Request: PAULINE MURRAY - Storm Clouds

LP Cat and Mouse Records 1989



"After Penetration, Murray joined forces with producer Martin Hannett's occasional agglomeration, the Invisible Girls: the 1980 incarnation that backed Murray on an LP included Buzzcocks drummer John Maher and future Sisters of Mercy / Mission guitarist Wayne Hussey. The eponymous album's subtle pop is closer in spirit and execution to British folk-rock than to the Beatles or Sex Pistols. Murray's singing is too bright and lively to handle the more downbeat material, but the band's ability to pattern exciting sounds around her brings out the inherent passion in her voice, and the soft but dense rock creates a mood of chilling agitation.
Searching for Heaven [1981 EP] repeats the album's accomplishments but digresses on Animal Crazy, which introduces a dislocated disco beat that turns it into an interesting dance music variant.
Between 1981 and '89, Murray struck out on her own and managed some wonderful singles like New Age and a striking chamber treatment of Alex Chilton's Holocaust. Storm Clouds compiles the best of those efforts and the Hong Kong EP, adding some newer tracks as well. While more consistent and more thoroughly listenable than any of Penetration's albums or the Invisible Girls record, it's also lighter and breezier. Like Poly Styrene's later solo work, Murray sounds hushed, introspective and quiet, a marked contrast to her full-throated Penetration histrionics. The soothing vocals combine with sparkling textures; Murray is inclined to make modest pop gems that succeed with understatement. Investigate completely, then head backwards".
(Ira Robbins & Steven Grant & Jack Rabid, Trouser Press)

ENJOY
(vinyl rip @128kbps - thanks to the original uploader!)


Holocaust