From: leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart)
Subject: Kronto Review: Something Happens! - Bedlam A Gogo!
Reply-To: leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl
Organization: Delft University of Technology
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1992 11:50:32 GMT
Followup-To: rec.music.misc


Something Happens! - Bedlam A Gogo! (1992)
Virgin CDV2695
43:58 min, 13 tracks
Produced by: John Porter & Something Happens!

In an earlier review I drooled and raved over Something Happens!'s 
previous album "Stuck Together With God's Glue". Over time, my love 
for that album has only increased, and I still play it at least once 
a week. You can imagine the thoughts racing through my mind when I 
put the new album in the CD player. Would this one, *could* this one 
be as good? It seemed almost impossible. And now, after more than 
twenty listens to the new album, I am still not exactly sure.

I'll try to explain myself. "Bedlam A Gogo" is on the one hand a 
continuation of "Stuck Together", which for most practical purposes 
rivals the quality of that album, qua songwriting and vocals. How 
these guys can manage to come up with so many strong hooks and great 
melodies is totally beyond me. For that reason alone this album will 
be one of my favourites of 1992.

And then on the other hand, the production and arrangements of the 
songs are drastically different from "Stuck Together". Gone are the 
subtle touches like the piano in 'Parachute', or the clarinet (?) in 
'The Patience Business', or the simple pop-arrangement of 'Room 29'. 
Instead almost every song is given a no holds barred hard guitar 
rock sound that is devoid of any type of subtlety. For those 
familiar with "Stuck Together", imagine the song 'Hello hello hello 
hello hello', with guitars amplified by five, and you may get the 
idea of what every song on "Bedlam" sounds like.

The problem that I am having is that I *like* hard-hitting, 
energetic music, and since the songs are so very good, "Bedlam" is 
basically the album of my dreams. If only...if only I hadn't *known* 
about "Stuck Together"! It's that knowledge of the 'other' Something 
Happens that make me feel a twinge of regret each time I listen to 
the new album.

Tom still has an agonizingly beautiful voice. Which he has to 
distort and stretch in order to be heard over the guitar-attack. He 
moans and pants and falsetto's almost like a regular Bono. The plus 
point is that this actually makes him a bit more more soulful: he 
does it extremely well. The minus point is that I am missing those 
quiet songs a lot. This album does not contain anything remotely 
like 'Parachute'.

In fact, if there is any concrete criticism to be made of "Bedlam", 
it is that the production is clearly unbalanced, with not enough 
resting points to compensate for the driving pulse of the rock 
guitars and back-breaking rhythms. Everybody is in overdrive 
starting from the first song, and not letting up until the CD's a-
capella closing few seconds (the only screw-up by the way -- they 
nicked that melody from the classic 'Reason to Believe', and it 
sounds lousy, too).

So yes, this is *still* a momentous album, no doubts about that: 
just listen to tunes like 'Daisyhead', 'Are You Going To Suffer It', 
'Hit The Parade', and 'Speak, Shutup!'. But knowing that they have 
chosen to leave behind that certain, in my view almost perfect style 
of arrangements and production-balancing causes me to wonder if, in 
a different world, this album might not even have been *better* than 
"Stuck Together". And never knowing the answer, but suspecting that 
it is "yes" is what makes me so ambivalent towards "Bedlam A Gogo".

-- 
Leo Breebaart  (leo @ ph.tn.tudelft.nl)
Newsgroups: rec.music.reviews