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Rip It Up, Issue 122, 1 September 1987, Page 32

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Shirley Murdock(Elektra) This album from the Zapp stable was ignored until the magnificent ‘As We Lay’ quietly stormed up the black charts. One of the great ballad performances of all time! Phew! The majority of tracks are uptempo synth dance stuff with Roger Troutman at the helm. All good stuff, with ‘Be Free’ and ‘Teaser’ being faves. But As We Lay’ is the track that has put Ms Murdock on the soul map. Dig it and watch outforthe next one. MC Ace Frehley Frehley’s Comet (WEA) Unlike the comet of Haley, this blast from outer-space is a real flash of light from a star of the 70s. Due to a serious car accident, too much booze and too many drugs, it’s taken the original Kiss guitarist five years to appear in the spotlight again. It’s been worth the wait though, coz Ace is back and he tells you so in the opening anthem ‘Rock Soldiers,’ which superbly describes his near date-with-death. Then it rolls into ‘Breakout’ co-written with Eric Carr, a buddy since days of the masked ones and sounding quite a bit like that previous band. Most of the singing is Ace as the tracks continue consistently through till the ‘Fractured Too’ instrumental. Frehley’s Cometis 10 good solid songs that Kiss fans and space rockers will love. GD Sammy Hagar (WEA) Replacing David Lee Roth in Van Halen was no easy task but Sammy Hagar fitted the bill perfectly, and on 5150 they sounded like they had been playing together for years. Edward co-produces and plays bass on this album and you can also hear his inevitable influence in Sammy’s guitaring. But all that aside, the new Hagar stands up totally on its own as a neat collection of good time songs like ‘Privacy,’ ‘Returning Home,’ and ‘Eagles Fly’ that carry on in the tradition of the Red rocker. Even if you’re buying this for interest’s sake alone you will not be disappointed. GD Jody Watley (WEA) Ms Watley stares from the cover like a dark Bardot, lots of pout and a mess of curls, like some kind of Cosby kid gone wild. Untamed funky pop from ex-Shalamar and Soul Train dancer, with the production talents of Andre Cymone, Patrick Leonard and Bernard Edwards adding to the muscular backbeat. Not one slow track in sight, just fun injected grooves like the ‘New Love’ single, the gritty ‘Still a Thrill,’ pop splendour in ‘Don’t You Want Me,’ and let us not forget the duet with safe sex god George Michael on ‘Learn to Say No.’ There’s been a few good female soul releases recently, but Jody heads the field with this enthusiastic debut. KB Wally Badarou Chief Inspector (Festival) His name has appeared on albums by Grace Jones, Black Uhuru, Sly and Robbie, and as Level 42 producer. Now his first real solo work, six tracks of interesting grooves, from the African-styled ‘Hi-Life,’ subtle B-boy of ‘Chief Inspector (Precinct 13)’ and the chacha of ‘Spider Woman (Novela das Nove).’ All propelled by Badarou’s rhythmic keyboards and remixed by Paul “Groucho” Smykle. All instrumental but far from mere

background music, it demands your attention, full of rhythmic inventiveness and intelligence. KB Timex Social Club Vicious Rumours... the Album (Festival) Rumour has it that the real power behind Timex left to form Club Nouveau, and Jay King’s new Club certainly sounds in fine form on the interesting Life, Love and Pain album, which is more than one can say about this Timex outing. Main man Michael Marshall must have run out of ideas to include two versions of the ‘Vicious Rumours’ hit, but things don’t get any better on ‘Mixed Up World’ and the lacklustre‘Just Kickin’ It.’Things get a little brighter on the cautionary tale of ‘Cokelife’ and Goffin and King’s ‘Go Away Little Girl.’ But even gimmick laden attempts at B-boy cutups on ‘360 (Natty Prep)’ can’t save this baby. KB Concrete Blonde True (IRS) Originally named Dream 6, Michael Stipe advised a name change to Concrete Blond. Who needs his advice? Hailing from Hollywood this threepiece headed by the petite Johnette Napolitano play it pretty straight with remnants of punk like the pointed frustrations of ‘Your Haunted Head’ and ‘Still in Hollywood. ’ They get more adventurous on the guitar chills of ‘Dance Along the Edge’ and ‘Beware of Darkness. ’ Anonymous but tidy. GK Love and Rockets Express (Beggar’s Banquet) This is either a horribly misguided attempt at a send-up of British psychedelia (‘Kundalini Express’ and ‘Yin and Yang the Flower Pot Men’) crossbred with mutant heavy metal or else it’s a horribly misguided serious attempt at cross-breeding erstwhile British psychedelia with mutant heavy rock (no roll). Spot the difference. GK Colourfield Deception (Chrysalis) Armed with ace pop producer Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Go Go’s), Terry Hall has tried to make concessions to pop music while still attempting to reveal glimpses of his grey little world. It’s a combination that doesn’t work. On Virgins and Philistines the splashes of musical colour lifted the album but Deception's pop can’t rise above the honest plainness of confessions like ‘From Dawn to Distraction’ and ‘Miss Texas 1967.’ And covers like Sly’s ‘Running Away’ and the Monkees’ ‘She’ are pale echoes -from an artist drying up from the inside. GK Merle Haggard, George Jones, Willie Nelson Walking the Line (Epic) Country music people don’t drink. They get drunk. George Jones got so bad, his wife Tammy Wynette hid all his car keys, so George took off for the liquor store riding his motor mower. Wilie Nelson came home drunk one night and fell asleep. His wife sewed him up in the sheets and started whipping him. Willie wrote ‘Half a Man’ after that episode, and a duet of it is included on this 10-track compilation, half of which are duets between country’s three finest male singers, and half of which are about drinking. Not all the drinking songs are duets — forget social drinking, we’re talking lonely here, gin and misery, feeling single, drinking doubles, and all that. Why, George admits on ‘I Gotta Get Drunk’ that intoxication is obligatory. That’s how he got his reputation as ‘No Show Jones.’ Now, George knows a man can be a drunk, but a ‘A Drunk Can’t Be a Man. ’ But because it can’t decide whether the concept is drinking or duets, this compilation is an odd one; the golden rule is, don’t

mixyourdrinks.

CB

Dur utt i Column Valuable Passages (Factory) With a name derived from the Spanish Civil War, you'd expect the Durutti Column to be a Mancunian blood and guts punk band. In fact since the departure of the rhythm section in the late 70s there has only been one Column — guitarist Vini Reilly weaving his delicate little guitar figures across the scarred industrial zones of Manchester. At his best Reilly sounds like a calm alien voice in the midst of chaos. Try ‘Sketch for Winter’ from the excellent Return of the Durutti Column and the marvellous lonely angst of ‘Never Known.’ Not all are as good, but a double album for the price of one, and it’s a decent compilation to boot. GK The Cail Into the Woods (Elektra) The Call are a Detroit band who have released four previous albums, of which two were released in NZ. The last album Reconciled had the unfortunate fate to grace the deletion bins comparatively soon after release, much more a comment on what is played on the radio than the quality of the album. I have enjoyed all their previous work and the new album is right up to standard. Evocative of the later years of Roxy Music, and featuring Michael Been, a superb vocalist. Highlights are ‘I Don’t Wanna,’ ‘ln the River’ and ‘lt Could Have Been Me.’ Highly recommended. DP Knightshade Outforthe Night (Reaction) The live show that was featured on a Radio With Pictures special in July, and at a nice cheap price, since it didn’t cost too much to make. With the exception of their last single ‘The Physical You,’ all of Knightshade’s best songs are included and come across reasonably well live. ‘Sheila at the Wheel’ and ‘Caroline’ are most effective and you’ll have to have these versions if you attended the Galaxy performance or generally like to supportlocal rocktalent. GD Fighting the World (WEA) The words heavy and metal must have been invented for Manowar. With a drummer who was formerly a steel worker and a vocalist from the butchering trade, they certainly have the ingredients for one heavy mother of a band. Tracks like ‘Violence and Bloodshed,’ ‘Drums of Doom’ and ‘Master of Revenge’ are hardly going togain Manowar a wider following, but there is a nice touch to ‘Defender’ which has narration provided by Orson Welles. ‘Fighting the World' is an album full of no-compromise power metal that is very likely to blow yourspeakers. GD Steve Miller Band Greatest Hits 1976-1986 (Polygram) Another compilation of cruisy numbers that doesn’t appear to differ at all from the last one. Actually though there are eightnewer songs like ‘Abracadabra’ and ‘Shangri La’ that have been included. Miller’s brand of pop rock is the type that is pleasant and well produced and was getting quite a bit of airplay quite a few summersago. GD Joe Jackson Will Power(A&M) It’s always sad when an artist’s talent and ambitions diverge. Joe Jackson has the ability to write sharp, snappy, superb pop songs. Increas-

ingly however, his ambitions have been moving toward “serious composition.” Will Power consists of five instrumentals ranging from a fourminute ‘Nocturne’ for solo piano to a 16-minute ‘Symphony in One Movement for large orchestra. It all ends up sounding either as pastiche at best, or boringly unoriginal at worst. I’d swap the whole album for, say, the three minutes of sublime pop encapsulated inlastyear’s’HomeTown.’ PT Joe Walsh GotAnyGum?(WEA) Crazy Joe has managed to get into the studio again and turned out with a new bunch of different flavoured tracks. ‘The Radio Song’ is exactly that, while the second one ‘Fun’ starts with a chunky guitar riff then rocks on in Mr Walsh's usual party style. Ringo co-writes ‘ln My Car’ and Joe’s sliding in ‘Malibu’ (“where everybody looks just like you") is similar to earlier material with the James Gang. For ‘Half the Time’ he adds some trademark voice-box effects to his wacky vocals. Side two is quieter with some reflective lyrics, and the sound is good right through till the end of ‘Time’ which closes the album. GD Various Artists The Living Daylights (Warners) Given that A-Ha fans can buy the title track as a single, what does that leave for the rest of us? Well, two tracks are attriguted to the Pretenders but as they’re both co-written by John Barry with Chrissie Hynde it’s not surprising the sound is more Hynde singing with an orchestra. I expect ‘lf There Was a Man’ will be the next single, (though seeing that it's just a vocal version of another track credited to Barry alone, this must mean that Hynde’s contribution was solely to provide lyrics and sing.) The rest of the album consists of formula Bondage: slick, instantly catchy and just as facile. One or two bits are quite pleasant to return to ... All sounds rather like the movies, . doesn’t it? PT