Search - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel :: Psychomodo

Great Album!

Chuck Potocki | Highland, Indiana | 11/08/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I became aware of Cockney Rebel by being a huge fan of Bill Nelson & his 70's band, Be-Bop Deluxe. The two bands toured together in 1974, and when Cockney Rebel broke up shortly afterward, two of its' members, bassist Paul Jeffreys & keyboardist Milton Reame-James very briefly were members of Be-Bop Deluxe before Bill Nelson formed the power trio version of the band featured on their 1975 classic "Futurama".



Sorry, I went off on a little tangent there...back to Cockney Rebel!



Cockney Rebel was more or less a vehicle for lead vocalist/songwriter Steve Harley, so much so later on that when all but one of the original members left for Be-Bop Deluxe, Harley reconstituted the group in 1975 under the self-glorifying (Harley called it "more appropriate") moniker of "Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel" as they have been known with numerous personnel changes ever since. Prior to forming CR, Harley was a journalist/critic for several British rock mags & knew the music business inside & out. After CR's initial success in the U.K. with their 1973 classic song "Sebastian", Harley soon developed a bad rep in the music press as a tempermental perfectionist & egomaniac, which was mostly responsible for the acrimonious breakup of the original band.



I bought "Psychomodo" on a whim having never heard any of their music before, and not only did the album cover strike me immediately, so did the music. From the opening orchestral strains of "Psychomodo/Sweet Dreams" to the remarkable grandeur of "Tumbling Down", Harley takes you on a tour into his beautiful but often twisted psyche. Ironically, Harley's self-proclaimed anti-rock & roll/cast the electric guitar into oblivion stance gives way to some of the hardest hitting songs that CR ever produced. Featuring the bizarre "Mr. Soft", "Singular Band", and my personal favorite, the nearly 9-minute epic "Cavaliers", beginning as most of the songs do with orchestral flourishes & featuring a keyboard plugged into a fuzz pedal to replicate the sound of a distorted electric guitar playing the repetitive chord progressions.



The last song on the album is the aforementioned classic "Tumbling Down", which, next to "Sebastian", is the most beautiful & emotive song Harley has ever penned. Once again, the lush orchestration forms the basis of the song, and the catchy outro singalong chorus "Oh dear/look what they've done to the blues" will stick in your head like glue & you'll be singing it for weeks. This CD issue does not include the 2 bonus tracks "Big Big Deal" & "Such A Dream" that a previous reviewer pointed out; these were included on the original British import CD released in 1990. I agree with the reviewer that these songs very much deserved to be included & I too only give this 4 stars because they're absent here. And yes indeed, Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" has "Such A Dream" written all over it; I don't know if Trent Reznor actually used this song as an inspiration or if he unconsciously picked it up, but in any event, the similarities are definitely there!



On a tragic note, original CR bassist Paul Jeffreys & his wife were among the passengers killed on Pan Am Flight 103 which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988. As a tribute, Steve Harley often dedicates "Sebastian" to Jeffreys in concert; this can be heard on the rare import CD "The Great Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel Live", released in 1989 shortly after the tragedy occurred. And yes, the Alan Parsons who produced the album is THE Alan Parsons of Project fame!"

Wonderful

algabal | 09/08/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is a masterpiece. Cockney Rebel's first three albums, the Human Menagerie, Psychomodo and the Best Years of Our Lives are amongst the best of the seventies. Neither Roxy Music nor Bowie ever released anything as strangely pure and weird as this.

I don't think most people are going to get it."

ONE OF THE ALL TIME BEST ALBUMS

ronaldmcjagger | Chicago, IL | 10/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I PULLED OUT THE VINYL OF ONE OF MY OLD FAVORITE RECORDS, THE PSYCHOMODO. HAVING NOT HEARD IT IN 10-15 YEARS I WAS REALLY IN FOR A TREAT. NOT ONLY HAS THIS ALBUM WITHSTOOD THE "TEST OF TIME" IT APPEARS TO HAVE GOTTEN BETTER! THE NUANCE OF HARLEY'S VOICE AND VARIETY OF INSTRUMENTATION AND TEXTURES IN THESE SONGS IS ASTOUNDING. WORDS CANNOT DO JUSTICE TO THE MAJESTY OF THIS MUSIC. BUY IT!!!! STEAL IT!!! SLING IT!!! WING IT AND DO IT AGAIN!!!"