Concrete Blonde (Album)
| Concrete blonde | ||||
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| Studio album by Concrete Blonde | ||||
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Publication |
1986 |
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| Label (s) | IRS Records / EMI Electrola | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, MC |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
38:17 |
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| occupation |
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Earle Mankey, Concrete Blonde |
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Studio (s) |
Earle Mankey, Thousand Oaks near Los Angeles |
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Concrete Blonde is the first music album by the American alternative rock band Concrete Blonde after it was renamed. In a French indie - label a previously EP released under the band name Dream. 6 This could not be used any longer because the name components are too common in the music scene and therefore it had too little character of its own. A new one was a condition for a record deal with IRS, whose boss Miles Copeland III at least did not want to intervene in the musical direction - like other interested parties. Not uncommon for an unknown band, the marketing of this debut album slowly picked up. Licensing processes are so conditioned that sometimes the year of publication 1987 is mentioned.
Guest musician
James Mankey's brother Earle, with whom he previously worked for the Sparks , worked primarily as a producer , but did not miss the opportunity to use the synthesizer to provide sparse jets of sound for the melodic dance Along the Edge . He is not officially listed as a "guest musician". Napolitano and Mankey exchanged instruments at Little Sister .
Track list
- True (James Mankey, Johnette Napolitano) - 2:59
- Your Haunted Head (Johnette Napolitano) - 2:46
- Dance Along the Edge (Johnette Napolitano) - 5:29
- Still in Hollywood (Johnette Napolitano) - 3:42
- Song for Kim (She Said) (James Mankey, Johnette Napolitano) - 4:07
- Beware of Darkness ( George Harrison ) - 3:43
- Over Your Shoulder (James Mankey, Johnette Napolitano) - 3:22
- Little Sister (Johnette Napolitano) - 3:52
- (You're the Only One) Can Make Me Cry (Johnette Napolitano) - 2:16
- Cold Part of Town (Johnette Napolitano) - 3:10
- True (instrumental) (James Mankey) - 2:22
Only on CD re-release from 2004:
- It'll Chew You Up and Spit You Out (Johnette Napolitano) - 4:32
Song info
The title True forms the bracket of the album: It begins with the text version and ends with the instrumental version. The former was covered by Propagandhi in their hardcore / punk style (faster - therefore not even two minutes). In Concrete Blonde he has moved closer to pop , as has Dance Along the Edge ; both were released as single . In contrast, the third single was the punk-sounding song Still in Hollywood . It's about the love-hate relationship with Hollywood with its weird and shabby characters. A leisurely rock number is Cold Part of Town , while Your Haunted Head is uptempo rock. Both pieces complement the topic of the dark side of the glamor district with its illustrious existences. Song for Kim offers more rock , Little Sister tends towards wave and Can Make Me Cry towards country (You're the Only One) . A George Harrison cover is the worn Beware of Darkness . Over Your Shoulder , composed by Mankey, is again a fast piece, to which Napolitano made an almost eerie, at least for the person addressed, oppressive statement. It was therefore suitable for use in horror and mystery films . In The Hidden - Das unsagbar Böse and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 , Your Haunted Head was also used, in The Hidden , Still in Hollywood .
Artwork
The front cover shows light beige tiles or pavement slabs through which a crack runs, which a band photo (the trio posing at a street crossing) partially covers. The red-brown band lettering is placed on the top right. It is made up of typewriter letters , two letters in the middle of the word being large and many of them blurred, as if you have briefly pressed the shift key or if you have reached the bottom edge of the sheet or if the machine has a smack of wear and tear. A band logo based on typewriter types will later appear on the front of the booklet of the Rarities CD Still in Hollywood , which thus has a title borrowed from the tracklist on this record. And finally again with the album Group Therapy , which marks Concret Blondes "return" after the breakup in 1995.
The sheet of text enclosed with the LP is reminiscent of patchwork or panels , as each song text was handwritten in differently sized “boxes” and decorated with drawings that, when put together, result in a poster-like whole. Some motifs will be picked up in later publications, as if there were the playing card symbols in Free , which are just as hidden "inside" as in Walking in London (when Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man playing cards were released right on the cover were) as well as the dancing skeletons on Mexican Moon . In the CD edition, the individual segments are separated from each other on their own booklet pages.
The concept was invented by Johnette Napolitano, then implemented by good friend Ron Scarselli, a graphic designer and painter from the environment of REM mastermind Michael Stipe , who is himself a Napolitano friend. In 1990 she will dedicate the album Bloodletting to Scarselli after his untimely death .
reception
The Internet platform Allmusic awarded 2 out of 5 possible stars.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Concrete Blonde at Allmusic (English)