Records

Rip It Up, Issue 105, 1 April 1986, Page 17

Records

Grace Jones Island Life Island Grace Jones has always been faultless and dissatisfying. Like her image-maker Jean-Paul Goude, she indulges herself in works that are completely selfcontained designer items, with none of the continuity in style that measures the maturity of other musicians. As Grace The Singer continued in this spotless fashion, re-inventing and developing the same patch of super-cool musical ground, people’s suspicions began to grow. Like a real (Love Is The) Drug, Grace The Singer was losing her kick and so Grace The Event was born, padded to epic and ungraspable proportions by way of explanation — "You’ll never understand her and she’ll never show her feelings because the Gods don’t make small talk.

Nowadays, of course, she’s into physical fitness and her new Greatest Hits Album, Island Life, is Grace sans flab. Gone are the duller covers (with the exception of her dicky-disco version of Roxy’s throwaway ‘Love Is The Drug’) and the sentimental moments (Nightclubbing’s lovely ‘Art Groupie’ and perky ‘Feel Up’ are both absent). All is arranged to look so progressive, so planned, yet everything she’s ever done has been all or nothing, always relying on more nerve than direction.

Proof is on side one, with ‘La Vie En Rose; 1 Need A Man’ and ‘Do Or Die’, all very good reasons for Punk. If you can’t remember why you spent a lot of time screaming "Disco Shee-it”, then “I Need A Man” will remind you. ‘Private Lives’ falls likewise flat but Tve Seen That Face Before’ still works the magic. That song and its accompanying video are forever together in Pop’s memory, even if they were masquerading as something more substantial. The sublime ‘Pull Up To- The Bumper’ and ‘My Jamaican Guy’ make side two worthwhile. Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare constitute so much that is Grace but you can bet you won’t find their faces in any of the pretty

Grace Jones gatefold photo-montages. Maybe the imbalance could be redressed by the local release of their latest (and predictably awesome) album. A promotional version of Island Life is also available with an extra EP of “bonus mixes” of ‘My J.A. Guy’, ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’, ‘On Your Knees’ and ‘Warm Leatherette’. This is technically true as all four tracks have been digitally ‘tidied’ in the most general of manners but don’t be fooled into thinking that they might be any one of the very good dancemixes available overseas (eg the New York DJ mix of ‘Bumper’). To have just one of those really wonderful versions in our naive antipodean hands would be a really Great Hit.

If you’re a Jones fan, this compilation offers nothing new, save to confirm that if Grace is The Drug then she’s also the Cold Turkey. She’s yet to produce an album that’s consistently hyper (eg ABC’s How To Be A Zillionaire) or consistently earnest enough to justify basking in the gratuitous afterburn of a Greatest Hits album. Cut the crap and keep cutting dance singles, thanks — one a year will do me just fine. Chad Taylor Triumph Stages WEA Seems the time is right for double live albums; witness this latest release from Canada’s Triumph. Culled from various concerts, Stages reatures all of this power trio’s best material. Those who have heard Allied Forces, Thunder Seven, or any of their other five

records, will have some idea of what to expect. But these versions are even better than the originals. Guitarist/singer Rick Emmett does some fine playing and solos well on ‘Rock ’n’ Roll Machine! Mike Levine and Gil Moore keep the rhythm nice and tight. Overall, a very good concert representation and well worth checking out. Two new studio tracks are also included. Geoff Dunn Four Tops Greatest Hits Motown Two years after the Four Tops toured New Zealand this package has finally been released. The 12 tracks are some of the finest moments in soul and include all the hits from their brilliant 1964 Motown hit ‘Baby I Need Your Loving’ to 1967’s 7 Rooms of Gloom’. Greatest Hits was originally released in August ’67, so unfortunately later classics are not on it. That aside, the compilation is a complete and wonderful album of slick and wicked soul. ‘lt’s the Same Old Song’, ‘Standing in the Shadows of Love! ‘Bernadette’, the ever-amazing ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ — they’re all here and just as good 20 years on. The Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting and production team provided the Four Tops with hits for four years. Their catchy lines and incessant beat combined with the Tops’ ability to move your emotions transforms repetitive hooks and so-so lyrics into timeless pop. At budget price ($7.99) this is essential soul, not just for the purist, but for everyone. Troy Shanks The Sisters of Mercy First and Last and Always WEA ‘Tis hard to know exactly what to say about First and Last and Always, so I’ll just let this f10w... cos its appeal is fairly immediate, but for the life of me I dunno why ... Something to back me up. The Sisters Of Mercy spent two years atop the UK independent heap, harassing the public with releases on their own Merciful Releases label, before being snapped up by major-leaguers WEA A&R last year. I wonder if those WEA A&R men and executives know just why they did it?

A couple of interim singles and many months later, the Sisters Of Mercy, pale, thin and dressed in black, emerged from a recording studio somewhere in Yorkshire, holding aloft First and Last and Always, the fruits of their unholy toil So what is it? To start with, it has no great production — the guitars are mixed way, way too far back, with a bastard drum machine called ‘Doktor Avalanche’ being miles too loud .... The next thing you notice is this guy Eldritch’s voice — intoning/monotoning/baritoning verse about a desolate ‘Black Planet’, a painful ballad about ‘Marian (version)’ and trying to define some satanic excuse for life and suicide in ‘Logic: He can be scary and funny. Sardonic bastard. And what are they? The. Sisters Of Mercy are the missing link that we always thought was there between Led Zeppelin and Joy Division. They are missive and mean and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were also a coven of witches. Paul McKessar Ry Cooder Alamo Bay Big Time Employing Ry Cooder to do the soundtrack for movies set in Texas is almost becoming a cliche, but then Hollywood never has been known to relinquish an idea till it’s wrung dry. And Alamo Bay, Cooder’s fifth such project, is far from that. In fact it probably rates near the best, up close to 1982’s The Border. Just as on that set Cooder worked as much in the musical background as he took the spotlight, here too he operates more as leader of a team than star turn. His vice-captain is long-term pal and keyboards player Jim Dickinson and together they wrote most of the material. Otherwise it is a group of nearly 20 musicians who, in various configurations, perform the album’s nine tracks. (On Cooder’s last soundtrack, Paris, Texas, there were only three musicians: himself, Dickinson and David Lindley who here plays merely a minor role.) The achingly melancholic main theme, in two renditions, is as beautiful as anything Cooder has ever done. (The ‘Glory’ version has that freak hit potential of haunting instrumentals dating back to the

60s and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Albatross!) Of the other instrumentals, ‘Sailfish Evening’ is pretty and sentimental, the sort of thing you'd expect to hear over dinner in a waterfront restaurant. ‘Klan Meeting’ and ‘Search and Destroy’ are mood pieces that doubtless serve to create ominous atmosphere in specific movie scenes. Cooder takes only one vocal on the album, on one of two tracks featuring mean and dirty roadhouse rock. Elsewhere John Hiatt and movie actress Amy Madigan duet on a mellow, country-tinged waltz and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos takes the lead in a Tex-Mex waltz, with Cooder doubling on accordian and bajo sexto. Fine stuff. Alamo Bay is a Louis Malle film based on a true life conflict that blew up around the fishing villages of the Texas gulf coast in the late 70s. Malle, in such previous works as Pretty Baby and Atlantic City, has shown an astute eye for American lifestyles. If he remains true to form Alamo Bay should be well worth catching when it surfaces here. Meanwhile Ry Cooder’s soundtrack is both a tantalising foretaste and a very good album in its own right. Peter Thomson Ricky Scaggs Live in London Epic Ricky Scaggs, if you’ve never heard of him before, inhabits that once dormant area in country music known as bluegrass, first popularised by Bill Monroe 40 years ago. Scaggs, my friends, is a 30 year-old master of the craft, with several gold albums, Grammys and videos under his ample belt, this live set is a fine testament to the awesome abilities of Skaggs and his band, from the Bill Monroe classic ‘Uncle Pen’ to the closing rave-up with guest Declan (?) Costello. Okay. So he looks like an extra in a daytime soap, with blow-dryed hair, moustache and designer jeans, but don’t let that put you urban cowboys off — this guy is the real thing. If you’re after shitkicking bluegrass, look no further: ‘Uncle Pen’ and ‘Country Boy’ fair burn, and if ‘Heartbroke’ and ‘She Didn’t Say Why’ pull the heartstrings, then Tve Got a New Heartache’ plum stomps on your aorta. Yes friends, these honkies cut

it in all moods and tempos. (I particularly like ‘Cajun Moon!) Unlike such country greats as Hank, Jerry, or George, he doesn't do drinkin’ and cheatin’ songs. No sir, he’s a born-again Christian oozing sincerity — check the liner notes. Hey, no one’s perfect. It’s fun being a believer. Mark Kennedy The Alarm Strength CBS This release has been expected to put an end to the debate over whether the Alarm are the new messiahs of a brave guitardominated tomorrow, or just four earnest young men with a predictable song in their hearts and a cliche in their pockets. It gives a conclusive answer: they’re neither. Lyrically, this album is wanting: “He takes a last walk down that old coast road in the dying death throes of all he knows" (‘Deeside’). Dying death throes?! It seems the Alarm have a strict policy of rejecting all hint of subtlety. There is no trace of the “new optimism” this now mournful band championed not so long ago. Musically, however, Strength is mercurial but interesting. While the clear acoustic guitar and harmonica of the last album have almost vanished, keyboards have been introduced, along with an intricate lead guitar style reminiscent of that of Mark Knopf ler. This element works superbly on ‘The Day the Ravens Left the Tower’, which stands head and shoulders above the rest of the tracks in its atmosphere and originality. Absolute Reality! the first single, and ‘Father to Son’ work well in their refreshing simplicity, and ‘Dawn Chorus! one of the worst culprits in the lyric department, is a good example of the lead guitar used to its full potential. Unfortunately, the rest of the songs all bear the Alarm’s trademark: loud and supposedly heartrending climaxes which make for a torrid overall effect — listening is a tiring experience. So after another album the Alarm are still a band of potential, but still one always likely to slip into the cliche-ridden mainstream rock of ‘Spirit of ’76’. I await the next release with cautious interest. Matthew Hyland