Information is power. Two-and-a-half minutes later you may well find yourself back in The Feeling‘s territory, but at least now you won’t take it for granted. Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Sweet Action! The Mike Chapman/Nicky Chinn-produced UK quartet thrived by supercharging AM radio hooks with hard rock riffs, and the early singles on this 2-CD set only hint at what's to come. Sweet have never gotten the respect they deserve -- that's what happens when your specialty is good times. They go radio-friendly unit shifter with recent single Don’t Look Back and you can sing along to Where The Arrow Falls'”Do do do, do do do’s” for as long as you like. They’re a voyage of discovery back to a more innocent time, before music cared so much about saving the world or showing how clever it can be. Formed in 1999 – a little bit too late for Britpop, maybe, and certainly too late for the poppier end of the Bristol trip-hop scene – they share a common sound with bands such as St Etienne, Teenage Fanclub and Leisure-era Blur, not to mention the equally woefully under-rated Day One: namely, happy-go-lucky hazy pop that’s out to have a great time. Tap your foot along to the first four tracks, then head to the dance floor as Touch and Go speeds things up, before the space rock harmonies of The Silver Age bring the sound bang up to date as repeating tape loops and displaced samples disrupt the disposable sing-alongs of the previous tracks. And that is the brilliance of Sweet and why the best of their music endures: it provides trashy teenage rebellion via shouted chants and loud guitars, seeming ephemeral but proving to be eternal because it sounds so good. Search query All Results. album reviews, live music reviews, interviews, features. AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine [+] Sweet have never gotten the respect they deserve -- that's what happens when your specialty is good times. The last twelve months has seen something of a renaissance for swoony pop that’s not afraid to stand up for itself and any of this attention that can be deflected The Afternoon’s way would be much appreciated. It can sound good on those skimpy ten-track comps, but here on this thorough 32-track retrospective it's never sounded better, nor has it ever been easier to appreciate just how good -- and, yes, underrated -- Sweet actually are. "Funny Funny" might be standard singalong bubblegum, but "Co-Co" and its rewrite, "Poppa Joe," are dynamic Caribbean-flavored candy, while "Alexander Graham Bell" is a glorious piece of symphonic weirdness, as good as any bubblegum hit from the early '70s, and the selected latter-day tracks that close the comp are respectable navigations of new wave and arena rock. The delicate minor chords of The Ghosts Of Autumn fade into background piano harmonies to prove they can be sensitive too, as does their other seasonal paean Winter Is Dead. We can help. Wholesome, polite, clever and sweet, it’s everything pop should be, with the anomalous Silver Age a tiny blip that winks its eye at you just when you thought you’d heard most of what they have to offer before. Spring has sprung in the Austin foodie scene. Support the free press, so we can support Austin. This gives Action a narrative lacking in other Sweet compilations, but it also opens the door for a lot of terrific unheralded music from throughout their career. Albums include Desolation Boulevard, Sweet Fanny Adams, and The Ballroom Blitz / Rock & Roll Disgrace. Gorillaz – Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez, William Basinski: “These are my lamentations about the shit that’s been going on forever” – Interview. Copyright © 1981-2020 Austin Chronicle Corp. All rights reserved. Most Sweet compilations -- and there are many, their discography cluttered with dynamite doses of the hits and cheap recyclings alike -- stick to the basic canon, beginning with the stomping "Little Willy," running through "Ballroom Blitz," and ending with "Love Is Like Oxygen," their first and last big hit not written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, with a handful spotlighting that early bubblegum. Factory's wonderful Action: The Sweet Anthology, but even he dismisses the group's earliest bubblegum singles, and their inclusion is a big reason why Action stands apart from all previous Sweet compilations. Big in Japan, the US and Spain, but virtually unheard of here, they’re feel-good summer pop just waiting to be discovered, another Camera Obscura for the indie fraternity to pointlessly keep to itself. It's great to have the opening and closing chapters of the band's career here, but it's even better that Action digs deep into Sweet's glam glory years, surrounding the hits with album cuts that more than hold their own. Daily reviews of every important album in music. Why exactly are we keeping them so quiet? The seven track EP has production from CuBeatz, Jetsonmade, Pooh … Skip to content. New recipes and food news delivered Mondays, All questions answered (satisfaction not guaranteed). Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2015 DVD release of Action (The Ultimate Story) on Discogs. Support the Chronicle. The … Sweet soldiered on until 1982, but tracks like "Big Apple Waltz" are listless harbingers of the end. Ben Edmonds perfectly explains the error of this disrespect in his liner notes to Shout! The Ultimate Story - Sweet on AllMusic - 2015 The group's quest for FM respectability became an albatross, the art-rock midsection on the LP version of 1977's "Love Is Like Oxygen" wisely excised for the single. Between their five members, The Afternoons list Catcher In The Rye (Pete Morgan, drums, korg, harmonica), The Viz Annual (Andrew Walters, violin) and The Last Tycoon (Richard Griffiths, vocals, guitar) amongst their favourite books. 80 local picks from Molly Burch to Brownout, One click gets you all the newsletters listed below, Breaking news, arts coverage, and daily events. Populist, studious but perfectly able to have fun, their sound is familiar enough to be accessible to everyone, multi-layered enough to promise so much more. In four years, Sweet went from ripping off the Archies on "Funny Funny" to sending up bisexuality on "A.C.D.C." Sweet Action: The Sweet Anthology (Shout! Genres: Glam Rock, Hard Rock, Bubblegum. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. Can't keep up with happenings around town? Kris Schultz Live From the Corner (of Her Apartment), ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Our Music Critics Pick Their Top 10 Austin Albums of 2018. What distinguishes Action is that it traces Sweet's entire history, opening up with a clutch of sugary singles before deeply exploring the glory years of the mid-'70s and then closing out the saga by running into the '80s, after vocalist Brian Connolly had left the group and the rest of the bandmembers were winding down. And yet, thought Sweet Action is The Afternoons’ fourth studio album, a decade after they started out they’re still barely unknown in their native UK. Factory) Minted in 1971 as bubblegum soldiers, Sweet became glam rock's most engaging singles act. https://jackharlow.lnk.to/SweetAction. Lead vocalist Brian Connolly's ultimately fatal alcoholism led to his 1978 ouster. Coming after those sticky-sweet early cuts, "Little Willy," "Wig-Wam Bam," and "Blockbuster" all bear a strong bubblegum foundation, but the crunching guitars and brutal drums are pure rock & roll. Pitchfork is the most trusted voice in music. EM Review Rating: 7.5. "Blitz" led the U.S. version of 1975's Desolation Boulevard, which also boasted "Fox on the Run," the band's first non-Chapman/Chinn hit. A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austinâs independent news source for almost 40 years, expressing the communityâs political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Minted in 1971 as bubblegum soldiers, Sweet became glam rock's most engaging singles act. It’s a great trick that prevents you from getting too comfortable with the easier-listening moments. New menus, remodeling, and a fresh crop of weekends for Austin Restaurant Week? Purchase Album. This site uses cookies to improve your experience. And yet, thought Sweet Action is The Afternoons’ fourth studio album, a decade after they started out they’re still barely unknown in their native UK. A killer bubble-glam cocktail emerges on tunes such as "Blockbuster" and "Hell Raiser," while drummer Mick Tucker's nod to Sandy Nelson and bassist/vocalist Steve Priest's Hanna-Barbera falsetto gave 1973's "Ballroom Blitz" equal amounts of pelvic power and unencumbered goofiness. Daily reviews of every important album in music. This is a band that never quite puts its proud-to-be-pop sensibilities to one side, though, even when adding a string quartet and/or saxophone to their the usual guitars, drums and retro-keyboards. The combination isn’t a bad translation of their musical talents. Ben Edmonds perfectly explains the error of this disrespect in his liner notes to Shout! On his 22nd birthday, Louisville rapper, Jack Harlow released a full project out of the blue entitled Sweet Action. Big in Japan, the US and Spain, but virtually unheard of here, they’re feel-good summer pop just waiting to be discovered, another Camera Obscura for the indie fraternity to pointlessly keep to itself. Sweet discography and songs: Music profile for Sweet, formed 22 May 1968.
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