Galactic Vinyl Memories #11

 I've been having fun with these vinyl posts, so I thought I'd carry on with them for a bit. There's only the most tenuous of links between this record and the preceding one, though: they're both on the Geffen label! Beyond that, you'd be hard-pressed to find an LP that sounds less like Asia than this one.

I bought this album by The Chameleons on the strength of hearing a single on Radio 1 in the early summer of 1986. It was on one of those "juke-box jury" type programs. I don't think anyone liked it very much. I did! It had a great stop-start energy I'd never heard before. Before buying the LP, though, I got the 12" EP which contained the single, "Tears", and two other tracks on the B-side. It's a great EP and I've still got it. Somewhat oddly, none of the tracks feature on the subsequent album, "Strange Times", which was the third by the band, and the only one on Geffen. There is a version of "Tears" on the LP, but it's a completely different, much slower arrangement. I like them both very much. The record as a whole is melodic, guitar-driven indie-rock, with a bit of a goth-adjacent feel. It's got a very raw, live-sounding production by Dave Allen, who also worked with The Cure and Psychedelic Furs, two references which give a very rough indication of the sort of sound on the record. You could also say they sound a little like Joy Division, Echo & The Bunnymen, Magazine, Comsat Angels, The Passions, etc - while being entirely their own thing.

The two preceding albums, which came out in 1983 and 1985, are as equally good as the third. They've got a sort of high-tuned, echoing, wall-of-sound guitar texture which has been much imitated. On "Strange Times", there's less echo (to my ears) and the guitars sound grungier. I like them all. Unfortunately, the band were already dissolving as I got into them. They reformed for another album in 2001, which evolved their sound, but then broke apart again due to internal differences. It's a shame as the music is great, but perhaps it took a particular, combustible chemistry to make it happen. Sadly, the drummer John Lever (who is ferocious on all these recordings) passed away in 2017. I caught the band live on two occasions in the Netherlands and now that two of the remaining members are touring again, I would like to see them one more time.

My vinyl copy of "Strange Times" was bought in Newcastle in the autumn of 1986. I seem to recall that there was a choice of pink or blue covers (and possibly matt or non-matt treatments?). I went for the pink one, and it's still (mostly) in its shrink-wrapping. There are some coffee stains on the sleeve. The record is slightly warped but still plays fine and sounds absolutely epic right down to the last wail of feedback on the final track.