7 inch singles collection: Sam Brown - Mindworks

It's the daughter of 50's rock 'n' roller, Joe Brown:

SAM BROWN

A-side: Mindworks

B-Side: No Man Is An Island
(A&M 1990)

I can imagine people looking at that picture of the sleeve just there and thinking - "He only bought that for the limited edition pop-sleeve." Whilst I would maintain that that is an excellent reason for buying any record, and I would have done so for this one, if it were not for the fact that I would have bought this one even if it didn't have the pop-up sleeve. As it happens I rather liked Sam Brown's previous offering "Stop!" (more of which later), and was looking forward to hearing more of her.

I happy to report that I was not disappointed with Mindworks. It has strong framing acoustic guitar to start with an other-worldy sound, (I make notes when I'm listening to these records and it says wibbly-wobbly noise in those notes), which glides over the top of the music. If you want me to be a bit more technical I suppose theremin-like would cover it, (and, indeed, it may even be a theremin!) Sam starts singing  with a strong voice building it up into a bit of a crescendo - good dramatic power pop. There's more wibbly-wobbly noises going on discretely in the song, but that add that extra bit of distinction to it.

The b-side is called No Man Is An Island - this starts off soft and low with a pervasive jazzy bass that takes it's time to work into smooth groove. The jazz element is strong in this one, it's much more exacting and exciting vocally for Sam than the a-side, but she more than lives up to with a sultry and confidant performance. There's a cool and satisfying woodwind break in the middle. All in all it's a better song than the a-side - with two downfalls, firstly it's not as catchy, and secondly it just doesn't seem to how to end, and the finish doesn't quite work.

I expect you're all agog to know what the pop-up in the gatefold sleeve looked like - as it doesn't fit on my scanner. Well it's Sam Brown's head as seen in the above picture with a curly thing (probably a visual representation of the wibbly-wobbly noise) springing out with some of the words on it. Trust me - you're not missing much by not being able to see it.

Next time another Gloucester band from the early 90's...
(actually we can't seem to get out of 90/91 at the moment - I may have to make an intervention in my selection randomiser soon - just for the sake of variety)

7 inch singles collection: Bedazzled - Teenage Mother Superior

From the remnants of Apple Mosaic its:

BEDAZZLED

A-side: Teenage Mother Superior

B-Side: Always Never
            Missing
(Columbia 1991)

You may remember the very post in this blog was about EMF and I mentioned that the guitarist had come from much lamented Gloucester band Apple Mosaic, well the singer, the fantastically monikered Laurence Carrington-Windo, formed this band. Presumably named after the Peter Cook & Dudley Moore film (and not the Liz Hurley remake). Bedazzled were less obviously dancey than EMF, but they flirted around the periphery of the 'baggy' movement which was mainly made up of jangly indie bands, who'd gone a bit funky claiming that they'd always had an element of dance music in their sound. Bedazzled's problem with this is that this particular bandwagon had long left town and they were trailing along behind unable to catch up. Evidence of how uncool they were was that around this time I remember seeing them on whatever nonsense replaced Pebble Mill at One in the early afternoons at this time period. It was presented, if my memory doesn't let me down by Alan Titchmarsh and Judi Spiers. So, yeah, they'd missed the cool train by several stops.

Teenage Mother Superior is an energetic funky workdown full of wah-wah laden effects and a full on sneer from Laurence (he was very good at the sneering vocal I recall). I always kind of enjoyed this song in an unthinking way, but having re-listened to it for the purposes of this blog, the lyrical content has made me think a bit harder. This is a good thing, one of the purposes of this blog was to make me re-assess some of my old favourites. My problem is the the hard time being given to the titular Teenage Mother Superior in the lyrics, fair enough the narrator seems to be answering her questioning of his hedonistic life-style, but he's coming off at best boorish, and at worst bullying. They need to do some mellowing out here, and maybe just agree to disagree and respect each other's lifestyles before departing amicably. So good tunesmithery, well delivered, but the hectoring lyrics now no longer sit well with me.

A nice treat as we turn over this platter to find two b-sides therein. Aware of this kind of trickery, I check the label and find it plays and 33 1/3 rpm, an adjust the speed accordingly, (I've been caught out before.) The first track, Always Never, sounds not too dissimilar to the a-side - full of guitar effects maybe falling to the rockier side of dance than the funky side this time. A track about missing out on stuff and never being able to get the time to do things - something I think we can all appreciate. I enjoy the verses of Always Never much more than the chorus which sounds a little strained.

Missing is mellower than the other other two tracks, and I'm happy for the change. Whilst still being full of typical indie-style chimes it noticeably wanders into AOR territory, but at no particular detriment to the song. Considering it's about someone who has gone missing (all be it voluntarily) it's conspicuously jaunty in tone. It's not that memorable though, and whilst I'll always be able to summon the a-side to my mind both of the b-side tracks don't have that spark (which is why they're b-sides!)

Next time something a little bit jazzy...

7 inch singles collection: Bob Dylan - Political World

It's Dylan!

BOB DYLAN

A-side: Political World

B-Side: Ring Them Bells
(CBS 1990)

I like to think of Bob Dylan in the upper echelons of curmudgeonly old men in rock - right up there in the premier division of grumpy aging rock stars alongside Lou Reed (RIP), Neil Young and Van Morrison. What all of these people have in common is the ability to make some of the most sublime, brilliant music ever, but equally be able to make some of worst dross ever recorded. Sometimes on the same album, sometimes even within the same song.

This record is from one of Dylan's "return to form" albums - Oh! Mercy. It certainly found itself in the top 50 end-of-year round-up in both Melody Maker and NME of 1990 - and probably in plenty of other music magazines too.

Political World has a statement to make - it's a political world, and everybody has an agenda, and the decisions we make have impact small or large on other people and decisions. I imagine all the old hippies listening to this revelation were nodding their heads and saying "yeah, man, tell it like it is Bob - stick it to the man", whilst the rest of us were more probably thinking something along the lines of "yes, we know, and your point is..?". I suppose there's some people out there who are naive and innocent enough not to have realised this, however they're probably not the types to listen to Dylan, so I don't think he's going to be corrupting anyone's innocence with this. If the lyrics to Political World are all cliche and truism, so is the music - but not in a bad way It's the music that started rock itself - Blues. It has a great bluesy feel, with a strong swampy rhythm that gets you going. So one to listen to for the music rather than the words. (By the way - there are no vids on YouTube of Bob Dylan doing this number - plenty of cover versions  - so no link I'm afraid - you'll have to hunt it down yourself!)

Flipping the record over we find a piano led piece of AOR, called Ring Them Bells. Whilst I'm partial to a bit of Dylan every now and then, I could never claim to be a fan, and so this styling was a surprise for me, however unlike the a-side I found it musically bland. Maybe the lyrics are better and a bit less obvious - well yes they are. In fact I'm a little confused. It could be Dylan not be clear and being obfuscatory, or it could be me being thick (there's a 50/50 chance to be honest!) Either the bells are ringing out in celebration, saying the masses are still here, and are strong, and are surviving, or the bells are ringing out a funereal death knell for the little people as they are swamped by the political world. Could be either, maybe if I listened to this song a few more times I'd have an idea, but I can't say that the notion fills me with enthusiasm. It was a little bit too dull to make me want to go back to.

Next time some more music from the 'shire...

7 inch singles collection: The House Of Love - The Beatles And The Stones

One of my favourite bands from my late teens and early twenties..

THE HOUSE OF LOVE

A-side: The Beatles And The Stones
B-Side: Love IV
(Fontana 1990)

I'm going to tell you, quite unapologetically, that I'm a big fan of The House Of Love, they were lauded for a bit by the music press around 1987/88 then fell out of favour - but I stuck with them, enjoying their epic chiming guitar pop. Mind you I was a bit a grumpy with them around the time this came out  - not because of the music, but because of the seeming infinite variety of formats they were releasing singles in. This 7 inch version is a gatefold sleeve with a poster ensconced within. There was an ordinary 7 inch version (which I don't have) , and at least one 12 inch version (which I do have), all with different b-sides making me feel a bit narked that to get all the songs I have to buy so many different verisons. The House of Love weren't the only band to be doing this at the time, but they were the only one I cared about.

The Beatles And The Stones is a song about being an individual and celebrating your uniqueness, plenty of people at different times feel isolated and alone, but the right music at those times, means it doesn't matter it can help you be who you are regardless of whether you're alone or not. Funnily enough being one with the music (in this case the titular Beatles and Stones) means you're not alone because the music is there, and out there too are other people with the same feelings and attachments to the music, and you become part of that community - making you alone, but with other loners too. At least that's what I take from the lyrics - whether Guy Chadwick had that in mind when he wrote it I don't know. The Beatles And the Stones is a languid shuffle, that feels yearning and wistful creating a instant and warming sense of nostalgia - even if you're too young to be nostalgic about those things.

On the other  side of this version of the record is an instrumental called Love IV. Unusual for the House Of Love in that their lead man, Guy Chadwick, didn't write it, but instead it was left to the bassist. It starts with a great intro that with a looping and circling guitar riff, and then carries on always threatening to break out into something, about halfway through it almost does break out with a sudden unexpected change in the riff, whilst still on the same rhythmic pulse, but this quickly settles back into the main riff again, and then it's over. Love IV is not bad, but I can't help have the feeling that they were releasing singles in so many formats that they were stuck with having to put half-formed ideas out as b-sides.

 Next time someone who is a true icon of popular music...