Search - Orange Juice :: Glasgow School

The Glasgow School is fantastic

joe larkin | 08/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
Franz Ferdinand are only the latest Scottish band to owe a debt to Orange Juice; by way of payback, FF's label has rescued the Glasgow quartet's hard-to-find 1980-1981 output from the vaults. The authoritative title of The Glasgow School, which collects their four singles and one unreleased album for independent label Postcard, is amply justified. The band's hooray-for-fey, anti-rockist manifesto ("No more rock & roll for you," they chant) translated into terrific pop music pitched at the intersection of Chic's funky guitars and the Velvet Underground's bristling guitars, while frontman Edwyn Collins was suave lounge lizard, snake-hipped soulboy and lovelorn bookworm all at once. Back then, their wallflower pop attracted homophobic heckles from Glasgow beer boys; in today's climate, they could scarcely sound more relevant.A fantastic cd recommed it to everybody.



"

I'll always believe until my dying day

Boxodreams | district of columbia | 08/22/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Instigator, insurgent happy punk Edwyn Collins almost died this year when his brain ruptured twice. Early sidekick James Kirk surfaced from nowhere last year to release an album that floated out into the ether and vanished. And here, at this late date, comes the re-re-release of one of the loveliest batches of singles a little indie kid could ever hope to drop on his virtual 45-playing platter. I came to these records back to front, starting my run and love affair with a 12-inch disc with a hyperbolic but infectious take on the old Al Green nugget "L.O.V.E" backed with the rave-up Intuition Pt. II and Moscow. From there I found, already obscure in the early '80's, the 45 singles: "Simply Thrilled Honey," "Blue Boy," "Poor Old Soul" and each was a revelation with a B-side every bit as good as the A. Here, in the middle of the punk heydey, with the corporate new wave reaction already developing (and, as a digression, a wonderful piece of work corporate rock never got credit for -- there were some great bands on the bigs back then and the labels must be given their due)come four Scottish boys not too smart for their own good, but very smart and very good, deciding that, using the Velvet Underground as a building block, they would turn punk on its head and ear by turning angry rebellion against the staid status quo into a celebration of awkward, crushingly in love, romantic youth. And they would do so with a delight in language and word play that was wrapped in a bundle of jangly, propulsive guitar joy. They were lo-fi and sweet and cute and if you got it, you loved them, and those who didn't loathed what they could not loosen up to enjoy. Stateside, they made narry a dent, except to lucky souls like myself who got switched on by a music head pal (and co-cab driver, who, like me, at the time, pretty much drove taxis as an excuse to listen to the radio all day without looking like a loafer). So, again, here we are, what? Twenty-some years later? And someone has seen fit to put this wonderful stuff out again -- and in America no less. Maybe they think Edwyn's brilliant but flukey late-model smash "A Girl Like You" still resonates with the music-buying public. Come on; no way. But still, if you have stumbled this far, and you fancy yourself playful and unabashadly pop loving and want to know where, say, Tiger Trap came from (let alone the ubiquitously name-checked Franz Ferdinand, who I don't particularly like), click this into checkout. All others: If you know Orange Juice and don't have these early gems -- buy, as well.

Note: The complete album included with the singles, the aborted "Ostrich Churchyard," really doesn't do it for me, hence a one-star deduction. The right proper release, "You Can't Hide Your Love Forever," is the true gem following the great singles, and is sited by many fans as a favorite album. Only curmudgeonly cave dwellers could insist that "Ostrich Churchyard" should have been the first album. It just isn't that hot; it has distant and echoey production; and is only intermittently as moving and fun as the early singles. Again, this is, for my ears, some of the best of the best, but not all of it."

A long-overdue collection of early Orange Juice tracks!

T. Jalbert | San Francisco, CA USA | 08/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At long last, this superbly packaged collection of early Orange Juice tracks brings back these old singles from 1980-81, and adds in a track recorded for the John Peel show, and a Nu-sonics rehearsal recording (Pre-Orange Juice).



This album has a similar track listing to The Heather's On Fire (another OJ singles compilation put out a few years ago), with a few differences. The package is in a nice cover, with a very well written 12 page booklet enclosed, with color graphics.



A must have for hardcore Orange Juice fans!!"