Horribly busy but will catch up on my review reading - promise!
Horribly busy but will catch up on my review reading - promise!
Member since:22.10.2006
Reviews:90
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Once upon a time there was a rather gnarly girl group called We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It!! (the two exclaimation marks are important!). They had a cult following, were popular in clubs of a certain grungy sort and played rough but catchy guitar indie type stuff but with a hint of cheek humour and wearing some fairly crazy crazy outfits and seriously back-combed hair.
They had a few minor hits then suddenly, almost overnight changed gear totally and reinvented themselves as a pure pop band racking up a string of big hits such as International Rescue, Self! and Pink Sunshine. Then they pretty much dropped off the radar for no apparant reason.
This CD and DVD collection brings together their best work with 20 tracks on the CD and 9 videos on the DVD.
The earlier stuff was as mentioned, quite rough and those who are only familair with the chart friendly International Rescue et al will struggle with songs like Rules & Regulations, Rockin' with Rita and Love is the Slug. However, these early gems are great fun and happily also manage to get represented on the DVD so you can see what they looked like early on.
They also covered Spirit in the Sky, much around the same time as Doctor and the Medics and for me, the Fuzzbox version is superior if a little more tongue in cheek.
The tracks from their second phase such as Self! and Pink Sunshine show a complete change of direction with pure pop sensibilities and with a look to match. To our modern PC mindset, the corresponding videos such as Self! appear almost crass with the vocalist slowly undoing her top as the song progresses and pulling it down whilst leaning forward to offer maximum cleavage to the camera.
The cover version of Yoko Ono's Walking on Thin Ice works well but alas the excellent 12inch mix is absent. This track does contain a spoken section that sounds a bit forced but then trying to cover anything to do with Ono must be a challange!
Work did start on a third album and one track, Your Loss is My Gain from these sessions did see the light of day and shows an attempt at moving away from the overtly pop sound and back to what they felt was more them although the ensuing lack of success, infighting and label problems eventually caused an implosion and that was that.
Fans of the band will buy this CD/DVD combination purely for the videos although there are also three remixed versions of songs to tempt them.
Because of the schizopathic nature of the band with two distinct phases, I'm not sure it would be the best purchase for someone totally unfamiliar with their work as half the tracks will apeal and half won't although which half would be down to which way your tastes lie.
Tracks: 1.: Rules And Regulations 2.: X X Sex 3.: Rockin' With Rita (Head To Toe) 4.: Love Is The Slug 5.: Wait And See 6.: Spirit In The Sky 7.: What's The Point 8.: Taking The Easy Way Out 9.: So Long 10.: International Rescue 11.: Fast Forward Futurama 12.: Pink Sunshine 13.: Self 14.: Walking On Thin Ice 15.: Your Loss My Gain 16.: You 17.: Do I Want To 18.: International Rescue (Droyds mix) 19.: Fast Forward Futurama (Syndrum mix) - Fuzzbox & Manda Rin 20.: Rules And Regulations (Motormark mix) 21.: International Rescue (Koishii & Hush single edit)
Titles on Disc 2 1.: Rules And Regulations (video/DVD) 2.: Rockin' With Rita (Head To Toe) (video/DVD) 3.: Love Is The Slug (video/DVD) 4.: What's The Point (video/DVD) 5.: International Rescue (video/DVD) 6.: Pink Sunshine (video/DVD) 7.: Self (video/DVD) 8.: Walking On Thin Ice (video/DVD) 9.: Your Loss My Gain (video/DVD)
The two disks are accompanied by a good set of inlay notes with a potted history of the band, lyrics, photos and record sleeves from the albums & singles. Given how cheaply this 2 disk set can be bought for, you could do worse than give it a try.
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Rules & Regulations X X Sex Rockin' With Rita Love Is The Slug Wait And See Spirit In ... more
The Sky What's The Point Taking The Easy Way Out So Long International Rescue Fast Forward Futurama Pink Sunshine Self! Walking On Thin Ice Your Loss My Gain You ...
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