The Jazz Butcher Press Select Magazine
December, 1991

Album Review: Condition Blue

Select Magazine (UK)
December, 1991

Credit: David Cavanagh

Condition Blue

For all the pain and crap from which this record was made, the actual sessions were a gigantic and wonderful party. This was warmly received by The Outside World, less popular among those who counted themselves JBC afficionados. This IS the sound of me having fun, and getting me to do that in those dark days of mid-1991 was no small job.

He's been making records for a good decade now - punning, clever displays of hurt and revulsion - and his reputation as an over-qualified weirdo is as hard to shake as it's unfair.

But with some classy help ( Alex Lee and Joe Allen of Strangelove, Paul Mulreany of The Blue Aeroplanes) and some sad things on his mind, he's hit a creative high.

She's A Yo-Yo , the latest bulletin in the saga of the strange American girl, is a killer. Racheland and Harlan are slow and moody enough to let the Butcher's liquid voice explore all the emotional contours and, as atmospheres as ya like, Our Friends The Filth sashays along on one of the most ingenious arrangements of the year.

Lord knows how many people will buy this; probably not very. But you should be one of them.

4/5 stars.