blackleatherbookshelf | Entries tagged with rachel sweet

The Sweet Spot
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Stiff Records thought they had a ringer in 15 year old country belter Rachel Sweet. They teamed her up with Svengali Liam Sternberg and used her incredible voice, which crossed Brenda Lee country with new-wave brass, dressed her up as jailbait (to more than a little controversy) and released "Fool Around." Controversy or no, Sweet blew it all to the side with her faithful versions of Carla Thomas' "B.A.B.Y." and Del Shannon's "I Go To Pieces," Sweet proved she was more than a tarted up image. This compilation samples from her two Stiff albums, "Fool Around" and the more straight-forward "Protect The Innocent."

Backed on some of these songs by The Rumour and Will Birch and The Records, Sweet never lacked for decent backup musicians. She could move easily between styles, covering Elvis Presley's "Baby Let's Play House" or Elvis Costello's "Stranger in The House," then busting loose with label-mate Lene Lovich for "Cuckoo Clock." The half of this disc not produced by Sternberg was done by pop maestros Martin Rushent and Alan Winstanley and is taken from the terrific "Protect The Innocent." She went from covering The Damned's punk classic "New Rose" to doing the seductive teen-dream "Tonight Ricky."

While Sweet cut two more albums for Columbia, they aren't represented here. While that's a shame, they were both uneven albums and can be found on the two-fer Then He Kissed Me/Blame It on Love. This best of manages to pull together over an hour from two albums, making "B.A.B.Y - The Best Of Rachel Sweet" a real bargain for old fans of everything Stiff.

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Escape from Obscurity
4 Out Of 5 Stars

John "Moon" Martin earned his recording contract the old fashioned way; he duked it out in several unsuccessful bands (even releasing albums with a group called Southwind), got his songs placed with prominent artists like Mink Deville and Robert Palmer, and finally found his moment. Unfortunately, he never got the huge break his songs were worthy of. This reissue is the only time any of his solo albums have made it to single CD (and his remaining three Capitol albums "Street Fever," "Mystery Ticket" and "Shots from A Cold Nightmare," are are listed as coming soon on this CD's advertisement slip sleeve. one can hope!) and "Escape From Domination" was his finest hour.

In fact, his best known song and sole top 40 single, "Rolene" (Billbaord #30) is also here. Martin's interesting style, sort of a New-Wave Buddy Holly with rockabilly leanings and a keen sense of pop, is at its best here. "Escape" was produced sparingly by Craig Leon (The Ramones, Willie Alexander), with a live feel. It makes the AC/DC chords that open "Rolene" kind of surprising (albeit not as loud as the Aussies, but still rocking) and the brevity of the songs - all hovering around the 3:30 mark - expected. Rachel Sweet, once being groomed as a New Wave Linda Ronstadt, chose "I've Got a Reason" for all these reason. Sweet, stark and hooky, Martin should have had substantially bigger success.

"Escape" is also darker and more fleshed out, production-wise, than the debut. His steady touring band, The Ravens, gave the LP a tight sound. Other than the addition of new-wavey synths, the sound and songs are similar to the debut. (In addition, one of my fave artists, Jude Cole - "A View from 3rd Street" - was a bandmate.) Martin's appearance (think of John Denver crossed with Elvis Costello) was also attracting attention, making some of the edgier songs ("I've Got A Reason" and "Bootleg Woman") garner positive comparisons to the likes of EC and Nick Lowe. It made me wish Lowe had been at the boards for a Martin CD...now that would have been a match! As it stands, Moon Martin is an interesting cult item, one that I won't part with (and my autographed "Street Fever" letter is a prized possession). Now that you can find this (and I hope, the rest of his OOP catalog soon!) grab one.