The Sound - Classic/Dud/Search/Destroy

I got the dual disc BBC Recordingsdisc and, well, holy fucking shit. Multiply all previous "they shoulda been huge" comments by a factor of 100.

The Sound
House of Love
Chameleons
Echo and the Bunnymen

Sounds like a plan to me!

Am listening to All Fall Down this very second and "Monument" just finished. Dr. C said it a couple of years ago so I don't have to.

http://www.myspace.com/magicbullets

I suspect I'd probably think Winning was a lot nicer if the 'I'm gonna make it after all!' sentiment wasn't offet by the 'Hang on a minute, this guy jumped in front of a train three years ago!' realisation

In my case, I now realize that I have the exact opposite feeling about the Sound and Adrian B. -- when it comes to figures like, say, Jim Morrison or Ian Curtis, their sound and the post-death cults (for lack of a better word) combine to create a resultant expectation that is often hard to properly escape, especially if like me you encounter them well after the fact.

Admittedly I did the same with the Sound as well, hearing them first well after their breakup but before Adrian died, but like, say, Billy Mackenzie and the Associates, when I hear the Sound I hear life, I hear exultance for lack of a better word. For all the most intense moments that Adrian can create with his words and singing, there is a grace and soaring resonance that causes me to rise, not sink. The comparisons with U2 and Bono don't work for me because there is something here that is strong but not overbearing, a true warmth -- and the more I think about so many of the band's contemporaries, the more that seems to be near unique, that the lighter singing voice (if only by degrees in some cases) compared to others is what gives the Sound its unique feel still for me.

I hear the Sound and I hear an embrace, not hectoring or rabble-rousing. That to me is a true gift.

That for me is spot on, and nicely put to boot.

Also, that sort of warmth you talk about is really evident on "Fatal Flaw" - that sort of falling-into-place moment when it reaches the motif that repeats to the end is one of my favourite drawn-out repetitive outros of ooh, ever.

You'd have hoped that he'd weathered the storm, but by all accounts he got more ill as time went on.

"It's 1976 and Tim and his pal Adrian Borland (who at the time was in a punk band called 'The Outsiders' and later on fronted a band called 'The Sound') and an amazing rock drummer called Bruce Bizland (no one knows what happened to him) make a band and do about two gigs then stop...they sounded a bit like the rocky instrumental bits on that David Bowie album 'The Man Who Sold The World' didn't they. They never gave their band a name either."

I've often meant to investigate The Sound but never got round to it. Maybe sometime I will.

What a great song... I wish he had sung all screamy like that more.
Great great band.

they were v.good live - I must have seen them 10 times or so
Ahhhh! $*#@&!!!

http://www.renascent.co.uk/

...then go down to the albums section. Please to note the *FIVE* live Sound albums from 1981 to 1985 now available -- they're all taken from Dutch radio broadcasts, and all are midpriced at that.

That thread on Crawling Chaos reminded me of these guys; I saw that same OGWT clip linked above on one of those late night 'Whistle Test Years' programmes a few years ago, and they blew me away. But I never got around to picking up the Renascent reissues, and they're out of print now as the licence expired. Supposely Warner Bros is supposed to be re-releasing them, but when? Anyone heard anything?

Listening to All Fall Down today and am convinced that it was way ahead of it's time - while simultaneously being a spiritual successor (however you wish to define that) to Scary Monsters

classic

a. party of the mind is an amazing song
b. total recall is one of the best-ever semi-bitter post-breakup songs
c. some of adrian borland's solo stuff is heart-breaking

Too little discussion about this amazing band that seems destined to remain lost in time. Their catalog was out of print for years, back thanks to Renascent and now back out of print and going for stupid money on Amazon (except the live albums, which is better than nothing). Looks like their last album, "Thunder Up" is on eMusic. Wasn't Warner supposed to reissue their first 3 albums?

Anyway, The Sound surely kept me sane when I was young - such passionate music, and lyrics that kept saying "Keep going!" "Winning" still revs my engine. Any other appreciators of the sadly missed Adrian Borland?

Classic because I made a killing on Lion's Mouth; wasn't fussed by the music, sadly. Still, the profit meant I could buy more records.

love of all their record to death

I have the renascent reissues of Jeopardy and FTLM. I like them. They do the Joy Division-y impending doom thing well but with an optimistic twist (Winning especially). On one of the live bonus tracks, to gee up the crowd, he introduces it by saying something like, "c'mon! let's get indigestion!". That's definitely classic.

Are the renascent reissues valuable?

people are overcharging for them secondhand, yes

SECOND LAYER!

it's officially unavailable digitally, but it needs to be heard: the band's john peel session from november 81. setlist is: fatal flaw, hothouse, new dark age, skeletons. the 'hothouse' they play here is the definitive: one round of the chorus will suffice, otherwise enjoy the tension.

Yeah the way that version of Hothouse transforms the song is incredible, that Peel session always worth a listen

I listened to a live version of Sense of Purpose on Spotify after that and that thumping final stretch gets me hyped every time, would love to have seen them do that live

Borland was like a British Bob Mould to me!

hadn't ever occurred to me before, but yeah i totally get that - that raw urgency to communicate truths that feel like they're burning a hole right through them, that other place they both seem to go to when they're channeling that through a guitar. lots of my own teenage angst bound up in both back catalogues, both sometimes kind of painful for me to listen to now for that reason tbh