27th July, 1998


Lost Boys Don't Get Enough

Single of the Week

"Lost In Space" by Apollo 440

In a disappointingly empty week for single releases, best summed up by another desperate plod by The Bluetones, this mile-high laser blast of techno sci-fi soars through the stratosphere like the space shuttle piloted by The Prodigy. As dumb and disposable as the movie it is the theme to, there is no escaping its raw power and only slightly smug post-modern update of the original 60s theme. Dragging these camp classics by the Austin Powers, kicking and breakdancing into the 90s is usually more successful on record than on film (cf "The Saint", "Mission Impossible"), and Apollo 440's take on "Lost In Space" does little to dispel that theory. Next stop, The Avengers...

B-sides of CD2 are all remixes, including a video edit liberally sprinkled with dialogue from the movie (including Joey from Friends playing a space pilot playing Joey from Friends), and a thumping massive Jason Nevins mix that sets up its own orbit round your hifi and breaks up on re-entry. The "Lionrock Galactic Boogie" and "DJ Cam" remixes are less exciting, proving there's only so many things you can do with a big slamming techno riff.

Rating: 8/10

The Rest

"Boys Better" by The Dandy Warhols

Everyone's favourite VU-reincarnation shagmonsters return with this slice of doped-up US apple pie (the kind that momma used to warn you about). Slightly more drone-rock and less poppy than "Last Junkie...", "Boys Better" still succeeds in erecting a huge wall of cross-atlantic noise, then flinging crashing power chords at it in waves until it implodes in an explosion of raw energy. Courtney's vocal drawls wide-eyed over the top like a surfer on amyl nitrate, and keyboard refrains shoot through the song's veins like...well...heroin is so passe, darling.

First extra track is the slow-paced laconic strum of "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" (a cover - I know not who of), with the band sounding spookily like a post-grunge slacker version of The Pogues, which is something I thought I'd never heard...folk music for folk that don't give a fuck. Somehow, it works. Next up comes "Free For All", a Ted Nugent song, sung through a Fisher Price mic by Zia, which ends up sounding like Sonic Youth at primary school. I haven't decided whether that is a compliment or not.

Rating: 8/10

"I Know Enough (I Don't Get Enough)" by theaudience

Sophie "sticky-back plastic" Ellis leads us by the hand through another Pretend Pretenders strumalong that also touches base in Smithsville more than once. Which is all fine and dandy when you trot it out to kids who never had to sit through the original stuff the first time, but to those with longer memories it don't cut the mustard. Saved from the bargain bin by a gargantuan bit of guitar in the middle, but only just. And is it just me, or does Sophie "here's one I prepared earlier" Ellis look like some kind of bizarre alien waxwork...she scares the willies outta me, anyway.

"Boutique In My Backyard" is infinitely better, due to the fact that it doesn't sound like several other bands trapped in a sack bursting to get out. It may just sound like theaudience, in fact. And "now she's modelling dresses for a name I can't pronounce, goes for dinner dates with dukes and counts" gets this week's Deliciously Delivered Jealous Lyric award. "The Last Seven Minutes With You" is pretty fine too, a dispassionate lyric over some off-kilter techno/jazz thing that comes not a million miles away from sounding like something never heard before. Release your b-sides as a-sides, you fools!

Now when I look at pictures of Sophie "squeezy liquid" Ellis, she looks like the most attractive person in the world. Weird.

Rating: 6/10

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