Six-disc retrospective of the Monochrome Set’s first six years.
Way back in the murky depths and quagmire of a music scene barely recovering from the spit and snarl of punk, a band emerged with great riffs, acerbic and arty lyrics, and a nice line in smut and the surreal. Whilst punk was tamed and sold to the masses, The Monochrome Set released four albums and innumerable singles of utter beauty and genius. And not many people at the time noticed. They broke up. Not many people noticed. They re-formed. Not many people noticed. Now Tapete are re-releasing the band’s first four albums and collection of singles. It’s hard to imagine that there will be a better re-issue all year. The Monochrome Set could be said to be the missing link…
…between The Kinks and The Smiths, but this is a bit too simplistic and easy: you might as well say they are the missing link between the Carry On films and Grand Guignol. They are a great band in their own right with innovative, influential, clever, funny, and just bloody good songs. Any band would be happy to have written a third of these songs. Songs of love, hate, horoscopes, cowboys, zombies, double entendres and grisly murders, they are all elegant compositions. The Monochrome Set were, and still are, smart, danceable, foot-tappable, and raise pop into surrealist art. It is the shock of the old, reworked and pushed to limits. For all their archetypal art school sound, it comes as a surprise to find that the elegant lead singer, Bid, never even went to college.
The band’s first album, Strange Boutique, released in 1980, opens with a manifesto of sorts, a declaration, presumably tongue-in-cheek, of all the things the Monochrome Set will bring to your tiny mind. It’s a near perfect debut album, with 11 great songs. The Lighter Side of Dating and Espresso are so almost perfect they hurt. Ici Les Enfants, with its disconcerting rhythms and lyrics, explores the darker side of desire, whilst the title track has an evil sound, like psychedelia gone rotten. It’s a serial killer in paisley loons. And Goodbye Joe is one of the most beautiful, melancholic songs. It conjures up a mist of memories, a smoke of dreams, a technicolour haze.
Love Zombies came out later in the same year and, whilst not as utterly brilliant as Strange Boutique, it is still captivating. The cover had subtle, minimalist lines to convey a naked body in repose, which reflected the amount of imagery the band could create in the brevity of a pop song. The title track had a disarming, original sound to it, and foretold the current fascination of the modern world with zombies. 405 Lines (the Monochrome Set, for all Bid’s incisive lyrics, were always also a great instrumental band) sounds like a soundtrack to a silent movie. RSVP gives us a humorous French lesson from Bid with its faux jazzy beat and random French expressions. It’s a cut-and-paste job. Its randomness an exploration of what actually makes a song. Bid sings the words like they have meaning, structure – but they don’t. Kama Sutra sounds like a lost Beatles song. The Man With The Back Moustache is classic TMS, with its quirky guitar line and rhythm. A beautiful song about a man who’s a nobody. Except for his moustache. [louderthanwar]
Disc 1:
1. The Monochrome Set (I Presume)
2. The Lighter Side Of Dating
3. Expresso
4. The Puerto Rican Fence Climber
5. Tomorrow Will Be Too Long
6. Martians Go Home
7. Love Goes Down The Drain
8. Ici Les Enfants
9. The Etcetera Stroll
10. Goodbye Joe
11. The Strange Boutique
Disc 2:
1. Love Zombies
2. Adeste Fideles
3. 405 Lines
4. B-I-D Spells Bid
5. R.S.V.P.
6. Apocalypso
7. Karma Suture
8. The Man With The Black Moustache
9. The Weird, Wild And Wonderful World Of Tony Potts
10. “In Love, Cancer?”
Disc 3:
1. The Jet Set Junta
2. I’ll Scry Instead
3. On The 13th Day
4. Cloud 10
5. The Mating Game
6. March Of The Eligible Bachelors
7. The Devil Rides Out
8. Fun For All The Family
9. The Midas Touch
10. The Ruling Class
11. The Great Barrier Riff
Disc 4:
1. Jacob’s Ladder
2. Sugarplum
3. Cargo
4. Take Foz
5. Letter From Viola
6. Don’t Touch
7. The Twitch
8. Wallflower
9. Starry Nowhere
10. Boom Boom
11. Cowboy Country
Disc 5:
1. He’s Frank
2. Alphaville
3. Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
4. Lester Leaps In
5. The Monochrome Set
6. Mr. Bizarro
7. He’s Frank (Slight Return)
8. Silicon Carne
9. Fallout
10. Surfing S.W.12
11. 405 Lines
12. Fiasco Bongo
Disc 6:
1. Ten Don’ts For Honeymooners
2. Straits Of Malacca
3. J.D.H.A.N.E.Y.
4. Cast A Long Shadow
5. The Bridge
6. The Jet Set Junta
7. Love Goes Down The Drain
8. Noise (Eine Kleine Symphonie)
9. Andiamo
10. Le Boom Boom
11. Yo Ho Ho (And Three Bottles Of Rum)
12. Big Ben Bongo
13. Wallflower (Saloon Bar Mix)
