a little contrived somehow. Goffin may gel after 2 or 3 albums but at the moment it is indeed hard to consider her as anything but Carole King’s kid. William Dart * Tube way Army Replicas Atlantic Is Gary Numan the Next Big Thing? Or was he just lucky? This album doesn’t answer either question satisfactorily. Numan is the leading light in a looselyassembled group called Tubeway Army. In essence, he is Tubeway Army, writing all material, singing, and playing synthesisers, roping in a mate or two for the rhythm. “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” was one of those nagging singles, probably memorable to many just for the quirky little two-note synthesiser riff which never gave you any rest, like toothache. The lyrics were 20th century paranoia, being lonely but still with the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. So was it just a flash in the pan? An album usually proves the pudding, but Replicas merely begs more questions. One thing it does show very strongly is Numan's debt to Bowie (in looks and vocal style). He also borrows from Bowie’s Low period, and from Ultravox, for some melodies. However, on numbers like “The Machman”, a jaunty rocker, and "When The Machines Rock,” a mechanised shuffle, he shows again the spark of originality, that flickered on "Friends”. Numan already has a second album out in Britain. I'll reserve further judgement till then. Hopefully, Numan will discard the borrowed ideas for some more of his own. Duncan Campbell

Interview Big Oceans Virgin Every now and then you run into a new band or soloist who has that indefinable, intuitive rock'n’roll appropriateness. So far this year Joe Jackson springs to mind as a talent in this mould and on the band scene Interview look like taking on all-comers. Formed in Bath two years ago they were courted early on in the piece by near neighbour Peter Gabriel who offered them a publishing deal. The band turned him down in favour of an eight album contract with Virgin and they concluded last year by supporting Gabriel at the Hammersmith Odeon. Recognition was building up, slowly. Big Oceans then is their first album and it is one of flowing unerring maturity utilising basic rock styles and a hefty dose of sheer collective flair and instrumental dexterity that very rarely lapses. Vocalist Jeff Starrs has a penchant for hardened romanticism in his lyrics, guitarists Peter Allerhand and Alan Brain are responsible for the actual music and Phil Crowther (bass) and Manny Elias (drums) provide a gliding and often funky platform for the songs. The album begins with the unrepresentative clean rining harmonies of their single "You Didn't Have to Lie To Me", crisp and catchy belying the intensity of Starr’s self-annoyance: I'm so sick and tired of my infatuation I'll never get into another situation "Here Comes the Cavalry" demonstrates, in a Steely Dan vein, how the band can be both punchy and sophisticated, and, next up, "Feet' Start Walking”, a Gary "US" Bonds’ song, is just so right, swinging gently with real class. Sfde One concludes with the band’s live tour de force, "Fire Island", a haunting account of actor, Montgomery Clift’s last days. What else? The second side matches up and that's a tall order. "Blow Wind From Alesund” is unhurried, uncluttered funk with a nice guitar bridge followed by a leisurely, confident ballad "St. Jean Wires”. But it’s the aggressively eccentric "Hart Crane In Mexico" (the story of the. suicide of homosexual poet Hart Crane, of course) and the no-nonsense head-on riff structured "Shipyard" that are the main talking, points of the second side.

Interview do far more than merely eschewing the safe as milk rock cliches posing as angst. Also they’ve produced an album that, in some ways, is unmistakeably derived from the Parker-Costello-Jackson mainliners .but Interview have added so much that is refreshingly refined without losing the all-important inspired power. Brain and Allerhand have evolved a style that is not only distinctive but also subtle and imaginative when the occasion demands qualities always in short supply. Word has it that Virgin have pinned their hopes on Interview cracking the American market and, on the evidence of Big Oceans alone, the band and the record company have reason to be confident.

One down, seven to go. George Kay

Iggy & The Stooges

Raw Power CBS

Rock and roll survives because right at its core right down there at the nitty-gritty in amongst the hucklebuck is a truth that matters, and we keep on looking for it body and soul. There have been periods when rock & roll didn’t look too healthy, when you even felt like giving up on it although you knew you never would, which was doubly depressing somehow.

But there is always, suddenly, an album or even a single that you stumble across that is so straight-from-the-core, so real and undeniable that it seems to make up for all the dross around just by being there. Sustaining your faith with the news that the secret isn’t lost, yet. Back in 73 Raw Power by Iggy & The Stooges was that kind of record.

- Now re-retease’d in New Zealand, Raw Power was recorded in London during a prolonged and strange period in Iggy's career between the break-up of the original Stooges following Fun House, and his more recent and as yet unresolved game of tag with the rock mainstream. Surviving some dubious mixing by Bowie, Raw Power still has the impact of an aural firestorm. Whipped into a frenzy by Williamson's incendiary leads and fueled by Iggy’s sheer naked persona it sounds now like an expression of the most acute frustration, in a way that was so powerful it was cleansing not merely for the participants but for all who subsequently heard and felt the' music. You are either in it or you’re not in it, you feel it or you don’t, it’s the kind of great rock and roll which works at that extreme where a luke-warm response is no response. Raw Power is a touchstone white hot if you need it. Terence Hogan

Herman Brood and His Wild Romance Ariola I figured this was just what I needed; a thirtyt,h re e-year-old Dutch rock singer with a voice sorta midway between Robert Palmer, Roger Chapman, and David Johannsen. Actually it’s not bad at all.

Brood's band is a standard American guitar and piano outfit that rocks. You may have heard it before, but you haven’t heard it done this good in a while. Most of the songs are written by Brood and various members of the band, and they are short, funky, and to the point. There’s no kitschy art-pretensions Euro-rock on this album.

The band claims production credits, and for musicians, they did well. The mix is even, just obnoxious enough to be rock'n'roll without drowning hie piano, and they even got some lady singers to beef up the chorus. What else could you want?

The themes are the standard rock'n’roll concerns, discernable from titles'like "Saturday Night", “Rock'n'Roll Junkie" (dedicated to Paul Kossoff, by the way), and "Dope Sucks", the latter presumably the comment of one who knows. There’s even a not bad version of Otis Redding's “Champagne and Wine”. Seven points. Great to dance to. It's only the proverbial rock music but that's all right with me. John Malloy J.J. Cale 5 Shelter Cale is one of the few idiosyncratic performers making records today. Like Ry Cooder, another left-fielder, J.J. Cale has cut his niche with persistance and a determination to please himself. Troubadour received a fair slice of airplay thanks to the single, "Cocaine”,' and there’s been a healthy pause since. Is the public ready? 5 sounds like a home made album, folksy as you can get. The mix is rough and irregular, and 'several tracks have been cut with just J.J. and a drum machine. The sound varies from track to track. It's crazy but it fits. 5 starts out slow and spreads the goodies over two sides; it’s not programmed for FM airplay. Cale’s songs have never been of great consequence, relying more on feel than on content or structure. The songs here are less than immediate what with shapeless arrangements and Cale's vocals sitting right back in the mix but "Katy Kool Lady’-’ and "Lou Easy Ann” stand out early as high spots. So if it contains no surprises, 5 at least hits you with a few more good songs than Troubadour, and a no-bullshit, low-rent production job that enhances rather than detracts from Cale’s simple music. The way I see it, with summer coming, a change of pace could be in order. It may not be the peak of new wave chic, but then, nobody pogos in Baton Rouge. Bring on the long,- hot, summer nights. John Malloy.

The Sex Pistols Some Product

Virgin

Another swindle by the Pistols? Not really, but definitely not an album for the casual fan after easy access to the band. Although hardly a collector’s item, it is one for the hard core afficionada only. The album consists of press, radio and televsion interviews conducted in the US and Britain, with banned radio ads for various singles and the two albums dividing them up. The only music on the album is that which backs the ads and like the entire recording, the sound quality is uneven, not to say rugged. The interviews range from a few minutes with Johnny Rotten's mother to Sid Vicious being precious about the pogo and some serious chat on the power of record companies. All very interesting, but most of it over and out in one good listen. The one exception to this is the end of side one, "Big Tits Over America”, a totally tasteless, vulgar, ridiculously funny phone-in radio session in California. But, for all its chaos and admirable honesty, this album is really only of sociological interest, and that only fleeting. But it is only $5.99. Louise Chunn

Bill Nelson's Red Noise Sound on Sound Harvest Simple Minds Life In A Day Arista Ever since the Jam’s Paul Weller coined the phrase “the modern world” in a rock context, it has become a leading cliche in the hands of writers trying to describe what’s happening/aspiring in British rock’n’roll. Bill Nelson’s Red Noise and new band Simple Minds are both trying in different ways to come to terms with the pressures of being relevant in music’s current hyper-activity. Guitar hero Bill Nelson came to prominence some years back in Be Bop Deluxe when he used'to write songs like "Sister Seagull” and "Music in Dreamland”, but now with his new band, Red Noise, he has re-focused his abilities to keep in step with the discordance of the times. Sound on. Sound proves that all he has managed to achieve is an assimilation of those various superficial trappings considered by him to be • particularly characteristic of present trends. Nelson's songs are now purged of all romantic imagery replaced instead with harsh pictures of alienation. and indifference, fashionable visions of the "real world", the only trouble being that he hasn't the insight or depth of intensity to convey such emotions as do the likes of Bowie or Devoto. Too often, also, the music falls in the quirkiness for its own sake, stacatto melodies and XTC cleverness, but when he lets a song settle down as in the case of "Furniture" or "Revolt Into Style”, he can develop his music into something that is worthwhile independent of his present Music For Young Moderns. I wouldn’t write him off just yet. Simple Minds from Glasgow are indicative of the new open-minded bands that are emerging from 1977,'s clearing of the decks in that they not only embrace the belief of telling-it-how-it-is, but also believe (unlike many of '77’s purist headbangers) :that some degree of musical sophistication is not necessarily a bad thing or contrary to the unwritten primitivist ' rules of that year. The Sex Pistols stirred up the tired old-men.but the resulting back-to-the-roots rock’n’roll resulted in a temporary suspicion of anything that.smacked of musical ambition or diversity. But now ..the dust has settled and some sort of equilibrium has been established wherein bands like Magazine, and now Simple Minds can borrow; from pre-1977 "progressive” sources without - feeling unfashionable or self-conscious'.

John Leckie, not only produced Magazine’s two awesome albums and Nelson’s Sound on Sound reviewed above, also does the honours on Simple Minds’ debut, Life In A Day, and he has the knack of creating a very contemporary sound landscape. The band actually draw much of their inspiration from the hey-day of Sparks, Tweeter in a Woofer’s Clothing, Kimono My House and Propaganda. Vocalist/songwriter Jim Kerr is a refreshing Mael brothers’ protege but without the same falsetto range, and the band headed by guitarist/violinist Charles Bilirchill are accomplished in the Ron Mael-Adrian Fisher straight rock mould. But there’s a lot more to Simple Minds than come-back-Sparks-all-is-forgiven. Life in a Day is no holds barred anti-sentimentalism, harsh and often fierce modern stories, "Wasteland”, "Murder Story" and “Chelsea Girl", harrowing and frantic, music not to be ignored. Simple Minds can take their place with the present front-runners, and that’s saying something.

George Kay