- nowthen.jpg (19.49 KiB) Viewed 5294 times
I'll conclude my review of SLF's best albums with a report on my favourite album of theirs,
Now Then. Looking at the ghastly cover, you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a dying whimper of a once important punk band, and evidently the masses did. Poor sales of the album and its attendant singles, coupled with low ticket sales, led to the band calling it a day. I'd say the main reason for the album's failure wasn't its tunes, but the fact that their audience had moved on. The kids who wanted the raucous punk anthems had bands like the Expoited to turn to, others were stroking their chins to the more progressive end of the punk market, New Romanticism was blossoming and SLF found themselves a band out of time. Right album, wrong year.
I'll just add that I got into SLF around 82/83 and I heard all their original albums at roughly the same time, so my lack of participation in the Punk Wars may colour my opinions.
1. Falling Down - 8. I'm sure the Edge was taking notes, the intro guitar figure is very U2ish. Superb melody, ultra-tight band performance and some nice vocal harmonies.
2. Won't Be Told - 8. If I'm not mistaken, the first sighting of an acoustic guitar on an SLF song. This is probably the point where the Mohicans went running back to the record shop for their money back. It actually kicks arse once the song kicks in properly.
3. Love of the Common People - 9. Great cover of the Nicky Thomas tune, later ruined by Paul Young. I'm convinced if they'd released this song as single it would have gave them the hit single they needed and maybe opened a new audience for them. Young (who was a good mate of Jake's) later took it to no.2 in the British charts with an admittedly fluffier version.
4. Price of Admission - 7. The acoustic guitar comes out again for a nice ballad which is let down by its slightly monotonous chorus. Good lyrics though, nice twist at the end.
5. Touch and Go - 10. Always been one of my favourite SLF songs, Green Day would have cleaned up with this in the '90s. Poptastic!
6. Stands To Reason - 9. Another favourite of mine, props to Ali McMordie on this one, the bass is superb. More great lyrics turning stereotypes on their heads.
7. Bits of Kids - 9. Still a live favourite, a song which is lyrically more relevant than ever. Nice sitar too.
8. Welcome To the Whole Week - 8. New drummer Dolphin Taylor wasn't just a pretty face, he wrote and sang this catchy little number, a song about how fantastic it is being unemployed. A bit rich coming from a Rock Star you may say, but it's done tongue in cheek and is a nice "fuck you" to the bastards who were running the country at the time.
9. Big City Nights - 7. Henry Cluney's only vocal on the album, and it's a strange one. Very eerie and half-spoken, it makes for a nice change of mood.
10. Talkback - 8. I'm a bit surprised this wasn't a hit at the time, horn-driven and very reminiscent of late period Jam. Very catchy chorus and when you're starting to expect a bit filler towards the end of the album, this keeps things trundling along nicely.
11. Is That What You Fought the War For? - 8. They saved the punkiest for last, though the presence of Timpani drums and synths later in the song shows they were trying to move on, what a shame not many chose to go with them.