BRIEFS

Rip It Up, Issue 60, 1 July 1982, Page 20

BRIEFS

Alberta Hunter The Glory Of (CBS) ' The great comeback of 1920 s jazz and blues singer Alberta Hunter continues. This new album is along similar lines to. Amtrak Blues of two years ago a mixture of. blues, old pop songs and originals. Producer John Hammond has put together a cooking little band for Miss Hunter who, at 87, sings as if she will live forever. KW iSpark'sH^p^pH|^f^PHH Angst Jn My Pants (Atlantic) One-time leaders of smart-ass wordplay, eccentricity and students of the Moroder school of applied discotronics, the Mael Brothers have returned with a smart series of views on American society. Musically the angles are conventional radio rock'n'roll with past Moroder influences taking the . back seat. Flippant but effective, don't underestimate it. GK David Bowie Christiane F (RCA) ;. ' • ; . 'Q: When is a compilation album not a compilation album? A: When it's a soundtrack. In actual fact this album serves both purposes, being the soundtrack of this German movie about a teenage junkie, and a good collection of middle to late period Bowie album tracks, from Station to Station to Lodger inclusively. The . only thing previously unreleased here is the German version-of 'Heroes'. SG Level 42 (Polydor) Level 42 are five Englishmen borne along by the current funk revival but they owe their debts to the more refined, accessible moments of the Crusaders and Chas Jankel than to the manic primitive wild boy blasts of Pigbag and co. Level 42 are smooth, polite and accomplished musicians who excel at creating funk, one grade above wallpaper, lacking in bite and individuality. . Passion needed. GK Tank - Filth Hounds of Hades (DJM); ’ A three-piece whose sole aim seems to be to continue the great tradition of Motorhead. Produced by Motorhead's Fast Eddie, Tank's debut consists of 10 blistering bonecrunchers taken at breakneck speed. It's no-holds-barred macho mayhem from start to finish, featuring such delights as 'Shellshock', 'Blood, Guts and Beer' and 'Stormtrooper'. Luckily the band don't take it too seriously, as evidenced by some of the lyrics. CC . Eric ClaptonHuHßßDßi Timepieces (Best of) (RSO) , ; Good not great compilation of Clapton's more commercial moments between 1970 and 1978. Naturally, 'After Midnight' and "Layla' are there; just as naturally, so is the bland-out of 'Wonderful Tonight'. In between there ; are such gems as 'Willie and the Hand Jive', 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot' and,, especially, 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door'. This moving, reggae version of the Bob Dylan masterpiece previously was available only on a 1975 single. KW Motorhead, Iron Fist (Bronze)

Ten new tracks from the kings of the loudest/fastest genre, differing little from their previous output, although some of the tunes are positively melodic (if such a word can be used with this band). One begins to wonder how long the fans will go on wanting more of this. With Eddie Clarke having departed the band, this may well be their last album. CC

Fleetwood Mac Mirage (Warner Bros) Having got various solo projects out of their systems, Buckingham, Fleetwood, Nicks et al return to the corporate fold. There's a pathetic kind of profitable calculation about this album. Pop that was once urgent,, sparkling (yes, I like Rumours), even daring at times (Tusk), has been cautiously retreaded as ; tepid, mid-tempo formula. Some of it's rather pretty, but there's no passion, no energy, no excitement. . . PT UFO, Mechanix (Chrysalis) Veterans of the hard rock scene UFO turn ■ out their umpteenth album, and it's a worthy successor to. last year's The Wild, The Willing and the Innocent. UFO have developed a style to satisfy both American and European rock fans. 'Terri' is a Journey-type : ballad, . while tracks like 'Feel It' and The Writer' recall Whitesnake at their best. One gripe: covering ’ 'Something Else' was a terrible mistake. Stick to the ’ originals; boys. CC Gene Vincent The Singles Album (Axis) . One huge hit, 'Be-Bop-A-Lu-La', a couple of minor ones, /Bluejean Bop' and 'Race With The Devil', and 17 chunks of high-class filler. Not as magical as Elvis' Sun Sessions or first RCA recordings. Not as wild as Little Richard or Jerry Lee but light years better than Bill Haley and his ilk. Good songs, immaculately engineered onto 33, in fact about the best remastering job I've ever heard.CK Bauhaus Mask (Beggar's Banquet) Taking their name from the Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar, a liberal art school set up in republican Germany after the First World War, England's Bauhaus are attempting to bridge the gap between. poetry and musical expression. On Mask the music suffers, under a series of stark lyrical contrasts that dictate music of a similar nature. Bauhaus are like a black comedy, excess is accepted but belief is suspended. Cold and theatrical bunker music. Go elsewhere for stimulation.GK Krokus One Vice At A Time (RCA) In two years of constantly touring the USA, Swiss band Krokus have risen to the ranks of the top 10 grossing heavy metal bands in the world. But with their fifth album, Krokus show us they have yet to develop a sound of their own. They sound amazingly like Highway■ To Hell AC/DC, but' still One Vice At A Time is a wellexecuted album of bone-crunching rock. CC Ozzy Osbourne Diary Of A Madman (Jet) Ozzy's second album since quitting Black Sabbath, and second to go double platinum in the US. Basically it's the same old Sabbath fodder about black magic and demons, with Ozzy's distinctive voice dominating a metal frenzy, featuring the late Randy Rhoads on guitar. With stronger songs, it's a marked improvement on Blizzard Of Ozz. CC