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Spiral Scratch (EP) ( 1977 )
Breakdown / Time’s Up / Boredom / Friends of Mine Recorded on 16 track on the 28th of December, 1976, with money guitarist Pete Shelley borrowed from his father, Spiral Scratch is a raw and rather clumsy, but ultimately charming document. More important than that, however, is the fact that it’s also a historically important release, out on the market before the Clash had even secured a contract with CBS, and also three months before the release of the first actual British punk album, Damned Damned Damned (April ’77). At the time, the band’s line-up consisted of Pete Shelley (guitar), Steve Diggle (bass), John Maher (drums) and geek Howard Devoto (vocals), a college friend of Shelley, who would leave the band soon after the release of this EP and went on to write another interesting musical chapter called Magazine. |
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| Devoto’s singing is very average, not steady at all, and his intonation is ‘snarly,’ but he’s not the only one here, because all the others also sound much less competent than they would be a year later. The essence of the Buzzcocks is there, though: a ragged guitar (mainly in the verses), steady and powerful drumming, often funny but self-deprecating lyrics, and hooks galore. “Breakdown” is short, quite fast, and has an immediately memorable chorus that’ll wander around in your head for a while. “Time’s Up” is less catchy and a bit longer, but features some awkward call-and-response vocals. “Boredom” is essentially a blueprint for the debut album’s “Fast Cars,” with exactly the same intro, recognisable chords and two-note solo. The EP’s last track, “Friends of Mine” sounds very clumsy: Devoto utters his lyrics way too fast and Shelley provides a distorted solo that showed he’d improve with giant leaps during the next year. Spiral Scratch is probably of interest only for hardcore Buzzcocks-fans or those willing to delve deeper into British punk history, but because of its low price (or check out the used bins), I’d recommend it to any fan of British punk, as it’s a primitive but promising hint of what was to come. |
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Another Music in a Different Kitchen (1978)
Fast Cars / No Reply / You Tear Me Up / Get On Our Own / Love Battery / Sixteen / I Don’t Mind / Fiction Romance / Autonomy / I Need / Moving Away From the Pulsebeat Recorded a year after the Spiral Scratch EP, and by consequence hot on the heels of other seminal punk albums such as Never Mind the Bollocks and The Clash, Another Music In a Different Kitchen may very well be one of the very best (early) punk albums, since still today it sounds very exciting, catchy and plain fun. A far cry from the nihilistic anger of The Sex Pistols, the combative idealism of The Clash, or Wire’s studied dadaist take on punk, Another Music is in essence a punked-up romantically pop album. And yes, that means ‘pop’ as in “first-rate melodies, hooks, catchy choruses, suitable backing vocals, simple yet memorable lyrics.” More than any other punk band (with the possible exception of The Undertones), the Buzzcocks created a brand of punk-pop that not only relied on crunchy guitars, an above-average speed and simplicity, but also on pop conventions. |
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Pete Shelley proved he had a great ear for catchy melodies and was backed (in my opinion, at least) by an awesome band (John Maher (drums), Steve Garvey (bass), Steve Diggle (bass, vocals)) willing to explore the outer edge of genre conventions by combining ingredients from seemingly contrastive genres, and even adding touches of experimental Krautrock-influences (examples are some lengthy songs (“Why Can’t I Touch It,” “Moving Away From the Pulsebeat,” etc) that lock into a hypnotic groove and Shelley’s soloing, that may have been influenced by Can’s pioneer Michael Karoli). The first side of the album, however, has a straightforward energy that never lets up. “Fast Cars” (a Shelley/Devoto-song), rehashes Spiral Scratch’s “Boredom,” but adds more gusto. The guitar that opens the song sounds really vicious and is way up front in the mix (thank you, producer Martin Rushent). The second Shelley/Devoto-composition is the equally raunchy “You Tear Me Up,” with its drum intro, harsh sounding guitars (probably quite an influence on Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould), and stuttering bridge towards the end of the song. In the meantime, we’ve also had “No reply,” a punk boogie (it is, it is!) that shows that being in command of pop’s conventions isn’t a bad thing for a punk band. The hopelessly romantic “Get On Our Own” features some amazing vocals (Shelley almost yodelling “Get on our ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-own”). The lengthy “Sixteen” closes the first album side with a semi-martial rhythm, funny lyrics and a section with lots of sci-fi sounds effects that seems to end the song, until it’s suddenly disrupted by returning guitars and intensifying drums that prepare for one last exhilarating finale. The single “I Don’t Mind” that opens the B-side sounds a bit less aggressive than the majority of the songs on side A, but nevertheless is an excellent track with damn fine lyrics, a catchy chorus (“I don’t miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind”) and an almost ridiculously simple solo (two or three notes?). “Fiction Romance,” dirty and tight in the verses, lighter and more melodic in the chorus, is a fine example of Shelley’s lyrical obsession with love and the desire to fall in love with love. Diggle’s “Autonomy” is a match for Shelley’s best stuff and boasts galloping guitars and a solo similar to the one in “I Don’t Mind.” The song would have been essential, if it were a bit shorter. The album-closer “Moving Away From the Pulsebeat” is one of those more experimental, Krautrock-inspired songs, and something different. The drum pattern that introduces the song is maintained during the entire song and creates a trance-like backing track over which the guitars and vocals come and go, until the drummer is left on his own again to finish the song. With one of the most exciting A-sides in punk music ever, and loads of great poppy punk songs, Another Music In A Different Kitchen is compulsory stuff for anyone even remotely interested in punk (or should I write ‘good music’?). Although the band didn’t try to repeat this album’s success with a similar album but instead opted for expanding their horizons and increasingly incorporating their more experimental influences, they never again (they disbanded in 1981, but were re-formed in the early 90’s) created an album as enthusiastic, exciting and relentlessly powerful as this debut, a punk masterpiece. |
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Love Bites ( 1978 )
Real World / Ever Fallen in Love / Operators Manual / Nostalgia / Just Lust / Sixteen Again / Walking Distance / Love Is Lies / Nothing Left / E.S.P. / Late for the Train … And the boys kept their momentum going with a second album in little over half a year. However, despite the short period between the release of their stellar debut and this sophomore album, the two albums differ quite a lot. The former is probably more of a ‘regular’ punk album (with the exception of the lengthy album closer “Moving away from the Pulsebeat”), with loads of concise and hasty songs, aggressive guitars and poppy hooks. All these elements are also present on Love Bites, but not as prominent, since it is obvious that the band made an album that sounds a bit more experimental, and not as frantically-paced as Another Music. Whereas the first album side of Another Music was one big thrilling kick, on Love Bites the band alternates their pure pop-punk exercises with songs that rely more on repetition and strange rhythmical patterns, provided by one of British punk’s most original rhythm sections. The result isn’t inaccessible (it still is The Buzzcocks’ best selling album), but it requires a few more listens than the earlier stuff. |
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The main reason why this album was so popular, is probably mainly because of the inclusion of “Ever Fallen in Love (with Someone You Shouldn’t’ve),” the band’s most famous song, and one of the era’s best: the twin guitar attack, addictive melody, backing vocals, recognisable theme (?), and unstoppable drive create an adrenalin-shot of the highest order. The first half contains two more tracks that are (almost) as good. “Nostalgia” is a perfect track, infested with another incredible melody and a subtle melancholic atmosphere. Its lyrics and brilliant ultra-short guitar solos prove that Shelley knew how to get maximum effect with a few notes. “Sixteen Again” (anyone else noticed it’s very akin to Magazine’s “Shot by Both Sides”?) refers to Another Music’s “Sixteen,” but is also an album highlight in its own right. Another pop track, but without the punk, is Diggle’s “Love Is Lies” that has an uncanny similarity to Nick Lowe’s releases at the time (try your copy of Jesus of Cool (1978) or Labour of Lust (1979)), which had the same old-fashioned cutesy melodies perverted by an underlying cynicism in the lyrics. Relatively straightforward is also Garvey’s instrumental, “Walking Distance,” which they’d recorded earlier, during a John Peel-session. Not weird or anything, but definitely not your average punk songs are, firstly, “Just Lust,” (co-written by Shelley and their manager Richard Boon), which steams ahead at a steady pace, with a pumping rhythm section (listen to those cool-sounding toms at the end!); and, secondly, “Nothing Left,” which is introduced by martial drumming and concrete riffing, but which soon undergoes a tempo shift, and especially benefits from a jerky guitar solo and Shelley’s great vocal delivery (he’s one of the few singers who could make “At all at all at all at all at all” sound good). That’s when we get the more experimental tracks: the long intro (well, 40 seconds was long at the time), angular guitars, yodelling vocals, and weird drum patterns in “Real World” aren’t exactly what you’d expect from The Sex Pistols, right? Even more awkward is “Operators Manual,” which hints to Shelley’s infatuation with machinery-metaphors and sterile sounds (see also: “Fast Cars” and especially his solo album Homosapien (1981)), and which has more inventive rhythmical changes (a silly waltz during the chorus) than most punk albums at the time. Finally, there are the two album closers that, like “Moving Away from the Pulsebeat,” have a terrific trance-like quality and manage to turn repetitive rhythms, melodies and chord progressions into exciting songs. Both go on longer than expected (4:45 and 5:31), but sustain their catchy drive and appeal, which makes them album highlights. I mentioned the rhythm section a few times, but in my opinion it is the drummer (John Maher) who steals the show on this album, adding original touches that strengthen the songs enormously, helped by an excellent production job by Martin Rushent. A very good album, with a few classic punk tracks on the first album side, two marvellous tracks that end the album (how many albums have you heard that have two great tracks at the end?), and a handful of good stuff in between, Love Bites proves that even in a supposedly ‘narrow’ frame as punk, there was room for experimentation that didn’t get in the way of the band’s pop sensibilities. Therefore, owning Singles Going Steady is not enough to get a complete idea of what this band was capable of. Note: The 2001-reissue of the album adds four bonus tracks: “Love You More,” “Noise Annoys,” “Promises” and “Lipstick,” all of which belong in everyone’s CD-case.
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