Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (02/14/87)
Really-From: J. Peter Alfke <alfke@csvax.caltech.edu> >NOW! As promised! This month's presentation of the Andrew Award >for Sophistication, Originality and Complexity in a Post-70's Album! >Established in honor of Andrew Marvick in 1987, the Andy can >be given ONLY to those albums which EQUAL or BETTER the work of >Kate Bush in ALL THREE of the above categories. Here comes Spuds >McCollins with the envelope... the winner is... > > XTC, _SkyLarking_ Argh! I've been beaten to it! After buying and listening to the 4" version of the album (the iridiscent frisbee, the box o' bits, you know) I became convinced that it could, Andrew, be held up IN YO' FACE as a worthy companion in Kate-ness to Kate's masterpieces themselves. Only XTC's lyrics don't quite match, but then if you call them simplistic and romantic we can just come back and call Kate's overwrought bombastic Art 101 exercises. In summary: Kate Bush makes the most Katelike music around. But give "Skylarking" a listen, it comes close. (Oh yes, the 7" of "The Meeting Place" is on, gasp, clear vinyl, hold me tight before I faint, but the 12" features four unreleased demos recorded at home at various times. Andy has a nice little note on the back sleeve explaining this. Didn't buy it. The full album set me back enough as it is, and I'm going to try very hard not to get seduced by the scent of pristine freshly-wrapped bits wafting at 44.1kHz out of the back of Poo Bah. Not for a few weeks at least. (BTW, after more listenings I have become convinced that both "Element of Light" and "Bad Moon Rising" are excellent albums. Question: just what kind of chemicals does one need to ingest to sound like the speaker on "Justice Is Might"? That song unnerves me, it do. (Not that I would want to try such chemicals, I'll stick with my favorite mentholated, not to mention methoxylated, goodies. After all, anything with the same name as the people who brought you "Black Sea" must be good for you...)) --Peter Alfke again same old address "Just when I thought that my skies would be golden in hue 1000 umbrellas open to swallow the view..." "Let X = X"