6. “No Big Deal” – Love & Rockets: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “No Big Deal” – Love & Rockets

(From the album Love & Rockets)

1989

Love & Rockets had a bona fide hit – and an American hit at that – with the Daniel Ash penned “So Alive”. The band then went on a lengthy tour to support their newfound success and promote their surprise hit. Unsurprisingly, none of the follow-up singles managed to find any real success beyond the band’s cult audience, especially since their really is nothing else on Love & Rockets that sounds like “So Alive” or a mainstream hit of any kind. Certainly the immediate follow-up single to “So Alive”, Daniel J’s “Rock & Roll Babylon”, was not likely to find success with a mainstream audience as the song feels like a cross between a 1970’s singer/songriter ballad and a Broadway production. At minimum, “Rock & Roll Babylon” feels like an odd choice for a single and, at most, was meant to purposefully kill the band’s mainstream momentum. Love & Rockets did follow this up with the one song that might have been a successful follow-up to “So Alive”, Daniel Ash’s “No Big Deal”. “No Big Deal” feels like a heavier and harder sonic cousin to “So Alive” in that it too is built on a repeated beat and riff that creates a trancelike feel. However, the song is probably too hard and harsh to appeal to mainstream fans whose first exposure to the band was “So Alive”, while also being too rooted in alternative rock to reach the fans of Motley Crue and Bon Jovi who had enjoyed “So Alive”. Even if the band’s momentum had not been broken up by releasing “Rock & Roll Babylon” as a single, “No Big Deal” likely would only have had appeal to the band’s core audience. This is a fact backed up by “No Big Deal” still reaching #19 on the American alt rock chart. As a song on its own merits, “No Big Deal” is a chugging, fuzzy rocker that twists the sound of classic rock and roll on its head, but is not as inventive or interesting as some of Love & Rockets best work.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

5. “So Alive” – Love & Rockets: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

5. “So Alive” – Love & Rockets

(From the album Love & Rockets)

1989

Love & Rockets released three albums in three years that were experimental and groundbreaking. Each one of them – Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven, Express, Earth Sun Moon – different from the last but drawing on the same set of influences, while also simultaneously moving the band’s sound away from their roots as members of goth pioneers Bauhaus. Earth Sun Moon also found the band’s two primary songwriters, Daniel Ash and David J, writing separately rather than together much more often. This trend continued for Love & Rockets’ self-titled fourth album which was written as almost two separate pieces that were then stitched together. In some ways this makes the album feel and sound like the divided work that it is, but since both Ash and J are still drawing on the same musical roots as their previous work that dichotomy is not necessarily as at odds as it might seem to be. In a sense, Love & Rockets is the summation of everything the band had previously done, but also finds them streamlining much of the sound into something more tight and pop-oriented in structure, if not necessarily sound. And there is not much here that really feels like pop music (despite the criticism from some fans about this album) outside of the band’s one true hit, the pulsing and slinking T. Rex homage “So Alive”. While “So Alive” is rooted in the sound of alt rock forerunners like T. Rex and David Bowie, the song also has enough similarity in tone to ballads from 80’s hair rockers to allow the song to find success on American radio. Indeed, while “So Alive” only peaked at #79 in the UK, the song hit #9 on the US rock charts,  #1 on the US alternative rock charts, and #3 on the overall Billboard Top 40, an incredible feat in the USA for a British alt band at that time. 

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

4. “No New Tale To Tell” – Love & Rockets: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

4. “No New Tell To Tale” – Love & Rockets

(From the album Earth, Sun, Moon)

1987

Love & Rockets released their third album in three years with 1987’s Earth Sun Moon, an album that continued to explore the psychedelic flourishes of Express but then surrounded that with a folkier, more acoustic sound for much of the record. The sound of Earth Sun Moon isn’t a retreat from the experimental nature of their previous music, nor is it a move toward the mainstream, it is just the band placing a greater emphasis on a different set of their influences and bringing those to the forefront. Love & Rockets had done a similar thing with each of their previous albums and found creative success and the same holds true here on Earth Sun Moon. This means that Earth Sun Moon can feel more straightforward upon first listen but this is no pop record, at least not in any traditional way. This can be heard on the album’s most successful track, the second single and minor college radio hit “No New Tale To Tell”. “No New Tale To Tell” opens as an acoustic pop-rocker that slowly evolves into something more complex and strange before finishing as a fuzzy and direct rocker. “No New Tale To Tell” is a song that seems simple but that slowly reveals its depth over repeated listens.

While Love & Rockets are rarely given proper credit for it the sounds and styles they introduced over their first three records all played a key role in establishing and shaping the sound of the kind of alternative rock that would come to dominate the 1990’s and “No New Tale To Tell” is an obvious blueprint for what many later bands would do.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

3. “Kundalini Express” – Love & Rockets: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

3. “Kundalini Express” – Love & Rockets

(From the album Express)

1986

Love & Rockets followed up their groundbreaking debut album with 1986’s Express, an album that kept most of the same ingredients but played up the pop and psychedelic influences, while downplaying some of the more overt gothic and dance elements in their music. These subtle shifts can be heard in the first single and pseudo-title track “Kundalini Express”. “Kundalini Express” starts out as Love & Rockets take on the age old rock and roll trope of the “train song”. In fact, the first half of “Kundalini Express” is an excellent, alt-rock take on that motif, complete with chugging, rhythmic riffs, lyrics about a journey, and background “woo-woo’s” meant to simulate a train whistle. However, rather than simply rehash one of rock music’s oldest formulas (albeit in excellent and inventive fashion) the second half of “Kundalini Express” finds the train moving into psychedelic, transcendental territory with both its music and lyrics, transforming a great train song into a powerful metaphor about the experience of life and death that seemingly draws on both eastern philosophy and mind-altering chemicals. It is a huge-sounding, hard-charging rocker that evolves into something mystical, spiritual, and epic. “Kundalini Express” is a great song but it did not breakthrough as a single; nor did its follow-up, the rhythmic noise experiment “Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man)”, although both songs did add to both the fanbase and reputation of Love & Rockets as talented musicians and inventive songwriters. However, the third single from Express, the beautiful and ethereal pop/rock gem “All In My Mind”, would finally earn the band their first minor chart placement by hitting #49 on the US rock chart.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

2. “Haunted When The Minutes Drag” – Love & Rockets: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “Haunted When The Minutes Drag” – Love & Rockets

(From the album Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven)

1985

Following the release of the non-album single “Ball Of Confusion” Love & Rockets went to work on recording their first album and 1985 saw the release of Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven an album that carved out a unique sound and place for Love & Rockets in the alternative music landscape of the mid 1980’s. Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven is a unique blend of goth, dance, new wave, pop, post-punk, art rock, industrial, and psychedelia. While other artists had tried to fuse many of these elements before, Love & Rockets really were able to find a unique sound that was truly unique; even visionary. A modern listen can still hear an inventive and experimental album, but the sound Love & Rockets explored here has been so liberally borrowed from by artists in many genres that it is easy to forget how inventive and different much of Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven truly was in 1985. The first and only proper single released from Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven was “If There’s A Heaven Above”, which is an ethereal, mystical, dark-edged pop song that set the tone for the album to come. The song did not chart but that likely has more to do with how innovative and unique Love & Rockets was at the time than any negative reflection on the song. Still, the true standout track of Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven is not “If There’s A Heaven Above” but the eight minute epic “Haunted When The Minutes Drag”. The first part of “Haunted When The Minutes Drag” is a cinematic, post-punk dirge that is laced with a sense of dark obsession. However, the song then subtly shifts to something warmer and more fulfilled; it still has an underlying touch of darkness to it but there is also a sense of tranquility and the peaceful malaise that can come after a strong, emotional or sexual experience. From there the song continues on in a largely instrumental coda that extends the trancelike sense of the song and helps to give it a sense of that sense of cinematic grandeur and sweep. It has become one of the band’s most beloved songs over the years in spite of it not being a single.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

1. “Ball Of Confusion” – Love & Rockets: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Ball Of Confusion” – Love & Rockets

(From the album Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven)

1985

Following the breakup of the seminal post-punk/goth band Bauhaus guitarist/saxophonist Daniel Ash and drummer Kevin Haskins continued to work together in the band Tones On Tail, which attempted to merge Bauhaus’ gothic sensibilities with dance and pop elements. However, by 1985 former Bauhaus bassist Daniel J had rejoined his old bandmates in an effort to reform Bauhaus. However, when Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy declined the offer to reform Bauhaus, Ash, Haskins, and Daniel J chose to continue working together as Love & Rockets. Despite all three band members having been in Bauhaus, Love & Rockets continued to move away from the gothic style of Bauhaus’ music. While Love & Rockets did still have elements of the gothic sound there was also an emphasis on dance, funk, soul, psychedelia, and pop music woven through their music. This focus can be heard well on the band’s first non-album single, a cover of The Temptations’ 1970 classic “Ball Of Confusion”. The Love & Rockets version is fairly faithful to the original in that it places the emphasis on the rhythm and groove of the song (which helped Love & Rockets’ “Ball Of Confusion” become a minor club hit). However, their version also adds in some distorted guitars, light industrial touches, and a sense of desperation that is less present in the original. If nothing else, the choice of these former members of Bauhaus to release a cover of “Ball Of Confusion” as their first single as a new band went a long way to show that they were interested in doing more than just living off their legacy. Love & Rockets wanted to push boundaries, be experimental, and surprise people. “Ball Of Confusion” did that, while also, perhaps, giving a nod to the fact that Bauhaus had always been more rhythmic and groove-oriented than they were given credit for being. With “Ball Of Confusion” Love & Rockets announced their presence and their promise. Although originally released as a non-album single, “Ball Of Confusion” was later included on Love & Rocket’s debut album Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

7. “I Turned Out A Punk” – Big Audio Dynamite: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

7. “I Turned Out A Punk” – Big Audio Dynamite

(From the album F-Punk)

1995

Following the failure of Higher Power Big Audio Dynamite reverted back to that name and signed a new contract with Radioactive Records. Radioactive released Big Audio Dynamite’s eight album F-Punk. The title was a pun on the name of the pioneering funk/rock fusion band P-Funk and a sly allusion to Mick Jones’ own history as a member of punk pioneers The Clash and his eventual rejection of that style of music (hence, “F*** Punk”). The odd thiing though is that F-Punk does not find B.A.D. embracing the fusion of styles championed by P-Funk or their own earlier work, but instead find Jones and company playing relatively straightforward rock music influenced by his own punk past and the current rock trends in Britain at the time. A good example of this is the album’s opening track “I Turned Out A Punk” which marries the simplicity and nihilsm of punk with the dance/rock fusion of the time, leading to a song that lyrically feels like an outtake from The Clash married to a musical track from the band James’ Millionaires album. “I Turned Out A Punk” isn’t bad, it has a wry humor and pulsing rhythm that makes it listenable enough; but it is also not very inventive or especially catchy, and certainly was not a hit. In fact, F-Punk did so poorly that the label flat out refused to release B.A.D.’s next offering, 1997’s Entering A New Ride, even though the album found Mick Jones and company working with Ranking Roger of The Beat and General Public on a few songs. Eventually, the band themselves released tracks from the album on their website in 2001 (an ahead of its time move) but Jones disbanded the group not long after. B.A.D. reformed to play some live shows in 2011 but not new music has been releasd by the band.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

6. “The Globe” – Big Audio Dynamite II: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “The Globe” – Big Audio Dynamite II

(From the album The Globe)

1991

Big Audio Dynamite II followed up the success of the international hit “Rush” by releasing the title track of their album The Globe as the follow-up single. The album version of “The Globe” was a six-minute long jam that walked the line between funky club track and experimental rock. However, the excess of the album version was cut almost in half for a tight single edit that kept all of the fun and funk of the original version but delivered it in a tight, catchy package made for the radio and video channels. While not the major hit that “Rush” had been “The Globe” (which was not released as a single in the UK) did hit #3 on the US modern rock chart and #28 on the US dance chart (#72 on the Billboard Top 100). “The Globe” was a solid follow-up to “Rush” and helped to keep B.A.D. II in the charts and on the radios in America. B.A.D. II also spent time as the opening act for both U2 on their Achtung Baby tour and for rap group Public Enemy before headlining MTV’s 120 Minutes Tour along side Public Image Ltd. and Blind Melon. The momentum B.A.D. II built up during this time would prove to be short-lived though. Both changing musical trends, especially in the US where grunge rock was about to explode onto the scene, and the band’s own inconsistency would mean that their 1994 album High Power (which once again featured a shuffled band line-up and another new name, now just Big Audio) would be a commercial and critical disappointment. 

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

5. “Rush” – Big Audio Dynamite II: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

5. “Rush” – Big Audio Dynamite II

(From the album The Globe)

1991

Big Audio Dynamite fell apart following the release of 1989’s Megatop Phoenix, but since the heart and core of the band was really just Mick Jones he quickly found a new group of musicians to work with and got back to work. This new version of Bad Audio Dynamite was dubbed Big Audio Dynamite II and found the band continuing in the same direction as before by mixing punk, pop, hip hop, funk, and sampling. The ingredients may have been largely the same but Jones seemed reinvigorated by his new bandmates and in 1990 B.A.D. II released the album Kool Aid in the UK, Europe, and Australia to critical praise and some commercial success. 1991 saw B.A.D. II release another new album titled The Globe. The Globe contained both new songs and several reworked songs that had first appeared on Kool Aid. One of these reworked songs was The Globe’s lead single “Rush” which had appeared on Kool Aid in a much longer, more club-oriented version under the title “Change Of Atmosphere”. For The Globe, the song was cut down, renamed “Rush”, and given a more pop-oriented makeover that proved to be a worldwide success. “Rush” went to #1 in Australia and New Zealand, while also surprising everyone by breaking into the American Top 40 at #32 (while also hitting #1 on the US modern rock chart as well). Officially, “Rush” didn’t chart in the UK because it was officially released as the B-side to The Clash’s re-release of “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” (which had found a new audience due to a placement in a Levi’s ad). In truth, the single read that The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” was the A-side and B.A.D. II’s “Rush” was the AA-side, and so the single should likely have been considered a double A-side for chart purposes but for whatever reason that was not the case and so “Rush” didn’t earn a UK placement. That said, “Rush” was a success on radio and as a promotional tool for The Globe album in the UK. No matter the critical praise or commercial success, “Rush” found Big Audio Dynamite reinvigorated, fresh, and funky, and the song would easily be B.A.D.’s biggest American hit (in any version of the band).

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

4. “Just Play Music!” – Big Audio Dynamite: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

4. “Just Play Music!” – Big Audio Dynamite

(From the album Tighten Up, Vol. 88)

1988

Big Audio Dynamite was chosen to be the opening act for some of the dates on U2’s massive tour in support of The Joshua Tree and the band released their third album during this period. That third release was Tighten Up, Vol. 88 and for the first time Big Audio Dynamite did not earn widespread critical praise. The album also saw a continued commercial slide for the band as it peaked at #33 on the UK albums chart. The one somewhat bright spot was the lead single “Just Play Music!” which borrowed heavily from American R&B and various island musics and managed to scrape to #51 in the UK. However, “Just Play Music!” did reach #1 on the newly formed US Modern Rock chart designed to focus on the rise of alternative rock in the US. Still, overall the release was seen as part of a continued commercial and creative slide for the group. Part of the album’s lack of success might be due to the fact that promotion for it was limited as not long after its release Mick Jones spent several months in the hospital fighting for his life due to contracting both chicken pox and pneumonia simulataneously. However, once Jones recovered he got B.A.D. right back into the studio to record their next album 1989’s Megatop Phoenix. Megatop Phoenix proved to be a somewhat divisive release, earning back some critics and fans while further alienating others as the album delved even further into dance textures and culture. However, two top 20 dance chart hits in the USA – “James Brown” and “Contact” – made Megatop Phoenix Big Audio Dynamite’s most successful release in the USA to date. Megatop Phoenix would prove to be the last album from the original B.A.D. lineup though and when Jones brought the project back a few years he would be the only original member left and the band would be rebranded as Big Audio Dynamite II.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com