Irish bands

REVIEW: Glass Tiger – Diamond Sun (1988)

GLASS TIGER – Diamond Sun (1988 Capitol Records)

Produced by mainstay Jim Vallance and recorded at Le Studio with Paul Northfield, Glass Tiger’s Diamond Sun is generally considered the best of their studio albums. What you may not know is that the Canadian pop band’s second album also really rocks.  Diamond Sun was their last album featuring the co-writing skills of drummer Michael Hanson, and his absence would be felt in the future.  For 1988, Glass Tiger were running on a high, and hit after hit.

The band had the courage to open the album with a soft one, the title track.  This was the second of five singles, and a powerful ballad it is.  The keyboard chimes work in tandem with drums, samples and singer Alan Frew’s impassioned vocals.  The lyrics circle around the still-topical subject of colonialism.  “When they came to this land, we gave our friendship, gave them our hands.”  The music has the appropriate feel, but listen carefully and enjoy the lyrical bass work of Wayne Parker, who has often gone unnoticed in this band.  Check that false ending!

“Far Away From Here”, the second song, is single worthy in itself but remains a nice deeper cut.  This time the guitar work of Al Connelly rises at the start, setting up an awesome mid-tempo rocker.  The chorus is among one of Glass Tiger’s best, accented by catchy acoustic guitar bits hanging lower in the mix.  Connelly’s riff is very much akin to 80s Rush, but encased within a simpler, more direct kind of song.  Alan Frew’s voice has a smooth, deep kind of power.

Personal favourite “I’m Still Searching” is a fast electro-acoustic rocker.  This song lit our VCR on fire back in 1988 when it was released as the first single/video.  Nobody expected such an upbeat rocker from the Newmarket quintet!  It’s an immediate singalong with a campfire quality, despite the electric shimmer of guitar, and organ by Sam Reid.  Once again Al Connelly has come up with some cool, catchy guitar parts.

“A Lifetime of Moments” is a lesser known ballad, well-rounded with keyboards and guitars as the main features.  The lyrics are about a lost love and rebounding, and Frew sells it.  This song is unique because of the sax solo, something simply not utilised enough in ballads or rockers!

The best of the deep cuts is the awesome side one closer, “It’s Love U Feel”, which is right out of the 80s Rush playbook.  From the echoing guitar jingle to the bouncing basswork, this song easily could have been a hit for Rush on Power Windows.  A duet with Lisa Dalbello on the chorus, this song kicks hard.  How this isn’t one of the Tiger’s biggest hits is unknown.  Perhaps it was just too advanced for an 80s pop video audience.  This sounds more like the kind of thing that would have been big on rock radio.  It is one of Glass Tiger’s greatest songs, featuring some stinging, smoking guitar work.  It could be Keith Scott from Bryan Adams’ band, as he is credited with additional guitar on the album, along with Michael Hanson.

Side two opens with two more singles.  “My Song” was a big hit with a Celtic feel, performed with the legendary Chieftains themselves.  They were recorded separately in Ireland, with Sam Neil producing their session.  Tin whistle dominates, with bodhrán, fiddles and other instruments lower in the mix.  For anyone with a taste for Celtic pop rock (think Marillion “80 Days”), this will hit the spot.  A huge hit in Canada because of its unforgettable, timeless chorus.  They tried to repeat this trick with Rod Stewart on the next album, with less success.

The most powerful song on the album is, paradoxically, the softest.  The piano ballad “(Watching) Worlds Crumble” absolutely explodes on the chorus, while the verses feature Alan Frew singing in a soft falsetto.  The music video, recorded live on stage, was the first not to feature Michael Hanson.  He left the band mid-tour to be replaced by Randall Coryell from Tom Cochrane’s band.  It was one of those sad instances of the new guy never becoming “official”.  Glass Tiger remained, on paper at least, a four-piece after the departure of Hanson.  “(Watching) Worlds Crumble” is one of the few without his writing.  It was written by Frew, Reid and Vallance, and features another really nicely written Connelly guitar solo.  The drums are absolutely epic too.

Back to a rocker, “Send Your Love” has an upbeat stuttery guitar part and a slamming chorus.  Another winning deep cut.  The warm ballad “Suffer in Silence” and another sax solo take us out to the closer, “This Island Earth”.   Diamond Sun ends in epic fashion, with this slow burning number and a social message.  Again, Rush comes to mind, with a slight progressive sound and keyboards.  In the end it’s Alan Frew who sells it.

Diamond Sun sold 200,000 copies in Canada, an astronomical amount for this country.  It is an album with broad appeal, spanning a variety of styles but all somehow sounding like Glass Tiger.  It’s a cohesive album with no weak tracks, and only highlights to be found.

5/5 stars

REVIEW: Sultans of Ping F.C. – Casual Sex in the Cineplex (2018 expanded edition)

SULTANS OF PING F.C. – Casual Sex in the Cineplex (Originally 1993, 2018 Cherry Red expanded edition)

What an odd situation, when an extremely obscure album you spent years and years hunting for is reissued in a 2 CD deluxe expanded edition, and is sitting there in stock on the Canadian Amazon store.  17 bonus tracks (16 of which I’ve never heard before in my life) now sit alongside the core 12 album classics in my collection.  The world is a better place for it.

We reviewed Casual Sex in the Cineplex by the Sultans of Ping F.C. back in 2013, but it deserves another look now that it’s been expanded.

Casual Sex boasts a fun but snearing punky side, accompanied by hilarious shrieky lead vocals and lyrics to match.  Top this confection with an Irish accent and loud guitars!  Opener “Back in the Tracksuit” is a perfect example of this recipe: a blast of punk guitars & drums with the bizarrely catchy lead vocals of  Niall O’Flaherty.  Half the time, we couldn’t figure out what he was singing.  “Indeed You Are” sounds like he’s singing “Konichiwa!”  So that’s the way we sing it.

The relaxed poppier songs are just as good.  “Veronica” is a cute serenade with strings and harmonica.  Perhaps it’s inspired by early period Beatles, filtered through the Sultans’ own bedraggled lenses.  “2 Pints of Rasa” is in a similar spirit: a stroll through the park on a sunny Saturday afternoon “drinking with the guys”…and with strings!  In the lyrics, O’Flaherty proclaims to his girl of interest, “but I still like you, you are my ice cream.”  Write that one down for the next time you’re with your significant others.

A broadside shot of breakneck guitars kick off “Stupid Kid”.  The infectious chorus goes on for days.  “You’re stupid, S-T-U-P-I-D kid!”  I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more entertaining combination of snark and melody.  “Stupid Kid” is among the best tunes on the album.  “You Talk Too Much” is its twin brother, shrieks and surf-rock drums notwithstanding.

A rollicky bass intro kicks off “Give Him a Ball (And a Yard of Grass)”, and the body surfing begins!  You can’t hear what O’Flaherty is singing for most of it, but it hardly matters.  You can sing along as if you do, and nobody will notice.  The party has only one lull:  “Karaoke Queen” is OK, a little slack, but it is quickly followed by “Let’s Go Shopping”.   It’s another one of those sentimental Sultans numbers about, well, going shopping.  We always found the jubilant lyrics quite mirthful:

Put on your flip-flops and we’ll go shopping, dear
Put on your flip-flops, we’ll go flip-flopping, dear
You can buy crisps and I can buy jam,
You push the trolley, I’ll push the pram.

The sentiment stops there, since the next song is entitled “Kick Me With Your Leather Boots”!  That means you can count on brisk, boisterous shenanigans.  As a bonus, the lyrics planted the seed for me to seek out Schaffner’s bizarre conspiracy movie The Boys From Brazil.  “Clitus Clarke” approaches being skip-worthy, but who cares since the final song is our favourite, “Where’s Me Jumper?”

My brother knows Karl Marx
He met him eating mushrooms in the public park
He said ‘What do you think of my manifesto?’
I like your manifesto, put it to the testo.

This album would be worth buying just for the one song.  “Dancing at the Disco, bumper to bumper,” but then disaster!  “Wait a minute — where’s me jumper?!”  Niall goes on to complain that “It’s alright to say things can only get better.  You haven’t lost your brand new sweater.”  True, true.  “My mother will be so, so angry.”  But it’s impossible not to grin ear to ear like a gleeful hooligan by the end of it.

For years the original 12 tracks were all we had.  Later Sultans albums could be found in the wild, but T-Rev always said the fun wasn’t there.  He even found the single for “You Talk Too Much” which had “Japanese Girls” on the B-side.  Nothing to him was as essential as the first album, which is easy to listen to end-to-end and then do all over again.  Which is usually the way we listened to it.

How does adding 17 rarities change the listening experience?

Not badly, as it turns out.  The bonus CD is only a punky 42 minutes long so it never becomes an exercise in testing patience.  Seeing that information about this band is scarce already, it’s impossible to know how “complete” the bonus CD is with rarities.  It seems to compile Sultans EP and single B-sides from 1991 to 1993.  Other Sultans deluxe editions are out there comprising the later albums.

None of the bonus tracks are as indispensable as disc one, but that’s not the point.  A blast of a time will still be had, with more of the same sound that endeared us to the band in the first place.  There’s an early version of “Stupid Kid” from a 1991 EP, and a live recording of “Indeed You Are” from a 1993 EP called Teenage Punks.  “Miracles” (from 1991) adds a hint of the Ramones to the stew.  B-side “I Said I Am I Said” is fun like the album and makes a fine addition.  Check out “Robo Cop”, and the live track “Football Hooligan” for a couple more songs that are hard to resist.  Some, like “Turnip Fish” are just weird and more like early Alice Cooper.

Great to have more early Sultans, all in one place.  Get yours.

 

4.8/5 stars

 

 

 

 

REVIEW: Sultans of Ping F.C. – Casual Sex in the Cineplex (1993)

This one is by special request of Aaron who acquired this album for me!

SULTANS OF PING F.C. – Casual Sex in the Cineplex (1993 Rhythm King)

I’ve said a tremendous amount about this band already.  In case you need a refresher:

Needless to say I have some history with this album.  Before too long, T-Rev would start incorporating lyrics from this album into our daily dialogue.  For example:

“Hey Trevor, how’re you doing?”

“Back in the Tracksuit!”

I have a hard time describing this album.  It has a snearing punky vibe, hilarious shrieky lead vocals and lyrics to match, topped with an Irish accent and guitars! “Back in the Tracksuit” is a perfect example of this; a blast of punk guitars & drums with the bizarrely catchy lead vocals of  Niall O’Flaherty.  Half the time we couldn’t figure out what he was singing.  “Indeed You Are” sounds like he’s singing “Konichiwa!”

“Veronica” is a cute serenade with strings and harmonica.  Maybe it’s a take on early period Beatles, filtered through their own bedraggled lenses.  “2 Pints of Rasa” is in a similar spirit: a stroll through the park on a sunny Saturday afternoon “drinking with the guys”…and with strings!  In the lyrics, O’Flaherty proclaims to his girl of interest, “but I still like you, you are my ice cream.”

A broadside shot of breakneck guitars kick off “Stupid Kid”.  T-Rev and the rest of us loved this refrain.  The chorus was infectious!  “You’re stupid, S-T-U-P-I-D kid!”  I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more entertaining combination of snark and melody.  One of the best tunes on the album.  “You Talk Too Much” is a twin brother, shrieks and surf-rock drums notwithstanding.

A rollicky bass intro kicks off “Give Him a Ball (And a Yard of Grass)”, and the body surfing begins!  I have no idea what O’Flaherty is singing for most of it, but it hardly matters.  You can sing along as if you do, and nobody will notice.

“Karaoke Queen” is OK, a little slack, but it is quickly followed by “Let’s Go Shopping”.   It’s another one of those sentimental Sultans numbers about, well, going shopping.  We always found the jubilant lyrics quite mirthful:

Put on your flip-flops and we’ll go shopping, dear
Put on your flip-flops, we’ll go flip-flopping, dear
You can buy crisps and I can buy jam,
You push the trolley, I’ll push the pram.

The sentiment stops there, since the next song is entitled “Kick Me With Your Leather Boots”!  That means you can count on brisk, boisterous shenanigans.  “Clitus Clarke” approaches being skip-worthy, but who cares since the final song is our favourite, “Where’s Me Jumper?”

My brother knows Karl Marx
He met him eating mushrooms in the public park
He said ‘What do you think of my manifesto?’
I like your manifesto, put it to the testo.

It’s just great fun.  You can’t help but move to it.  To me this album would be worth buying just for the one song.

Thankfully, this collection has an assortment of really great songs and some pretty good ones too.  All of them are gladdening and memorable, so for that reason Casual Sex in the Cineplex has a permanent spot in my car’s MP3 player.

4.8/5 stars

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