singles

Rip It Up, Issue 220, 1 December 1995, Page 40

singles

A couple of months ago it was Shane MacGowan and Maire Brennan proving opposites attract, and this month it’s Australia’s Lenny Cohen, Nick Cave, uniting with candyfloss queen Kylie Minogue, for the mournful, doomed romantic ballad ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ (Mute/Liberation). The seductive Hazlewood/Sinatra spirit lives on. Seductive isn’t the term for David Bowie’s psycho-industrial ‘The Heart’s Filthy Lesson’ (BMG). Not the most obvious single from his terrorvision new album Outside, but it has a crawling futuristic power and a sense of unease that Trent Reznor turns into pulsating techno on his remix. Feel free to be impressed.

‘Written in five minutes and recorded over two minutes fifteen seconds the following day,’ boasts Ireland’s Ash on the sleeve of ‘Kung Fu’ (Liberation) — another blast of post modern punk/pop proving they’re way ahead of the Green Days, Offsprings etc....

with their brilliant sense of fun and TV Land trash. Confirmation of their growing pop maturity arrives with ‘Girl From Mars’ (Liberation) which opens with an acoustic guitar before, whammo! Catch up on these Irish adolescents before they grow up. Staying with what passes for Brit-pop, and Ruby’s ‘Paraffin’ (Creation) bounces, and throbs surreptitiously, while Sleeper notch up another mundane, but ultimately catchy personalised view on sexual politics with ‘What Do I Do Now?’ (BMG). Photogenic contemporaries Echobelly, navels apart, can’t quite match that, although the optimistic four track EP Great Things (Epic) jangles guitars and proves that pop dosen’t have to be instant thrills. Concluding the Anglo part of the broadcast is Electraflxion’s ‘Lowdown’ (WEA), a spiralling, intensely tuneful outing from lan McCulloch’s new band, co-written with ex-Smith Johnny Marr. Absolutely addictive, and single of this and any month. Hurtling downwards into the why-do-they-bother? category, and Babes In Toyland do a pointless, slightly grungy version of Sister Sledge’s ‘We Are Family’ (Reprise), while the Red Hot Chili Peppers go all acoustic and cute and nauseating in ‘My Friends’ (WEA), and the Badloves try to outdo even Wet Wet Wet’s blandness on ‘Caroline’ (Mushroom). Thats it, I surrender. See ya.

GEORGE KAY