Texas Fever

Excellent cd - great songs, great arrangements. The songs are varied and you get a sense when listening to the cd that the band had a lot of fun performing the songs although we now know that all was not well and that deep divisions were emerging.

Jagged, ragged and wonderful, the boys weighed in with this deliciously rambunctious confection that disappeared into thin air. I hold it dear. "Bridge" was the single - which stiffed - and a fine one it was, with a rush of sung-spoken lyrics diving into this crackpot chorus:And I've burnt every bridge that spans the waterJust for youNow I'll never reach the other sideOh what am I to doBrunel's phoned my lawyer he's threatening to sueWith Brunel being an engineer from the early 1800s who built all sorts of pioneering things, including bridges and tunnels, as if anyone looking to rock out gives a flying fig about this self-satisfied punchline. Those folks are happily then given what Collins presumes they want - a torrid, smoking guitar break courtesy of the man himself, who is never given his just due for his axe, but "A Girl Like You" (not on here, rookies) was a consummate and masterful riff, and the guitar here burns almost as well. Willfully and delightfully obscure, the record then goes into "Craziest Feeling," which is a Scottish silly person's take on a Chuck Berry girl-in-a-car rock n' roll song, and it tumbles and guns along, rhythm akimbo, and laughably fantastic, right up to the final and focused pure pop finish with the repeating, "Oh you ain't no lover/And you ain't no friend of mine." It's brilliant. I don't need to review the entire thing, but "A Place In My Heart" is a fantastic and simple love song crooned by Collins, but I do prefer the B-side version done dub style on the back of the "Bridge" 45 - yes, I am that nuts for this band. Finally, "A Sad Lament," which was one of my favorite songs in my college days. Absolutely no one else in the United States, except maybe ham radio operators and other lonely losers knew about it besides me. I have a version of it on my double-45 of "Rip It Up" - so it literally bridged that era and this. Out on Holden Caufield Universal (a make-believe Polydor derivative of Collins' own devising no doubt, and if I'm wrong, just accept the perfectly acceptable revisionist history on my part. I taught myself to play it on my Casio and did many a night with a faux brogue riding the organ. I loved the magic and mystery in the simple lyrics, and, no, I'm not going to close the parentheses:Take the stage and take the plungeBreak a leg or a bust a lungI'll disarm those who carry gunsAnd neutralize their caustic tonguesEdwyn Collins was brilliant in many of his Orange Juice days and this shines very brightly in obscurity. I'm glad it's out again on vinyl. I've seen it in the shop. I have no idea what it's doing there except that someone else besides me, who's getting old, loves it, and the band, too. That's a good thing for anyone who stumbles in here late one night and reads this and loves clever rock n' roll and fine slashing guitars and a little love song and arch tongue planted firmly in cheek. It's all here. Short, a touch acidic, heartfelt, playful and sweet. Lovely.

Well, since nobody has written a review on this fantastic slice of '80's jangle pop, I will. Even though this only contains 6 songs, it is no less mighty than The Glasgow School, Rip It Up, You Can't Hide Your Love Forever and the underrated self titled and, sadly, last album of the influential Orange Juice. The truth is OJ influenced The Smiths (you can't tell me otherwise, so don't try), er...Haircut 100, Franz Ferdinand and a whole host of other great bands. These guys were the original indie artists before it was hip.

An absolute gem of an album! Orange Juice at their best. From the opening track "Bridge" with it's insanely groovy bassline to the more melancholic "A Place in My Heart". A perfect representation of the "Postcard" era!