Icehouse - Icehouse
#384
October 10 1980
Icehouse (Known as Flowers here)
Icehouse
Genre: Somebody listened to a LOT of Bowie and Numan
4 out of 5
Highlights:
We Can Get Together
Sister
Walls
My wife is a classically trained Oboist. Yep. That’s a true thing.
And, while she can’t “jam”, I always want her to pull it out and play along with me on guitar. She won’t do it.
But she often likes to joke that every rock band needs an oboe.
She’s totally not serious. She doesn’t think Oboes rock.
Iva Davies not only plays the Oboe but he plays one on THIS record.
Actually, this hews closer to Numan than Bowie. But it was always obvious that Numan was keying off Bowie, right?
I think this puts Icehouse squarely at the foundation of “New Wave” as we would come to know it with pastel triangles and Beatle boots and rock gods standing assertively at their keyboards.
Davies has a penchant for the toe tappiness of New Wave but the problem with that is it often becomes repetitive and uninteresting. But then he tosses a Jew’s Harp in (“skin”) and, dammit, my ear perks up. Is it a gimmick? Sure. Did it work? Yep.
“Nothing to Do” is the best Lou Reed song I’ve heard since The Velvets.
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