Le Soleil, La Lune

Attention Chameleons Fans! Well, at least those who aren't already familiar with this. In the late 80's, the band broke up after numerous crises, including the death of Manager Tony Fletcher. But singer/songwriter/bassist Mark Burgess and drummer John Lever teamed up with two guitarists from Music for Aborigines, and charted a musical course proportional to the amount of personnel change from the Chameleons line-up. Well, almost. When you play The Sun & The Moon, you'll immediately recognize the Chameleons sound. The rhythm section and leader is still here, so that should be no great surprise, right? Well, the two new six-stringers, Andy Whittaker and Andy Clegg, neither totally ape Dave 'n' Reg (except on the arpeggio-type electric rhythm parts), nor try too hard to establish a new sound. Bravo for their intelligent compromise. They do, however, add a melodic piano to a few songs that nicely shifts the sound to some degree without making a big production out of it. The second track, "Death of Imagination," demonstrates this quite beautifully - but Mark is still pissed off. Most of Mark's lyrics deal with the depressing state of England at the time, but in a manner that lacks excessive specificity or political detail, which is one reason why this record ages so well. Has England ever enjoyed good times for the working class? What the heck are they basing their ideals on? But his lyrics are clearly even better (damn poets!) than those he penned for Chameleons records. And like Matt Johnson (The The) started doing around the same time, Mark began increasingly revealing personal (relationship) pain as a source of his discontent; as opposed to directives from 10 Downing Street or Buckingham Palace. The two Chameleons guitarists are missed, here, but only slightly. Hey, this isn't a Chameleons record, after all. This entire album is still pretty damn impressive. Ignore at your own risk. (What the hell does that mean?)