#674: More New Stuff!

Music-listening was limited Thursday night because I spent most of the evening glued to the radio after part of a bridge along I-5 in northern Washington collapsed & fell into the Skagit River. Amazingly, only 3 people were injured, no one was killed -- but it'll take months to replace the bridge, if not years. & all this just in time for massive traffic over the Memorial Day Weekend....

Barclay James Harvest -- The Iron Maiden, Dark Now My Sky.
Be-Bop Deluxe -- Forbidden Lovers, Electrical Language, Between the Worlds.

STILL in the running for the title of Worst Prog Band Ever: Barclay James Harvest!
"Iron Maiden" is a depressed downbeat portrait of an emotionally-distant woman, definitely not hit-single material.
But "Dark Now My Sky" is something Very Different -- a kind of musical theater piece, all over-the-top Melodrama. If you're into Gothic Overkill, this one should Do It for you: There's a silly recitation at the start, there's a melodramatic self-involved lead vocal, there are overly-dramatic guitar solos, the huge orchestra thrashes around all over the place -- & it drags on for 12 MINUTES! & they don't seem to be joking, either. This is NOT rock&roll. Closer to opera. Or maybe Edgar Allen Poe.
There was a time I could've appreciated this stuff -- if only for its perversity -- but that was 35 years ago. Probably the weirdest thing I've inflicted on my customers at work since Cromagnon's CAVE ROCK. These guys are making getting through their HARVEST YEARS best-of a real chore. Nevertheless, more of this stuff will be coming soon....
Be-Bop's guitarist Bill Nelson & bassist Charlie Tumahai sound like they're laughing all through the choruses of "Forbidden Lovers," possibly because they both know the song's a joke. But at least they're having a good time. "Electrical Language" isn't bad, & it features more of Nelson's impressive guitar-playing. But it repeats the same verse over&over. It never really goes anywhere.
Can't help thinking the compilers left the best stuff off of Be-Bop's RAIDING THE DIVINE ARCHIVES best-of. Where is "Shine" or "Sound Track," not to mention the whole 1st-side-plus of SUNBURST FINISH? All this stuff is I'm sure contained in Be-Bop's 4-CD best-of ... which I won't be buying. Lot of potential here, but they don't live up to it often enough....
More New Stuff Coming Soon....