Also, Marcello -- why did you decide not to write this up?
No idea/can't remember - I said that four years ago, Matthew!
I ought to write something about this really. But don't hold your breath in anticipation.
― Eric in the East Neuk of Anglia (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 24 October 2008 14:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Lots of writing I didn't get around to actually writing at that time, for various life-related reasons.
I had to admit it, but I don't actually mind the abbreviated 'Music from "Consequences"' take. . .
'L' is the best. So sophisticatedly odd, so unexpected at every turn.
― Soundslike, Friday, 24 October 2008 14:32 (fifteen years ago) link
I was just listening to L last night -- I agree, it's very good. They may have been stoned to the gills for these early records and it might have meant utter confusion for the labels and radio, but you have to hand it to them -- G&C took their opportunity and ran with it.
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 25 October 2008 15:57 (fifteen years ago) link
...and it's a good thing I like L -- as this Amazon seller sent me L/Freeze Frame instead of Consequences. :-(
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 25 October 2008 22:14 (fifteen years ago) link
"The worst job I ever 'ad . . . "
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Sunday, 26 October 2008 01:20 (fifteen years ago) link
"L" and "Freeze Frame" are the two Godley & Creme albums to check out, really. "Consequences" is too weird while their 80s output is too ordinary.
I consider "Englishman In New York" to be their best post-10cc moment. Sounds almost like something that could have been in the classic 74-76 10cc albums.
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 26 October 2008 12:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah -- I'm not proposing I send this CD back to them just yet...I like these records a lot. I just suddenly have a yearning to track down and hear Consequences.
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 26 October 2008 23:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I consider "Englishman In New York" to be their best post-10cc moment. Sounds almost like something that could have been in the classic 74-76 10cc albums
i've just discovered the video for this (plus associated musikladen appearance) and i think it's broken my mind. what a fucking awesome, awesome band.
― remorseful prober (grimly fiendish), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:30 (fifteen years ago) link
So: in the past three weeks I've got hold of L and Freeze Frame, and the latter has blown my little mind. Music this clever should not be this affecting. There's something almost bathetic about -- say -- Get Well Soon, but ... I dunno, it gets me straight in the heart.
I can't say so much about L because I've been so busy listening to Freeze Frame :)
― grimly fiendish, Saturday, 29 November 2008 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
"An Englishman in New York" is fantastic, as is the other odd track on their first three solo albums. But other parts are a bit too weird for their own good. :)
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 30 November 2008 00:32 (fifteen years ago) link
SOULWAX put a blast of "An Englishman in New York" in their recent Radio 1 mix.
― piscesx, Sunday, 8 March 2009 05:13 (fifteen years ago) link
If anyone hasn't seen the link on the 10cc thread, this is an absolutely fucking amazing 10cc documentary -- not sure how much longer it'll be up on iPlayer, so get it now now NOW:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kn4q5/The_Record_Producers_10cc_6_Music_Producers_Cut/
There's a surprisingly long segment on G&C's later work, which makes me *desperate* to hear Consequences now.
― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), Wednesday, 13 May 2009 17:01 (fourteen years ago) link
this album is great, as is the song selections album "music from consequences". the 3LP definitely pays to not be in mixed company when listening though. it sorta takes everyone being on board with the idea. great packaging too. funny the label thought it could be like the next tubular bells when it is so much more a commitment. if that were the age of the reality tv show, the making of consequences with godley and creme stoned out of their mind locked in a huge studio making this would be hilarious.
― matinee, Wednesday, 13 May 2009 17:12 (fourteen years ago) link
just bought this on ebay for 99 pence and can't wait to get my ears around it..
just listening to freeze frame, and "I pity inanimate objects" is one of most amazing things i've ever heard..
― Jack Battery-Pack, Tuesday, 7 July 2009 19:55 (fourteen years ago) link
I know. I love that album to pieces.
I *still* haven't heard Consequences. (And this amusing new "three years pass" thing is just making it worse.) Right, I'm getting myself to XTorrent *now*.
― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), Thursday, 9 July 2009 10:26 (fourteen years ago) link
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowhen things go wrong they reeeeaally go wrongand they rarely go right for meee
― matinee, Friday, 10 July 2009 05:23 (fourteen years ago) link
Right, so.
I've not finished it all yet -- I'm just back home, having got as far as Please, Please, Please during the course of two bus journeys and a session in the gym (boy, that was an unlikely soundtrack) -- but: this is absolutely fucking wonderful. Crazy, bug-eyed, dope-addled, fucked-up wonderful, but fucking hell, the ambition. The stonedness. The shockingly bad timing of releasing it in 1977.
I love this band.
― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), Friday, 10 July 2009 15:04 (fourteen years ago) link
So, uh, Godley & Creme's History Mix: good? bad? worth getting from the local charity shop?
(is the UK LP version, since that wikipedia article says there were several different versions)
― the ascent of nyan (a passing spacecadet), Tuesday, 20 September 2011 18:41 (twelve years ago) link
Kind of a bummer "Wedding Bells" isn't on there.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
Definitely worth picking up for cheap.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
But it's not much of a "best of" - I had to cobble one together from a couple of others and still had to track down a single or two.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 22:22 (twelve years ago) link
Tonight I realized how sad I am that I never got Consequences in the mail.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 11 July 2012 04:38 (eleven years ago) link
Hooray! As might be somewhat appropriate given the subject at hand, I just discovered my mp3 copy somehow survived the Great Harddrive Crash of 2010.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 11 July 2012 13:04 (eleven years ago) link
The 10cc doc got me checking this out again. So insane...
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 24 January 2016 04:25 (eight years ago) link
The wonderful weirdness slowly drained away fro their work by the late 80s and then they disappeared. They were such studio rats, I'm surprised they didn't return in full force when studios moved into the home and became digital.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 24 January 2016 07:45 (eight years ago) link
I love how hilariously down on the whole thing Kevin Godley is in that 90s Uncut interview posted upthread
Once we had that amount of time, we could fuck around forever, we could spend three days getting a guitar to sound like a clarinet. So what? Why?
especially when contrasted with Lol Creme's cheery enthusiasm in his interview for the same feature: http://www.suppertime.co.uk/blint/lol.shtml
I have still never listened to the whole thing, I really like the truncated Music From Consequences album, but people have told me that contained literally all of the decent bits?
― soref, Sunday, 24 January 2016 14:24 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h28R5LhTRCw
― soref, Sunday, 24 January 2016 14:26 (eight years ago) link
Been crushing my mp3 copy of this the past few weeks. For a record reviled for its extra-musical ambitions, there are some outstanding tunes here. “Five o’clock In the Morning” is just a stunning fucking song (and employs the “I’m Not In Love” vocal trick for those interested).
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 3 November 2018 02:35 (five years ago) link
The announcer "we can beat this if we join together" but ends suddenly as if this was his last words..
I didn't know this was a direct lift from Woodstock until this morning, listening to the 3cd recent best of. (The one with no hendrix)
I quite liked it, Grateful Dead was a snooz but hey..
― Mark G, Saturday, 30 May 2020 21:31 (three years ago) link
Fucking hell! I just heard "Under Your Thumb" on the radio today for the first time and I haven't heard anything that jumped out at me like that on a major radio show since forever ago.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 21:32 (two years ago) link
I haven't heard Consequences, but I have been listening to their subsequent three albums. I like L, but didn't find Freeze Frame and Ismism very listenable behind the cleverness. Their 10cc songs had such interesting melodies and textures that spoken-word/rapped lyrics over sequencers and drum-machine beats were never going to be the best way for them to display their talents. Also, Lol Creme eventually handed all the lead vocals to Godley, which made the records even more monotonous.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 21:49 (two years ago) link
I'm gonna go for Ismism first, on the strength of "Under Your Thumb", taking note that the earlier albums are supposed to be better.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 21:56 (two years ago) link
That song and one or two others on Ismism have melodies, the rest are one-chord Talking Heads-like "grooves" with raps on top.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 22:00 (two years ago) link
Yeah, that single completely buried "Consequences" and the fall-out of after. Minimalistic, direct and to-the-point.
Big hit, in other words.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 22:01 (two years ago) link
Well, part of what jumped out at me was how busy and detailed it sounded
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 22:05 (two years ago) link
That, as well.
― Mark G, Thursday, 29 July 2021 08:53 (two years ago) link
It's a cracker. M.R. James meets Giorgio Moroder. It was a surprise hit, apparently, and they didn't have time to shoot a video for it, which is a shame. With such an atmospheric song to work from, they could have dreamed up some great visuals.
― I Advance Masked (Vast Halo), Thursday, 29 July 2021 12:22 (two years ago) link
I got the deluxe edition of Consequences a while ago because it was the only thing I saw in Fopp and I mostly listen to the music-only version of the album. I absolutely love "Honolulu Lulu", makes me think of bits from Zappa's We're Only In It For The Money but more cinematic
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 8 October 2021 19:31 (two years ago) link
One of my favorites as well. The Rogers and Hammerstein is strong with that one.
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 9 October 2021 01:06 (two years ago) link
It's one of those tracks that makes me want to say "can we have a few albums like that, please?"
I've only seen The Sound Of Music (film), so I'm not that familiar with Rogers & Hammerstein, I will youtube them.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 9 October 2021 10:47 (two years ago) link
I think you will find that you are familiar with Rogers & Hammerstein, even if you don't think you are.
― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Saturday, 9 October 2021 10:57 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81NROmUb7o0
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 9 October 2021 19:26 (two years ago) link
Thanks, that's really nice
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 9 October 2021 20:42 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twuHBAnMfKQ
― MaresNest, Monday, 3 October 2022 18:56 (one year ago) link
Did anyone hear Kevin Godley's Muscle Memory? I seen it on someone's year end list for 2020 and they said he's still doing amazing stuff.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 19 June 2023 19:22 (nine months ago) link