RECORDS

Rip It Up, Issue 60, 1 July 1982, Page 18

RECORDS

Laurie Anderson Big Science Warner Bros The lady's an intellectual, a poet, an avant-garde musician and, in England at least, a pop star. Not a combination that bodes well for listening pleasure, but then maybe she's not really any of those things. She's famous for knowing William Burroughs and having the longest Top 10 hit ('O Superman', 8:21) in recent chart history. .-•■ That track's not the best thing on the album and the rest mostly sounds quite different. She can sing very well. In fact on the title track she sounds uncannily like Buffy St Marie (my second favourite female voice) and it's a rather lovely melody, reasonably straight really. But each track has something deviant going on, whether it be free form jazz bagpipes on 'Sweaters', a two minute song of extreme lyrical simplicity, or a farty-bass-brass-carhorn chorus-thingy on 'Example 22', a song mostly in German purporting to be based on messages transmitted through paranormals, I think. She's either a pretentious, facile, arty, liberal or someone much more valuable. I'd bet my entire Kiss collection on the latter and I only wish I had more space to tell you why. Never mind. Maybe women are' going to save the world. Chris Knox The Cure Pornography Stunn Promises were made and hopes were raised that this new Cure album, their fourth, was going to see Robert Smith emerge from the lover-hurts mental depression of 17 Seconds and Faith into a new and brighter world. But this is not the case. Pornography, instead, is the third and (most) terminal, in a trilogy of anguish, of cryptic images and insights into Smith's private hell. lan Curtis, by comparison, was a bundle of laughs. 'lt doesn't matter if we all die' is the sentiment. that opens the album from 'One Hundred Years', a monotone, a plea above Smith's crying guitar sequence. 'The

Hanging Garden' is dark uptempo relief before descending into tne sickness of 'Siamese Twins', 'Cold' and the title track which concludes with' the resolution: "I must fight this sickness, find a cure". It is pornographic as Smith's been wearing his angst on his sleeve for too long and his catholic masochism, like all pornography, has become tedious and overdone. George Kay Rolling Stones Still Life Rolling Stones Records . The riffing of Duke Ellington's 'Take the A Train' (played on the PA; an unexpected but effective choice) slides into the guitar graunch of Under My Thumb' and ... yes, ladies and gents, it's the Rolling Stones, rocking harder than you could imagine. This live album, culled from various venues on last year's American tour, sounds like the halcyon days of Aftermath and Out of Our Heads. Before Brian stopped coping. The Stones haven't sounded so good live in concert, on bootlegs, on official recordings maybe ever. On warhorses like 'Let's Spend the Night Together' and Time Is On My Side' (colossal! Jagger and Richards trade vocal-guitar lines as if their lives depended on it) these ageing, former enfants terribles manage to beat themselves at their own game. Keith and Woody ride Charlie's drums like a guitar storm that actually lives up to their legend. Jagger is . in top form. There is no posturing. .- He just sings and damned hard. Wisely, the Stones have

avoided those songs that have been a staple of the bootlegs for years, matching the vitality of their performance with the comparative freshness of Smokey Robinson's 'Going to a Go Go' (guest saxman Ernie Watts honks appropriately) and Eddie Cochran's raging boogie 'Twenty Flight Rock' (mildly surprising as Jagger has frequently rubbished Cochran in interviews). The whole affair ends with a manic 'Satisfaction' with the guitar twins tearing up the track. I dare you to sit still. When by rights they should be slowing down, the Stones are sounding as exciting as when I first heard 'Route 66'. Ken Williams The Jim Carroll Band Dry Dreams Epic Carroll's first album, Catholic Boy, combined for me the best of Lou Reed's decadent street smarts, Dylan's mid-sixties surrealist word spinning and a post-punk guitar thrash. Who cared that Carroll didn't really sing with those lyrics and that relentless pace, anything more than a sneer, was unnecessary. This time out Carroll and producer Earl McGrath have gone for a broader approach. There's a slightly glossier sound and more variety in dynamics, instrumentation and tempo. There have been changes in the band too: the two guitarists have gone. Their vicious dual attack has been replaced by one guitar and keyboards. While this affords a more rounded musical base it also lowers the overall intensity. Consequently we become more

aware of Carroll's own delivery. When he has to hold notes rather than just spit words, Carroll's singing either degenerates or else just gives out! On 'Rooms', for instance, he simply can't carry the melody. Not that the tunes themselves are that strong. There's not the number -of hooks that make Catholic Boy so strong. Nor are the lyrics as immediately arresting. Maybe it's that Carroll's voice seems to be mixed slightly further back this time but no lines leap out and grab you by the throat the way nis best poetry can. Perhaps Carroll and McGrath were aware of the weaknesses anyway. Surely it's no coincidence that the only track on Dry Dreams that fully recalls the adrenalin rush of its predecessor is the title track. Peter Thomson The Go-Betweens Send Me A Lullaby Missing Link ■ In the late seventies, the GoBetweens, Australians Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, went to Britain. While there they recorded a single, 'Sometimes I Think I Need Two Heads', for Edinburgh's Postcard records. Although the single did quite well on the independent charts, they returned to Australia. Since then they have recruited Lindy Morrison on drums, recorded another single Your Turn My Turn', and completed this album, late last year. Musically the Go-Betweens are well matched with their former label ' mates, Orange Juice and Josef. K. Tight. modern Velvetpop with early Talking Heads influences and slightly off-key singing. Sometimes it works, occasionally it doesn't, but it is at least, always interesting. They use the three-piece line-up to their advantage building things up then stripping them back down, sometimes augmented by James Freud on saxophone. In. its brighter moments Send Me A Lullaby is a record of pure honesty and should not be treated lightly. With 'One Things Can Hold Me' being a minor modern Australian pop classic. Mark Phillips Joan Jett I Love Rock 'n' Roll Liberation She's just 23 and she's been on the road since 1975. Outwardly . her image is similar to Suzi Quatro though you can bet there is no way Joan Jett ■ would've been invited onto Happy Days. Or Minder. Not with her eyes and reputation. All the stuff on the album is pretty much what you'd expect from the single: crass, thrash and trash. Basic may be, slower than the Ramones for sure, but this music's not without its suss. How about the Dave Clarke Five's 'Bits and Pieces' with antmusic drumming! - In fact the album seems characterised by its borrowings; even the hit single is someone else's old Bside. Covering „ the * Shondell's schlock classic 'Crimson and Clover' looks a shrewd choice too but,. unfortunately, the guitars come down too hard. Two originals shape up well enough. In 'Victim of Circumstance' she defends her past and in 'You're Too Possessive' she shows she can kick ass with the best. .. Aggressive, primal rock 'n' stomp. A freak hit or the beginning of a return to basics?- Whatever, Joan Jett's been doing it this way since Chrissie Hynde was still a record reviewer.jUflßHKH Peter Thomson