Creation-18

Creation Records

Albums 171-180

Rating Key

••••••

CRE 171
Various Artists - Noise Annoys

1) Slaughter Joe - I'll Follow You Down
2) My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise
3) Meat Whiplash - Don't Slip Up
4) Ride - Drive Blind
5) The Boo Radleys - Leaves And Sand
6) Teenage Filmstars - Kiss Me
7) Sugar - JC Auto
8) My Bloody Valentine - Soon
9) Silverfish - Crazy
10) Teenage Filmstars - Pressure
11) Conspiracy Of Noise - E:merika
12) Slaughter Joe - Fall Apart

•••

"Without Helter Skelter there would have been no Sonic Youth, Jesus and Mary Chain, Dr Mix and the Remix, My Bloody Valentine the same could be said for the Velvet Underground but that's another story. That song defined Noise music. This album is a tribute to that song and the man who wrote it Paul McCartney." So wrote Alan McGee (ungrammatically) in January 1996 as the introduction to Creation's billionth compilation album, Noise Annoys, the label trawling through its back catalogue once again to parade some of their noisier moments. Again, it is a pretty mixed bunch, going all the way back to Meat Whiplash's 'Don't Slip Up' and as far up to date as Conspiracy of Noise's 'E:merika'. There is the usual mixture of singles and album tracks and it is interesting to hear some of these together to compare the production techniquess; a surprise is that 'I'll Follow You Down' has a much cleaner sound than the muggy 'You Made Me Realise'. 'Drive Blind' serves as a tasty reminder that Ride once had the world at their feet and, as always, the Boo Radley's are a class above, 'Leaves and Sand' swooping and soaring to the heavens. 'JC Auto' and the grand 'Soon' are also quality items but, once again, there are too many fillers which prevent this from becoming a very fine album indeed. And what is this obssession with soft fruit? I don't find strawberries particularly noisy or annoying.

CRE 172
Sugar - File Under: Easy Listening

1) Gift
2) Company Book
3) Your Favorite Thing
4) What You Want It To Be
5) Gee Angel
6) Panama City Motel
7) Can't Help You Anymore
8) Granny Cool
9) Believe What You're Saying
10) Explode And Make Up

•••

The third album from Sugar had a difficult period of gestation. With Copper Blue and Beaster having been recorded in the same sessions, Bob Mould was unhappy with the first attempts at a new record and the band settled down to go through the whole process again, with File Under: Easy Listening eventually emerging in September 1994. At first play you might have believed the title to be in some way ironic, the opening track 'Gift' as spiky as anything from the first two albums, but as FU:EL progresses Mould certainly reveals a lighter side. 'Your Favorite Thing', a rarity in being an outwardly positive tale of obsessive love, is melodic and hooky and was an obvious choice for a single (single 186), becoming the band's second top forty UK chart hit. The follow up, 'Believe What You're Saying' (single 193) is the gentlest thing the band ever recorded, a more familiar tale of a relationship crossing the line of no return, and it also dented the lower regions of the charts. 'Can't Help You Anymore' is annoyingly bouncy despite its inevitably negative outlook, and the final track 'Explode And Make Up' continues in a similar vein, a straightforward rock ballad with an appropriate guitar solo. Following the release of this album, which reached number seven in the UK album charts, bassist David Barbe quit the group to spend more time with his family, his swansong being 'Company Book' the only one of his songs to appear on any of Sugar's albums.

CRE 173
Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix

1) About You
2) Sparky's Dream
3) Mellow Doubt
4) Don't Look Back
5) Verisimilitude
6) Neil Jung
7) Tears
8) Discolite
9) Say No
10) Going Places
11) I'll Make It Clear
12) I Gotta Know
13) Hardcore/Ballad

•••••

After the critical nightmare of Thirteen, it was some eighteen months before Teenage Fanclub emerged with a new album and a lot was resting on their ability to re-find their form. Fortunately, they delivered big time with Grand Prix a magnificent record described by the BBC as a 'perfect pop album' and The Independent as 'breathtakingly superb'. Released in May 1995 when Britpop was dominating the media, Grand Prix cut through the hype to storm to No.7 in the charts, with Creation using three tracks as singles: the gloriously downbeat 'Mellow Doubt' (single 175), the sublime 'Sparky's Dream' (single 201), and the heartfelt 'Neil Jung' (single 210). Surprisingly, none of these became monster hits, the first reaching only No.34 and the achingly commercial 'Sparky's Dream' only just nudging the top forty. But it isn't just these tracks that make this album shine, the whole has a glorious pop sensibility, drawing in influences and working them into beautiful three-minute packages that assume an identity of their own. It's monstrously skilled and brilliant at a very instinctive level; these boys are talented musicians with an inate understanding of melody, timing and construction. From the inspiring guitar outro to 'Neil Jung' to the strings and horns of 'Tears', this record oozes class. There's not a dull moment, nor a bad one. Not even a weak one. If Grand Prix doesn't move you, you are already dead.

CRE 174
BMX Bandits - Gettin' Dirty

1) Gettin' Dirty
2) Hello Again
3) Lost Girl
4) Love, Come To Me
5) No Future
6) Konnichiwa
7) Waiting For Baby
8) The Audition
9) Rays Of Golden
10) I Could Fall In Love
11) Baby, I'm With You
12) Come Out Of The Shadows
13) Konnichiwa #2

•••

14) On The Road To Heaven
15) Little River Of Spring

Before he formed Teenage Fanclub, Norman Blake had been a member of BMX Bandits, and while the Fannies' frontman was working on his band's masterpiece, his erstwhile colleague, Duglas T. Stewart, was busy putting together the Bandits' second Creation album, Gettin' Dirty. Unfortunately, it is hard not to draw comparisons between the two albums, espcially as 'No Future' is a straight reworking of Blake's 'Tears' (interestingly viewed from the other side), and most albums would suffer when held up against Grand Prix. As it stands, Gettin' Dirty is a more serious record than its predecessor, Life Goes On, produced by a more settled band, but it is not in the same league as the Fannies' offering and lacks the endearing qualities of the band's earlier recordings. Not that it doesn't have its moments. 'Rays Of Golden' is lightly pleasant, and 'I Could Fall In Love' is a thrillingly mature number with some beautifully harmonious organ work, but in other places the border between tweeness and sensitivity is breached too often. 'Waiting For Baby' is horrible and 'The Audition' borders on the same. Having released four singles from Life Goes On, the lack of obvious commercial tracks on this album meant Creation only chose 'Gettin' Dirty' (single 192) for an outing in that format, though 'Love, Come To Me' featured on a later EP (single 207). The former is unremarkable, the latter little livelier, and it was unsurprising neither bothered the charts.

CRE 175
Momus - Compilation
Unreleased

CRE 176
The Creation - Power Surge

1) Creation
2) Power Surge
3) Someone's Gonna Bleed
4) Shock Horror
5) That's How I Found Love
6) Killing Songs
7) Nobody wants To Know
8) City Life
9) English Language
10) Free Men Live Forever
11) Ghost Division
12) O+N

•••

If you have named your record label after a legendary sixties band, what better thing than to get the original line-up to reform to record an album for you? 1996 saw the release of Power Surge, only the Creation's second long player after 1967's We Are Painter Men, a (largely compilation) release restricted to continental Europe where the band were able to attract large audiences. In Britain they had been best known for their first two singles, 'Making Time' and 'Painter Man', both produced in 1966 by the Who and Kinks producer Shel Talmy, and both of which made the lower reaches of the singles chart. (The b-side of 'Painter Man' of course being 'Biff, Bang, Pow'.) After these two remarkable pop-art releases the original line-up fell apart and different incarnations of the band were put together over the next two decades, with their sound taking on a more psychedelic edge. This was the first time, then, the original members had recorded together for nearly thirty years and they pooled together to write new songs, and these are inevitably ones which could have been dragged screaming straight from the mid-sixties. There's some great stuff here with some sonic guitar playing from Eddie Phillips and evocative vocals from Kenny Pickett; it's just a shame the sound is so bad. The production really is very muggy and you feel with a little more time and money this could have developed into something quite remarkable. Still, there's twelve tracks here of varying quality from a band nobody thought would ever make a new record and it's certainly nothing to be disregarded. The legend remains intact. Despite Boney M.

CRE 177
Teenage Filmstars - Buy Our Record Support Our Sickness

1) Physical Graffiti
2) English Martyrs
3) Guruprophecy
4) Feeding The Bluejays
5) Designa Socialist
6) Carnaby Smooth
7) A Clockwork Banana
8) H.U.M.
9) You Mystify Me
10) Jeepers Creepers
11) A Hero In Music
12) Islamic Disco

•

More experimentation by Ed Ball. Backwards songs, backwards writing on the album sleeve, and even the timer on the CD player counts backwards. Obviously made for backwards individuals. If you have to listen to any of it then 'You Mystify Me' has some proper vocals, but in truth I haven't got seventy-three minutes to waste playing this again. Egabrag.

CRE 178
Primal Scream - Vanishing Point

1) Burning Wheel
2) Get Duffy
3) Kowalski
4) Star
5) If They Move, Kill 'Em
6) Out Of The Void
7) Stuka
8) Medication
9) Motörhead
10) Trainspotting
11) Long Life

•••••

Vanishing Point was nearly the record Primal Scream didn't make. Having taken a fair amount of (largely ridiculous) criticism in the music press for the rockier nature of Give Out But Don't Give Up the band had also fallen into the grip of drug addiction and was on the brink of falling apart before a change in personnel gave them the shot in the arm they really needed, and they began to work on a new album with renewed vigour. Former Stone Roses bassist Gary 'Mani' Mounfield was the major catalyst, with former Jazz Butcher drummer Paul Mulreany also joining the band, and here the Scream re-find their groove with some purpose, producing an impressively menacing dance record that blew pretty much everything else out of the water. Inspired by the cult film of the same name, much of Vanishing Point was aimed at writing a more fitting soundtrack for the picture in place of the 'hippy' music of the original that did not effectively fit its purpose. This is dark stuff, heavily dub influenced, industrial disco and mightily impressive. It's not all of one mind, however, and the Stones' influence is not entirely done away with. 'Medication', outlining the band's recent problems, continues the Mick Taylor-era homages, and other heroes are also feted, a screaming version of Lemmy Kilmister's 'Motörhead' another high point. The first single 'Kowalksi' (single 245) stormed into the top ten, a maelstrom of malevolence carried along by a muscular bassline and underlined by Bobby Gillespie's sinister, whispered vocal. It was followed by three other singles from the album: the lighter 'Star' (single 263) made it to No.16 in June 1997, and 'Burning Wheel' (single 272) to No.17 in October that year. An EP featuring 'If They Move, Kill 'Em' (single 284) remixed by Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine also saw the light of day in February 1998.

CRE 179
The Boo Radleys - Wake Up!

1) Wake Up Boo!
2) Fairfax Scene
3) It's Lulu
4) Joel
5) Find The Answer Within
6) Reaching Out From Here
7) Martin, Doom! It's Seven O'Clock
8) Stuck On Amber
9) Charles Bukowski Is Dead
10) 4am Conversation
11) Twinside
12) Wilder

•••••

After releasing two brilliant albums for the label which may have garnered more critical acclaim than commercial success, the Boo Radleys surprised themselves with their third, Wake Up!, when it made them pop stars, going straight in at number one in the UK charts. Of course, much of this success was due to the huge impact of 'Wake Up Boo!' (single 191) which had gone top ten in March 1995 and became the soundtrack to the summer, being particularly embraced by breakfast television shows which was ironic as Martin Carr once related he wrote the song after watching The Big Breakfast after a night on acid. The song is commercial gold; Carr's ability to catch a melody on the wing is unsurpassed and the song simply carries you away in waves of euphoria. Like its predecessors, Wake Up! meanders between blissfully elegant pop songs and more experimental psychedelic numbers. 'It's Lulu' (single 211) comes closest to the big hit, another stormer drenched in lively horns, and it reached a respectable No.25, whilst the follow-up 'Find The Answer Within' (single 202) was perhaps a little too tangental to strike home with the general record buying public, its terrific singalong chorus garnished with quite raucous guitars and some oddly backwards vocals. Again, this is a staggering record, thoughfully constructed, beautifully played and Simon Rowbottom's vocals are simply gorgeous. A work of genius. Simple as.

CRE 180
Ride - Tarantula

1) Black Nite Crash
2) Sunshine/Nowhere To Run
3) Dead Man
4) Walk On Water
5) Dep Inside My Pocket
6) Mary Anne
7) Castle On The Hill
8) Gonna Be Alright
9) The Dawn Patrol
10) Ride The Wind
11) Burnin'
12) Starlight Motel

•••

Ride had been on a downward spiral since Going Blank Again and by the time their fourth and final album hit the shops in March 1996, the band had already split. Ride's main songwriters had been pulling in different directions since the recording of Carnival Of Light, and the friction had grown so bad that the songwriters had taken one side of that record each, refusing to let their songs be placed next to the other's. Tarantula is very much Andy Bell's album with the guitarist writing nine of the twelve numbers, and co-writing one other. Fellow guitarist-vocalist Mark Gardener kept his distance from the project, contributing only one co-written number, before quitting as the album was being mixed. The plight of the band was ably summed up by Bell in his track 'Castle On The Hill' where he laments, "A friend of mine, one of the few, has locked himself away like Howard Hughes. They're trying to replace him but they know they never will. It ain't the same without him, on the castle on the hill." With their previous two albums having hit No.5 in the charts, Tarantula didn't make a dent on them, being withdrawn after only a week on sale following some severe critical pastings. In truth, it ain't the greatest, but is probably better than it was given credit for. It's an out and out rock album, at times fairly ferocious, but lacking once again a truly strong vocalist. At times there is a dearth of ideas with 'Dead Man' and 'Gonna Be Alright' clumsily faded out as though nobody had a clue how to end the songs, but Bell plays some mean guitar and there are some decent moments. 'Black Nite Crash' (single 199) scraped the lower reaches of the charts in February 1996 and earned itself a Single of the Week award from Melody Maker with the band sounding like an obscure punk outfit circa 1977 giving it a two and half minute thrash.

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