LP reviewed in Sounds, 10th April, 1982
ANGELIC UPSTARTS ‘Still From The Heart’ (EMI Zono 106) ** THE SADDEST thing about this record is that it isn’t an April Fools joke. The Upstarts have finally taken the logio of their latest singles to its inevitable conclusion, and ditched punk altogether. So much do they want to be stars . . .
Now I’ve got nothing against bands changing direction and taking different roads, but they’ve just gone and walked off a mile high cliff. This isn’t ‘from the heart, its rubbish, a pathetic, calculated shot at playlists, Parkinson, and coffee-table credibility.
To give you some idea how bad this is, the single ‘Never Say Die’ is the second best track on offer. As you probably already know the words and chorus are fine, but the rest is fair to suicidal synth-pop. And rest of side one plummets downhill at a rate of knots.
‘Flames Of Brixton’ is meant to be a passionate defence of disaffected young rioters. But though lyrical “fires fill the air” the music is wetter than Vienna in flood. It’s poor Radio Two reggae with farcically limp backing vocals and is generally about as threatening as a delinquent budgie.
Angelic Upstarts | Still From The Heart | (EMI) 1982
‘Action Man’ is Depeche Mode on morphine, flabby futurism fighting to keep its eyes open, while ‘Wasted’ sound more like Brotherhood Of Man, being brassy European Song Contest style pop pap delivered with about as much clout as a sleepwalking Marc Almond.
One thing missing from this mingey musical menagerie is ‘the soulful ballad, but never fear, side one ends with one called ‘Here Comes Trouble’. Bassist Tony Feedback sings, perhaps Tommy was too ashamed.
Depeche Mensi take up side two, before Brotherhood Of Mensi come back from ‘I Stand Accused’. Then there’s a token gutless fastie, ‘Black Knights Of the 80s’ which is weak as dishwater and painfully shows up the limits of Mensi’s vocal style.
With such a ghastly track record not even a couple of goodies can save the album losing on points. ‘Cry Wolf’ is forceful and punchy and unlike the rest of the album sounds marginally tougher than Minnie Cauldwell. And set-closer ‘Soldier’ is superb.
Although I prefer it with acoustic guitar rather than pseudo-orchestral trimmings it remains a massively powerful ballad telling a tale of a young dole queue kid who ‘takes his country’s shilling’ and goes off to North Ireland where he bears the brunt of sectarian hatred and ends up heroically throwing himself onto a bomb so others might live.
This precis does little justice to the emotive power of a song that is so genuinely moving. Literally, it made me feel like crying — both for the soldier, and for the Upstarts.
Angelic Upstarts | Still From The Heart | (EMI) 1982
I can scarcely believe they’ve gone off the rails like this, especially when ‘Two Million Voices’ was such a spot-on broadside of righteous anger and musical muscle. This band were the ultimate street-punk band, they had it all, power, conviction, down-to-earth socialist common sense . . .
Today’s Punk needs the Upstarts as they were. We don’t need this cop-out cardboard cack. I’ve written this review in sorrow. They’ve written this album for Radio One. What price success? (Garry Bushell)
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