Everything but the Girl.

i dunno. in so many ways that record exhibits so many admirable tendencies of mid-80s "smart" pop (esp. the connecting of the personal and political, the invoking of a native facism). it's of its moment. but i find that moving in itself.

oh yeah and "come on home" is worthwhile not for just being a v. pretty song but as one of the few pop tunes to pick up where "message to martha/michael" and "golden lights" left off.

also yeah the marine girls are amazing.

You're right. And that's kindof scary, now that I think about it.

LTM seemed to be an attempt to mix the jazzy vibe of Eden with the socialism of the whole Red Wedge thing and Johnny Marr's layered guitar sound.

I suppose you mean the second album Love Not Money? I've never heard that Johnny Marr played on that. I'm a Johnny Marr freak so I don't think it's possible to talk of the "Johnny Marr sound" unless you're talking about something he actually did because I think his sound is pretty unmistakeable and not easily copied. I mean, there are things I hear him do that I think "no way could that be anybody else but him".

"Eden" is one of my favourite albums of all time, if we ignore the fact that as an American I don't know it by that title, and the U.S. version had a slightly different tracklisting. Still, all the key songs are there. The second and third albums have their highlights, too, but proved far less memorable. I bought "Walking Wounded" when it came out. I liked a few songs a lot, then sold it. But I think that might have been because of a certain relationship I was in at the time.

I remember liking a lot of 'Temperamental', esp. 'Lullaby of Clubland' and 'Hatfield 1980'. I love the city songs over the minimal focus of the production. nice stuff.

Could never get into 'Idlewild' or 'Baby, the Stars...', which I generally attribute to the busier production. I came to LOVE Tracey's voice on the gorgeously ungussied 'Amplified Heart', and hearing it reverbed, etc. throws me off. The last two albums are different beasts, but there's a close recording of her voice again, which goes a long way.

it's kind of amazing that they manage to turn cap'n beefheart's "my head is my only house unless it rains" into a normal EBTG song, but on the downside the result isn't necessarily much more than a normal EBTG song.

how is their "back to mine" volume?

more please.

a friend used to joke that ben and tracey suffered from opposite maladies: her eyes were too close together and his were too far apart. but they are both so cool i really feel bad making any such comments.

Surely you jest!

Okay, maybe you don't. Here's Andrew in all his finery:

http://www.ultra-pop.org/images/band/som.jpg http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Basement/4286/Eldritch.GIF

Having said that, I do find it a little annoying that they nowadays behave as if their entire pre-"Missing" career is not worthy of any attention. Idlewild is, as noted at the start of the thread, a fab album melodically and lyrically; only its slightly dated and thin-sounding production lets it down. But the band doesn't perform any early tracks in their concerts (not that they've given any in a while), and the more recent remix album (Adapt or Die) should have offered them a chance to revisit and update those early tracks. Instead, all the remixes were of Wounded and Tempermental songs. Frankly I'm hurt.

just pulled this out of my shelf and played it for the first time in a long while

this is a really nice lp (mini-lp?) that time seems to have forgot

in fact i don't think anything ebtg-associated is particularly hip right now, least of all the early stuff

I flirted with them again when Walking Wounded came out.

I wish I could hear Baby The Stars Shine Bright again but I don't have the vinyl with me anymore. :(

Has anyone heard this song by Working Week (having at least one former members of Young Marble Giants) that had Tracey Thorn and Robert Wyatt singing on it called "Venceremos" something like that? Oh my GOD that is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NljK-sXaMtk

She says she's over-caffeinated and then next Tracey Thorn tweet says -

Am quite in the mood to form a band and just do Delta Five covers I’LL GO TO SLEEP SOON DONT WORRY 👀👀

— Tracey Thorn (@tracey_thorn) September 19, 2024

I just got around to listening to "Love And Its Opposite" today, and the closing lines from Late in the Afternoon killed me:

"I stand here every night
In fluorescent bathroom light
Every blemish, every scar
You know how they got there and where they are
So don't get bored anytime soon
'Cause it's late, it's late in the afternoon"

appreciate that shout, enoch! big ups to tracey's 2000s albums. she went full altpop and those albums absolutely rule. her voice sounds amazing on those too.

Sound check before their London club show.

Good video on their Instagram page:

"In July 1995, on the cusp of Missing becoming a global smash, we played it live on Segnali di Fumo, an Italian TV music show. It was a unique version. We used just the Todd Terry beat, an acoustic guitar, and two voices. Little did we know the song would explode on radio later that summer"