Search - Lene Lovich :: Stateless Plus

A POP MASTERPIECE

Pieter | Johannesburg | 04/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Originally released in 1979, Stateless is an album of the absolute cream of late 70s post-punk pop from the famous Stiff Records label. Most songs are written by Lovich and Les Chappel, including the quirky Lucky Number, which was a huge hit. Not all are bright, happy numbers: Home, Too Tender (To Touch) and Momentary Breakdown are sad but beautiful torch songs, and there's a great version of Nick Lowe's Tonight and the old standard I Think we're Alone Now. This music has aged well and in retrospect, the following could also have been chart singles: Say When (equally quirky!), Telepathy, and One In A Million. Although welcome, the additional (Plus?) tracks add nothing spectacular since this album has always been perfect as it was. With such talent, it's a pity Lene faded into obscurity."

Stateless

gary w gustafson | United States | 12/01/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Debut album by vocal wizard Lene Lovich. Ms Lovich began her vocal career by dubbing screams in many horror films which accounts for her strong vocal ability. This album serves up delicious 80's flavor new wave with superior recording and production."

"One in a 1,000,000" reasons to love Lene Lovich's "Stateles

K. Toman | Portland, OR USA | 06/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yep, count me in among those of you who still harbor their old vinyl copies of "Stateless" (I must've been in the 8th. grade back when I bought it--yikes!) It's still in good playing condition, thank goodness; I have been playing it quite a bit since last Christmas when I got a new turntable! I remember when I first heard Lene Lovich on the radio--the DJ didn't know how to pronounce her name and kept calling her "Lenny Lo-vich" until some other listener finally called him on it, LOL. That was about the time I first saw the album in stores and noticed right off the phonetic spellings underneath both "Lene Lovich" and "Stateless", so why did the DJ keep mangling her name when his station started playing cuts off of it?!? That was a little strange, LOL.

As far as the extra tracks included on this CD version, really only her version of "Be Stiff" piqued my interest, so I may wait on buying another copy of "Stateless" unless after all these years I've managed to maintain my old vinyl copy I end up carelessly tripping over it in the dark and breaking it, or (even worse) I leave the thing out in direct sunlight and melt the sucker, LOL.

BTW, I have that Japanese version of "I Think We're Alone Now" on an old compilation LP Stiff Records put out in 1980 called "The Last Stiff Compilation..." As a promo gimmick, the song was simply used as a surprise unlisted track at the end of side 2 after the Dammed's "Smash it Up"--I thought that was pretty clever of them to do that, but looking over much of my collection of Stiff artists, I've noted tacking on extra liner notes or in the case of Ian Dury's 2nd. LP, "Do it Yourself": marketing it in a choice of several colors, seems to be par for the course with that label anyway. What fun!

Another old band I've loved since the '80s is Throwing Muses...a while back I had read an interview with their frontwoman, Kristin Hersh, and got quite a pleasant shock after learning that Lene Lovich was a major influence in Kris' vocal style--there is that similar manic wailing quality in much of Throwing Muses' material that eerily mimics Lovich's. A definite "aha" moment! Nice to know other musical gals beside me have been that much inspired by Lovich's music--beside Rachel Sweet, Lovich has always been a major player for Stiff Records as one of their best female artists, IMO. "Stateless" itself certainly proves it!

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