hsut@pur-ee.UUCP (Yuk Hsu) (09/13/85)
Two reviews of somewhat obscure, not very new albums: Peter Blegvad THE NAKED SHAKESPEARE A curiosity from Virgin, not released in the US, I believe. Peter Blegvad used to be a member of Henry Cow (with Fred Frith, Chris Cutler etc.) so I was expecting this to be a wild experimental album. (I'm not familiar with the Henry Cow albums, but enjoy the Art Bears, which had similar personnel.) Well, it was different... By the way, Andy Partridge of XTC helped with the production. After reading the lyric sheet on my way home, I was ready for some complex and challenging music. The album had terrific, hilarious lyrics!! A few samples: "The man had nothing on. His dinner was still warm. He couldn't have been dead for long, His head was on the wrong way round..." (from Lonely Too) "Some say he stole a line from Ezra Pound. Who knows it hasn't lain there for centuries, Just waiting to be found?..." (from Powers in the Air) And so forth. Most of the songs had similarly witty and literate lyrics. So I was really disappointed when I put on the album. It seems that Blegvad had put all his ingenuity into the lyrics and decided to scrawl a few tunes (though some of them are good ones) to accompany his marvelous words. The music, while not top-40 trash, was very accessible (hardly a fault) but not very interesting or challenging. Blegvad's singing was, again, very competent but nothing to write home about. The only song that had music which matched the strange lyrics was "Irma", a little dirge about a rape. So if you like accessible music with bizarre lyrics, you can do worse than get The Naked Shakespeare. Otherwise, don't bother. Chameleons SCRIPT OF THE BRIDGE Also known as Chameleons UK, this young group recently released a second album, WHAT DOES ANYTHING MEAN, BASICALLY? SCRIPT is their first album and has been released in the US, with fewer songs and a different sequence of tracks. I have the UK pressing, which has about 52+ minutes of music. Several commentators have said that the Chameleons sound like the early U2. I don't feel they're really that similar. The Chameleons have a youthful energy that shines through the unfortunately less than ideal production. On the whole, SCRIPT is a little uneven, but an amazing first album. There is a lack of variety on some of the tracks, but this could be due more to the sloppy production than anything else. And because of the production, the lyrics are, with a few exceptions, hard to understand (no lyric sheet was included.) The best songs have rich echoing guitar textures usually with an infectious bass line and a booming drum sound. The vague, declamatory vocals recall occasionally R.E.M. or the Cure. The good tracks on this album are very impressive for a first album. My favorites include Don't Fall, View from a Hill and Less Than Human. In summary, a fine album and recommended for fans of U2 or R.E.M. or anyone who enjoys strong, guitar-based songs. "I must have died a thousand times I'm less than human I surmise I'm less than human in your eyes..." Bill Hsu pur-ee!hsut Department of Eccentric Esoterica, Purdue University
hedger@ada-uts.UUCP (09/20/85)
Regarding Peter Blegvad......I have not heard the album you mentioned, but you might be interested in: 1) Slapp Happy-this was the band that was around at the same time as Henry Cow and did some 'double band' albums. 2) John Greaves- John was the bass player with H.C.....he put out an album about a year and a half ago which I think was produced by Blegvad (he also helped write the lyrics I think) the album is called 'accident'....I also just heard that he has a new album out...I don't know if Blegvad was involved with the new one.... ihnp4!inmet!ada-uts!hedger