new introductory bit here.
This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.
Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.
note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.
The steadfastly cynical but upbeat pop act Orange Juice formed in Edinburgh in 1977, released their first record in early 1980, and split nearly five years later after only one visit to the UK top 40 ("Rip it Up" made #8 in 1983) out of 13 tries. They never had a US distribution deal.
Obviously then, their frontman was never a candidate for global success. Determined and indicting in his songwriting, Edwyn Collins accepted that he was not a top 10 act, but wore his singer-songwriter crown proudly and sporadically released meagerly selling material for the ten years after Orange Juice broke up. Melody Maker once reported on a Collins concert, where the singer described his debut single, 1987's "Don't Shilly Shally," as "a top 93 song if ever I heard it... and there it is, in this week at number 93!"
He waited until 1989 for his solo debut album, Hope and Despair, an excellent, romantic and smart series of 14 pop songs, including the charming single "50 Shades of Blue." Hellbent on Compromise, released in 1990 but, like its predecessor, still not available domestically, is spectacular. This is how guitar pop was meant to be played, romantic and intelligent. I'm not aware of any singles being pulled, but key tracks that are stuck in my mind include "Means to an End," "It Might as Well Be You" and the tragic singalong "My Girl Has Gone." However, as neither album charted despite the critical thumbs-up, Edwyn let his deal with Demon Records lapse and spent the next four years without a contract before signing to Setanta.
Gorgeous George, released in 1994, again failed to find an audience, although an EP called "Expressly" released a few months afterwards became his first solo work to make the UK top 75. Setanta tried again with "If You Could Love Me," but watched that bomb as well, but then had the bright idea to pull "A Girl Like You." This surprised every rock critic and chart watcher. It was an out of the blue hit which stampeded its way up the chart to peak at #4. Setanta reissued the album, which quickly made #8. The parent album proved a little denser to new fans with its condemnation of rock fandom, music festivals, metal bands and the like, but it's still great stuff. Bar-None Records in America licensed it and, fourteen years after his first record deal, Edwyn had product on American shelves. Used on the soundtrack of Empire Records, "A Girl Like You" hit #32 here.
Typically, Edwyn just *had* to rebel against the success of "A Girl Like You." For his fourth album in 1997, Edwyn and his collaborators, including Paul Quinn and Mark E. Smith, looked backwards to the late 60s and early 70s for discordant inspiration and fashion. The first single "The Magic Piper (of Love)" was another minor UK hit, the far superior second single "Adidas World," a spitting indictment of commercial culture, was not. "Seventies Night" and "Country Rock" are among his weakest material.
Edwyn's fifth album, Doctor Syntax, was released in the UK in early 2002. (7/02)