gtaylor@cornell.UUCP (Greg Taylor) (07/10/84)
I gotta agree with Rich Rosen on this call. You will be disappointed with their newest "Hysteria" to the extent that you liked "The Lebanon." Apart from a fairly decent cover of James Brown's "rock Me again and again and again and again and again", this record is a stiff. Where do we lay the blame? well, the production just doesn't have the same snap crackle and pop as Martin Rushent's stuff. The songwriting just isn't up to scratch, either. Lebanon is a hit to the extent that it calls up stuff like "Seconds" from "dare." Heaven 17 have made out pretty well, really. They've managed to hold on to their politics, and make these cranky little "music as irritant" tinkertoy dancefloor things. "The Luxury Gap" (their last) did middlingly well, and certain *deserved* to outsell "Hysteria."