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Bad News by Bad News © 2004 Parlophone Records Ltd.
NMM Review: British Values, Dead Orchid By Andrew Burns The work that David Fowler, Norman Shaker and Pete Davis had done as Spoof Elephant only hinted at the brilliance that was to come. It was as if hearing and then incorporating the haunting voice of Lisa Denton allowed them to give free rein to the hitherto latent creativity that was in them. When “British Values” first appeared, their first outing as Dead Orchid, it is difficult to express how groundbreaking it was. Denton’s breathy, butterfly-light vocals leading the elusive melodies that played hide and seek from behind curtains of heavily distorted, lurid noise. This was truly a sonic revolution and British Values did not disappoint at any point. It still doesn’t.
In a rundown of the top albums of 1988 at the end of that year the NMM placed British Values at number 4 and were predicting great and exciting things to come from Dead Orchid. The NMM’s own Kevin Crown said of the album “…joy and ache in equal measure permeate every track, your own indefinable angst seemingly reflected back to you in shattering, vivid sound…” and of Dead Orchid’s future “…this could be just the start. Fowler’s songwriting and mastery in the studio can go anywhere from here…” Unfortunately the follow up, Middling Medicine, did not live up to that promise. While it was a UK Number 1 album (British Values had peaked at 56) riding on the crest of a wave that British Values had done much to create, it was over complicated, over produced and had lost the sincerity that makes British Values the one truly classic album from Dead Orchid. It still sounds wonderful and unique today and belongs in every music lover’s collection. Read our biography of Dead Orchid here.
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AuthorAndrew Burns really should know better and has so many more important things to be doing than writing this drivel. Please offer him no encouragement either via social media or through the contact page Archives
September 2017
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