#282/916 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
July 1985
The Monochrome Set
The Lost Weekend
Genre: Post-Mod
4.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Jacob’s Ladder
Wallflower
Boom Boom
I never ever ever listened to The Monochrome Set. And I really don’t know why. One of the original members was Andy Warren, an original Ant from Adam and the Ants, he was the bassist on Dirk Wears White Sox. How did I not travel with him to his other band?
Dang. I missed out.
From the opening Gospel tinged “Jacob’s Ladder”, to the Paisley 70s “Sugarplum” (And later, “Wallflower”) all the way through to “Don’t Touch” and the Post-Mod “The Twitch”, this collection could easily fall into cliche or pap and yet it never does. it pops and crackles. (And there’s nothing in here to suggest that Warren was involved with the people who gave us bubblegum of the Ants or Bow Wow Wow)
The Monochrome Set could easily fall into the traps of BES or Mod but this album saves itself each time and I really don’t know why. It’s like an earnest Madness. But, stripping away the obvious lunacy doesn’t remove any of the charm. And, for my money the only thing missing from “Boom Boom” is Jools Holland’s controlled piano mayhem. (He had nothing to do with this band but they would have benefitted from him)
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