Sounds, April 9, 1977

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Sounds

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To hell with the quality... check out the style


Chas de Whalley

A Bunch Of Stiff Records
4 stars (out of 5) reviews4 stars (out of 5) reviews4 stars (out of 5) reviews4 stars (out of 5) reviews4 stars (out of 5) reviews

Now, when I was a young lad in school, Island Records were king. 1968, '69 and '70 were the heydays of British "progressive" rock and if you'd never heard of it before, but it was on Island, then you knew it would be good. Traffic, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, the Fairports, you can all join in on the others. That little dotted "i" was a sure sign of quality in those halcyon days.

But it's 1977 and Stiff are now the guys who knock the nails in the coffin of the torpid world of rock. "Undertakers To The Industry" they term themselves on the cover of this little collection. "If they're dead — we'll sign 'em," says Jake Riviera and introduces the motley talents of such as Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Motorhead, Elvis Costello, the Tyla Gang, Magic Michael and more. Individuals that get washed up on the tide and ignored by glittergolden, beachcombing West End majors? Stiff pick 'em up by the barrow loads and if they ain't always technically the best you can be sure their NOW quotient is so high that petty musical considerations become positively mundane.

To hell with the quality ... check out the style!

Don't get me wrong though, there ain't that much cheap cloth on this dummy. Except perhaps for Martin Stone's Masonry's expert but unexceptional blues instrumental "Jump For Joy" and Motorhead's speedfun "White Line Fever" which is heavy enough but just a little ordinary.

The rest reverse into the future Stiffstyle with real panache. Thanks mainly to house producer Nick Lowe who picks up the credits on a good half of the eleven tracks here. Lowe works on the old Beat group, Silverslash guitar aesthetic but adds a distinctly Seventies vibe. His own "I Love My Label" (a wry look at his days with United Artists) is a slow, eerie ballad, like Elvis Costello's Stiff calypso "Less Than Zero," and "Go The Whole World," the recording debut of Wreckless Eric from Hull, has a fine hook accentuated by an exceptionally economic arrangement and deceptively simple sound.

He really goes to town on Magic Michael's "Little By Little" though. With a gloriously thin Farfisa organ pumping away in the background it sounds just like Helen Shapiro, Del Shannon and Tom Jones making a threesome on a pop art mirror. And Lowe mixes 'em so they jump right out of the speakers.

Which is where this album really scores. From Nick Lowe through Dave Edmunds' early Rockfield experiments ("Jo Jo Gunne" and Jill Read's "Maybe") all the way to the Tyla Gang's excellent New York B movie "The Young Lords," Bunch Of Stiffs goes out of its way to be upfront, exciting and utterly shameless.

Pick out the strain of suitably sick Stiff humour in the Takeaways' Dylan pisstake "Food" and you'll find you've got an album with as much quality and character as last year's Beserkley Chartbusters set.

Perhaps Bunch Of Stiffs isn't quite as consistent and homogenous as its American counterpart when you get down to it. But it's real radio fun all the same. Plus there's a tiny free gift comes with it. Uncredited on the sleeve or the label, side one winds up with Graham Parker's original Hope and Anchor demo of "Back To Schooldays."

And that's one to bore your friends Stiff with too.


Tags: A Bunch Of Stiff RecordsLess Than ZeroNick LoweWhole Wide WorldWreckless EricDave EdmundsGraham ParkerJake RivieraStiff RecordsBob DylanUndertakers To The Industry

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Sounds, April 9, 1977


Chas de Whalley reviews A Bunch Of Stiff Records.


Chas de Whalley reviews "Radio Sweetheart" (B-side of "Less Than Zero").

Images

1977-04-09 Sounds page 36 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.


Radio Sweetheart

Unjustly ignored B side special

Chas de Whalley

1977-04-09 Sounds page 19 clipping composite.jpg

Quite brilliant if a little at variance with contemporary tastes.


Cover and page scans.
1977-04-09 Sounds cover.jpg 1977-04-09 Sounds page 19.jpg 1977-04-09 Sounds page 36.jpg

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