[.ca] Smashes Crashes And Near Misse

intelligent power pop bubblegum:
If The Records had been named the CDs or the DVDs, I guess they still might be around. Will Birch and John Wicks wrote snappy pop gems: wry, youthful sounding, but with a sneaky, clever angst-lite underbelly that most missed. While Starry Eyes was their only US hit, Birch and Wicks wrote a plethora of catchy songs with slightly off-center lyrics. Teenarama, Starry Eyes, Up All Night, Girls that Don't Exist, All Messed up and Ready to Go, Girl, and Affection Rejected were from the first album: Shades in Bed in England and eponymous in the US. Songs from this album were mostly produced by Robert "Mutt" Lange and Tim Friese-Greene (who joined Talk Talk after their first album for It's My Life and their masterpiece Colour of Spring). One of the highlights of The Records debut was their *super* tight harmonies, and they shine here. Also featured from The Records first album is some of the most lyrical and strongest lead guitar accent work I've ever heard in pop music, provided by Huw Gower. It really gave the album some ooomph. Check Gower out on Girl, Affection Rejected, and Up All Night. The second album "Crashes" was Album of the Month in Stereo Review. It is characterized by a little more mature and stronger songs than the debut LP, and includes the fabulous Girl in the Golden, I Don't Remember Your Name, Hearts Will Be Broken, the classic Hearts in Her Eyes, the Beatlesque Spent a Week With You Last Night, Rumour Sets the Woods Alight, and the driving anthem of frustration The Same Mistakes. However, Jude Cole's (who had a string of minor US hits in the 90s) guitar doesn't quite pack the punch of Gower's, and Craig Leon's production has a little less bite than Lange and Friese-Greene. The third and final major release was "Music on Both Sides," which frankly only had enough good material for probably one side. Also, and inexplicably, the signature tight vocals of the Records were discarded for the harsh and off-key Chris Gent. Jude Cole left, and the revolving lead guitar role fell to Chris Whelan. Selfish Love, Not So Much The Time, and Imitation Jewellery were among the strongest cuts and are featured here. Rock and Roll Love Letter was a poppy song from the pre-Shades in Bed Days that sounds like the Bay City Rollers on vitamins. Unfortunately, the first two albums are not available on CD (as my vinyl copies wear down), so until then, this will have to do....

This is Power-Pop at it's best!!:
For the earlier reviwers who said that these guys were never a great band and that this material is dated, well, you are just plain wrong! I have always been a major fan of Power-Pop since the mid-70's, and this is the CD that I measure all great Power-Pop by. I think the songs included here are as good, if not better, than anything my other power-pop heroes like, BADFINGER, THE RASPBERRIES, THE DB'S, JELLYFISH, FLAMING GROOVIES, THE POSIES, etc., released in their prime. The Will Birch/John Wicks songwriting tandem was WAY underrated. I could go on for several paragraphs as to how good these guys sounded, but if you have ever liked Rock and Roll with great pop harmonies and Beatlesque guitars cranked to 11, then, my friends, you NEED this CD! You WILL NOT be disappointed. The songs here are as fresh as they were in the early 80's.

Filler Up:
The Records did not produce a significant amount of material and never enjoyed a mainstream following of any kind, for better or worse. Their best song was Starry Eyes, an upbeat Beatle-esque rocker with a killer melody and sharp lyric. Starry Eyes initially appeared on the band's first album, The Records, and was a minor FM hit in the late 70s. There are other worthy moments here as well, but nothing to compete with Starry Eyes. In fact, the Records never again approached the quality of that song. As a result, Smashes, Crashes and Near Misses works best as an artifact of the new wave era. It's a valuable piece of rock history, but not a great stand alone album. Of course, hardcore new wave fans would be more apt to enjoy the offerings here and should definitely buy this CD.

A Few Good Songs , Some Dated Material:
Starry Eyes is a power pop mega-classic,and one of my all time favorite songs, but there's precious little else to get excited about on their debut album, which is typical of the shallowness of most bands in this genre.Many of the tunes sound a little dated now,except for Starry Eyes. I find the 2nd album (also included in this collection) to be a little more satisfying, and consistent.Overall consensus;1st album 2 stars, second 3, maybe 3 1/2 on a generous day. My group (The Beltways) opened for a later day incarnation(John Wicks was the only original member, and a very nice chap who autographed my vinyl copy of the debut) of The Records at a club here in Baltimore about 4 years ago, a very memorable gig.

...Long forgotten:
British power pop band "The Records" were never a great band, they just wrote and sang catchy pop tunes about love and heartbreak...nothing really serious unless you happened to be in love. The Record's debut and second album "Crashes" (which you can no longer find) are well represented on this disc with probably more crashes and near misses than smashes but needless to say "Smashes, Crashes and Near Misses" does give you a fairly good scope into the band and their short history. Songs like Starry Eyes, Teenarama, Girls That Don't Exist, Hearts Will Be Broken, Girl, Affection Rejected all reflected my youth, it was puberty going into adolescent for me and all those songs were the coming of age for me because I could relate to them. Such as having school girl crushes but being much too shy to do anything about it, The Records just put it down as music for me and it's nice being able to reminisce about the past through their music...it's a very welcomed addition to my collection.

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