A Journey Through the 80s- The Icicle Works

For those that regularly read my blog (or if you are unfortunate enough to know me) , it will come as a no surprise to know that I have vast numbers of CDs. The other day I was staring at a section of them and thought "You know I haven't played many of these for ages! That seems wrong! And with that I made an impromptu decision, I would play, in its entirety, every CD that I own from the 80s. Why the 80s, you may ask? Well for a start you have to start somewhere. For another, I think the 80s were on my mind as I have just finished a rather excellent book by Andy Beckett "Promised You A Miracle- UK 80-82" (About early 80s British History NOT Simple Minds). And then there's the fact that whilst I started listening to Music in the 70s, the 80s were my formative years, musically speaking. I was seriously into it all the way through the decade and many of the bands and albums from that decade were my first love and you never lose your first love, do you?

Prompted by a good friend, I thought I would use my blog page to report back on my findings so here we go! Now, I fully appreciate that the Icicle Works may seem an odd place to start. Well, for one thing I am shortly going to see them live (For the first time, better late than never) in Southampton so I thought I'd better reacquaint myself with their back catalogue. Moreover, one of the key features of my CD collection is that I have always had a fondness for under rated artists who I thought never got their rightful reward commercially and in that regard, The Icicle Works seem very typical of the kind of artist I liked back in the day (and still do!)

Formed in 1980, they were part of the so called neo-psychedelia wave that emanated out of Liverpool in the early 80s and that included bands such as Echo and the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes. They first came to prominence in 1983 when they had a Top 20 hit "Love is a Wonderful Colour". Although they soldiered on until 1991, they never had another hit!! I'm not actually going to comment on said single or its parent album, "The Icicle Works" because I don't own it!!

Now, and this probably says more about me than the band, but I first became interested in the Icicle Works when they released the single "All the daughter's (of her Father's house)" in 1985. The single absolutely stiffed but I loved it. It was a different beast to their earlier album, being an upbeat track, actually quite Motown influenced and boasted a fine horn section (A huge Dexys fan at the time, I was a sucker for anything with a horn section!). I therefore tracked down the parent album "The Small Price of a Bicycle" (Rubbish title, lads) which had shot to No 55 in the super soaraway album chart!

Chiding the masses for their (usual) ignorance, I thought that "The Small Price of a Bicycle" was one of the best albums of 1985. Listening to it now I would still place it in my Top 50 albums of all time. To use a cheesy phrase, it's small but perfectly formed. 10 tracks and not a duffer amongst them.

If one is honest though, one can see why "The Small Price of a Bicycle" sold the square root of bugger all, it just didn't fit in. I have mentioned before that 1985 was an ODD time for music. The big pop acts that had dominated the early part of the years were very definitely on the decline; they were either in the dumper (Adam Ant, Culture Club), dumper bound (Spandau Ballet), albeit slowly (Duran Duran). The pop which replaced it was largely of the pale imitation variety (Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw, Go West) or from the ersatz soul school (Simply Red, Paul Young). As a result British Pop's dominance was largely replaced by either Big American Acts (Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Prince)  or Resurrected Dinosaur Acts, propelled forward by the newly emerging CD format and/or Live Aid (Queen, Sir Philip of Collins and above all Dire Straits). Meanwhile young (ish) guitar acts that sold fell more or less in two camps: Bands that were stadium bound (U2, Simple Minds) or bedsit bound (The Smiths).

Frankly the Icicle Works fell into none of those camps, they were just three Liverpool lads who played  straightforward, slightly psychedelic rock, with BIG choruses, underpinned by Ian McNabb's powerful, passionate voice (which one critic once described as "plummy"- he was trying to be helpful). They released two further singles "Hollow Horse" and "Seven Horses" (possibly should have used a different animal?). Both divebombed. Personally I would have given "Rapids" a shot, as I think it is a tremendous song (although I acknowledge that the masses had clearly had made up their minds up about the Icicle Works by this point and a cover version of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" featuring a 5 minute Ukulele solo would have been greeted by public indifference too)

Undeterred The Icicle Works ploughed ahead and in 1987 released the somewhat verbosely entitled "If You want To Defeat Your Enemy Sing His Song" (There is a separate blog to be written about why Artists insist on calling their albums by titles that are guaranteed to leave the masses as cold as 10 day old Rice Pud). It was largely produced by Ian Broudie, who was later to achieve fame as part of the Lightening Seeds and writer of "Three Lions".

Listening to it now, it's not a bad record by any means, there are plenty of good songs, strong choruses are the order of the day, there are signs of more musical variety that "Small Price of a Bicycle"(But you ain't seen nothing yet, baby). However to my mind, it is let down by a series of plodders. All the critics and their mums seemed to love "Understanding Jane", I just thought its punky guitar rush (Something which was very much de nos jours in the shape of Jesus and Mary Chain, Husker Du, Replacements et al) lacked a melodic punch "Up Here in the North of England" boasted some fine sentiments in search of a tune whilst "Truck Drivers Lament" and "When You Were Mine" were, to be blunt, a tad turgid. Any of these should have been replaced by a song that popped up as a bonus on a CD re-release a few years later "Don't Let It Rain on my Parade"

However, the shining lights of "If you want to defeat your enemy" were the other two singles, both of which in any other world where the masses had an iota of taste would have been huge hits. "Who Do You Want for Your Love?" is just a GREAT pop song. It reached number 54!

Even better though was the final single off the album and to my mind one of the great lost singles of the 80s "Evangeline". An unashamed, anthemic, "punch the air when you get to the chorus" song, I still grin like a loon every time I hear it and want to play it again as soon as it's finished. It reached number 53 in the charts as the British Public preferred "I want to dance with somebody " by Whitless Houston and "Star Trekkin" by the Firm...............GAH!

Frankly if I had been McNabb and the lads I would have chucked it in there and then. But once again, they picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, headed off into the studio and re-emerged in 1988 clutching their 4th album "Blind". And it was apparent that they were responding to the comparative commercial failure of the previous two records by chucking the kitchen sink into proceedings.

To describe "Blind" as a "varied album" would be doing the word a disservice. Frankly it's batshit crazy (and I actually mean that as a compliment!), veering from Led Zeppelin-esque RAWK (the opener "Shit Creek") to calypso pop of "What Do You Want Me To Do?" to "Starry Blue Eyed Wonder" which starts out as a organ driven ballad and then mutates to a guitar wig out, to the Acapella (Yes, you read that right) "One True Love" to the Prince-a-like "The Kiss Off" to the Scott Walker tribute that is "Here Comes Trouble". And that's just for starters!! Frankly no two tracks were the same, it sounded more like a compilation album than one by the same artist!

It was only really McNabb's recognisable voice and the fact that guitars were still very much in evidence, although not entirely dominant, that linked "Blind" with the proceeding two albums. The only track that would have fitted comfortably on either was the 60s influenced pop rush of "High Time", a close cousin of "Who do you want for your love?"  I seem to recall that it was either ignored by critics at the time or damned with faint praise but I genuinely think it is an incredibly ambitious record and deserves both some of your time and a reappraisal. Not all of it works, granted, I wasn't overly fond of "Kiss" by Prince so its tribute, "The Kiss Off" I can do without. "Shit Creek" writes its own review whilst "One Two Three" is what CD skip buttons were made for! However, the rest is very fine indeed and clearly the work of a band pushing the boundaries and showing what they were capable of.

Of course, this being the UK in the late 80s, the commercial results were sadly predictable. The album reached an underwhelming 40 whilst the highest of the singles released was the lovely "Little Girl Lost" at 59. Arse knows why. Maybe in a year still dominated by the conveyor belt pop of Stock Aitken and Waterman (which largely sounded the same just with interchangeable lead singers)- "Kylie" by the pop pixie was the best selling album of the year- the variety on show was just too much. Whilst there was a burgeoning "Indie " scene, the Icicle Works were probably considered too mainstream to fit in with the likes of the Wonder Stuff and not hip enough to fit in with the emerging Baggy Groups like the Stone Roses.

It falls outside of the remit of my 80s journey to talk about the last Icicle Works album "Permanent Damage" (which I actually don't own). The album in any case received a critical shoo-ing and the band split up shortly after. McNabb then embarked on a solo career which resulted (bizarrely) in a Mercury Prize Nomination with the HEAVILY Neal Young influenced album "Head Like A Rock". McNabb reformed a version of the Icicle Works in 2011 and they sporadically tour the UK , such as their appearance in Southampton for which i am very grateful.

Meanwhile, I would suggest that the three Icicle Works albums referred to above remain ripe for rediscovery and would grace any record collection.

Happy Blue- Jones (2015)

When it comes to seeking to praise an artist's musical output, you rarely see the word "Consistent" used. For one thing, if you're aiming for consistency in music, it doesn't feel at first glance as if you've set the bar very high and it can become a byword for lack of adventure. I have actually nothing against Chris Rea, for example, and throughout the 80s, he was a consistent artist. But I probably would score all of the albums he made in that period 6.5-7 out of 10 and they all felt like they were from the same mould. Good, solid but that was about it. At the other end of the scale, the word "Consistent" can be used in the sarcastic sense. take Status Quo for example. For many years, they could be termed as consistent in that they effectively made the same record, just called it a different name!

However, if you start talking about an artist being "Consistently Excellent", then that's a different kettle of fish altogether. Be honest for a minute, think of your favourite singers and groups. If you made a list of your Top 5 albums, how many of your favourite artists would make that list every time they released an album. I would venture to suggest very few. Most artists at best make an average record every now and then, at worst, they may chuck in an absolute clunker. Furthermore, let's be honest, many of our favourites tend to go off the boil as the years advance.

Looking back over the past ten years, only one artist has made my Top 5 with each of the 6 albums he has released, indeed 5 made my Top 3. Only Miranda Lambert in that period would have come anywhere near close. That artist is Trevor Jones, both as part of the Miracle Mile with the multi talented Marcus Cliffe or as a solo artist, Jones (albeit again aided and abetted by Mr Cliffe).

I appreciate that the reaction from many may be "I'm sorry, who?" because sadly, Trevor, in my view, is the most criminally overlooked artist off recent times. Scandalously deprived of both airplay and coverage in the music press, he continues to produce stunning album after stunning album but he remains an unnecessarily well kept secret. I am frankly at a loss to explain why this is, apart from descending into a rant about how the media in all its myriad forms continues to foist soulless dreck and arty drivel on us while real talent ploughs a lone furrow unnoticed. It's not as if these records aren't commercial in the best sense of the word, in that they contain all the ingredients that should make an album attractive to people, lovely melodies, strong tunes that stick in the mind, memorable lyrics, wonderfully and skilfully played and clearly and appropriately produced. All the Great Stuff!

Anyway, leaving the injustice aside for one moment, from a personal perspective, "Happy Blue" was my most eagerly anticipated record of 2015. However, whisper it quietly, I had started to wonder if Trevor could maintain the extremely high standards that he had set himself. In all seriousness this level of consistency was unheard of in my experience. Surely soon or later the level had to dip surely and an album pop out that wasn't quite "there". Two things made me wonder if "Happy Blue" was going to be "That One" before I had even heard a note. Firstly, his last two albums were the best of his career, which was saying something. 2013 "In Cassidy's Care" by the Miracle Mile was a sumptuous record which told the story of the titular Cassidy who met the love of his life and then tracked the relationship as it fell gradually apart and left Cassidy reflecting on his life. If that sounds heavy (or alarmingly like a concept album) rest assured, it was not. Trevor's music is both happy and sad, melancholic and uplifting at the same time. It felt like a career highlight which was then matched by 2014's "To The Bone". I have to admit I was surprised that Trevor followed up "In Cassidy's Care" so quickly. Surprised but also delighted. "To the Bone" was a completely different record. Stripped down (as the name implies) both musically and emotionally, it was a wonderfully intimate record and contained in my mind Trevor's finest two songs to date, the opener "Phil The Hat" and the stunningly beautiful "Fireworks"

The other reason why I wondered if Trevor would hit the bar was that 2015  has been a very strong year for new albums. Scarcely a week goes by without another fine record being released. Old Marsh favourites doing the business, new acts making a mark and long forgotten artists coming back strong. If Trevor was going to make an impression in amongst all this, he would have to bring his "A Game"

When the album dropped through the letterbox, I was away on holiday with the family.The time away had been great but I have to admit that I was keen to get home solely so I could hear the album! It has to be said that I always lock myself away with a new Jones record, accompanied by a bottle or two of ale. His records always demand and indeed deserve ones complete attention. Acknowledging that this sounds sad, I initially sat, holding the album, worried that it wouldn't meet my hopes (because you always want your favourites to make another great record!).

I needn't have worried!

I shall cut straight to the chase and state that "Happy Blue" is a truly magnificent album. Having lived with it for a month, I think it is fair to say that it is Trevor's best record to date. Which is clearly saying something. Far from letting standards slip the bar had been raised again.

In my view Trevor Jones is one of great writers of human emotions in song, both through lyrics and melodies. He writes about the things that matters, love, loss, memories, how the past shapes us and so on and he wraps it up in tunes that are often both melancholic and yet at the same time hopeful. "Happy Blue" is not only an apt title for this album but could sum up the his music as a whole. What gives this record additional weight and emotional resonance is that recently Trevor's father passed away. This event and memories of his father is a key theme of the record and contribute to its overall shape, particularly through the bookending opening and closing pieces "First" and "Last" (The titles something of a giveaway) and the Track "Battersea Boy", more of which later.

One thing I have found with a lot of albums recently is that the sequencing of tracks is often bizarre and the resultant record often fails to hang together. By contrast "Happy Blue" is one of the best sequenced records in recent memory. It flows from one track to the next. Furthermore, it hangs together as a piece and is a record that demands to be played all the ways through; rare of course in these days on i-tunes and being to purchase a few tracks here and there. What also assists in this regard is that the quality of the songs is consistently high, there is not one track that you would wish to skip here.

The end result is a record that you can truly emerse yourself in. In that  sense it draws comparison with the Blue Nile's "Hats" and in particular songs off that record like "Downtown Lights" and "Headlights on the Parade". This is not an album that you can just put on in the background, it demands (albeit very gently) your attention and draws you in. For fear of repeating myself, much credit here has to go to both the quality of the playing which is at a tremendously high level throughout and the extraordinary production which is both crystal clear and sensitive. Hats of to both Trevor and Marcus for a fantastic job in that regard.

Given the fact that this is such a complete album, it feels almost contradictory to single out particular tracks, especially as my favourites are already changing regularly so I am sure that I will look back in a few weeks and go "No...........I missed out (insert track here)". However, I feel I should mention the following:

The first two tracks proper, "Ghost of Song" and the title track "Happy Blue" itself set the stall out for the record and make it clear about the very high standard that we are looking at here, both musically and lyrically. If we lived in an age when anyone other than mainstream commercial dance pop acts released singles, both would be strong contenders!

"Naked As Adam" is a change in mood, in that it is almost playful, something which is drawn out by the inventive use of brass and is a clear indication that there will be no let up in quality.

If somebody said to me "So why should I listen to Trevor Jones, then?" I would play them "Weakness and Wine". Frankly, it's 2 minutes, 53 second of pure perfection! Backed largely by Marcus on Piano and some delightful Pedal Steel , Trevor's lyrics are superb throughout. If, by the time Trevor quotes James Joyce "They lived and laughed and loved and left" and you don't have a lump in your threat, there is a chance that you are either Simon Cowell or clinically dead!

Again, many recent albums have tended to be front loaded and tail off towards the end. Here though, if anything, the quality is even higher in the second half (Vinyl's making a come back, I can refer to second half's!). "Cartwheels" jumps out because musically and structurally it's quite unlike anything Trevor has ever done before. I'm not sure if it's the sparse instrumentation or Lucinda Drayton's lovely backing vocals but it reminds me of "Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel!

And coming back to the subject of singles, I would love to hear "St Celicia" on the radio (Heck, I'd love to hear any of this album on the radio but you know what I mean). A beautifully simple and sweet (in the best senses of the term) song.

Which brings us to "Battersea Boy", which is both a tribute to Trevor's dad and a reflection of his impact on Trevor's life. It is at this point that I am in danger of going over the top in my praise!! Quite simply, this is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. As someone who has lost both parents, the song rings clear and true. Furthermore, the instrumentation which is subtle and exquisite complements the song perfectly. When it reaches the end you want both to cry and applaud, it's a wonderful achievement.

The danger after such a high is that the record could tail off because "Battersea Boy" could overshadow it. Whilst neither of the two remaining songs are a match for "Battersea Boy" (Few songs are!), they are still of a very high quality and culminate the album, along with the closing coda "Last" perfectly. "Misbegotten Moon" is underpinned by some more delightful pedal steel guitar and what sounds like a steel drum (but, apologising for my musical ignorance, I appreciate probably isn't!!). "My Muffled Prayer" is a beautiful, wistful final song. The lyrics reflective and lovely. the instrumentation again subtle and delightful. The musical coda at the end, particularly when the hammond comes in reminds me of the end of the "Days before rock and roll" by Van Morrison. Finally we have "Last" which is an extended echo of "First" with some beautifully spoken words by Trevor over music by (I believe) Marcus and Gustaf Lunggren.

And then we're done! And I simply want to go and put the record on again!

Coming back to my original point, I can only stand and marvel at the extraordinary consistency that Trevor has shown in his career, this records are stunning and each release brings fresh treasures and pleasures. I would recommend "Happy Blue" wholeheartedly and unreservedly. Buy a copy, pour yourself a glass of something pleasurable. put the album on and prepare to lose yourself in some of the finest music you will hear!