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SOUND
Latest INXS release is for fans only
By KYM TAMBOURINE
Contributing Writer
INXS: "X" (Atlantic)
For die-hard INXS fans, the
band’s new album “X” will be yet
another satisfactory effort to add to
your collection. If you’re not, you
may just want to tape it from one of
your die-hard friends and save
your money.
The tape is really... okay. It
grows on you like a fungus — a nice
fungus. After just playing the tape
as background noise a couple of
times, I finally sat down and lis
tened to it — really listened to it.
This is when it started to grow on
me.
The first side is great. It opens
with the familiar harmonica flares
of their current hit “Suicide
Blonde.” Then it dives into ‘Disap
pear,” a relatively calm song about
love and how it can make every
thing sunny. Like I said, it’s pretty
calm aside from the steady drum-
/guitar beat included in the chorus.
You will swear that U2 performs
the next song, The Stairs.” The
long preamble definitely sounds
like America’s favorite Irish band.
The voice, though, is unmistakably
that of INXS lead singer Michael
Hutchence.
This is one of the better cuts on
the album. If you listen really
close, you will find it is an upbeat
song about religion. It doesn’t coat
you with biblical verse, but says a
few words about faith.
The song that follows is also
about faith. Entitled, “Faith in
Each Other,” the lyrics advise that
we should all have faith in each
other and let others speak their
mind.
“Faith in Each Other," has a dif
ferent beat than all of the other
songs. It has a bluesy sort of jazz
sound to it. Hutchence sings while
the backup vocals contribute in a
similar way that a jazz gospel choir
might. The gritty saxophone in the-
background also helps to create a
sort of smokey blues club ambi
ance.
“By My Side,” the conclusion to
the first side, definitely is right up
there among the beautiful slow
songs INXS performs. This song is
destined to be the next hit.
Opening with acoustic guitar and
chimes with a piano fade in, it
nearly gives you goose bumps. If it
were in a video, you would expect
to see a man and a woman running
through a field of daisies... Never
mind. It’s good.
And, for only eight dollars, you
get side one. Side two is barely
worth its half.
“Who Pays the Price” isn’t bad.
It has a funky, slinky beat that’s
fun to listen to. But, the rest of the
side does little to make itself sound
any different than the typical
INXS song.
Side one is fantastic, but side
twoleaves a little bit to be desired.
Unfortunately, their last album of
fers more variety and enthusiasm.
Fans liking “Suicide Blonde,”
should buy the cassingle. There is
a very interesting song that is truly
a departure from the normal, typ
ical, predictable INXS.
New Roxy Music product rehashes old efforts
By GRANT GOGGANS
Contributing Writer
Roxy Music: “Heart Still
Beating” (Reprise)
Better known in this country as
an influence rather than a hit-
making group, Roxy Music turned
out eight studio albums and many
British hit singles from 1972 to
1982 ranging from “glam rock” to
the “new romantic” style that in
fluenced Japan and Duran Duran.
They even managed to have a few
minor hits in this country, in
cluding “Love is the Drug,” “Dance
Away” and “Avalon.”
To begin with, then, the title is a
bit of an irony, since Roxy’s heart
stopped beating when the band
broke up in 1983. This is a live
album recorded on their final tour,
which spawned a live EP and vi
deocassette called ‘The High
Road.” The EP is unavailable on
CD.
However, by releasing this, a
weird problem has come up that
only concerns the most hardened
fans. ‘The High Road” EP was re
corded live in Glasgow, while the
tape came from a show in Frejus,
France. The four EP tracks are du
plicated here, but “Heart Still
Beating” is a recording from the
Frejus show, so those four perfor
mances still are unavailable on
CD.
To make this worth the money
for those of us who own the video,
two songs that were not released
on that, “India” and a Phil Manza-
nera solo piece called “Impossible
Guitar,” are made available here
for the first time.
But is it any good? Musically,
yes. There's a stomping rendition
of “Love is the Drug" (a single in
the UK), ard a Bryan Ferry solo
piece called “Can’t Let Go” which
will really hit home for guitar
lovers. Positively heart-stopping
versions of “While My Heart is Still
Beating" and “My Only Love” are
included, as well as a cover of Neil
Young’s “Like a Hurricane,” which
blows the original out of the water.
But is it essential? Well, no. If
you want live Roxy Music, pur
chase their 1976 LP “Viva! Roxy
Music.” The 1980’s model Roxy,
much to the lament of music
critics, never was as imaginative or
as groundbreaking as their earlier
incarnations with Brian Eno or
Eddie Jobson.
“Avalon,” the LP they were
touring to support, was a beautiful
but listless project, and the huge
10-piece band behind Bryan Ferry
does not convey the mood or the
feeling of the music well at all. The
musicianship is flawless, but the
ideas are flawed.
This release, as good as it is,
smells of a record company
throwing out old product in the ab
sence of new. Coming out this
month is a compilation video called
Total Recall, 11 reprising all of
Roxy’s promotional videos and a
great deal of live stuff. More impor
tantly, Bryan Ferry’s new album is
due in March 1991.
Purchase those releases, but
wait and hope to receive “Heart
Still Beating* as a birthday gift.
Primal Scream rides acid-house bandwagon
By NOEL MURRAY
Entertainment Writer
Primal Scream: “Come Together”
(Sire)
Primal Scream used to sound
like exactly what their name sug
gests — noisy, grungy garage rock
with angry, violent lyrics. Now,
Primal Scream has become an
arid-house dance band. Why? Be
cause they claim that what’s hap
pening in the clubs of Manchester,
and England excites them.
They’re not the only ones. The
Soup Dragons are cruising up the
American pop charts with their
psychedelic dance song Tm Free,"
but until this song, they made mid-
tempo, jangly Brit-rock with a dash
of distortion. Now they’re arid-
house kings, right up tnere with
Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and
Charlatans U.K.
Now, not wanting to condemn
the whole acid-house genre across
the board, the fact is — Primal
Scream’s new album is not very
good, and the reason it isn’t very
good has its roots in what’s going
on in Manchester.
For the unitiated, arid-house is a
blend of smooth dance music and
sixties guitar effects. The end re
sult, in England at least, is a
mellow, danceable track overlaid
with a distant vocal consisting of
obvious platitudes.
Some practitioners of the form,
namely Stone Roses, manage to do
something interesting with their
music, mixing up the genre and
making something fresh.
Most bands, however (especially
latecomers like Primal Scream and
The Soup Dragons) see only the
market potential of releasing a
song that sounds like everything
else on the British charts. They are
the Paula Abduls of their country.
The central problem with these
artists is that they have neither
the gut-level energy of hip-hop nor
the fevered imagination of psyche
delia. They are posers, pretending
to have a pan-cultural under
standing when they’re really just
exploiting the flavor of the week.
They have nothing new to say, and
they have no soul.
Primal Scream is not difficult to
listen to. The songs on “Come To
gether” are danceable, melodic,
and hook-laden. But all the bents
and all the hooks are so predictable
that listening to their songs, espe
cially in the context of everything
else that is going on in their
country, is a very dull experience.
That last bit, the idea of context,
is very important. Many of my
friends have been lambasting me
because I frankly can’t stand The
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Most bands see only
the market potential of
a song that sounds like
everything else on the
British charts.
Soup Dragons song “I’m Free."
They argue that it’s a positive,
catchy song. I argue that there are
five thousand songs just like it
available overseas, most of them
released before “I’m Free.”
In context, “I’m Free” — along
with “Come Together” and ninety-
five percent of the music coming
out of Manchester and its wan
nabes — is extraordinarily weak.
What I’m talking about here is
more than a failure on the part of
Primal Scream. It’s a failure of a
music scene to do anything more
than perpetuate itself. Man
chester, England is Hoover City.
You heard it here first.
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