C85 (Clamshell Box)

Bubbling under the surface of the U.K. music scene in 1985, there were quite a few bands following in the mighty footsteps of record labels like Postcard and bands like Orange Juice, who wanted to make music inspired by the energy and spunk of punk rock and the melodies of pop music. Loads of these bands made it onto the legendary C86 cassette issued by the NME, Cherry Reds C85 collection traces their early days as well as gathering up many other tracks at the heart -- and around the fringes -- of the scene. One thing that both the C86 tape and this box set make clear is that there were two main schools of thought being explored. One branch comprised bands like the Jesus and Marcy Chain and the Primitives, who wrote perfect pop songs and surrounded them with overloaded distortion and fuzz. The other was made up of groups like the Membranes or the Age of Chance, who wrote scrappy, clang-y Birthday Party-inspired songs that had poppy hooks at their core. That said, there were also quite a few bands looking to take the Orange Juice template of jangle and pop one step further toward the pop side of the spectrum. Mighty Mightys "Throwaway" is a fine example of that. There were others, mainly circling the Creation Records orbit, who were writing classic pop songs, just stripped-down and bite size. The Lofts "Your Door Shines Like Gold" and Biff Bang Pows "Love and Hate" fit this bill. There were a few bands who seemed to exist in worlds of their own, too. The Dentists were living out an alternate reality version of the 60s and "Pallino" is a twitchy, jumped-up rocker that shows how brilliant they were, Sarah Goes Shoppings "Summer Blues" sounds like Clare Grogan fronting Haircut 100 and if that sounds super cute, it is. Its not the widest slice of music to explore but even within its narrow parameters there is a wide range of experiences. Any comp that finds room for both Grab Grab the Haddocks twee bedroom pop ballad "Last Fond Goodbye," McCarthys strident political popper "In Purgatory," Miaows groovy 60s-inspired romp "Fate," and Sudden Afternoons trippy slice of hypnotic neo-psych "Acid Rain" is helping to expand the mind of anyone open enough to take a journey back to a strangely transitory year. Even if one were there at the time, the odds that Yeah Jazzs "Julie & the Sea Lions," as lovely a jangle pop tune as it is, or Go! Services wistfully wonderful "It Makes Me Realize" made much of an impression. C85 goes a long way to showcasing multiple bands who should have had more success and for that, its worth checking out. Plus theres a fun chance to hear a few bands -- like Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, and the Soup Dragons -- before they were remotely popular , or in the case of the first two, any good. ~ Tim Sendra