Creation-14

Creation Records

Albums 131-140

Rating Key

••••••

CRE 131
Poster Children - Daisychain Reaction

1) Dee
2) Cancer
3) If You See Kay
4) Love
5) Freedom Rock
6) Space Gun
7) Water
8) Want It
9) Carver's
10) Chain Reaction
11) Frustration
12) Where We Live

••

Another foray into the American market saw Creation releasing the debut album from Poster Children. Released on major label Sire in North America, this was a release aimed at tapping into the lucrative grunge market and had been recorded and engineered by the near legendary Steve Albini in order to enhance its reputation. Not untypically of Albini, the recordings appear to have been laid down organically, capturing the sound of the band playing live, but little attention seems to have been given to refining the sound for the more discerning ear of the domestic listener. The whole recording, then, comes over as muddy and clouded, and even a remastering by Jim Rondinelli has not been able to focus the twelve tracks into something more cutting. The vocals are buried for the most part in swathes of noise which becomes increasingly annoying, and some whole tracks sound as if they are buried in mud. If you concentrate, there are some decent moments. 'Cancer' has some variety, melody and nice guitar touches, 'Carver's' is a decent rock-out, and 'Chain Reaction' is hard and throbbing. Other tracks vary from Pixie-esque slow/fast, singy/shouty numbers to more classically structured rockers and classic US punk moments. It is hard to say how good this record could have been if you could make out what was really going on, which is a shame.

CRE 132
My Bloody Valentine - Compilation
Unreleased

CRE 133
BMX Bandits - Life Goes On

1) Little Hands
2) Serious Drugs
3) Space Girl
4) Scar
5) I'll Keep On Joking
6) Hole In My Heart
7) Cast A Shadow
8) Cats And Dogs
9) Your Dreams
10) My Friend
11) It Hasn't Ended
12) Intermission (Bathing Beauties)
13) Kylie's Got A Crush On Us

••••

As Creation began to enter the big time, racking up hit singles and albums, there were some bands that remained resolutely old school, playing 1960s' influenced guitar pop music to a small audience, despite any amount of promotion from the label. Creation hoped BMX Bandits would appeal to the market that had so recently embraced Teenage Fanclub, and four tracks were released as singles in an attempt to attract national attention. The first 'Serious Drugs' (single 131) is excellent, a desperate love song swathed in gentle strings and horns. The label took the unusual step of releasing it twice as a single, with a consequent remix hitting the shops (single 181), but neither release made any impact on the charts. 'Kylie's Got A Crush On Us' (single 154) is the most lively track here, gloriously silly, with 'Little Hands' (single 168), a simple, endearing track also finding its way on to single format. The album mostly works; though Duglas T. Stewart's laconic vocals lack the intensity sometimes suggested in the lyrics, the juxtaposition can be very effective. Occasionally, though, things fall a little flat. 'Cats And Dogs' is a bit of a jumble and 'Your Dreams' never gets above ordinary. At the other end of the scale, 'It Hasn't Ended' works nicely with slightly more urgent guitars than the song appears to warrant. 'Happiness and sorrow seem very close to me,' intones Stewart on 'I'll Keep On Joking' and there is a fine line on this album also between success and failure, though generally the former prevails.

CRE 134
Superstar - Greatest Hits Volume One

1) Barfly
2) The Reason Why
3) She's Got Everything I Own
4) Let's Get Lost
5) Taste
6) After Taste

••••

The debut from Joe McAlinden's Superstar was the only record from the band to see the light of day on the Creation label, apparently to the annoyance of boss Alan McGee who was keen to see more releases, and wasn't used to seeing bands he wanted to keep moving on to other labels. Greatest Hits Volume One is a classic Creation release in that it is a collection of guitar pop songs with a 1960s' feel with the production not all it could have been. Certainly a cleaner sound would have enhanced the whole experience. As it stands, 'Barfly' is a driven, riffy pop song with occasional Beach Boy harmonies and some nice guitar flourishes, and McAlinden's wistful vocal impresses on 'The Reason Why', a slower and touching number. 'She's Got Everything I Own' is quick and jangly and ends up sounding a little jumbled, but 'Let's Get Lost' is equally complex in construction but works well; staccato piano, horns and a plaintive vocal succeeding in creating a moving atmosphere. 'Taste' is a huge number, from its brisk guitar intro, big, heartfelt vocals and glowing horns. Its only downside is the long drawn out ending, which in fact becomes 'After Taste', at least giving you the opportunity of ending the song at a more appropriate point. It's not quite all there, but this is a very good opener for the band with the promise of a decent future.

CRE 135
Various Artists - Coming Down

1) The Times - All I Want Is You To Care
2) Fred Neil - Everybody's Talking
3) BMX Bandits - Serious Drugs
4) Oasis - Shakermaker
5) Teenage Fanclub - Guiding Star
6) Biff Bang Pow! - She Paints
7) Jazz Butcher - Girl Go
8) Primal Scream - I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have
9) Slaughter Joe - She's So Out Of Touch
10) My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes
11) James Young - Songs They Never Play On The Radio
12) The Boo Radleys - Let Me Be Your Faith
13) Ride - Howard Hughes

•••

14) Sugar - Walking Away
15) Heidi Berry - Northshore Train
16) Velvet Crush - Why Not Your Baby
17) The Telescopes - You Set My Soul
18) 18 Wheeler - 18 Gram

"These tracks are some of the beautiful slower moments our label has produced over the last decade. It's not all about rockin' out. Probably a good listen at around 5 am." So says label boss Alan McGee on the sleeve of this release, but one wonders how much research he actually put into this production, and why it was felt necessary to attempt to justify the cobbling together of yet another Creation compilation. It is certainly a mixed bag, with four singles included, going back as far as Slaughter's 'She's So Out Of Touch' (single 35) and as up to date as 'Shakermaker' by Oasis (single 182). The remainder are largely album tracks of differing vintages and wavering quality. An oddity is Fred Neil's 'Everybody's Talking', the only appearance on the label of the well known 1960s US folkie with the song made famous by Harry Nilsson.

CRE 136
Scuba - Underwater Symphonies

1) Deep Blue Sea
2) Drowning Astronaut
3) Scuba
4) I Want The Air
5) Iseult
6) Subaqua
7) Ocarina
8) Through The Sand

•••

The difficulty in assessing dance music is that it has its maximum impact in the half-life between fuelling up and coming down, and in the cold light of day often fails to captivate. Aesthetically it creates its own limits as the music embraces repetition over development and beat over invention. Often good ideas are worked to death and moods, once created, quickly lose their allure; there is nothing enigmatic and only transient beauty. This album from Kate Holmes is not a dancefloor groover or an ecstasy blowout, but hovers on the ambient side and, in the cold light of day, underlines many of these points. Thus the beautiful, ghostly vocals of Kirsty Hawksham on 'Deep Blue Sea' create a magic that is quickly dispelled by robotic rabbiting and only a punchy string arrangement lifts the number once again. 'I Want The Air' attempts to capture the mood of the oceanic depths, but the repetitive vocal refrain banishes the beauty. 'Subaqua' fails to create a cohesive mood as its dubbby elegance is mashed by dancefloor beeping, and 'Iseult' could have been astonishing but is far too much of a good thing. 'Ocarina' is the highlight where the flute and dance rhythm mesh perfectly, sounding as if the ancient pipes are carrying their romance into a colder, modern world. This is an interesting recording with moments of real beauty and moments of astonishing inconsequence. A bit like life, really.

CRE 137
The Times - Alternative Commercial Crossover

1) The Obligatory Grunge Song
2) Finnegan's Break
3) How Honest Are Pearl Jam?
4) Baby Girl
5) Ballad of Georgie Best
6) Lundi Blue Praise The Lord Mix
7) A Palace In The Sun
8) Sorry, I've Written a Melody
9) The Whole World's Turning Scarface
10) All I Want Is You To Care

••

Extra tracks on CD release
9) Finnegan's Break Corporate Rock Mix

Alternative Commercial Crossover was the seventh and penultimate album released by The Times on Creation and offered pretty much more of the same, borrowing bits and pieces from everywhere, and ending up as an overlong unfocused mishmash. As usual, the titles had little to do with the songs, with 'The Obligatory Grunge Song' being nothing of the kind, with a Boo Radleys intro and acoustic chiming decorated with Queenesque electric breaks. 'Finnegan's Break' is described as 'where ganja meets guinness' which sums up the eclectic nature of the band's approach, the rap provided by Tippa Irie who also guests on 'Baby Girl'. Once again Paul Heeren's guitar pyrotechnics provide the highlights and there is some decent bass played by Nick Hayward on four of the tracks. One of these, Paul Mulreany's 'A Palace In The Sun' is the best moment where everything comes together for good, though again it could have been cut shorter than its near five minutes (though seven tracks on the album are longer!) Ed Ball's best songs are the slower ones, 'Ballad Of Georgie Best', 'All I Want Is You To Care' and 'Sorry, I've Written a Melody', though the latter stretches to nearly seven and half minutes and it takes one hell of a track to warrant that length. 'The Whole World's Turning Scarface' is a dance vesion of the same.

CRE 138
Adorable - Against Perfection

1) Glorious
2) Favourite Fallen Idol
3) A To Fade In
4) I Know You Too Well
5) Homeboy
6) Sistine Chapel Ceiling
7) Cut #2
8) Crash Sight
9) Still Life
10) Breathless

••••

Great things were expected of Piotr Fijalkowski's Adorable, though despite two Single of the Week awards in the New Musical Express, the band met with a mixed reaction in the music press where some were quick to label them arrogant, as if that had ever been a problem with up and coming musicians. In reality, the Coventry men were capable of delivering and this is an impressive debut album, though a little spoiled by the particularly uninspiring artwork. 'Glorious' is a great start, messy and substantial, with the third single from the album 'Favourite Fallen Idol' (single 159) a welter of guitars. 'A To Fade In' and 'I Know You Too Well' are more measured but equally as effective, with the first single 'Homeboy' (single 140) ending side one on a massive high, beautifully unbalanced in its outlook with the singer declaring, "I want to cut you up, I want to watch you bleed, ever so slowly - you're so beautiful", to a rumbling Pixie-esque bassline and a thundering chorus. Side two does not quite reach the same heights. 'Sistine Chapel Ceiling' (single 153) is the weakest of the three singles, while 'Cut #2" is probably the album's low point. 'Crash Sight' thunders along well enough, 'Still Life' is the closest we get to a ballad, and 'Breathless' is a nagging number that leaves us on the up. The album reached number seventy in the UK album charts.

CRE 139
Slowdive - Souvlaki

1) Alison
2) Machine Gun
3) 40 Days
4) Sing
5) Here She Comes
6) Souvlaki Space Station
7) When The Sun Hits
8) Altogether
9) Melon Yellow
10) Dagger

•••

Limited bonus CD including
1) Slowdive
2) Avalyn 1
3) Morningrise
4) She Calls
5) Losing Today
6) Shine
7) Albatross

Released in May 1993, the second studio album from Slowdive took some producing. Sensitive to criticisms about their sound in the music press, the band agonised recording and re-recording around 40 songs in a Bath studio only to be told by label boss Alan McGee when he heard them that "they are all shit." The band discarded the lot and started over again, aided in part by the legendary Brian Eno on 'Sing' and 'Here She Comes', suitably ambient and dreamy numbers. Having wanted to record a pop album, 'Souvlaki' ended up even more ethereal than their debut album and unfortunately hit the shops just after Suede had unleashed their debut album and the ubiquitous Britpop movement had taken off. It didn't chart and received some poor reviews, NME describing it as 'unfulfilling' and Melody Maker as 'a soulless void'. This was a harsh indictment for 'Souvlaki' actually offers much to love, despite its overly quiet production. 'Alison' is a beauty, draped in warm guitar effects, and 'Machine Gun' is the band at their best with Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell exchanging vocals in Elysian Fields. The two singers combine to good effect also on '40 Days' with its Cocteau Twins soundtrack. Sadly, it is in the latter stages 'Souvlaki' gets bogged down, side two failing to reach any great heights. The previous year's 'Blue Day' compilation came as a bonus with the first 1,000 copies of the CD.

CRE 140
Various Artists - All The President's Men

1) Ride - Chrome Waves
2) Adorable - Sunshine Smile
3) Velvet Crush - Window To The World
4) Biff Bang Pow! - Miss You
5) Swervedriver - Sandblasted
6) Peter Astor - Six Day Weekend
7) Slowdive - Ballad Of Sister Sue
8) Hypnotone - Quasar
9) The Telescopes - Space Ships
10) Sheer Taft - Cascades
11) The Boo Radleys - Lazy Dayy

••

There was no attempt to justify the latest Creation compilation which consisted of a bewildering assortment of singles and album tracks from various eras and of various styles. Two dance tracks stood along with a moderate selection from the label's current roster and the obligatory recording from Biff Bang Pow! Adorable's 'Sunshine Smile' (single 127) is the highlight, the track not appearing on the band's debut album, while The Boo Radleys and Slowdive are also worth a listen. The whole thing is parked in the usual poor and amateurish artwork, the back cover being an out of focus picture of some red berries and the front cover a wider, sharper shot of the same fruit adorned with a sweet necklace and a Love Heart that has 'Lover' written on it. Marvellous.

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