BEST OF THE REST
Other reissues out this month
Siouxsie And The Banshees All Souls UNIVERSAL
Conceptual marketing, eh? Ten tracks, chosen by Sioux, half-speed remastered for vinyl and reissued by way of an ‘autumnal celebration’. Fireworks, Halloween, the track-list writes itself. Spellbound recently featured in Stranger Things. A total coincidence, I’m sure. 7/10
These Animal Men Too Sussed / Taxi For These Animal Men DEMON
Ahead of a keenly anticipated split box-set with S*M*A*S*H (set for spring), the New Wave Of New Wave’s leading lights’ first two mid-90s EPs, neatly coupled on vinyl, capture street-sharp, speedfuelled, mod/punk fury. Brighton’s These Animal Men: the fiery Britpop template that time forgot. 8/10
Frijid Pink Frijid Pink REPERTOIRE
Remastered for pink vinyl, 1970’s Frijid Pink is still most notable for its fuzzed-to-the-max hit cover of House Of The Rising Sun. The bluesbased quintet’s originals fell relatively short, and posterity ultimately favoured close Detroit contemporaries The MC5 and Stooges. 7/10
Ian Hunter Overnight Angels ROCK CANDY
Hunter latterly distanced himself from 1977’s Roy Thomas Bakerproduced third album. In dogged pursuit of hits he strains at the top of his register (Golden Opportunity) and pantomimes Mott (Justice Of The Peace), but it does have its moments. The addition of England Rocks helps. 7/10
Dave Clark Five All The Hits 7" Box BMG
Early-60s Britbeat belongs on seven-inch vinyl, it’s the format it was designed for. Singles effect to accentuate its immediacy, its prepermissive macho desperation. Witness the Tottenham drummerled Five’s beefy, proto-Slade stomps through Bits And Pieces and Glad
All Over. 7/10
Humble Pie I Need A Star In My Life CLEOPATRA
Following the modest reception accorded Thunderbox, Clem Clempson-era Pie retreated to Steve Marriott’s home studio to make this off-the-leash, guest-heavy (Boz Burrell, Mel Collins) follow-up. Rejected by ’75 A&M as ‘too funky’, it’s something of a lost, genrefluid gem. 7/10
Love
Expressions Tell Everything 7" Box Set NEW LAND +
Apparently Madonna had never heard Love’s She Comes In Colours
(A-side four of eight in this immensely desirable singles box collection) when she wrote Beautiful Stranger. That said, Arthur Lee probably hadn’t heard Steptoe And Son’s Old Ned when he wrote My
Little Red Book. Equilibrium. 7/10
Essential Logic Logically Yours HISS AND SHAKE
Ex-X-Ray Spex saxophonist Lora Logic formed Essential Logic in
’78, and this batch of 50 recordings – their sole album Beat Rhythm
News, various singles, unearthed exclusives – is textbook art-school post-punk. Wilfully off-kilter, engagingly Raincoat-y. But essential? Nah. 6/10
Human League The Virgin Years Box Set UMC
Four LPs, one 12-inch EP, five different-coloured vinyls. An intrinsically 80s release for the most irretrievably 80s combo of all. Human League Mk II defined commercial cocktail-bar electro-pop’s future, and an electric-blue Dare is worth the cover charge alone… A hundred and twenty quid? Do what? 8/10
Jim Bob The Essential Jim Bob CHERRY RED
Like a lanky indie hybrid of Ken Loach and Steven Spielberg, Jim ‘Bob’ Morrison’s Carter USM owned the 90s alt scene, cranking out witty, emotionally weighty, tears-in-beers kitchen-sink traumas. And as this two-CD CV proves, there’s still no finer wrangler of a pithy couplet. 8/10