Blasts from the Past

[Drico One]

I've been reorganising my iTunes library recently and have rediscovered lots of evocative records that I'd half forgotten. Because Pet Shop Boys tracks have always been present in my "here and now", contemporary companions on the "journey", as it were, they don't tend to provoke any great sense of nostalgia. However, songs by other artists have the opposite effect - largely because I probably haven't played them in years. But, I have to say, it's been like entering a time machine.

First up, Sense by The Lightning Seeds. What a gloriously melodic and joyous pop song this is. In my view, it's one of their two outstanding tracks - the other being Life's Too Short. Terry Hall co-wrote this. Interestingly, I find that while it might only be four minutes long, it feels longer. Yet, it's really only good for the first two minutes. It just sort of meanders after that. But what a first two minutes. I like the contrast between ennui and exhilaration. It's really the earnest longing of a teenager. Maybe that's why it seemed so exciting to me in 1992. Lyrically, it's simple but clever. The reference to feeling "like a town closed down for winter" and the line about "waiting for somebody like you to kiss me senseless" betray the impatience to throw off mundanity and misery and "jump into tides of loving madness." It's really just about the excitement of feeling alive - and that's why it's so powerful.

I've always regarded the Lightning Seeds as a little too saccharine for my taste, a bit too jingly jangly, but there's no denying that Ian Broudie has a wonderful sense of melody. They have a string of really good pop songs (Pure, Life of Riley, etc.), but none as good as this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxliCqxKI6U

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Drico,

It is indeed a top song. Have you heard their album Dizzy Heights? It's a fantastic pop album.

Retro.

[Undertaker]

Having to go on a lot of long jouneys and have thousands of tracks on an ipod that you just completely forget about. Last night there were 3, imo, brilliant records.

Regulate - Warren G
Looking for the Summer - Chris Rea
San Francisco - Scott McKenzie

[Drico One]

I'm aware of that album, Retro - I sort of followed the Lightning Seeds from a distance via their singles in the 1990s. Sense was the real breakthrough for me, but Pure is a nice track too and I think its riff and that of The Life of Riley would, combined, make an amazing single. Instead, we got two rather good ones.

Sad to read that Ian Broudie had an horrific seven years in the early noughties that saw his marriage collapse and the deaths, in turn, of his mother, father, sister, and finally older brother - the latter by suicide. It's no wonder the man admits that the naive, joyous innocence of his famous material more or less disappeared as a consequence.

Drico.

[Drico One]

Hello, good evening, welcome, and goodbye.

Next up, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine - The Only Living Boy in New Cross.

The synth line here is magnificent: defiant, urgent, couldn't give a f*ck. It's trashy and muscular and exhilarating. I loved it from the moment I first heard it in, was it 1992? For a "rock" band, this is tremendously dancey, but of course this was around the time of the "fusion" of dance and rock with EMF, Jesus Jones, and other sundry detritus.

But there's something touching about this, buried amidst the wave of testosterone-fueled hedonism. "The comfort and the joy of feeling lost" sums up the bittersweet purgatory of adolescence. They don't make records like this anymore - but then again, I'm not a lost adolescent anymore.

Still lost, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGaX9lWBTMQ

Drico.

[JSDOUVRES]

I discovered Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine in 1993 at school when I swapped it on cassette for PSB's Very with a classmate for a few weeks and quite enjoyed it, I have collected all their albums and quite a few singles over the years and am especially fond of their cover of rent which is fantastic!

Great band and shame they peaked for such a short time!

Excellent blast from the past, Going to be my CD to play in the car the next few days!

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

The Only Living Boy In New Cross is the greatest song in the history of mankind.



(I love the nod and the wink to PSB in the opening moments of the video too!)

Retro.

[Drico One]

1991/92 seems to have been a rich seam for me - I think it's an age thing. Here's Jacky by Marc Almond, an absolutely epic romp that really is quite fantastic. I loved this from the first moment I heard it: the hugely over-the-top-and-down-the-other-side arrangement, the debauchery, and frankly the sheer cheek of it all. This is such an exciting record, and something of a career highlight. Obviously, I love Tainted Love and, especially, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, which is magnificently poignant, but Jacky is glorious fantasy, a drug-addled Lothario dreaming of world domination and immortality. And why not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRqgRJ13XLY

[York Minster]

Jacky is indeed fantastic, the best track on Tenement Symphony. Side 1 never did much for me, but Side 2 (you didn't mention it's a Trevor Horn production) is quite good. I'm not going to bother to look for liner notes at this hour, but I believe he did the whole of side 2?

Back to Lightning Seeds for a moment:

There is something of an innocent fantasy world that Lightning Seeds music hits on in a same way that Erasure did. The difference would be that Erasure turned to shart while Lightning Seeds went out on (in my opinion) a high in 1999. The 2009 album was fine, but didn't bear repeated listenings.

Drico, have you sat through Tilt? The production on that album is incredible. I seriously recommend a full devoted listen if you haven't. To me, it's easily the best Lightning Seeds album and others I have played it for have been quickly converted. It's perfect pop and it's not jangly. I will admit that some of the beats do sound dated now that were very fresh at the time. The first three albums were good in their own right, but too much of them and everything starts sounding the same and you get a "sugar high". Dizzy Heights was more substantial and a pretty good slice of britpop.

[Danny C]

On the Lightning Seeds, this was a rather good article about the death of Ian's brother:

https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver ... magazine37

My dad was at school with the older Broudies, Robert was a good egg by all accounts.

[Drico One]

Yeah, that's a pretty grim story, Danny.

No, I haven't listened to Tilt, Scapa, other than to the lead single which I loved. Apparently, Broudie more or less disowned that album...

Drico.