100 (--) BIRDLAND - BIRDLAND (1991)
Tracklisting - Shoot You Down (*R) / Sleep With Me / Don't Look Back (*R) / Paradise (*R) / Wake Up Dreaming / Rock 'n' Roll ****** (*R) / Everybody Needs Somebody / Letter You Know / Beat Me Like a Star / She Belongs to Me / Hollow Heart (*R) / Exit
For about 3 or 4 months in 1991 Birdland were the next big thing in British indie. They had matching fuzzy blonde haircuts , they had usual cool punk influences of the Clash , Rolling Stones , Stooges , Johnny Thunders , New York Dolls etc etc. They had a fantastic debut album stuffed full of sleazy rock n roll tunes , everything looked like like they were on to a winner...
But it never happened.
What happened was the Manic Street Preachers came along doing exactly the same sort of thing & stole their thunder and Birdland disappeared back into the obscurity from where they came.
Listening to this today I actually think this is better than the Manics Generation Terrorists album. The two songs opening the album are just the sort of rock n roll songs you'd expect to hear but the third track 'Don't Look Back' is a total bolt from the blue sounding like a re-written working of Back Of Love by Echo & The Bunnymen. There's also an interesting cover of Patti Smith's 'Rock n Roll ******' which , after a slow intro becomes an energetic run through of a classic song. Not fantastic , but a good effort.The rest of the album carries on in the same upbeat way it started with the fantastic single 'Hollow Heart' keeping things at a high standard.
This album is not going to win any awards for originality but it has youthful enthusiasm bursting out of it all over. Listening to this album reminds me of what it was like when I was 15/16 years old , forget all those whiny American bastards singing about losing some girlfriend THIS is how punk-pop should sound.
(*R) - Recommended Listening