singles

Rip It Up, Issue 215, 1 July 1995, Page 36

singles

Two months in a row means we’re on a roll in chartland, and one of the month’s finest is Edwyn Collins' classic finger poppin’ jukebox romance ‘A Girl Like You’ (Setanta). A touch of dancefloor echo, a 50s pop hook and the marvellous Collins vocal drone has already made this a diamond amongst the rubble in the dreadful Top of the Pops. Also included on the single is a demo of the charming ‘Don’t Shilly Shally’, and a couple of Collins’ other unassuming popular works in ‘Something’s Brewing’ and ‘Bring it on Back’. Any doubts as to Radiohead's standing in rock ’n’ roll disappeared with the growing brilliance of The Bends. ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ (Parlophone), with its beautifully fragile, desolate delivery, builds to a moving climax and is yet another great single from the album. It comes in two packages — the limited edition, with a poster and an acoustic version of the main song etc., or the standard format, with ‘lndia Rubber’ and ‘How Can You Be Sure?’ Buy both, you can’t miss. Therapy? started out’ as ugly Irish grunge, but now with ‘Stories’ (A&M), and on the threshold of their third album, they sound as if the Undertones’ crown of exquisitely crafted kinetic pop could be theirs.

Juliana Hatfield covers her bets on the infectious ‘Universal Heart-Beat’ (White), as she goes all laid-back in the verses and hauls out stun-grunge guitars and hollers for the chorus. Should be catching. And Offspring definitely are contagious in small doses. ‘Gotta Get Away’ (Cortex), from the Smash album, accompanied by two breaknecks, ‘We Are One’ and ‘Forever and a Day’, are ideal for waxing the skateboard to. Meanwhile, Faith No More decide to hit King For a Day for a ballad and come up with the extremely OK, Lionel Richie-ish, melodic lope of ‘Evidence’ (Liberation). Cool. And the highly propelled ‘Digging the Grave’ makes another appearance. This EP’s mawkish sendup is ‘Spanish Eyes'. This month’s selection sorta divides itself into pop as the wonderful weapon of enter-

tainment (see above), and the more serious and often dull practitioners (see below). REM’s ‘Strange Currencies’ (Warners) is a good love song, with desperation and determination guiding Stipe’s interpretation. But it’s yet another song from Monster, and how long can they continue to cut into that old beast and pretend this single is where we’re at now, man?

Supergroup Mad Season, made up of Screaming Trees and Pearl Jams, are heavily into introspection and depression on ‘River of Deceit’ (Columbia), a plaintive but ultimately dull dose of self pity. The Boss (Springsteen to the cave dwellers) is back with a new fan catching song, lifted from his Greatest Hits, ‘Secret Garden’ (Columbia). It’s got the same soporific, lush, keyboard laden, over tasteful, sax soundtrack feel that blighted ‘Philadelphia’. Compared to this, ‘Murder Incorporated’ sounds like a revo-

lution.

GEORGE KAY