For all of the band's later highlights, there's no question that this is where the group shone the best; still hungry, still focused, and not plagued by the personality conflicts that would cause
Terry Bickers' acrimonious departure, the quartet served up a half-hour-long delight.
Guy Chadwick's yearning vocals and ear for memorable melodies matched beautifully with
Bickers' fantastic guitar, and if the recorded results didn't really show the latter at full strength (
Chadwick essentially told him what to play, and he only cut loose in concert), it's still something. Check out the sudden, thrilling solo on
"Salome," a fantastic song that easily equals
the Church at their most thrilling and powerful, or the even-more-memorable break on the deservedly famous leadoff track
"Christine," once described aptly as
the Jesus and Mary Chain meets
the Left Banke. The
Pete Evans/
Chris Groothuizen rhythm team had their own fine moments as well -- the snaky crawl of
"Road" in particular suggests
Echo and the Bunnymen's own brilliant work with rhythm.
"Man to Child," a reflective, softly crushed
ballad, won many plaudits as well,
Chadwick's portrait of aging and angst deft and quietly understated, matching the similarly wistful, just-sad-enough music beautifully. However, the secret highlight of the album would have to be
"Love in a Car," starting with a keening, haunting high guitar part from
Bickers and then slowly evolving into an evermore tense and dramatic all-band performance.
Chadwick's singing is some of his wounded best, and the final slow fade keeps all the intensity right to the end. Though a couple of cuts veer toward the okay rather than the great, plenty of other highlights suggest themselves, and the album as a whole is a high watermark for
English post-punk music of the '80s. ~ Ned Raggett
