Love and Rockets “Express”

sfilzen — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 17:49:43 +0000

Love and Rockets “Express” 1986. Big Time Records/Beggars Banquet. Today, July 31st, is singer/guitarist Daniel Ash’s birthday (b. 1957). This is one of my favorite records of all-time: it’s a record I’ve really never stopped listening to since ‘86 and I still love every single song. My favorite of favorites is “Kundalini Express” (released as a single but did not chart) which is lyrically clever and has a killer industrial goth dance beat. Also fabulous: the breakneck chugging “Yin and Yang The Flower Pot Man” (released as a single, also didn’t chart), their grinding industrial cover of “Ball of Confusion” (written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong and performed by The Temptations in 1970 when it hit #3 in the US), “All in My Mind” (released as single, it charted at #49 on the US Rock chart) and “It Could Be Sunshine.”

I saw Love and Rockets perform in ‘89 and then got to see the sort-of Love and Rockets redux group Poptone two years ago. I have no idea what songs were played in ‘89 (probably mostly tracks from their ‘89 LP Love and Rockets) but at the Poptone concert Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins played a few tracks from Express including “An American Dream,” “All in My Mind,” “Ball of Confusion” and “Yin and Yang The Flower Pot Man.” Pure bliss.

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Love and Rockets “Earth Sun Moon”

sfilzen — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 14:55:01 +0000

Love and Rockets “Earth Sun Moon” 1987. Big Time Records. Today, July 31st, is Daniel Ash’s birthday (b. 1957). Ash is a giant in the goth genre, part of Bauhaus and Tones on Tail as well as Love and Rockets; his guitar sound other-wordly, dark spinning shadow dreams, psychedelic and slinky.

“Earth Sun Moon” includes the band’s first hit “No New Tale to Tell,” which reached #18 on the US charts. I love this song, with its acoustic intro, quiet-loud-quiet structure and deep-thought philosophical lyrics (“You cannot go against nature because if you do, go against nature is part of nature too”). “The Light” is spectacularly dark (”Do you remember the blackest moment, those blackest thoughts that rush?”). Even on songs that are slightly less gloomy (but gloom is a good thing here!) and include elements like saxophone – decidedly not goth in my opinion – (i.e. “Waiting for the Flood”), the undercurrent of glorious sadness permeates it all.

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Love and Rockets “Express”

Love and Rockets “Earth Sun Moon”