Richie's Singles Club
1st September
'The Anti-Midas Touch'
(The Pink Label)
The Wolfhounds second release is easily their most celebrated. Kicking off with the title track with its 'Smells Like Teen Spirit insipring' riff (if you believe some people), a fine piece of shoogly, noisy pop, David Callahan bellows about being given the ability to not turn everything he touches into gold - which is very unfair, as this is a multi-carat banger. In fact, Callahan was very pleased with the song, intentionally keeping it off the NME's 'C86' compilation as they didn't expect it to amount to much. Whoops! Elsewhere on the EP, 'Midget Horror' is a thrashy minute that's so Fall, Mark E Smith probably thought he sung on it and this angular yet melodic fayre continues right into the brilliant 'One Foot Wrong'. Meanwhile, 'Slow Loris' is a wide-eyed, bushy instrumental just as the title suggests and 'Restless Spell' gives the record a thoughtful, almost meandering fade out. Great value for money, mate, and probably the best that these dogs ever sounded.
'The New Record By...'
(Kaleidoscope Sound)
That this sounds like it was recorded on a Fisher-Price 'my first tape recorder' is neither here nor there, this release finds My Bloody Valentine speeding their way through dirty, fuzzy pop-rock and the furthest cry possible from the broody material that supposedly makes up their finest period. Now, there aren't many that agree with me on this, but give me a chance. There's a beautiful clumsiness to how original singer David Conway stumbles through a guitar maelstrom into the first verse of 'Lovelee Sweet Darlene'. This continues into 'By the Danger in your Eyes' where Conway's croon again doesn't fit, but really, really does fit the wall of noise. Then the 60s pop of 'Another Rainy Saturday' may be the standout of the whole EP. There's a joy that the band would go on to spectacularly lose and, by golly, you can dance to it! It's also notable for being the first record to feature long-term bassist Debbie Googe with the classic line-up still a couple of releases away.
'Walk Like an Egyptian'
(Columbia)
Arguably the band's biggest hit (if you ignore the inferior 'Manic Monday' and the insipid 'Eternal Flame'), 'Walk Like an Egyptian' was almost released by both Lene Lovich and Toni Basil in 1984. Luckily, songwriter Liam Sternberg waited a couple of years and an alt pop classic was born. The girls take it in turns to sing a verse each, with the exception of drummer Debbi who got to take the lead on their next single. Perhaps the track's greatest legacy is the promo video which shows the band on stage, with clips of archetypal 80s Americans doing the 'Egyptian' sand dance in the guitar breaks and the band themselves pulling angular poses like Hieroglyphics. It also led to Susannah Hoffs being described as 'that side eye girl' in countless Millennial memes. While you can argue Wilson, Keppel and Betty and even Morecambe and Wise got there first, there's no doubt this goes down a sandstorm whenever it gets played.
'Come Here My Love / Drugs'
(4AD)
This was the first release in two years for the in-house 4AD ethereal-pop collective and it harks eerily back to the band's debut single in that it's a cover of a song by a 70s singer songwriter - in this case Van Morrison and a track from his 1974 'Veedon Fleece' LP. However, while the original retained the usual soulful Celtic introspection you normally get from Morrison, this version is altogether ghostly, in fact, almost terrifying. Simon Raymonde's haunting backing shows some signs of hope half way through as it creeps up on Jean McCloughlin's vocals, before fading back into an all-watchful darkness. Creepy stuff. The flip-side 'Drugs' is a funkier number, this time a cover of the track from Talking Heads' 1979 'Fear of Music' and featuring vocals from Alison Limerick in her pre-House diva stint (and just before she recorded the end credits to Blackadder III too).
'The Girls of Summer EP'
(Chemikal Underground)
Released almost exactly a year after 'The First Big Weekend', 'Hey!Fever' feels like a long overdue hangover. While both songs share a close-out lyrical refrain, this song finds the band lazing in a back garden, reflecting hazily, failing to make plans. But they're a year older, a year wiser and arguably entering their 'romantic' period, if you could ever call it that. Elsewhere on the EP there are guest slots for Stuart Murdoch and Chris Geddes from Belle and Sebastian, whom Arab Strap had recently toured with. However, just two years later that relationship had gone the same way as so many of Aidan Moffat's parabolic monologues with the bands falling out over (probably) more than just the title of Belle and Sebastian's breakthrough LP.
'Mr Pharmacist'
(Beggars Banquet)
The lead track from 'Bend Sinister' finds the Fall in familiar territory: taking a forgotten garage rock plodder from the 60s (this one's by The Other Half from 1966) and working their indie stomp magic over it. The ever-evolving line-up saw new drummer Simon Wolstencroft debut here, replacing originals skinsman Karl Burns, helping bring in a more measured rhythmic sound that heralded their 'chart era' that followed. Both the Stooges-like riffwork and the allusions to drugs (prescription or otherwise) led to this being a huge indie dancefloor favourite and, naturally, multiple plays by John Peel on Radio 1 saw it creep in at number 75 in the charts. They would soon go higher with another 60s cover, but more on that later.
'Montego Bay'
(Island)
Originally a number three hit for Bobby Bloom, Amazulu took this summery pop tune back into the top 20 just as the last deck-chairs of the holiday season were being folded up. Using the same blueprint as their successful Chi-Lites cover a few months earlier, and with a slimmed down line up of just Anne-Marie, Sharon and Lesley, you can just about forgive them for 'doing a UB40' and giving an old song to a new audience. However, this was the last time it would work, as their cover of 'Mony Mony' a year later flopped. Still, it was nice while it lasted and the images of the white sands, Pina Coladas and awkward British holiday makers bogling, nay limboing, on the beach lived with us well into, ooh, October.
'Miss Modular'
(Duophonic)
The lead single from 'Dots and Loops', this introduced us to what I often refer to as Stereolab's 'Are You Being Served' era. With John McEntire of Tortoise and Andi Toma of Mouse on Mars at the production controls and improvements in computer technology, including the soon-ubiquitous Pro Tools, a change was inevitable. So, out go the driving guitars and organ drones of old and in come bossanova rhythms and precise, building, assembly-line soundscapes. Endorsement from the likes of Pharrell Williams has enhanced the legacy of this period and there's no doubt there's a lot to like here, like finding an old Marcos Valle record in a dusty shop, but it lacks the power of their visceral early work.
'I Want To Be There (When You Come)'
(London)
Previous single 'Nothing Lasts Forever' successfully showed the Bunnymen could take go head to head with The Verve and better them, but for most of us it just didn't sound like they should. Backed up by a Jo Whiley session of 'The Killing Moon', this feels like a band trying to get back to where they were a decade and a half earlier and, to a certain extent it does, but there's still that post-Britpop 'let's just cake this in strings, lads' feel to it that sounds artificial and contrived. This wasn't the last we'd hear from McCulloch and co, but it was the first sign of the end.
'Diamond Girl'
(MDM)
Hot on the heels of his hit 'Sinful!', this is an upbeat, marimba-filled cocktail complete with a paper umbrella featuring 'the fabulous Josie Jones'. It's also an unspectacular yet perfectly palatable pop tune which is only beloved by die-hard Pete Wylie fans and there were never that many of them, sadly. If you don't count Wylie's duet with The Farm ('Sinful! again) then this was the last we saw of Pete and the various Wah! incarnations anywhere near the charts. Shame, really.
'Even After All'
(Epic)
There was something about Finley Quaye I just liked. And, even with several reports since of his famous temper, I still think back to hearing this laid-back, soulful track on a balmy Summer's day and want to give him a high five. I probably bought 'Maverick A Strike' on the strength of the part of the song where sun-worn strings meet a languid guitar solo. But then nothing on the album came close to this one, so maybe just a high three, Finley. Don't look at me like that.
'The Horses Tale'
(In Tape)
There seems to be very little evidence that this record ever existed outside of the copy they sent to John Peel but it must have. It's part C86 jangle pop, part yee-haw mock cuntry 'n' western not heard since Jeremy Healy's days calling out the gait of a man called Marion Morrison. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was written and sung by the loons in Ludlow High Lower Fifth, and not by someone who co-wrote Simply Red's 'Holding Back the Years', but it was. Eh, Neil Moss?
'Coast to Coast'
(Champion)
Featuring and regularly calling out DJ Cheese (and it's not clear how mature he is) this is archetypal mid-80s rap with block-rockin' beats, a copy of 'Buffalo Gals' getting scratched and, for some reason, the US Marines hymn chucked in throughout. Not quite as successful as their debut 'King Kut', word of mouth was literally all they could rely on to get known and most people had 'Run' and 'DMC' on their lips at this time.
'Mission Possible'
(Epic)
Based around the a sparse version of the theme from Mission Impossible and featuring de rigueur vocoder rap, this was the first the world caught of Dr Dre. Back then he was pre-med, of course. It all bobbles along happily until later in the track, when they somehow manage to sneak the melody from Hawaii 5.0 in without anyone really noticing let alone being bothered to ask why. Book 'em, Dre-o.