#79
March 23 1984
The Icicle Works
The Icicle Works
4.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Chop the Tree
Love is a Wonderful Color
Lover’s Day
A Factory in the Desert
Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)
Boy, does this album start off strong. “Chop the Tree”…a relentless opener that counters hyperactive percussion with the melody of a ballad. And I love it. I missed Icicle Works, mainly cuz their hit was ubiquitous and their name sounds like so many other New Wave synth-bands. I tossed them off as just another one hit pop knock off. Instead this record is some kind of lovely dream pop/psychedlic rock piece of near perfection.
Side Two opens the way you’d want a second side to open: like a new chapter. Ian McNabb has a story to tell, most of it is about love or some such but this isn’t just a collection of tunes. He’s crafting an album. And while that opener “In the Cauldron of Love” is a bitt too hippy dippy for my taste the textures they weave around that song are too enticing for me to find fault.
Thank you, Listening Post for bringing this into my life. Also, fuck the label label for not having this available for streaming.
Like Howard Jones earlier this year, the album is so much better than the hit song let on. This is a hidden classic of 84. This is the U2 album for people who don’t like U2 but kind of want to. And Chris Sharrock can pound Larry Mullen’s skins into the dirt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWrj9UXYlrE&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVCPhE-1C2Ezekd56qg6r3D0
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