easycure

recommended no, culattoni probable ;-D

good for cobain to each their own :-D ..I feel I know the Bauhaus quite well and I completely agree with you on their chameleonic nature.. it's a shame though that you see it as a very purely formal issue, like most of the interesting insights from the English new wave. I didn't randomly mention the terms "expressiveness" and "poetics" earlier: it's at the level of communication, of substance, that I find them absolutely repetitive to the point of lacking credibility.. sure, Americans express "new feelings".. but: 1) they were actually new groups.. 2) expressing is one thing, exhibiting is another. 3) Americans make an a posteriori argument, inventing a musical approach based on a feeling, whereas most English artists make an a priori argument, exploiting a precise form already codified to exhibit a feeling (always the same in dozens of different groups, while the new wave in America, despite having many fewer groups, has many more variations of these "new feelings").

you keep insisting on this clone story that I’ve never mentioned :-) Of course, no English person is a clone of Americans; the sensitivities are completely different (much to my delight). What I’m saying (to summarize) is this: first, the most innovative, original, modern, and truly expressive insights have emerged, and there are almost indisputable temporal reasons to support this, in the USA. These insights have nonetheless been greatly exploited in the UK (punk foremost) BUT BEWARE: with this, I have never claimed that the English are clones of Americans, which, from my standpoint, further disadvantages the English. In fact, and here we come to point two, it’s the approach that changes; whereas every American group, in one way or another, has been destined to experiment, THE MAJORITY of English groups seem to have the sole, veiled aim of blindly worshipping a mindset, always the same, imposing it and especially imposing its necessity. This is frankly degrading and really quite pathetic. Neither the theatrically dramatic Bauhaus nor the romantic Echo and the Bunnymen escape this, the latter of which I have heard many define as clones of The Cure. I’m not particularly interested in such comparisons; I’m discussing expression: and it seems to me that at a certain point, the Echo and the Bunnymen are, from this perspective, a fitting example, where the only motivation for a certain type of music is simply to “show” that they are experiencing a certain state of mind.

As far as Talking Heads are concerned, I have remained completely faithful to my initial opinions: :-) they are, for me, the least significant in New York and the group with the least brilliant insights, amid a series of extraordinary bands that, it must be said, have a truly experimental approach compared to the English average. But if I had to speak subjectively, they are certainly the band from that period and scene that I prefer the least and that I sincerely consider to be less creative.

1) I don't know if the birth of MTV has anything to do with this or not... it is generally in the early '80s that the image begins to assume a fundamental role that it previously did not have. And there is no doubt that '80s icons like Madonna have entirely adopted the look that originated with British new wave bands (Robert Smith is "guilty," primarily, albeit completely unintentionally, of having created the typical iconographic trademark of the '80s); anyway, what I wanted to emphasize is that all the British new wave bands make a clear and persistent display of a certain look, which indeed rises to an indispensable role, to an irreplaceable status, to fashion. 2) You did not take into account my other point: that a large part of the experimentation (which you mentioned in reference to British new wave) was actually done in America, and it is not at all true that they didn’t adopt it in the UK: the sound you describe with such precision (“has reinvented the use of rock instruments,” “before, rock was practically guitar and voice, and then all the other instruments were just accompaniment, with new wave all the instruments became protagonists alongside the guitar and the voice”) was indeed codified by Television, Devo, Pere Ubu, etc. and in the UK it was all too readily taken as a priori basis without any real in-depth musical exploration. THIS is what I meant, more than anything else; I would say they alienated its meaning, turning an experimental sound into a form of more or less motivated exhibitionism. Well, apart from Ultravox, all the early works of the most significant bands date back at least to '78. And Ramones, Heartbreakers, Pere Ubu brought forth their first EPs no later than '75. I never spoke of clones; I talked about a trend that exploited underlying insights from American bands, and more than advancing the EXPERIMENTAL ATTITUDE, it utilized those insights in a generally formalistic way to adapt them to a type of expression that soon became standardized, pretentious, flamboyant, exhibitionistic, and rather uncreative. I do not expect to see any direct influence at all, and even if there were, that is not what matters; I say, however, that what was in America primarily an approach, which undoubtedly also codified a certain type of sound and musical styles, in the UK soon became a superficial and pompous manner, pseudo-existentialist and exhibitionistic, a priori when not completely frivolous; (here I respond to your second post) there is nothing that has really added anything substantial in terms of essence, expression, approach, poetics, communication, except for P.I.L., who created a deeply unique paranoid and industrial sound (deliberately avoiding the trap of the easy dark romanticism of 90% of British bands) and the early Joy Division, who were indeed the forerunners of the British sound as well as among the few truly original and innovative. The Cocteau Twins, as already mentioned, invented a new sound, laying the foundations for new genres (dream pop and shoegaze), demonstrating considerably more intelligence than the average British bands of the time; for the rest, just some curious digressions and a lot of standardized and unnecessary emphasis.

In Florence, in situations like these, it's obligatory to say a nice: "let's touch our balls."

Dear Blackdog, Closer for me remains far inferior to the debut regardless :-) ...it lives off that somewhat pompous and excessive romanticism that truly doesn't match the icy nightmares of unknown pleasures. Aside from that, there are dozens of degenerate offspring to count: Bauhaus themselves, Echo and the Bunnymen, the very Cure of Pornography, why not Depeche Mode. More generally, I find an attitude that, as time goes by, becomes terribly regressive and self-serving. I fully agree on The Top and Kiss Me, and I don't mind going against the current of the "Curesco" common sense at all. On Smith, you are absolutely right, but fifteen years ago it was the era of Wish, not Kiss Me. The Bauhaus seem exceedingly theatrical to me, bordering on the unbelievable and lacking in credibility. They are also tremendously affected by the passage of time and genres: In the Flat Field at least is interesting, but then I can only see them as a tedious farce of themselves and of a certain sound (and here we return to the beginning of the discussion), personal opinions of course... and yet, on one thing I think I can discuss with sufficient and objective knowledge of the subject: if we look at New York and Ohio (and even California with the Chrome), the comparison simply doesn't hold: another story, another quality, another importance.

Great! But how many reviews do you do? :-D

great review. Historically impeccable. today was definitely the breakthrough album for the BB.. for me the best remains Smiley Smile, absolutely underrated in the psychedelic realm. and maybe, personal taste, I would put this as second.

I would criticize many reviews for the first part, but I actually liked it a lot. The same goes for the rest, which makes me want to (re)search for them: in fact, among hundreds and hundreds of downloaded albums, I don't even know if I had them already... um... :-)