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Show December, 1979 20 from his real idol, Richard Wagner Blondie s Deborah XTC Drums and Wires 0 band can be endorsed only with a note of caution: eating to this beat will give you a tummyache like no one's busi("Victor"). This Harry This Heat This Heat (Piano Records) cute-as-butto- ns ness. XTC isare a gang of four happy English people who manage to confuse all the labels pasted on them past the point of any real relevance, but who would probably fall safely somecategories like Amyl place Power and Reggae. Their appeal Pop is basically catchy melody lines dressed up with witty synthesizers and a whole circus of techno-toys- . The Davin Seay Cheap Trick Dream Police (Epic) en Cheap Trick built its audience J0L catcu meocty Anes dres&a) ' ' through incessant touring. On the evidence of Dream Police (actually recorded prior to the breakthrough Budokan LP), the constant roadwork has taken its creative toll. Only the ' title track, a passable though inferior rewrite of "Surrender," and "Need Your Love," Robin Zander's vocal showcase, measure up to past Trick standards. The remaining material is energetic but undistinguished and banal. "Voices" is intriguing because it sounds like ELO and Cheap Trick has always been reminiscent of the Move, the great English band that spawned ELO out of a combination of hard rock power and pop melodies. But if the Dream Police show up at your bedside don't be alarmed. They're firing blanks this time out. ufrunti witty syntAe&izers cmd a ivAo& circus of tecvio-tot- s. closest comparison is Bill Nelson's Red Noise, but the connection could' all be through producer John Leckie, of Red Noise and before them Be Bop Deluxe, who also did the first two XTC albums. The third XTC LP, Drums and Wires, marks a change in direction. They've lost Leckie and their key- Don Snowden Elton John boards, and they're getting more serious about the music. (Serious may not mean better; remember the co- stume numbers in Marx Bros, movies?) But whenever the rock posing doesn't get in the way "Real by Reel," "Ten Feet Tall," and the single "Making Plans for Nigel" everything is pleasant. Whenever it does, like in the overblown "Complicated Game," the music is scarcely bearable. On another hand, we have the album This Heat, by, appropriately, the band This Heat. While XTC giggles at outright rock, This Heat takes rock music to a logical and conclusion. If you were one of those who thought an album like Evolution by a group like Journey could qualify if you as "World's Largest Machine Metal Reed's thought Lou Music had a good beat but you couldn't really dance to it; if you resented the Rubinoos' single "Rock and Roll Is Dead" only after they tried for a follow-u- p hit, then hot damn, is this an album for you. With all your fave musical components hooks, drum fills, power chords... They' re all right here, laid out on the table like surgical instruments. Mainstay is producer David Cunningham, also responsible for Flying Lizards and the solo "Grey Scale." What bands like Throbbing Gristle and Chrome, and probably even Cousin Eno, are doing to extend the range of music, This Heat does to exaggerate its limits. Examine the well-deserv- In-Joke- ed "; Loop," or the haunting, yet lyrical, "FaH of Saigon.' The music drones and breaks it snappy "24-Trac- k twists, it shouts. This is music which pumps embalming fluid in place of passion, which offers all the charisma of a generating machine: iron lung music for a grateful rock-and-ro- ll, and dying generation. Victim Quadrophenia Basically a soundtrack-plus- , music to make it interesting in its own right. The Who were the archetypal Mod band during the early Sixties Mods vs. Rockers concussions, so they bear expert witness. Some of Quad- the group in their latter-da-y Townshend's to heyday, prior Four tendencies. Side operatic rophenia evidences contains some of the influential (non-Wh- records of the period, o) notably James Brown's classic "Night Train," itself almost worth the price of this evocative and album. James Anger not-so-nostal- The Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady (I.R.S.) A chronologically arranged collection of the group's first eight singles (hence the title), Singles Going Steady offers a rare look at the development of a band from its first rough efforts to a more accomplished attack. One of the first English punk bands, the Buzzcocks' strength is in two- - to three-minupop gems delivered with energy and melodic flair. "What Do I Get?," "I Don't Mind" and "Ever Fallen in Love?" are excellent songs; though some of the group's excursions beyond the three-minubarrier fall flat, this is an album well worth picking up. Don Snowden d looks and striking, him makes singing perfect for the high-pitche- glossy celeb magazines. All the Police lack is the ability to come up with an album's worth of good material. Reggatta contains three stand-ou- t tracks the single "Message in a Bottle," the reggae-influence- d trio likely to be the first new wave band to hit it big, the. Police offer a fresh, technically accomplished rock 'n reggae blend Anglo-Americ- an run at Top 40 dominance. Despite Styx' thirst for "significance," the group adroitly exploits its crass pop formulas. - Lavii i wt?ay Blondie Victim of Love didn't achieve. Eat to the Beat (Chrysalis) give up. After four albums, a boffo single, People magazine and Saturday Night Live, I've gone soft on Blondie. JohnTrausch I Oregon centered around the surging, active rt Copeland rhythm section and topped by Summer's spare, effective guitar playing that makes the Police enjoyable even when their playing isn't up to snuff. Reedman Paul McCandless, it's that basic rhythmic thrust Roots in the Sky (Elektra Asylum ) Glen Moore Introducing ((Elektra Styx Cornerstone (A&M) All the Mornings Bring (Elektra Asylum ) Colin Walcott, harmonies and gee-whmysticism the bane of rock and roll, Styx, along with Supertramp, Kansas and a host of other earnest practitioners, continues to mine the genre with sometimes satisfying results. Cornerstone has its share of insufferable pretenses, but careful craftsmanship and emphasis on ringing rffs fuels Cornerstone for an imnressiW three-pa- rt iz sitarist-tablai- guitarist-pianist-trumpet- st er Ralph Towner and Glen Moore, the talented gentlemen who make up the musical group Oregon, are responsible for three new offerings, one group and two solo, all notable. Roots is Oregon's second for Elektra and it shows again the group's ability to intertwine classical and jazz forms at will. The tracks on Roots have more bassist-pianist-violai- st culated? What else? Deborah Harry as Blondie is probably here to stay, like Cher, Dolly Parton and Ethel Merman. This album careens around like a big rig in a sleet storm, yet is so overblown and bombastic that the inevitable collision rhythmic punch than antecedent sends it diin off a new discs. only spinning "June Bug" is propelled by rection. Surprise! No one's hurt, it's guitar and tablas, over which all for laughs, what a thrill. Producer McCandless's oboe cries its airy line, Mike Chapman deserves much of the which soon rises to a wild shout over credit for creating this aural equivainflamed support. "Vessel" is space. lent of a hot air balloon. Chapman, Towner's piano and the tablas arwho also produced the Knack, is frerange a canyas to work on, and quently credited for bringing punk Moore's bass and McCandless's gothic and disco together. Actually, Chap- bass clarinet arrive with the colors. man's art is to sneak in snippets of "Ogden Road" features Towner's Phil Specter's Girl Group vocabulary piano again, here embracing the nar-few licks a ?(Wkn"Preamin,M) plus f row, spindly, romantic sound of Keith bark-worse-than-b- While some may consider synthesizers, looping melodies, keening Asylum) Paul McCandless Sting-Stewa- Don Snowden te familiar voice over a repetitive beat. John and Taupin are reportedly in the process of making a new album. Maybe it'll be the return to form that 'Walking on the Moon" and "This Bed's Too Big Without You." The rest Resistance began to melt when "Heart of Glass" swept the airwaves. ranges from pretty good to pretty Something so transparent couldn't be lame. all bad. Eat to the Beat proves concluProduction is fuller and busier that Blondie really isn't bad at than on the first release, closer to the sively all. Vapid? Yes. Silly? Of course. Cal-band's live sound, and the influence of 'dub' reggae is more evident. But te An this that's already produced a radio hit, 'Roxanne," from their first album. Vocalistbassist Sting's Aryan good te Reggatta De Blanc (A&M) album loses a little impart without the film, but there is still enough vital piano. That can hardly be called dealing from strength. An disco version of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" gets things off to a hazardous start. The remainder, six disco tracks written by producer Peter Belotte and others, offers little more than John's eight-minu- The Police (Polydor) (MCA) Neither John nor his longtime partner Bernie Taupin wrote any of this album's tunes. Also, John doesn't play Paul CuSum The Who (and Others) of Love ite |