Bangles - Different Light

YOURZ

Blech...  Girly guitar pop.  Yeah, Susanna Hoffs was hot, okay.  And she played a cool Rickenbacker guitar and looked fuckin' awesome in mini skirts and long boots.  Still doesn't mean I liked the music she was making.

It doesn't help that their biggest song, apart from ergh... Walk Like An Egyptian and Eternal Flame, wasn't written by them but by Prince.  Now, I don't have anything against the pint-sized purple-clad popster (check out that alliteration) but no wonder he gave Manic Monday away.  I probably wouldn't ever have admitted to writing it.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

MINE

I was a bit disappointed when the pointy stick landed on this CD rather than All Over the Place, as that (in my opinion) is by far the better Bangles album.  I had to save my pennies to buy the first album, after I saw Going Down to Liverpool on a late-night music TV show called Rock Arena.  At the time I was an unemployed army wife living in a country town, and I had to get the record shop to order it in for me - on cassette, as we were spending a lot of time in the car driving to Melbourne and back. 

I played that cassette to death, and was delighted to hear the band had a new record out in 1986, when I was living in Brisbane.  Still an army wife but no longer unemployed, I called the city's eclectic record shop (Rocking Horse Records, it's still there) to find they had it - on import from the US.  So I paid through the nose for it, and brought it home.  About three weeks later, Walk Like an Egyptian hit the airwaves, and the Bangles became a household name.  Which of course distressed me no end with my indie-cool.

Listening to it for this exercise, there are songs I like - Return Post and Walking Down Your Street in particular - but it still leaves me feeling a wee bit cheated.  Oh, and please, please do not mention their later hit Eternal Flame - the very thought of that sweetly, syrupy piece of fluff makes me throw up in my mouth a little.

As a side note: these girls owe me for concert tickets I bought in the early 90s for a tour they later cancelled.  I was so depressed I never got a refund - just stared at the tickets for days before throwing them away.  They're touring Oz with Pat Benatar right now... but I just couldn't bring myself to fork out for it.  Hmmm, is that regret I hear now?

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN and put the other one on

For more information: http://www.thebangles.com/

In our collection, we also have All Over the Place

Sugar - Copper Blue

MINE

What a surprise!  I knew absolutely nothing about this band before pressing Play this morning, and it's shown me my husband can still astonish me after eight years.  This album is (whisper this so he doesn't get offended) positively pure pop-rock.  My only criticism is the band obviously didn't pay any attention to the tracklisting, as the opening number is quite lack-lustre.

I vaguely recall hearing Helpless before but it was If I Can't Change Your Mind that really got me hopping about in the car this morning.  Top tune, good album, why haven't you played it to me before?  Hmmm?  Could it be it's just a little too MOR for your street cred, honey?  (YourZ sez: first of all: what street cred?  The fact is I had all but forgotten about this album but not again).  The close harmonies and great arrangements actually reminded me of Lush and the Bangles, so there.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

See, this is why this project is so fucking good because it's putting me back in touch with albums like Copper Blue and the songwriting of guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould - and whose existence in our collection had been all but forgotten.  When it came out, it was such an influential piece on me  - more than just about anything else around at the time, with the only possible exception being The Pixies (who openly acknowledge Mould's former band, Husker Du, as being a big influence).

Copper Blue is a stunning pop record, thinly disguised with abrasive guitars and a tough rhythm section.  But listening back, there's no doubting Mould's intentions.  The statement is clear in tracks like If I Can't Change Your Mind, for instance, which is just about the most perfect guitar pop song ever recorded.  Then there's A Good Idea, the best song The Pixies never wrote.  The rest of the track listing is similarly brilliant.

I really don't know why I forgot about this album.  Probably got distracted by too many shiny objects (yes, it happens).  Copper Blue is not like a long lost friend, but more like a close relative who appears on the doorstep after years, maybe looking a little care-worn but still very much a member of the family and whose appearance is cause for much celebration.  And this album is so worth celebrating.

Copper Blue, without a doubt, is the first Forgotten Gem for May (and a contender for the best Forgotten Gem of the year).

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/bobmould