REVIEW: Spacehog, The Chinese Album (Sire / Warner)
- Bob Gajarsky
New York-meets-Leeds (England) in the four member rock group Spacehog. Darlings of the musical press after Resident Alien, their second release - The Chinese Album - is a collection of promises made, but never fulfilled.
The glam, bam, thank you ma'am sound of leadoff single "Mungo City" and "Captain Freeman" are ripped right out of the pages of Ziggy-era Bowie, and "Carry On" teases the listener with a set of hooks so irresistible that, if recorded twenty years earlier, would be a staple today on 'classic rock' stations.
Unfortunately, Spacehog has abandoned their familiar territory for rougher terrain throughout the remainder of The Chinese Album with mixed results. "Skylark" is the answer to Van Halen's cover of "Happy Trails", and much of the remainder of the disc falls by the wayside into various levels of anonymity.
Michael Stipe's guest appearance on "Almond Kisses" would fit in nicely in R.E.M.'s Out Of Time outtakes - but in the context of Spacehog, only highlights the inconsistencies with the rest of this disc.
Ironically enough, the first song of The Chinese Album ("One Of These Days") includes a sample of the Talking Heads' "Seen and Not Seen". In this case, Spacehog should have sampled a song that would more appropriately fit The Chinese Album - say, the Pretenders "Middle of the Road".
