Killing For Love - Albums, Singles, Rarities, Unreleased 1987-2017: Clamshell Box

The Darling Buds debuted a year too late for C86 and released their last album just before the U.K. press threw down the Britpop gauntlet. In a way, the Welsh band helped build all but the joints connecting NMEs pivotal cassette compilation to the Union Jack-waving movement that took hold in opposition to stateside grunge. They were grouped instead with a few peers by a journalistic neologism so frivolous -- based on the hair color shared by singer/songwriter Andrea Lewis and her fellow frontwomen -- that it isnt mentioned in the sleeve notes of Killing for Love. As demonstrated by this five-disc box, the Darling Buds were simply among the sharpest guitar-pop bands of their time. From 1987 through 1992, they put forward a clutch of singles and three albums brimming with a wide variety of sweet and sour love songs performed with ebullience to spare and a bit of attitude. Contrary to their name and melodic sensibility, they werent lightweight. The guitars were sometimes as dirty and cutting as those of the Jesus and Mary Chain and many Seattle bands, and Lewis voice rang through them as clear as a bell. Moreover, Lewis could issue a stern ultimatum and was bold enough to sing poetically about onanistic pleasure on an album titled Erotica, released weeks before Madonnas like-named LP. Killing for Love is a comprehensive and neatly organized anthology. Its first disc is based around the Darling Buds self-released first 7" and two subsequent singles for the Native label. This indie phase was highlighted by early support from BBC DJ John Peel, for whom the band would record three sessions (unfortunately not included) before and after "Shame on You" landed on his Festive Fifty for 1988. The second, third, and fourth discs respectively present Pop Said..., Crawdaddy, and Erotica, the bands Sony-distributed LPs, as expanded editions filled out with B-sides and alternate versions. Scattered across those three discs are seven charting U.K. singles including the super-charged Top 40 entry "Hit the Ground," followed by identity-retaining crossover dance singles "Tiny Machine" and "Crystal Clear," and the driving "Sure Thing." Most of the previously unreleased material that comprises the fifth disc (and part of the first) is intriguing. It goes all the way back to an early three-song demo recorded by Mekons Jon Langford and Robert Worby to post-Erotica demos produced by the E Street Bands Roy Bittan. Finishing off the final disc is the whole of Evergreen, an inspired 2017 EP with Lewis backed by new Buds. ~ Andy Kellman