Apparently
it’s just over 25 years since St Julian was released. 25 years!
Time flies etc.... I saw him at
the Manchester International on the tour to promote the album with support
group Crazyhead (who weren’t too popular).
Cope had ‘that’ microphone stand.
He was bloody brilliant.
To this
day, I adore the Warne Out Mix of Trampolene.
Still one of my favourite all-time tracks. I always used to play it to give myself a bit
of a boost of confidence – before a job interview, prior to meeting my future
wife for the first time, that sort of thing.
I love/loved the fact that he had released his debut album World Shut
Your Mouth three years earlier without the whisper of a track of the same name,
then in 1987, he does and has his biggest solo hit single.
St Julian
was his first album away from Mercury, where Cope had released his first two
solo albums and had had good success with The Teardrop Explodes, ironic that
after leaving the label, he should then release an album more in line with his
former group. This new album was rockier
than his previous solo efforts, some say influenced by his admiration of Alice
Cooper, but the inclusion of Ramones producer Ed Stasium and the raw power
given to The The’s Infected by Warne Livesey didn’t harm the overall sound
where Cope cut his hair and donned leather from head to foot, creating distaste
amongst some quarters with his symbolic crucifixion pose on the album
cover.
The album
opens with Trampolene. A marvellous slab
of how-to-write-a-hit-single genius. It
almost worked, hauling itself into the Top 40 singles and nearly, so nearly,
making it up into the next ten of the countdown. It’s a catchy, infectious song with ripping
guitars and the Livesey drum sound so powerful, so tight, so fantastic. “I can’t believe you’re trampling me” is
whizzing round my head as I type. It will be for several hours more.
Little time
to rest before Shot Down ensues. More
well structured jangly guitar pop, more clever lyrics, more pulsing drums. Bouncing and racing along like a pack of fearsome
Cope cubs, stopping for nothing other than to deliver “all shot down from
Heaven above” and to indulge us in a teasing guitar solo ready to rip through
the track but somehow resisting the urge.
“Da-do-da-do-do”. Eve’s Volcano. Can music get any catchier? It’s a crime that songs like this never
received the commercial acclaim that they richly deserved and were quite
obviously aimed at. Some Halloweeny
keyboards in the background courtesy of Double DeHarrison (aka JC
himself). Pure Rock ‘n’ Roll in the form
of Spacehopper – a track that has its roots in the 70s from writing sessions
with Mr Ian McCulloch. Roaring along,
its one of the three tracks produced by Stasium. Three and a half minutes of
let-your-hair-down madness.
Planet Ride
comes complete with chorus sung by a female chorus. Uplifting?
Yes. It had the ability, though I
don’t know why, to make me grin before leading into the biggie, World Shut Your
Mouth here. It still sounds fresh. It
has everything. Even the verses are
catchy! If it’s some time since you’ve
heard it, then dig it back out and I challenge you to prove me wrong. The only thing that baffles me is why it only
reached number 19 in the charts – it should
have been right up there, but, that’s life. Yes, Cope’s solo career will probably always
be measured by this song, but it is, without any doubt, one of the finest pop
songs ever written.
The title
track is also a lesson in perfect songwriting, listen to this with stereo
headphones on and pick out every cymbal stroke, every horn, every slight tap of
a drum, without which the track would lose some of its completeness. It could have been another single – had its
predecessors been more successful, it may well have been.
For me, the
albums highlight comes in the form of Pulsar.
Ripping up from the opening vocal – “I’ve been away too long and I’m
wondering why”. Played live this was
awesome. Pure and unadulterated energy
and aggression. Stopping midway for a piano and voice segue, before firing all
cylinders again – watch that audience bounce!
Originally
a Teardrop Explodes track. Screaming Secrets sees the light of day for the
first time. It never made it onto an
album and it’s difficult to see why – maybe testament to the quality of
previous recordings that it didn’t appear anywhere, or, maybe sitting and
waiting for that brilliant album to come along where it could sit shoulder to
shoulder with its equals? I digress.
Closing
with eight minutes of loveliness in the form of A Crack In The Clouds, St
Julian is a reminder of how easily we can forget albums which border on the
classic. I’ll admit it had gone off my
radar, but it won’t again. The final
track brings you down to relax mode in a scape of mountains and rivers, and,
thunder and lightning. It builds and
builds to its climax, fading out and leading you to play the album once more.
As if all
that wasn’t enough, the deluxe version of the album has another 14 tracks
sequenced by the man himself. – b-sides,
remixes and live tracks containing some absolute gems. The Warne Out Mix of Trampolene is here as
are I’ve Got Levitation and Umpteenth Unnatural Blues and remixes of World Shut
Your Mouth and Eve’s Volcano. Also here
is the quite fantastic Disaster – a grand old song if I ever heard one, surely
worthy of more than being tucked away on a b-side.
St Julian
is undoubtedly one of the finest albums of the 80s, and, if you’d forgotten
about it, it’s well worth making yourself remember.
Published
on Louder Than War 7/02/12 - http://louderthanwar.com/julian-cope-st-julian-deluxe-edition-album-review/
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