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A re-released album can sometimes be like a present you never even thought of wishing. No doubt, it's a great way to discover an album or artist that for some reason or another never got your attention at the time of it's original release. I mean, my life would simply not be the same if some guy at Mute never would have gotten the brilliant idea to once again release Suicide's first album. This gift from Beggars Banquet, home of The Cult, Gary Numan and others, isn't perhaps of the Suicide-magnitude, but Love and Rockets' 1985 debut album "Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven" is still a very relevant piece of music history. And also an interesting contrast to legendary post-punks Bauhaus, which the trio once was part of. Instead of the motherband's gothic gloom, Love and Rockets have a much more genre-spanning approach. On "Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven" you find loads of references to late-sixties psychedelia mixed with a slight predilection for glam-rock and mid-eighties electronics. Not only does the souls of The Beatles, David Bowie and Roxy Music rest in every inch of this album, but so does the uncompromising spirit of development these artists always praised. You repeatedly also come to think of more contemporary acts like The Jesus and Mary Chain and Spiritulized. But despite this very eclectic approach, Love and Rockets maintains an extraordinary strong integrity. Fragments of the past and present becomes a unique entity that certainly have aged with pride. Just listen to the freshness of the drum-driven "The Dog-End of a Day Gone By" and the sexually drenched title track - nothing short of amazing. This re-issue of "Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven" include some interesting early singles, like "Inside the Outside", but also a couple of rather lame remixes. Still, the original seven tracks are downright brilliant. A must not only for Bauhaus fans, but for anyone who thought the mid-eighties only belonged to crappy metal-bands and Stock, Aitken and Waterman. ERIK ALMGREN |
