Love And Rockets - Motorcycle 12”

This is a bit of a jump forward, before I take two steps back with Love And Rockets. Motorcycle was a blast of a single when it was played in the clubs I frequented ‘back in the day™’ as there wasn’t really anything to compare it with from Love and Rockets previous releases.  Motorcycle comes ripping though the serene wilderness with the finesse of a Sherman tank. An array of bass guitars, more bass guitars and a fuzz thrown in together with Haskins tribal backbeat, Motorcycle is an onslaught on the ears. A subtle subliminal nod to an unspoken disgraced glam rocker can be heard early on…once reaching its crescendo Motorcycle suddenly drops away.

Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven

Though the years have deadened its impact somewhat, there is still a visceral thrill to be drawn from replaying the first Love and Rockets album, a sense of the first step taken towards a brave new world, and a miasmic whirl of psychedelic intent that masks intents even darker than the preceding Bauhaus ever envisioned. Recorded and released in 1985, riding to club acclaim on the back of the "Ball of Confusion" remake, and aligning its makers with a destiny and fame that no one could ever have predicted, Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven ranks among the most deceptive debut albums of the 1980s. The keys to the album remain the same, of course; the churning guitar soup of "The Dog-End of a Day Gone By," the sibilant glam sexuality of the title track, the chilling nursery rhyme pendulum of "The Game." But the opiate atmosphere that chokes the wide open spaces leavened within every song only thickens by the time you hit the closing acoustics of "Saudade," and Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven emerges as profound an experience as any of the lauded trips of the original psychedelic era. It rounds out the experience with dramatic flair, pinpointing the sheer creativity that was sparking around Love and Rockets at the dawn of their decade-long career; and reminding you that that decade was over all too quickly.