As some of you will be aware, I occasionally post reviews, chiefly of music and games, on Amazon and beyond. I thought it may be of interest to start sharing them here too. Music in particular has profoundly shaped me, and influenced my writing, in many ways over the years. The curious amongst you may find insight or value in reading my thoughts on particular albums and artists that have impacted me in one way or another. Let's start with an early eighties release.
Untitled - Marc And The Mambas (three stars out of five)
I was a big fan of Marc And The Mambas, Soft Cell, and Marc Almond solo in the eighties and beyond (indeed the very first gig I ever went to was Marc Almond solo at The London Palladium in 1986, performing a set heavy with songs from the then-unreleased Mother Fist album). It pains me therefore that upon reflection I've only scored this album three stars out of five, but listening back to it forty years on, it struggles to stand up against the best of Almond's vast and varied catalogue and isn't a patch on The Mambas' second release Torment And Toreros, which for me really is the closest thing to 'lost masterpiece' that Almond has recorded. By contrast, Untitled - originally released on vinyl as a double 12" in September 1982, barely a year after Soft Cell's massive hit Tainted Love - was a cheaply and quickly recorded affair, poorly supported by Almond's record label for fear that he'd abandon their Soft Cell cash cow for more avant garde pursuits, and which Almond himself would later dismiss as 'the deluded ramblings of self-indulgence fuelled by too much acid'. There is some good music buried here, but you need to work for it.
The first two tracks, Untitled and Empty Eyes, are strong, but side one soon gets bogged down in the overlong and aimless Angels. Side two is better, but makes for a harrowing listen, largely comprising just Almond's voice accompanied by Annie Hogan's piano through a stark sequence of covers; Big Louise (originally by Scott Walker), Caroline Says (Lou Reed, from the notoriously tortured Berlin album), the instrumental Margaret (composed by Hogan), and finally If You Go Away (Jacques Brel). Side three opens with yet another cover, Syd Barrett's Terrapin, which is lighter and more playful in comparison to side two and perhaps the closest thing to an easy listen the album yields. Twilights And Lowlifes - synth-heavy and sounding like a lost Soft Cell outtake - goes on far too long for its own good. The original vinyl release of Untitled actually closed with two different versions of Twilights And Lowlifes, both running in excess of eleven minutes, and you really won't miss the second mix being dropped from the CD track listing.
Perhaps my favourite thing here is also the most unexpected for me; Sleaze, Marc And The Mambas' debut single from March 1982, included as a bonus track and previously unreleased on CD, which I'd never actually heard until now. Sleaze pretty much lays the groundwork for Torment And Toreros, being closer in style and tone to that album than it is to Untitled, and you'll find a lot to appreciate there if you love Torment And Toreros as much as I do. And as for Untitled? Definitely pick it up if you're an Almond fan and want to add it to the collection, but don't expect to particularly enjoy actually listening to it.