Post-Punk

Lush “Gala” (4AD, 1990)

I generally don’t like to review compilations on this blog, but, obviously, they’re sometimes the best way to hear an artist’s peak recordings. Such is the case with Gala, which served as the wonderful British shoegaze band Lush’s intro to American listeners. It collects tracks from their Scar, Mad Love, and Sweetness And Light EPs, plus a couple of outtakes—i.e., the group’s best shit. Which is not to belittle later albums such as Spooky and Split. They’re solid, but they lack the magical fairy dust with which Lush sprinkled their earliest classics.

Lush stood out from the shoegazer pack because they were led by two women: the exquisitely talented guitarist/singers Emma Anderson and Miki Berenyi. Their dreamy, creamy vocal interplay caresses your ears right after a spine-tingling guitar intro of opening song “Sweetness And Light.” The title plays on a common perception about women in rock, but Lush’s catalysts always tempered those qualities with astringent noise amid the sonorously ringing guitars and dulcet vocal tones. Drummer Chris Acland and bassist Steve Rippon deftly but unspectacularly did their rhythmic thing in the background.

Lush worked in a fairly narrow niche—airy yet sometimes noisy shoegaze—but their melodies are so strong on the releases presented here that a certain one-dimensionality isn’t a problem. They perfected the now popular subgenre of ice-queen-gothgaze on “Leaves Me Cold” and “Second Sight.” The towering latter tune boasts thrilling tempo changes, proving that Lush may have listened to a math-rock record or three. “Downer” is intense, surging rock that’s tougher than most of their output and reflexively makes me think of the technical musical term “ramalama.” Similarly, “Baby Talk” is a post-punk pulse-pounder full of radiant guitar crescendos and Rippon’s mantric bass pulse while “Bitter” is the most caustic song here.

The songs that Cocteau Twins genius Robin Guthrie produced on Mad Love really volumize Lush’s lustrous guitar attack and enlarge everything to optimal shimmer and glow. Swooning, waltz-time charmer “Thoughtforms” mirrors the Cocteaus’ ornate curtains of gleaming guitars, and it should’ve been a massive worldwide hit. By comparison, the version from Scar sounds much scrawnier. “Hey Hey Helen,” a cover of the funkiest ABBA song, is not an ironic jape; rather, Lush treat this Swedish pop gem with the precious appreciation it deserves. Best of all may be “De-Luxe,” one of Anderson/Berenyi’s finest cowrites. I don’t use this term recklessly, but this is perfect pop—a yearning orb of sugary noise, swaying melody, and surging rhythms.

It would be a humanitarian benefit if 4AD would reissue Gala on vinyl, as it’s been oop on that format for 35 years. Besides losing the label and band a lot of potential money, it’s just morally wrong. -Buckley Mayfield

Located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, Jive Time is always looking to buy your unwanted records (provided they are in good condition) or offer credit for trade. We also buy record collections.

The Wedding Present “Tommy” (Reception, 1988)

In the mid ’80s, great British rockers the Wedding Present experienced a media backlash in the UK’s notoriously fickle music press. Detractors complained about the group’s monochromatic attack, singer David Gedge’s “sensitive guy” conversational lyrics, and a generally rigid, retrograde vision that was firmly rooted in the everyday world. And, to a degree, the Wedding Present were guilty of all charges.

Nevertheless, their songs were damned lovable. Ignore the Wedding Present and you deprive yourself of one of the most exciting guitar sounds of the post-punk era—and utterly relatable lyrics, if you’re into that sort of thing. Regarding the latter, “You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends” is both a poignant song and timeless, sage advice.

Tommy is a 12-song compilation that collects the band’s pre-George Best singles and Peel sessions from 1985-1987, allowing listeners to experience the frenetic fun of embryonic Wedding Present. Their earliest songs—”Go Out And Get ‘Em Boy!” “Once More,” “Living And Learning,” “This Boy Can Wait,” and a cover of Orange Juice’s “Felicity”—especially ruffle your hair like Scottish post-punk enigmas Josef K at light speed. Fingers aflame, Wedding Present guitarists Gedge and Peter Solowk and bassist Keith Gregory affirm the joys of speed, beauty, and compassion. This is the sound of happiness, albeit sometimes tinged with regret.

Yes, there’s a somewhat one-dimensional quality to the tunes on Tommy—the guitars’ choppy, clangorous jangle can lose some of its sting over extended durations and Gedge’s vocal range is, to put it charitably, limited. But among the competitive field of mid-’80s British indie rock, the Wedding Present proved, against odds, that speed doesn’t kill—it cuddles. And, hey, the late Steve Albini—who produced later WP releases such as Brassneck and Seamonsters—wouldn’t work with just anyone… -Buckley Mayfield

Located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, Jive Time is always looking to buy your unwanted records (provided they are in good condition) or offer credit for trade. We also buy record collections.

Pixies “Surfer Rosa” (4AD, 1988)

Surfer Rosa was a planet-shaking album for a lot of folks when it came out 36 years ago. At the time, despite Steve Albini’s brain-burstingly loud production, I thought that the record didn’t remotely capture what Pixies sounded like live, judging by the show I caught by them in Kalamazoo, Michigan’s tiny Club Soda in March 1987.

At that early stage of their career, Pixies reminded me of the Tasmanian Devil, a cartoon character on The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. That wild fucker was all over the place, whirling with unpredictable frenzy, scaring the wits out of grade-school me. The studio somewhat domesticated Pixies’ feral impulse. That being said, few records released in ’88 came off as more feverish and vortical than Surfer Rosa.

Many of the songs on Surfer Rosa tap into the explosive kineticism displayed on “Vamos” from the group’s 1987 debut EP, Come On Pilgrim. That could have been the influence of Albini (RIP) at work, for most of Surfer Rosa‘s cuts—”Something Against You,” “Broken Face,” “Gigantic,” “River Euphrates,” “I’m Amazed,” “Tony’s Theme,” and “Oh My Golly!”—detonate like Big Black or swell to monstrous dimensions, or like a lighter weight Hüsker Dü. There’s that same feeling of intensity cranked to superhuman extremes, of amp-blowing velocity and volume.

But whereas Big Black were content to disgorge sooty bluster, Pixies retain nuance and melody—the variable shadings of rock’s spectrum of colors. Plus, they have Black Francis, the most unpredictable vocalist this side of Captain Beefheart or Pere Ubu’s David Thomas. Francis’ hoarse ejaculations ably compete with the maelstrom of guitars that he and Joey Santiago wield, along with the bass of Kim Deal and David Lovering’s drums.

On the LP’s less cataclysmic numbers—”Bone Machine,” “Break My Body,” “Cactus,” “Where Is My Mind,” and “Brick Is Red”—Pixies beam with a rakish pop sensibility that’s both infectious and haunting. They possessed those all-too-rare commodities in late-’80s pop—unharnessed energy and inventiveness. One senses that nobody else in the world could have created this gorgeous cyclone of sound.

Santiago deserves much credit for Pixies’ remarkable music. His talent is perhaps best displayed on the revamped “Vamos,” where he sprays enough delirious feedback distortion to wow the trousers off Jimi Hendrix and Andy Gill (both legends now deceased, but you get my drift). But the biggest surprise on Surfer Rosa is Deal’s spectral vocals, which greatly enhance tracks such as “Bone Machine,” “River Euphrates,” “Break My Body,” and “Gigantic” (which she cowrote with Francis).

What about the lyrics? Oh, there’s a preoccupation with bones, bodies of water, desperate, absurd love, mutilation, incest… But to worry about lyrics on an album like this is akin to fretting about how your hair looks in a hurricane. Surfer Rosa still sounds like Pixies’ peak, still sounds like the players were all intoxicated with energy and freedom, which they used to subvert conventional indie-rock rules. Nothing has changed my mind about this subject in the 36 years since it came out. There’s a good reason why Kurt Cobain cited Surfer Rosa as a primary influence on Nevermind. -Buckley Mayfield

Located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, Jive Time is always looking to buy your unwanted records (provided they are in good condition) or offer credit for trade. We also buy record collections.

The Fall “I Am Kurious Oranj” (Beggars Banquet, 1988)

The 10th studio album by British post-punk legends the Fall was the soundtrack to a Michael Clark & Company-helmed ballet about William of Orange, founder of the Dutch Republic. Fascinating, but not essential knowledge in order to enjoy this platter. I Am Kurious Oranj more than stands on its own as a collection of gnarled pop songs.

By all rights, the Fall should have been in the twilight of their career by 1988, the 11th year of their existence. But, as we know, Mark E. Smith and company had more good decades left up until the leader’s death in 2018. And 1988 was particularly rewarding, as the Fall issued two ruling albums: I Am Kurious Oranj and The Frenz Experiment. If anything, they seemed to be attaining a second peak; the first occurred during the Grotesque (After The Gramme) through Hex Enduction Hour/Room To Live era. The 1988 Fall may have sounded slicker than in previous incarnations, but they in no way had lost their potent riff-mongering capacity and penchant for resonant guitar textures, thanks to Brix Smith and Craig Scanlon. Bassist Stephen Hanley, keyboardist Marcia Schofield, and drummer Simon Wolstencroft were also in excellent form. And Smith waxed as bilious and baffling as ever on this diverse full-length.

Oranj found the Fall dabbling in some non-rock zones, imposing their uniquely warped aura on them, and proving that bastardization is often more interesting than “authenticity.” For example, the Fall slip into righteous reggae mode on “Kurious Oranj” and apply acid-house moves on “Win Fall C.D. 2080” without losing any of the group’s mesmerizing allure. “New Big Prinz” mutes Gary Glitter Band’s menacing riff from “Rock & Roll Pt. 2” with wonderful results. “Overture From ‘I Am Curious Orange'” may boast the prettiest melody of any song in the Fall’s enormous canon. “Wrong Place, Right Time,” with its sphincter-loosening funk rhythm, possesses a devastating swagger and is DJ gold. The eerily chirping “Bad News Girl” and the effulgent “Cab It Up!” conclude the album in memorable fashion, with Schofield’s sprightly keyboard motifs inspiring goofy smiles.

I Am Kurious Oranj is a typical Fall LP in that it frequently surprises with new twists on old themes. The Fall weren’t really progressing here; rather, they were expanding in several directions at once. The album stands as a testament to the band’s restless ingenuity. -Buckley Mayfield

Located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, Jive Time is always looking to buy your unwanted records (provided they are in good condition) or offer credit for trade. We also buy record collections.