Be Bop Deluxe - Axe Victim (1974) {2008 Harvest Japan Mini LP TOCP-70358}

Be Bop Deluxe - Axe Victim (1974) {2008 Harvest Japan Mini LP TOCP-70358}

When Be Bop Deluxe's first album was released during the glam rock wave in 1974 and the band (then comprised of Bill Nelson and Ian Parkin on guitars, Robert Bryan on bass, and Nicholas Chatterton-Dew on drums) turned up on the back of the record cover in heavy makeup, it was viewed as being in the David Bowie mold, which certainly took in Nelson's thin but confident tenor vocals and the uptempo rock approach, and even ballads like "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape" that sounded a lot like Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide."

But it was already obvious that Nelson was an unusually lyrical guitar slinger, and in fact the tunes often took a back seat to his sometimes jazzy, sometimes metal-ish excursions. He was, as he sang, "an axe victim," but at the same time, Be Bop Deluxe's musical identity was uncertain.

tracklist:
01 - Axe Victim
02 - Love Is Swift Arrows
03 - Jet Silver And The Dolls Of Venus
04 - Third Floor Heaven
05 - Night Creatures
06 - Rocket Cathedrals
07 - Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape
08 - Jets At Dawn
09 - No Trains To Heaven
10 - Darkness (L'Immoraliste)
11 - Piece Of Mine (bonus track)
12 - Mill Street Junction (bonus track)
13 - Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape (bonus track)