Love & Rockets - 'Sorted! The Best Of' (Beggars Banquet)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
We present to you a tale that's spent a long time waiting to be told. Rising from the wreckage of influential, early Goth-rockers Bauhaus, Love & Rockets (comprising of singer and guitarist Daniel Ash, David J on bass and vocals and Kevin Haskins taking up drumming duties) spent the 1980s collecting a devoted cult following for their own special brand of spaced-out and glamorous pop-rock. 'Sorted!' pinpoints some career highlights, a 15-track sprawl through the work of a band who wrote a smattering of great songs, never scrimped on the eyeliner and kept a lovable sense of humour central to proceedings.
It's just a shame that theirs isn't a back catalogue that's aged particularly well. A word of warning - when using copious effects all over everything in an attempt to sound shocking and futuristic, as Love & Rockets most likely did in their heyday, there's always a high chance you'll end up sounding rather dated pretty quickly. Most tracks here are guilty of just that, and sadly it deadens the impact of 'Sorted!' somewhat. Newcomers will first have to spend a considerable amount of time learning to overcome the many psychedelic filters of yesteryear that a large proportion of the material is cripplingly laden with before all this can be enjoyed to the full.
Yet, once you can actually start to (re-)familiarise yourself with the tunes (as opposed to just reverb and echo techniques), the fun can properly start. Thanks to the obvious playful nature of the band, there is a lot of amusement to be found here; take opener 'Underling Express', an ode to taking a train that 'leads to higher plains' of psychedelic pop, or the drug-induced racket of 'Yin & Yang (The Flowerpot Men)' if you're looking for a good time, or the somewhat dubious likes of the in-joke 'Holiday On The Moon' if you're looking for a frankly weird one.
Love & Rockets operate between coexisting desires of wanting to be everyone's favourite cheeky chaps of peculiar pop and the one-stop resource for deliberative hook-laden rock and roll. A difficult balance to achieve, but it's something they do manage a few times, most notably on the few chart-bothering singles that raise their heads along the course of 'Sorted!' The unhurried ambience of 'So Alive', with its standout tune and effortlessly catchy chorus managed to make a dent on the Top 10, paving the way for latter high points such as the dance-tinged 'Holy Fool', which quite possibly shows how L&R left fingerprints on some of the early work of Primal Scream.
But apart from the other exception of 'Haunted When The Minutes Drag' (which 1990's indie stalwarts James may well have paid close attention to), it's not exactly easy to pinpoint many of today's musical heroes who bear the mark of our intrepid trio. Which is why 'Sorted!' is so welcome - they blow their own trumpet, but with every right. Those already familiar with their work may well need a reminder, and the youngsters among us get presented with an easy in-road into their back catalogue.
But by this stage in proceedings, it's make or break time. Either you're in love with their refreshingly honest and warm takes on the concept of a straightforward good tune, or you find the overly simplistic nature of many aspects of Love & Rockets somewhat numbing. Both camps are equally easy to fall into, but regardless, theirs is a story worth investigating. For whatever reason, music like this just doesn't get made anymore.
Artists in this article: Love & Rockets
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