BUZZCOCKS: LOVE BITES (1978)
1) Real World; 2) Ever Fallen
In Love; 3) Operators Manual; 4) Nostalgia; 5) Just Lust; 6) Sixteen Again; 7)
Walking Distance; 8) Love Is Lies; 9) Nothing Left; 10) E.S.P.; 11) Late For
The Train.
This quickie follow-up to Another Music sounds slightly disappointing to me, not because it
was rushed or anything, but because the band went for a somewhat less humorous,
more serious approach here, and when the Buzzcocks are weighted down with too
much seriousness, they seem to lose touch with their genius. However, moving
one step away from perfection is not much of a crime, particularly when you are
still capable of crafting first-rate pop-punk hooks by the dozen; and if you
are not obsessed with the idea of drawing boundaries between Album A and Album
B in the first place, you might not even understand what I'm talking about
here.
"I'm in love with the real world / It's
mutual or so it seems / 'Cos only in the real world / Do things happen like
they do in my dreams", Shelley tells us in the opening manifesto of ʽReal Worldʼ
— and you could interpret that first line either as the epitome of the punk
revolution (music that has to do with "the real world", instead of
progressive rock's fantasy universes), or, more likely, as just a statement of
personal humility — and peacefulness, which sets the Buzzcocks so far apart
from the bellicose stylistics of their working class brethren. Indeed, all of
the songs here are love songs — some are, in fact, romantic love songs, as
ʽLove Is Liesʼ, written and sung by Steve Diggle, begins as an acoustic ballad,
and by the time we get to the chorus, we are knee-deep in ʽSugar And Spiceʼ
territory: "Love is lies, love is eyes, love is everything that's
nice" (okay, so you can sort of see why Diggle is not trusted with writing
more songs, but if you disregard that creepy "love is eyes" equation,
it's actually a pretty folk-pop tune, well deserving of being professionally
covered with Searchers-style vocal harmonies).
Then there's ʽEver Fallen In Love (With Someone
You Shouldn't've)ʼ, often quoted as the most notable song on the album, if not the signature tune of the Buzzcocks —
indeed, it is a skilful synthesis of the speedy punk song and the bitter
love-lost ballad, although, with a little irony, one might suggest that the
Ramones did beat them to the punch with ʽTexas Chainsaw Massacreʼ. However, it
is not the instrumental melody and its clever use of minor chords, but rather
the vocal hook that produces the deepest impression — Shelley has this fine
talent to take an unwieldy string of prose, loop it, and convert it to a
gracious musical serpent that sounds like it was born to the realm of rhythm
and melody. Who else could craft such a twisted, yet natural chorus with the
phrase "have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't've fallen
in love with?" I bet the guy was a tongue-twister champion in elementary
school.
On the other hand, the Buzzcocks are also
trying to prove that they are, first and foremost, a musical band — by
including two instrumentals: the short one, ʽWalking Distanceʼ, was written by
the bassist and features a nice set of speedy interlocking pop riffs, and the
long one, ʽLate For The Trainʼ, is again
recorded bolero-style, this time with such an insistent drumbeat, though, that
poor John Maher must have ended up with even worse blisters on his fingers than
Ringo ever did. The problem is, it does not have enough musical ideas for five
and a half minutes: it seems like it is desperately looking for a crescendo,
but finally gives up on that and just lets the drums take over completely for
the coda.
Definitely not a work of genius, that one, and
shows that the Buzzcocks are not universal masters of everything —
unsurprisingly, it is the short three-minute pop-punk tunes like the cocky,
heroic ʽNostalgiaʼ or the sexopathological statemenr ʽJust Lustʼ that take home
first, second and all the other prizes. Or even a tune like ʽE.S.P.ʼ, which
takes pride in taking one ten-note riff as the basis for all of its five minutes — and somehow it works, because normally
you'd expect a riff like that to be used as the intro to the song and then go
away, and the fact that it stays forever and ever makes it minimalistically
funny. Blatantly annoying, yes, but funny.
All in all, still a satisfactory thumbs up
here, despite the occasional misfires and the fact that lightweight funny
Kinks-influenced ditties have largely been replaced with heavier and a bit more
moralistic rockers. They did want to make a point that Love Bites, want it or not, and they made it all right — after all,
partner relationships have every right to cause as much punkish frustration as
social oppression does, and where your life has space for Give 'Em Enough Rope, there should be some extra space right next
to it with Love Bites.
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