First off, I don’t like this single, Artificial Paradise, and I don’t like the album Bounty, which is the third of a trilogy, coming under the banner of A Cornucopia: Minerva, Victory and Bounty which is where the single comes from. However that doesn’t mean it’s not good, it’s just my opinion, and one mans nails scaping down a blackboard is another mans Dark Side Of The Moon.
I read a review back in the late 70’s of Lou Reeds Street Hassle, and the review absolutely trashed it, but because of the points the reviewer didn’t like, I knew I would like it, so went out and bought it, and loved it, and still do.
Artificial Paradise has a kind of Gang Of Four, or possibly Fine Young Cannibals kind of funk to it, but when words runs out which rhyme with Paradise so does the song.
I think this music would appeal to uni students, stepping out into the world for the first time
and trying to make sense of it all from a grown ups point of view and trying to be a bit edgy and radical. I can see the b side of the single, which is called Jaunt, being played at parties with youths throwing themselves round in spiky dance moves after a shot of Absinthe.
I can also see upper middle class professionals who hold dinner parties slipping this on in between ELO and Dire Straits to show they still have a bit of radicalness around the edges worn smooth by the accumulation of wealth.
That’s twice I’ve used the word radical, and that’s because, although the band want appear radical, it really doesn’t work. It’s all cliché driven on a lyric front, like a load of those Facebook posts which try to tell you something you don’t know, but actually you knew well in advance.
So the band are: John Armstrong – guitar vocal, songwriting and lyrics, Henry Armstrong
Johns son on keyboards, Anne Marie Crowley- guitar and vocals, Kevin Roache- Bass, and John Broadhurst- drums. They are all competent musicians. . The guitars jingle jangle, the drums sound a cross between The Cure, 3 Imaginary Boys period and Joy Division, the keyboards provide nice washes, the bass has some nice runs. But for me the songs go nowhere, they all promise to go somewhere but never do, it’s all on one level, I cant find any passion anywhere, and maybe this is intentional, and if it is then they’ve hit the nail on the head.
Standout track for me was Glide On By, as it morphed into a spacy psychedelic jam.
I am told they are for fans of Pylon, The B-52’s, Lene Lovich and The Manic Street
Preachers?? Really?- not the Manic Street Preachers I have heard. Lene Lovich I can see
as she was quirky and spiky, but I think they are more like Martha And The Muffins than The B-52’s, who used a lot of humour and self deprecation in their music. The Pylons I don’t know so can’t comment.
The whole concept smacks of pretentiousness – the trilogy coming under the banner A
Cornucopia:, the fact the original band was formed by John Armstrong in 1989, with a pre history dating back to the day Andy Warhol died in 1987. What does that mean? Does it mean on the day Andy Warhol died John Armstrong decided he was going to form a band but didn’t get it together for another couple of years. Is that of interest to anybody, or did somebody just think it sounded good. Ah but maybe in that statement is the whole concept of the band, they want to be known as an art house band, playing contemporary art music, not your common or garden rock and pop.
They are a Manchester indie rock/power pop outfit, for sure but do they pop enough. They must have a following having been in existence for 35 years, and they have had some great press reviews for previous works.I wish them the best of luck, particularly John Armstrong as he has vision and is executing it.
I could have liked this back in the late 70’s, but for me, I’ve got too much dirt under my nails to appreciate the clinical ness of it all, and although a veggie most of my life I like a bit more meat on the bone of my music.
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