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Now that Stiff have got their bleedin' distribution deal with Island they think they can put out any old crap. Well, this is the first of it. Out of the 11 tracks only four are worth playing again, Motorhead, Elvis Costello, Tyla Gang and Graham Parker. The rest are definitely Stiffs.
Motorhead's track is a heavy job which sounds a little like Deep Purple but after that setback it rocks along in the only way Lemmy knows. It was gonna be released as a single but they never got around to it.
Elvis Costello's single's included on the album and you can find a review of it elsewhere in this mag. I'll just add my praise.
The Tyla Gang track is incredible. Sean sings like Dylan or Springsteen and the backing jumps about like Little Feat or one of those Nils Lofgren line-ups. Tyla deserves an album release. His music is growing all the time.
The Parker track is a outtake from some old tapes and is excellent in its simplicity. It's better than the album version.
The rest of the bunch is the crap: Nick Lowe is boring, Stones Masonry is an instrumental R&B workout featuring Martin Stone, the Takeaways is a jokey Dylan take-off and Wreckless Eric, Magic Michael, Dave Edmunds and Jill Read are all over produced.
This album is a waste of time. I'm surprised Island agreed to put it out. I hope Stiff sit down and think about their next releases otherwise the original cuteness of this label is gonna wear off. An Adverts' single is out soon so that should be alright. I hope they make it.
Liven up Stiff.
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