4The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, February 4, 1988
Looking back at the year's best debut albums
By RANDY BULLOCK
Special to the DTH
Generally around the beginning of
February, people cease looking back
fondly at the year past and instead
force themselves to grimly survey the
upcoming year. With this in mind, a
brief, functional retrospective of the
best debut albums of 1987 may help
the music fan in keeping an eye on
the people who showed a great deal
of potential last year. Some of these
bands have been together for a while
and some have EPs out. but all the
albums below are initial domestic
releases by each artist. If these
albums are any indication of what
may come out in 1988. we should
all say a silent prayer of thanks.
Soup Dragons Hang Ten
(Sire)
Ever since the Buzzcocks broke up.
there has been a sickening gap in the
face of pop music, leaving a bunch
of moody, pale-faced razor blade
cases to entertain us with their
pessimistic maundering. Only
recently has there been an upswing
in the fast, fun variety of pop band Lewis Carroll is alive and well and
that forgets to take itself too living in the grooves of this album,
seriously. The Soup Dragons are the It starts out unusual and gets
best of this new breed. They play fast, curiouser and curiouser as it goes
tight pop songs with lots of Beach along. Psonic Psunspot is a refreshing
Boys-esque vocalsharmonies and change from the brutal, cynical
lyrics that celebrate the less weighty weirdness of bands in America,
things in life. It is derivative stuff to Instead of being twisted askew by
be sure, and sometimes uneven, but a cruel and insensitive world, the
they do what they do with flair and Dukes (or XTC) are disturbed by a
give the music scene a much needed quiet bustling in their own hedge-
Dlavful kick.
Dukes of Stratosphere Psonic
Psunspot (Geffen)
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rows. It is psychedelia that is safe
for children. Musically, they are
standing on the shoulders of giants,
but the vision is great up there, and
a package with this many ace psy
chedelic tunes should not be ignored.
Pianosaurus Groovy Neigh
borhood (Rounder)
A funny thing happened to these
guys on the way to the toystore
they came up with the bravest,
simplest concept to hit the music
world in some time. It is merely a
plus that this album is as good as
it is any album relying solely on
toys for instrumentation deserves to
be on everyone's "legendary" list. The
rockers propel you into manic toy air
guitar accompaniment and the bal
lads are so ingenious and poignant,
you'll want to cry. With one foot in
Toys-R-Us and the other in the
heartland of America's roots rock
rebel, these guys will plinkety-plunk
their way into even the most jaded
music lover's heart.
Big Dipper Heavens
(Homestead)
Too heavy to be a pop band, too
tuneful to be anything else, these
Bostonians submerge their psyche
delic lyrics into a big. warm, fuzzy
guitar sound and serve up a won
derfully mysterious world where men
are men and women are trains. The
Big Dips have great credentials,
having played in various Boston
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Individual
Wine Tastings
in the bar
January:
What is Oak?
Three California Chardonnays
February:
Sherries by Lustau
March:
Sauvignon Blanc
California. Loire.
Graves
Wines notes by Mark
Yonce and Bill Neal
Tastings nightly
without reservations
967-2506
220. w. Rosemary St.
bands, (most notably the Volcano
Suns) and they know that a stack
of Marshalls alone won't make
memorable music. They're loud and
they're tough, but they write songs
that could very well prove to be the
thing that pushes Bon Jovi and
Whitesnake back into the weenie
farm they sprang from.
Andy White Rave On (MCA)
This effort from Ireland's contribu
tion to the folk revival sprang from
oblivion and was subsequently
ignored by nearly everyone. This is
particularly unjust because, given
proper promotion, it could have easily
been one of those rare, worthwhile
mainstream successes. The lyrics are
the strong point throughout, with
many memorable images and some
passages bordering on poetry: the
music is augmented guitar-oriented
balladeering. He was hailed as the
new Dylan, but aside from the cover
art and a voice that inspires the same
kind of flinching at first, he comes
across as having a very distinctive
style all his own.
Opal Happy Nightmare, Baby
(SST)
This is one of the most menacing
collections of songs to ever bless
vinyl. Opal mingles the pop ethic of
the late Marc Bolan. hypnotic key
boards and their own style of impure
blues to create a world where they
quietly accept science fiction as their
fact and musically lure you down a
dirty alleyway just to beat you up.
You'll love them for it. The first ever
Cyberpunk album.
Balancing Act Three Squares
and a Roof (IRS)
If you have lived in the pop belt
(from Hoboken to Athens) for any
amount of time, you probably have
already battled the uncontrollable
urge to slam Don Dixon and Mitch
Easter into a wall until they promise
-ftreiroMor
make the Great American Pop
Record. Well, this record is America.
And it's pretty great. The pop on this
record doesn't jangle so much as it
twangs, with one tentative foot in
the country and western tradition
and the other grounded in folk. They
harmonize beautifully and consis
tently deny expectations, instead of
slavishly following the standards that
are ruining pop music for our children.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Shaka Zulu (Warner Bros.)
OK. you heard them on Paul
Simon's album. You saw them on the
Tonight Show. You saw them on
Saturday Night Live. Judging by the
success of this album, however, most
of you probably did not treat yourself
to a large enough dose of the heavenly
sounds created by this a cappella
group. NO amount of hype could
possibly do LBM justice. After count
less years together, and as many
albums (released only in South
Africa), these guys have perfected
their glorious harmonies. They create
music in one of the oldest and purest
forms, and they uplift in a way
Western music never will. Do yourself
a favor recognize what these
people are doing.
There it is: the albums that helped
shape 1987 and the artists that will,
with hope, shape the years to come.
Chapel Hill
Stick this to your refrigerator tor easy