The 1985 Listening Post - Love & Rockets - Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven

Love & Rockets - Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven

#389/1025

October 11 1985

Love & Rockets

Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven

Genre: Goth Rock

3 out of 5

Highlights:

Haunted When the Minutes Drag

So, here we are. Love & Rockets’ first album. I won’t hear them for a few years and that album remains a favorite of mine from the era. But, after the weird David J offerings and Tones on Tail there’s a welcome commerciality to it. 

It’s here that we can truly hear the connection between these guys and latter day Beatles and Moody Blues. Love & Rockets is the spiritual cousin to Psychedelic Furs, especially as they divest themselves of their darkness and embrace the lushness of production. 

It’s not fully formed here, as the songs are all still relatively weak but you can hear where they are going. 

Especially on the harbinger of things to come “Haunted When the Minutes Drag”.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/seventh-dream-of-teenage-heaven/1199491386

The 1985 Listening Post - David J - Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh

David J - Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh

#92

March 1985

David J

Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh

4.25 out of 5

Genre: Indie/Alternative

Highlights:

Too Clever by Half

Stop this City

Justine

The “Velvet” part is spot on. Somehow, someway, David J has managed his way through some depression to find his inner Lou Reed and turn him into a subway busker. This sounds less like Bauhaus and more like Love & Rockets and that makes me oh so happy. The seminal sound that would culminate in one of my favorite records of the decade seems to have its genesis here. I didn’t think David was capable of this. 

Maybe he got therapy. Maybe he just listened to Songs from the Big Chair and decided, fuck it, life’s too short. 

If you told me that “Stop This City” was considered for a place on a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack, I would not disbelieve you.

There are elements of coffee shop troubadour, twee, the aforementioned busking. It’s a gentle record (check out “Justine” and tell me that this is the David J you remember) and almost hypnotic. I’m not sure if that’s because my expectations were one thing and this is another but, regardless, I really liked this. A lot. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/crocodile-tears-and-the-velvet-cosh/168504183

The 1983 Listening Post - David J - The Etiquette of Violence

David J - The Etiquette of Violence

#266

1983

David J

The Etiquette of Violence

1.75 out of 5

I started listening to this and was losing myself in thesomnabulance of the first track when I took out my AirPod sfor a second and heard my daughter practicing her violin. Those two seconds were more pleasant than anything on this record. This is the sound of someone who has lost the musical script and is putting his depression and anger on record. Thank god guys like David had music to turn to cuz otherwise the suicide rate in England would be so much higher. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/etiquette-of-violence/252831717