Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Blow (1989)
One of the great, and under-rated, powerful bands of the 80's Gothic scene, the Lorries were wise to try and find a different direction by the end of the decade. They could have whipped another Paint Your Wagon, but there was no reason to when that album was a classic in itself that did not need to be turned into a formula and there was a lot of potential to break through. Unfortunately, the Rave style cover was one of the first reasons why this album tanked. Opening up the sleeve, you discover that on about half of the album The Lorries are singing love songs that are certainly enough for any closed-minded Talk About the Weather-On-Repeat listener to stay away, missing out on catchy hook-driven feasts such as "Temptation," "In a World," and "In This World." Yeah, there's plenty of the great burning guitars which make up the distinctive Lorries sound to go around, but in a different setting, and Chris Reed is singing damn good with his style instead of just intoning angry into a microphone (hints of that were on the previous album Nothing Wrong on the ultra fine "Only Dreaming" and other tracks). So many people missed out on a good album, and the final round of the "Situation 2 Era" as well as the classic Lorries line-ups. Next Stop: To LA and a sadly bland album...
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