Album Review: The Smithereens, "Blow Up"

Odd one this. Heavily laden on Sixties nostalgia. THE SMITHEREENS find themselves somewhere between early BEATLES and West Coast harmony merchants THE TURTLES. The Beatles and The Turtles of course varied from Pop into the darker world of psychedelic excursions with ease, but I don't see The Smithereens taking the same road. They are a straight guitar, bass, and drum band and the songs are simplicity itself. No bad thing if you can write a good tune, and it seems they're up to the task.

There are no classics to be found among the twelve tracks, but to their credit, there are no duffers either. "Evening Dress" is a class above the rest with a striking melody and haunting hook-line that reminds me of BADFINGER, a band noted for being a Beatles rip-off band during the Sixties era. "Too Much Passion" doesn't have enough but does have an early Motown feel. "It's Alright" sounds like THE BYRDS and "If You Want the Sun to Shine" brings us back to The Beatles or is it Badfinger?

"Blow Up" s an infectious collection of well put together tunes that will probably set off some old hippy comparisons with an obscure Californians Sixties outfit none of us have heard of. It's easy listening maybe, but at least it's not painful.

GRADE B

Mike Harris

Riff Raff

November 1991

Revenge...?

Riff Raff was a legendary rock magazine based in London in the late 1980s and 1990s. Edited by the ultimate music biz insider, Mark Crampton, and employing such talents as Mark Blake, Jerry Ewing, Mike Harris, Paul Smith, Chris Collingwood, Alan McCrorie, Simon Robinson, Lyn Guy, Anna Marx, Nick Douglas, Marion Garden, Peter "Grunty" Grant, Joe "The Crow" Mackett, Billy "The Kluck" Kulke, and, lastest and mostest, the incredible Liddell Brothers, Mark (a.k.a. "El Perro") and Colin (a.k.a. "Der Fly"). Unfortunately, Riff Raff was just too R n' R for its own good. A genuine working class rock mag, written, edited, and translated into 16 European languages in a drug-N-Jack-D-fuelled haze, often on the back of motorbikes, with spell checking by our staff of attentive rock bimbos (chosen purely for their blondeness and big knockers), it soon fell behind more trainspotterly, nerdish, and politically correct publications like Q, Kerrang, Mojo, Metal Hammer, and Horse & Hound. This website is an archive and kind of shrine dedicated to the writing of its greatest writers, some of whom, luckily for the Rock Kosmos, still continue to write about music. This is the REVENGE of Riff Raff...Rock on!