Scott; Andy: The Solo Singles

Having been bowled over by the energy and ballsiness of the recently AngelAir reissued Live At The Marquee by the latter day Andy Scott led The Sweet, I have to say that I was most intrigued to hear what the guitarist and underrated singer had created outside of the band that he helped make famous. Unfortunately the answer would appear to be clipped 80s Pop which reminds of Power Station on an off day. Or a bad version of the sort of stuff hidden away on the 80s era Queen albums in between the hits... In itself that doesn't make for a bad collection of songs and to be fair some of those included here were bona-fide chart hits in Australia, Germany and South Africa. However it does make for a remarkably dated set of songs and unlike some music from that era and genre, little here has aged well. By Scott's own reckoning in the liner notes the sequencing and beats chosen are primitive by modern standards and the likes of "Face", "Gotta See Jane" and "Let Her Dance" simply don't have enough going on to rise above these limitations. The latter especially having that horrible keyboard sound that could have made it incidental music in films like Beverly Hills Cop.

The obvious downside to this collection of singles, b-sides and previously unreleased tracks is actually a real shame, with Scott being fine in voice and the songs well put together, if too sparsely arranged. However on the odd occasion that a guitar solo actually breaks out, the real potential behind the songs becomes apparent and while it is laudable and understandable that Scott was seeking to remove his solo work from The Sweet sound, had these songs had a bit more oomph behind them, the results could have been immeasurably more interesting.

As though to confirm this, the demo version of "Where D'Ya Go", which features just acoustic guitar, hand claps and vocals is quite wonderful and far more convincing than the completed version also included. Add to that two versions of "Galaxy", a song intended for a never commissioned TV show fronted by Kenny Everett, "Be With You Soon", a lost song intended originally as a bonus for a Sweet compilation, and "Ulysses" and "Safety Net", which are a pair of tracks intended as singles, but which never saw the light of day, and this collection becomes rather desirable for his fans. However there's little here to interest anyone who falls outside that sphere, unless of course you have a deep hankering for anything and everything 80s electronic based Pop in nature.

Track Listing
1. Krugerrands
2. Face
3. Gotta See Jane
4. Let Her dance
5. Suck It And See
6. Invisible
7. Never Too Young
8. Ulysses
9. Safety Net
10. Where D'ya Go
11. Lady Starlight
12. Krugerrmental
13. Be With You Soon
14. Galaxy (TV Theme)
15. Where D'Ya Go (demo)
16. Galaxy (demo)

Added: November 20th 2013
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Andy Scott at AngelAir
Hits: 1525
Language: english

[ Printer Friendly Page ]
[ Send to a Friend ]