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I adore this record from start to finish, but I do have several songs that rise above the rest. The single “We Used to Be Friends” is gloriously catchy alt-pop; it went to #18 in the UK and has been featured as the theme song to Veronica Mars and was featured on The O.C. and Wonderfalls (so so aughts!). “Plan A” is another favorite that also was a single, going to #66 in the UK. The new wave funk of the above-mentioned “I Am a Scientist,” which sample David Bowie’s “Fashion,” is amazing and produced to sound like a Duran dead-ringer, the loopy falsetto of “The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone” is delightful, and I love 80’s-styled “The Dope (Wonderful You),” too. Plus the single “You Were the Last High” in all of its whispery awesomeness — the fact that its video is an almost exact recreation of Duran Duran’s “Planet Earth” doesn’t hurt either. Welcome to the Monkey House‘s second single, I’m not sure that “You Were the Last High” charted but the band considers it one of the best songs they’ve ever done.

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Beaster is a 6-song EP, released in ’93, comprised of tracks recorded during the Copper Blue sessions. Less alt-pop, more noise-pop, Mould describes Beaster as “a lot wilder than Copper Blue…[its] evil twin” with twisted and heavy guitar and religious imagery. It charted at #3 in the UK and #130 in the US (though at #4 on that Heatseekers chart) and Sugar released two singles – “Tilted” and “JC Auto” – both tracks released on a limited 7″ in the UK which went to #48.  I don’t think I listened to Beaster much in the 90’s, though I do have it dubbed on an old cassette somewhere around here.

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The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey
I lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather
A quiver in my lip as if I might cry

Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so I breathe
Lately it seems this big bed is where I never leave
Shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather
Quiver in my voice as I cry

What a cold and rainy day
Where on earth is the sun hid away?

Apparently I was not alone in my college-age attraction to this album and its various social commentary on issues like child abuse (“What’s the Matter Here?” –  a popular theme in the late 80′s i.e. “Luka” by Suzanne Vega, also from ‘87) , illiteracy, alcohol addiction, war and the environment. Allmusic reviewer Chris Woodstra observes “In My Tribe has served as one of the soundtracks for P.C. living and was required listening on college campuses in the late ‘80s.” A certain fascination with the Beat generation was also popular, at least with my friends, and 10,000 Maniacs had us covered with “Hey Jack Kerouac,” another favorite track of mine from this album. Those were also my days of trying on the neo-hippie label so I also loved 10,000 Maniacs cover of Cat Stevens “Peace Train,” a track that was removed in ‘89 from the U.S. CD version after comments made by Stevens (by then a Muslim convert and known as Yusuf Islam) that were perceived to be supportive of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie.

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I’m pretty sure we saw Sugar when they were on tour for this album, so probably late ‘94 or early ‘95, at the Rave in Milwaukee. I stood far too close to the speakers just at the side of the stage and the buzz in my head that lingered for days matches the buzzy quality of many of the record’s songs.

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