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  1. 2023 Albums Thing 169 - The Icicle Works “The Small Price Of A Bicycle”

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    The title, taken from the lyrics of the song “All The Daughters (Of Her Fathers House)” (“Brother the small price of a bicycle isn't mine”), is an unsubtle jab at former Tory (spit) Employment Minister Norman Tebbit’s suggestion that inner city protestors shouldn’t riot to protest unemployment but do what his dad did to find work, get on a bike and find a job (the fact that there weren’t any jobs due to his government’s policies appears to have escaped him !). It sets out, before you’ve played a note, exactly where the Icicle Works stand politically, just in case you didn’t already know.

    This was the Icicle Works second album, released in 1985. Their first had given them a minor hit in the US with “Birds Fly…” so it’s something of a mystery as to why this album never received a US release. The band were operating in the same area as U2, and Simple Minds who were doing well Stateside at the time and this lack of a release likely terminally harmed their chances of cracking the USofA.

    We start on a high with the single “Hollow Horse” bringing along more of those chiming guitars and thundering drums we encountered on “Seven Singles Deep” and every bit the follow up to “Birds Fly…” that would have seen the OK in the US. “Perambulator” is an altogether more aggressive thing that still hangs off a monster hook and a riff reminiscent of Department S’s “Is Vic There ?” with a hint of The Byrds “Eight Miles High”. Track 3 is another single, “Seven Horses” which makes you wonder what the record buying public were pre-occupied with that stopped this from being a massive hit.

    And on it goes riff after chorus after thundering drum break after faux Motown bass line after beautiful ballad. Sounds gave it a 5 star review on release and still the Icicle Works are something of a footnote in the history of the 80’s rather than being widely held in the high esteem they deserve. It shall always make me wonder why.

    All The Daughters Of Her Fathers House - https://youtu.be/HC4jL3kyLxk?si=mrGPr20GnSXbAotZ

  2. 2023 Albums Thing 168 - The Icicle Works “Seven Singles Deep”

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    This one really should sit after the next one but it’s my collection and I’ll file it however I want, OK ? As the title suggests this is a singles compilation that I bought on cassette when it was originally released in 1986. On the cassette the 7 tracks that make up this LP were all on side one and on side 2 were another 7 songs that I presume were B-sides but that don’t appear on this album and I really need to get around to replacing them. The other note about this record is that 6 of the 7 singles that appear here do so in their extended/12” remix versions and not the regular single versions.

    The Icicle Works were a very, very good singles band. “Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)”, “Love Is A Wonderful Colour”, “Hollow Horse”, “All The Daughters (Of Her Fathers House)”, “Seven Horses”, many a band would be happy to release singles of that quality over their career…those were just the Icicle Works first five ! They carried on well after that. Three of those 5 make up side 1 of this album, it’s like being pummelled with melody in the most pleasurable way imaginable.

    These are prime, shiny ‘80’s pop tunes but not in that synthesised 80’s style. Ian McNabb’s guitars ring and chime, Chris Sharrock’s drums are thunderous and sound like actual drums and not machines. The choruses are where they should be and repeated enough so they are easily memorised and singalongable, McNabb is a master tunesmith to this day and delivers them in a voice that has obviously sung along to a few Scott Walker songs.

    It’s a great, great collection of some sublime singles.

    Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream) (Frantic Mix) - https://youtu.be/k1isvLNnark?si=yTkZOS5UTfLF7T85

  3. 2023 Albums Thing 167 - Ian Hunter “Ian Hunter”

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    From back when I first seriously got into music in the early 70’s, upon finding Slade, I always had a liking for Mott The Hoople. This is Mott singer Ian Hunters first solo album. It’s another of those records that came to me via my shop and I didn’t want to sell it for the pittance I might get for it (the sleeve is tatty, the record has marks but it plays) so I bought it home with me.

    Hunter bought in his mate Mick Ronson as multi instrumentalist, arranger and co-producer. It’s a departure in sound from Mott’s poppy Glam, big chorused anthems. It starts well with the bar-room boogie of “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, complete with typically wah-wah’d Ronson solo, and “Who Do You Love” continues in much the same vein. The intro to “Lounge Lizard” always sounds to me like it would have sat well on Bowie’s “Lodger”, much like Side 2’s “The Truth, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth” which has more than a hint of Iggy’s “Sister Midnight”/Bowie’s “Red Money” about it.

    “Boy” runs to almost 9 minutes at the end of Side 1 and sounds like an elder Hunter’s advice to his younger self 

    “Boy you're getting out of hand, You've got to make a stand

    So put the coke away, Boy you got to do the show”

    “It Ain’t Easy When You Fall” is a power ballad, of the type Hunter is quite adept at (imagine Mott’s “Hymn For The Dudes” or “I Wish I Was Your Mother”), that could easily have sat on a Mott The Hoople album. “Shades Off” is a poem that bleeds out of the end of the previous song, read in Hunter’s laconic voice by someone who rarely does what the title suggests. It all ends on the (glam) rocker “I Get So Excited”.

    It’s an album that ain’t breaking down any barriers or setting new trends but if you’re a fan of Mott you’ll find plenty to like in here. Sometimes you just need some uncomplicated rock ‘n’ roll (even if it is made by a fella older than your Dad !).

    It Ain’t Easy When You Fall/Shades Off - https://youtu.be/xVHhfy6xEio?si=9pvnZwBWHv_h8H19