Love and Rockets "Love and Rockets" (1989)

Love and Rockets
release date: Sep. 4, 1989
format: vinyl (PL 90344) / digital
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]
producer: John Fryer, Love and Rockets
label: RCA / Beggars Banquet - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "**** (Jungle Law)" - 2. "No Big Deal" - 3. "The Purest Blue" - 4. "Motorcycle" (4 / 5) - 8. "So Alive" (4 / 5) - 9. "Rock and Roll Babylon" - 10. "No Words No More"

4th studio album by Love and Rockets originally released by Beggars Banquet. The band has teamed up with the more 'pop-tuned' producer, John Fryer. The album is a move away from the psychedelic style they have worked deeper into from a chronological perspective, but here they incorporate glam rock and post-punk elements and basically come out with an album closer to the Bauhaus sound than anything else they have made since they began 6 years and 3 albums earlier. The track "So Alive" became a (surprisingly) rather big hit as it went as high as number #3 on the Billboard 100 in the US, and the album reached number #14 in the US (the highest charting album by L&R). In 2002 the album was re-issued as a double disc album with 13 bonus tracks. I remember, when I bought the album, how I used to play "Motorcycle" at maximum volume. "So Alive" was without doubt the big hit of the album, but I simply loved the hard rockin' mc song. To me, this was clearly a shift of style in the right direction, however, the band would not release a follow-up until 5 years later, as both Daniel Ash and David J focused more on solo projects and by the time they again came together as a band, the music was not around this one. Love and Rockets fifth studio album Hot Trip to Heaven from '94, I never understood - I hand it 2 / 5 stars and the 6th album Sweet F.A. from '96 is likewise not an album, I would recommend. I think, they kind of lost their drive and lust for music, or drifted apart in the 1990s - the band's 7th and final album is Lift from '98. I haven't come across the album but I've read an interview with Daniel Ash talking about their lack of musical drive. The critics also became less enthusiastic and in 1999 the band officially disbanded. The band reunited in 2007 to play a concert in tribute of Joe Strummer, toured and played several concerts in 2008 before finally disbanding.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

Love and Rockets "Earth · Sun · Moon" (1987)

Earth · Sun · Moon

release date: Sep. 9, 1987
format: vinyl (BEGA 84) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]
producer: Derek 'Guru' Tompkins, Love and Rockets
label: Beggars Banquet - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Mirror People" (4 / 5) - 2. "The Light" - 3. "Welcome Tomorrow" - 4. "No New Tale to Tell" - 12. "Youth"

3rd studio album by Love and Rockets this time with a new producer and a bold alt. rock album in neo-psychedelia style. In the early and mid-1980s the label alt. rock wasn't really a style or genre yet, and really, this band has been one of the pioneering efforts in directing music onto new pastures. This album and the two previous by Love and Rockets has helped define a new playground for popular music if it doesn't fall within 'mainstream' genres. The album has been lauded by many critics, and I guess, because of its clear psychedelic qualities. I just don't really enjoy it as much as its predecessors.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Love and Rockets "Express" (1986)

Express
release date: Sep. 15, 1986
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: John A. Rivers, Love and Rockets
label: Beggars Banquet - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "It Could Be Sunshine" - 2. "Kundalini Express" - 3. "All in My Mind" (4 / 5) - 5. "Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man)" - 7. "All in My Mind (acoustic version)" - 9. "Ball of Confusion (USA Mix)" (Bonus track)

2nd studio album by Love and Rockets takes the band further into experimental and neo-psychedelic within the alt. rock frame. It's strange how it has been successfully mixed as both extremely complex and yet clear as the brightest light. There's the addition of a harder tone of distorted guitars throughout the album but other than that it's undoubtedly Love and Rockets. The album is generally better produced than the debut album, despite being produced by the same people only two years later, and it's a rather hard choice to have to choose between the band's two first albums. They are both very good and highly original. The album comes in various editions. The first UK issue consisted of 8 tracks, although, an American issue had 9 tracks, and a Canadian issue 11 tracks. In 2000 Beggars Banquet reissued the album in a remastered version with 8 bonus tracks.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Kerrang! 4 / 5 stars ]

Love and Rockets "Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven" (1985)

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Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven [debut]
release date: Oct. 11, 1985
format: cd (2000 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]
producer: John A. Rivers, Love and Rockets
label: Beggars Banquet - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "If There's a Heaven Above" - 2. "A Private Future" - 3. "The Dog-End of a Day Gone By" - 6. "Haunted When the Minutes Drag" - 7. "Saudade"

Studio debut album by the trio Love and Rockets consisting of Daniel Ash on vocals and guitar, David J on bass and backing vocals, and Kevin Haskins on drums. All three band members formed the band in 1985 after the demise of Bauhaus. Actually, Ash had already formed the project-band, Tones on Tail in '82 together with (Bauhaus roadie) Glenn Campling, with whom Ash had attended art school, and when Bauhaus disbanded in '83, Kevin Haskins joined the two.
The music is rather far from what the three played while in Bauhaus. There's hardly any gothic rock references here at all and instead the band plays a new form of psychedelic rock and alt. rock that would come to be labelled neo-psychedelia. The music is heavily built on Daniel Ash's distorted guitar sound but also by a vast repertoire of instruments, though it's all kept quite simple. There are long almost progressive parts without the tracks seem too long - held together by various passages of simple repetitive loops and bits of choruses here and there. It's a surprisingly strong release.
I used to have the original album on cassette and now is left with a 2000 remaster cd issue of the album containing 6 bonus tracks.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]

2000 remaster