Friday, September 11, 2020

Song(s) of the Day # 2,431 Glove


My sister bought this when it came out I recall. It's only taken me almost forty years to listen to it. Not a bad record.


A collaboration between Steve Severin of The Banshees and Robert Smith of The Cure. Not an altogether surprising partnership as the two and their bands had been associated for a while. The Cure had supported The Banshees on tour in the late Seventies while Smith had stood in on guitar for The Banshees in times of need and would do so again.


The two had a natural affinity for one another anyhow. Suburban punks, Severin from Bromley, Smith from Crawley, they also had a fascination for the mysteries freedoms and dangers of childhood, the twilight hours, dreams and nightmares.


In addition to a penchant for drug taking, and Blue Sunshine, the album they made together in 1983 is a drug saturated record. Glove took their name from a character in The Beatles Yellow Submarine and the whole thing is a lysergic immersion in slightly dark nostalgia for something that can never be fully recaptured, try as we might.


They give it a pretty good go here. Blue Sunshine is an excellent record. Smith was contractually tied and unable to sing on the whole record so they drafted in Jeanette Landray, (a former girlfriend of Banshees drummer Budgie), to fulfill those duties. The resulting album was not a huge critical or commercial film but it's stood the test of time, coming across in 2020 as a neglected but excellent arthouse classic.


The most immediate reference points are surprisingly not either The Banshees or The Cure. Freed from the inimitable presence of Sioux the two were free to explore other textures and influences.


What I hear most is here the sound of two contemporaries, Associates and New Order. Smith was clearly fixated by the brittle guitar sound of the latter, (just listen to the  In Between Days single which came a bit later), while Blue Sunshine shares plenty of the glorious technicolor overload of the former's classic Sulk, which came out the year before.


Anyhow, there's plenty here for both to be proud of, the album is far from throwaway. By the time it came out both bands were celebrating their biggest hit singles in Dear Prudence and Love Cats both of which share plenty of Blue Sunshine's playful psychedelic scattiness. The record sank immediately into footnote status.


That does nothing to detract from its inherent qualities. It's a fine, stand alone statement. Shame it took me so long to actually get round to listening to it.


No comments:

Post a Comment