Fifteen years ago this week, the debut album from Terence Trent D'Arby was
enjoying an extended run at the top of the UK album chart. Introducing The
Hardline According To.., released in July 1987, announced the arrival of an
outstanding talent, and many - famously including the less than shy and
retiring Trent D'Arby himself - tipped this charasmatic young
singer/songwriter/performer/visionary for even greater things.
Somehow it never quite panned out like that, and his stock plummeted almost
overnight with 1989's wildly ambitious, unpretty and, erm, eccentric
follow-up Neither Fish Nor Flesh which swiftly became the byword for a major
commercial turkey. Yet, possibly even more amazing than how Neither Fish Nor
Flesh threw it all away, was the way in which Terence Trent D'Arby partly
resurrected his fortunes in 1993. Symphony Or Damn, the third album, managed
to strike a successful balance between his maverick capabilities for
explosive rock-inflected soul and oddball pop. While never coming close to
emulating Introducing The Hardline...'s 1.8 million sales, Symphony Or Damn
spawned a trio of modest hit singles and hung around for 6 months on the UK
Top 75 peaking at #4.
What happened next, of course, was another commercial failure and the last
time we would hear from Terence Trent D'Arby for eight years. Vibrator was a
noisy, uneven mess which unfortunately reprised the worst traits of Neither
Fish Nor Flesh and experienced an almost identical reception from the
record-buying public. Then....silence. A colourful, rollercoaster ride of a
career looked to be over, with Trent D'Arby a casualty of his own prodigious
ability and troubled psyche.
Apropos of nothing, Columbia Records have just put out Terence Trent D'Arby's
Greatest Hits, a 19-track selection from their unpredictable charge,
including a handful of obligatory new recordings. How it will fare is
anyone's guess.
GOING DOWN TO LIVERPOOL
No, we're not talking about Manchester United's defeat in the Worthington Cup
final at the weekend, but a reference to an unexpected return for the
archetypal female guitar band of the 1980s, The Bangles, who split up in
1990. March seems to be the month for resurrecting names who were at the peak
of their powers more than 10 years ago - aside from Terence Trent D'Arby
aforementioned compilation, Simply Red's return is imminent, there is also
Dead Or Alive Best Of ready to roll, while Alison Moyet and Phil Collins will
have another stab at reversing their fortunes with new singles from
underperforming 2002 albums. First up from the reformed Bangles is the single
Something You Said (out this week), with an album Doll Revolution out on
March 17th. Its title is taken from last year's Elvis Costello single Tear
Off Your Own Head, which has been covered by the band and features on the
album.
TIME TO WORRY?
Despite being one of the year's most impressive singles, Don't Worry by the
Appleton sisters didn't fare as well as hoped on the UK Top 40, debuting at
#5 before falling to #13 the following week.
Last Monday their album
Everything's Eventual was unleashed with much promotion, but again the
commercial result was underwhelming, with a chart entry of #10 some way short
of expectation. Is it media overkill, as the duo's personal lives and more
significant others continue to dominate column inches, or simply that good,
solid pop songs packaged without undue raunchiness just don't sell as much as
crass dancefloor-freindly, teen-centric sexathons do these days?
Perhaps a
bit of both: the recent live chat with Appleton on AOL featured far more
lamebrained, inarticulate questions about their better halves than any honest
enquiries about Nicole and Natalie's music. The current BBC Three
fly-on-the-wall series charting a year in their lives unfortunately leaves
them without a leg to stand on should they cry foul. Which is a pity, since
their records deserve better.
MURPHY'S LAW
Fronted by the exquisite Roisin Murphy, those quirky popstars Moloko are back
with their first album in three years. Statues, the follow-up to 2000's Top 5
effort Things To Make And Do, is cursed by a bizarre sleeve that makes the
band's delightful frontwoman look like a demented, alcohol-fuelled ladette,
but thankfully such offputting tactics do not extend to the album's contents.
The success of previous hits such as The Time Is Now and Sing It Back will
always be tricky to replicate, but in a competitive March schedule that
includes second albums from Turin Brakes and the Mull Historical Society you
could do worse than put your faith in Statues.
FUTURE SOUNDS
The best music on the horizon:
SAINT ETIENNE - SOFT LIKE ME:
Another single from the magnificent Finisterre
album, reminiscent of their early releases with its juxtaposition of spunky
female rapping in the verses with Sarah's typically gorgeous tones for the
addictive chorus. Out March 17th and issued on two CDs and one 12" single, as
well as a 7" on March 24th.
COLDPLAY - CLOCKS:
Chris Martin and co. further their claim to be the best
band on the planet with a third single from the mighty, BRIT award-winning A
Rush Of Blood To The Head. Driven by an insistent, glacial piano motif, this
is essentially Coldplay pretending to be Echo & The Bunnymen (Ian McCulloch's
input during the album's creation clearly at work here) but nobody else can
currently hold a candle to them. The video has been on heavy rotation for a
month already, but you still can't buy this single until March 24th.
The track has also been used regularly for the BBC's Digital TV promotional
trails.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
