fine young cannibals: underrated

heh..that's precisely why I hated it.

"Too bad for you, David!"

OK I misunderstood you. I thought you were talking about the adoption of acid house styles (909 beats and acid synths) in pop. I didn't realise you meant something so specific. But the million selling thing has nothing to do with it (or at least nothing to do with your original claim..that they were ahead of their time).

I don't think the album is underrated though. All the music guides I have give it high marks. The '92 RS album guide gives it four and a half stars and the MusicHound guide might have even given it five.

I won't deny the song's catchiness. I like the song far more than "Good Thing" which makes me get all Alex In NYC all over the place... on the other hand, the acid house track on The Raw And The Cooked slays "She Drives Me Crazy".

I'm afraid to ask what that's supposed to mean.

Don't be afraid. it was meant as a compliment. More specifically, a directed vortex of well-phrased verbal rage.

they had one of the best motown pastiches ever. the rhythm section--i.e. the same rhythm section as the (english) beat--was fucking great. the vocalist gets points for not sounding like anyone else, ever.

Memorably described in Smash Hits magazine at the time as resembling "a headless chicken being electrocuted underwater".

I still love, love, love the Buzzcocks and Elvis covers. "Don't Look Back" sparkles like it's the kid sister of the Beat's "Best Friend."

went top ten pop too so I have to assume it was around the same time.

good thread, good band

one of the first tapes i ever owned

checked.
i do have the finest on my hard disc (so i can drop various tracks onto my wifes mp3 player as she loves'em). so, thats today sorted.
i actually got the 2 cd edition of the finest that came with an extra disc of time stampled remixes.
one track i seem to recall featuring the cookie crew !?!
classics : the flame, good thing, blue, don't look back, i'm not the man i used to be, funny how love is (the echo'd trumpet opening is very sweet), etc.

It's a tragedy that this song has more or less fallen into obscurity when it should've been, like, the biggest single of that year and on the radio for years to come:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THD_vY2-AXA

Also:

i wonder if i will always be obsessed with pop music from 1987-1992

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, April 6, 2004 2:53 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Cosigning as hard as I can. The only era that's any competition for '70s AM gold in my heart.

I remember making my dad listen to The Raw and The Cooked when we were driving somewhere and that's when he explained to me what falsetto was. Good album, but also educational.

And the videos were super instructive on the Kubrick stare. Educational band all 'round.

god, "Don't Look Back"

― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, February 10, 2009

It peaked at #11 in the States but it's better than "Good Thing." Not many bands stapling 12-string Beat guitar and sequencers in 1989's top 40.

So I just went ahead and made this happen:

Forgotten late-'80s/early-'90s pop singles

god, "Don't Look Back"

― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, February 10, 2009

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, May 7, 2012 1:20 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wonder why this band hasn't gone on reunion tour like so many other acts of the era. They were really popular! People would show up! Maybe they all put their earnings in index funds and are comfortably retired and don't need the money, who knows.

Yeah, it looks like they're all still alive and pretty much toiling in obscurity. Surely they couldn't hate each other that much.

Here's a Guardian interview with Roland Gift in 2020. Sounds like he just pulled the plug.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/03/fine-young-cannibal-roland-gift-i-went-back-to-where-being-pretty-didnt-matter

I kind of wished FYC would tour as an opener for the (English) Beat, similar to how Camper Van Beethoven would usually open for Cracker on their recent tours. (FWIW, I'm a bigger fan of the Beat than FYC, but I like them both. Also a big fan of CVB but not so much with Cracker.)

Seem to recall that there was a big fallout between Cox and Steele - according to Roland Gift, the first time the two of them had spoken to each other in ages was at Saxa's funeral in 2017.