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 - Simply Red - Picture Book

Simply Red - Picture Book

#388/1024

October 11 1985

Simply Red

Picture Book

Genre: BES

1.75 out of 5

You know that feeling when you’re driving and you realize that you don’t know what happened for the last 30 seconds or so? Like you drove and you operated the car and everything but you have no recall of the last half mile or so and then something jolts you out of that cuz you realize, “Holy shit! I don’t remember the last 1/2 mile!”

That’s this whole fucking album. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/picture-book/274034202

The 1985 Listening Post - Olivia Newton John - Soul Kiss

Olivia Newton John - Soul Kiss

#387/1023

October 8 1985

Olivia Newton John

Soul Kiss

Genre: Pop

2.5 out of 5

Confession. 

I was given Have You Never Been Mellow when I was ten. 

I don’t know who gave it to me and I’m not sure what their intent was but I used to stare at Olivia’s gauzy vasolined image on that cover while listening to her wistfully ask if I had “never been mellow” and I was entranced. 

I didn’t really know why. I didn’t understand it. But I was in her grasp.

And then I forgot about her, as young boys will and I moved on to the likes of Farrah and other long trellised blondes of the era. Oh, sure, she fell back into my life a couple years later in Grease but, let’s be honest…what was she doing in that movie. (And by then I had moved on to Dinah Manoff (who I would meet about 10 years later and…well…that’s a story that has no place here. No. Nothing that you’re thinking…) Occasionally ONJ would come back on my radar…like when I finally saw Xanadu. But that was a rarity and my relationship with her was over. 

Not even her spandex exercising of Physical was enough to bring me back. 

And even though I kind of enjoyed “Queen of the Publication”, this is   MOR pop that deserves no more of our attention. 

But “you were great, how was I?” Is such an egregious bite on “hopelessly devoted to you” that it makes me mad. 

It took me four days to get through this record. I just never ever wanted to return to it. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/soul-kiss/1444061353

The 1985 Listening Post - The Comsat Angels - 7 Day Weekend

The Comsat Angels - 7 Day Weekend

#386/1022

October 8 1985

The Comsat Angels

7 Day Weekend

Genre: Rock

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Listen to that opening track “Believe It” and tell me that there wasn’t some manager promising to get them on the closing credits of a John Hughes type movie. And the rest of the album smacks of that 80s soundtrack sound. I don’t know much about Comsat Angels but I’m not sure this is where they started out. Like Simple Minds, I think they got screwed by someone trying to make a bunch of money. There are signs of life (“You Move Me”, “Close Your Eyes”) but for the most part it’s cold and calculated for the MTV set (“You’re the Heroine”, “I’m Falling”)

Just noticed! The craptastic tune “I’m Falling” was i Real Genius. So…I was correctamundo. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vqqFewH7qk

The 1985 Listening Post - Kix - Midnite Dynamite

Kid - Midnite Dynamite

#385/1021

October 7 1985

Kix 

Midnite Dynamite

Genre: Hair Metal

2 out off 5

Highlights:

Lie Like a Rug

The last Kix record was an attempt at being the next Van Halen. 

When that didn’t work, I guess Whiteman, Purnell and the gang decided to go full Crue. That’s what this really sounds like. A band trying to out-Ratt at being Motely Crue Two. 

And not succeeding at doing that. Since I know that they put out a really good reunion album in 2014 I’m actually looking forward to others tuff from Kix.

Just not this one.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/midnite-dynamite/300985154

The 1985 Listening Post - Half Man, Half Biscuit - Back in the D.H.S.S.

Half Man, Half Biscuit - Back in the D.H.S.S.

#384/1020

October 5 1985

Half Man, Half Biscuit

Back in the D.H.S.S.

Genre: Al…ternative….?

2.5 out of 5

Highlights:

99% of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd

I have no simile for this. Not even Deep Freeze Mice. This is…fecking weird. I don’t have the wear withal to research them. To me it sounds like a bunch of angry friends who jammed one day and thought, hey, I can get us into a studio, let’s record some shit!

This whole affair comes across as a screed against people I’ve never heard of. But, man, I feel bad for Bob Todd. 

Ultimately, it’s a pretty tedious affair.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/back-in-the-d-h-s-s/363986015

The 1985 Listening Post - Mike + the Mechanics - Mike + the Mechanics

Mike + the Mechanics - Mike + the Mechanics

#383/1019

October 5 1985

Mike + the Mechanics

Mike + the Mechanics

Genre: Prog Rock

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Silent Running

All I Need is a Miracle

Take the Reins

Of all the post/side Genesis projects this is the one that, to me, sounds the most like Genesis. Well, latter day Genesis. 

It’s really hard to argue with the comfortable familiarity of the hits from this thing. They were ubiquitous. They show up on every classic rock/80s/AOR radio station/playlist ever. They are evergreen hits of the era. And I can’t really argue with that. They are confection. When you have the Pauls (Carrack & Young) as your lead vox, their smooth anonymity can carry just about any Genesisian tune. 

Beyond those hits, though, it’s a pretty pedestrian offering. The songs are bouncy enough, sure. And they could be plugged into any radio station playlist. And that’s the best thing I can say here.

I know you’re looking up and saying “Take the Reins? Really?” What can I say, it made me happy. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/mike-the-mechanics-us-release/936165213

The 1985 Listening Post - Blancmange - Believe You Me

Blancmange - Believe You Me

#382/1018

October 4 1985

Blancmange

Believe You Me

Genre: SynthPop

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Other Animals

I went through an Erasure phase. This was because my girlfriend at the time LOVED that one album of theirs that was a huge hit and so I bought a bunch of Erasure albums from Ameoba for, like, nothing, and then burned CDs for her. This was the last gasp of LP - CD burning. Around early 2000. It brought me back to making mix-tapes. A tedious process that was made even more tedious with CDs.

But I did it and I had to listen to a LOT of Erasure at the time. 

This is cut rate Erasure. And it does get a wee bit more interesting toward the end (especially the attempt at loveliness that is “John”).

It’s fine. I’m sure someone out there loves it. 

That person is not me. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/believe-you-me-deluxe-edition/1434399489

The 1985 Listening Post - Jane Wiedlin - Jane Wiedlin

Jane Wiedlin - Jane Wiedlin

#381/1017

October 2 1985

Jane Wiedlin

Jane Wiedlin

Genre: Pop Rock

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Where Can We Go

Every review I read about this album hails it as a pop masterpiece. My take isn’t different. It’s boring. The songs are trite and uninteresting. 

Wiedlin co-wrote the entire first side of the debut and 2 more on side two of that masterwork.

She co-wrote two of the best on Talk Show. Yet, here…it all sounds like the opposite of “catchy”. It’s all so 80s synthpoppy but if you take out the Cyndi Lauper She’s So Unusual production style, you’re left with mediocrity up the ass. 

Sad, since Jane is my favorite Go-Go. I was hoping for better. “East Meets West” doesn’t sound like the person who wrote “Our Lips Are Sealed”. It sounds like a mid-era Adam Ant fan who got a recording deal. 

Kevin Hunter of Wire Train contributes a good song here “I Will Wait for You” and co-writes the only song I highlighted. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/jane-wiedlin/716695037

The 1985 Listening Post - The Chameleons - What Does Anything Mean? Basically

The Chameleons - What Does Anything Mean? Basically

#380/1016

October 1 1985

The Chameleons

What Does Anything Mean? Basically

Genre: SynthRock

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Perfume Garden

Intrigue in Tangiers

One Flesh

This is like Script of the Bridge Part II except that the band seems to be going for a more commercial sound. It’s in that post-rock version of Psychedelic Furs vein and it’s certainly not bad, it’s just not AS inspired and surprising as that first one. 

That said, since I listened to it twice, I must’ve enjoyed it. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/what-does-anything-mean-basically-2009-remaster/339954743