ASSOCIATES: SULK (1982)
1) Arrogance Gave Him Up; 2)
No; 3) Bapdelabap; 4) Gloomy Sunday; 5) Nude Spoons; 6) Skipping; 7) It's
Better This Way; 8) Party Fears Two; 9) Club Country; 10)
Nothinginsomethingparticular; 11*) Love Hangover; 12*) 18 Carat Love Affair;
13*) Ulcragyceptimol; 14*) And Then I Read A Book; 15*) Grecian 2000; 16*)
Australia; 17*) The Room We Sat In Before.
Considering the noticeable increase in tempos
and repetitive choruses, it is hard to refrain from the thought that Mackenzie
kept pushing the band in a more commercial direction — leading, eventually, to
a split with Rankine, who (not without reason) thought that he was becoming
sidetracked, and left for a solo career. On the other hand, «commercial» is
not an easy word to use when you are dealing with the deliriously paranoid lifeform that is Billy Mackenzie: for every
new fan that he was gaining with the band's re-orientation on the dance-pop
market, he was probably alienating at least one old (pissed off at all the
trendy keyboard sounds) and at least one potential (scared of Mackenzie's
hystrionics).
The recent CD re-release of Sulk is seventeen tracks long, and
since the style generally remains the same, may be overkill. However, the
expansion is due to a healthy bunch of A- and B-sides from around the same year
that the LP came out, and some of them are honestly better than the stuff they
put on the LP. Arguably the best way to enjoy the trip is to program out the
five or six tunes that you find too boring or annoying — and believe me, everyone will have a bunch of annoyingly
boring favorites on Sulk — and be
left with the catchiest, and most energetic collection of electronic dance-pop
romances in the band's history.
The best of the lot never made it on the
original LP: it is a thoroughly disloyal cover of Diana Ross' ʽLove Hangoverʼ,
throttling the sweet lovey-dovey attitude of the disco original and replacing
it with a lower, darker groove over which Mackenzie spreads out a tour-de-force
performance. As a matter of fact, Diana's original never sounded much like a
«hangover» — if our hangovers took on the form of her sweet ecstasy, we'd all
be doomed alcoholics by now. In the hands of Mackenzie, however, the song
finally justifies its title: the man plays out a real «hangover» — it's killing, yes it is, splitting headaches
and all, but, for some reason, this is the state that he'd rather remain in for
life. «Love» becomes a bout of masochism here, not some sort of generic abstract
«pleasure».
This idea of reinterpreting ʽLove Hangoverʼ ties
in brilliantly with the band's original vision. Sulk is almost nearly a conceptual album about the psychic dangers
of love — at least half of the songs, both musically and lyrically, are about
suffering from its side effects. Way too dark to be able to compete with the
comparatively «fluffy» Duran Duran, yet much lighter than the contemporary
Cure records, because Billy Mackenzie's ego never amounted to even half the
size of Robert's Smith (yet again, not that it's necessarily a good thing: Robert Smith regularly
offered plenty of musical fat to prop up the size of his ego — and no, that is
not a veiled hint at the man's weight
problems).
I have to confess that the actual music behind
this attitude is fairly routine. With Rankine assigned to synthesizer duties,
spending far more time at the keys than at his guitar strings, the toughest
musical link in the band at this point is bass player Michael Dempsey, who,
incidentally, joined the Associates soon after quitting The Cure. Considering
that Three Imaginary Boys from 1979 was
one of The Cure's bass-strongest records, that hardly comes as a surprise: most
of the bass grooves on Sulk are
first-rate, particularly on ʽSkippingʼ and ʽParty Fears Twoʼ. The keyboard
work, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. Most of the time I just
feel like Rankine is weaving little flourishes around Mackenzie's «arias» that
never take our attention span away from the vocals. Proving my point, the two
completely instrumental numbers that bookmark the record are both utterly
forgettable — minimalistic synth patterns pinned to bouncy rhythms; you could
get that kind of stuff for a dime a dozen in 1982.
Mackenzie himself is quite good, though. Besides
ʽLove Hangoverʼ, he also reinvents the old jazz standard ʽGloomy Sundayʼ (also
known as ʽHungarian Suicide Songʼ) — it is fun to listen to his version
alongside Billie Holiday's, showing how much and how little has changed over the
fourty years that allegedly shook the world. ʽParty Fears Twoʼ remains stuck in
the head as well, if only for the wall-rattling "AWAKE ME!" that
serves as its climax — it's one of those tunes that is exactly 50% drunk
romantic happiness and exactly 50% bleak suicidal despair, an explosive mix
inherited from Roxy Music, but stripped of Bryan Ferry's salon smoothness. On
the other hand, sometimes the silliness-as-seriousness is a bit too much to
take — ʽBap De La Bapʼ is a dumb title, and the lyrics match its dumbness
without even compensating with a bit of humour that could be expected from such
a title. Dumb title, dumb lyrics, dumb «spooky» vocal delivery + annoying
synthesizer sound = the Eighties forget no one.
Sulk is no masterpiece, and won't become one even
when all the fat has been trimmed. In most retrospectives, it usually cuts off
the «highly starred» period of the Associates' career, because most reviewers
instinctively think that «loss of a key member» is always an objective event
that the band needs to be penalized for. But Alan Rankine never was a
particularly awesome guitarist, just a good one; and Sulk makes relatively little use of his talents in a relatively
useful way — this is the Mackenzie show through and through, so the gap between
it and the next stage of the «band» is not nearly as huge as one could believe
from just browsing through the All-Music Guide. Still, it's got some good
hooks, and, most importantly, when it is at its best, it's got that odd mood — how would you like to slit your
veins while feeling totally happy about it? never mind, don't try that at home
unless you are a Struggling Artist — that alone justifies a respectable thumbs up.
I mean, I'm not sure I like that mood
— in fact, I'm pretty sure I don't — but hey, a mood is a mood, and sometimes
you just have to respect a mood while being detached from it. If everybody
starts driving scooters into the oceans to the sounds of ʽLove Reign O'er Meʼ,
that's gonna take a heavy toll on the fish population.
I dare you to review Bobby Goldsboro.
ReplyDeleteListening to this today, I feel like Ray Davies ripped of "18 Carat Love Affair" for "Come Dancing" two years later. Although the synth riff worked better there, in my opinion. They did play it on Top of the Pops, so Ray could definitely have heard it even if The Associates aren't the type of band I'd normally imagine him listening to.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if anyone cares, not sure if I even care, but if you're writing an extensive book on late-period Kinks, this could be very (well, slightly) valuable indeed!