various noises

[Jeff Dalton <jeff%aiva.edinburgh.ac.uk@Cs.Ucl.AC.UK>]

I looked at the Nov 22 Sounds today and there's an actual review of
Invisible Hitchcock.  So, presumably, it actually exists.  It may even
be good (Sounds gives it 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5).  Of course, this
record was announced long ago in the Record News of NME or something.
Hard to believe after all this time that they weren't just making it up,
but I guess not.

There's also a review in Melody Maker...

On to other things...  The evidence of recent singles &c has suggested that
certain people have sold out, gone commercial, become boring.  Is is true?
Well, now we've got the LPs (at least I do) and so can *really know*.
My impressions:

XTC -- Skylarking
    Remember the birds cheeping on the T-Head's Love->Building on Fire?
    Well, XTC has them now.  The record is pastoral, slow.  The vocals are
    recognizably XTC, but the rest is much less distinctive, the kind
    of oversmoothness I've come to associate with records produced by
    Todd Rundgren.  Perhaps it has qualities that I'll appreciate only
    with time, but for now I'm not impressed.  Those who like The Big
    Express may like this too, but for me it's back to Black Sea and
    White Music.

Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians -- Element of Light
    Sell-out?  No.  As good as Fegmania?  Again, no.  As good as
    Underwater Moonlight?  Nope.  I read a rave review of a recent RH 
    concert: "Lady Waters and the Hooded One" was great, etc.  Well,
    that song is a good example, I suppose, because now that I've
    heard it (on the LP), I find I don't like it much.  The music
    sounds like undistinguished Robyn Hitchcock, and the lyrics
    fail to make it anything more.  The Strawbs would do it better
    (really).

The The -- Infected
    Soul Mining is one of my fave records, play it all the time, &c.
    This one is not as immediately appealing, but then I've only played
    it once.  "Sweet Bird of Truth" seems the best track, although perhaps
    because I have heard it before.  The voice is clearly Matt Johnson,
    and far outclasses the random popoids that rule the charts, but the
    rest is less than I'd hoped for.  There's a lot in the lyrics, though,
    more than Robyn manages this time out.  I'll certainly play it again,
    but I'm not sure I'll end up liking it.


Other recent encounters:

Kate Bush -- The Whole Story
   Too bad they had to include Babooshka.  (Well, I suppose they had
   to show how bad it could get too.)  IED has already said what the
   record looks like, and you all know the songs already, so what
   more can I say?

Bananarama -- Deep Sea Skyving
   IED loathes them, but what does he know?  So I got out this little
   gem and played it again.  Just as I remembered: lightweight but fun.
   As for "unvearied" style, I decided long ago that was just a
   disguise for "I don't like any of it".  (Like when your parents
   say "it's just noise".)  The Ramones use this trick too, and I
   think it's a good one.  IDE doesn't tolerate any of this skyving
   nonsense, but does he have any fun?