Flesh for Lulu

For so long a discordant gale of noise, Flesh for Lulu finally made good in late 1983, with the quite remarkable Roman Candle EP. For the first time, their influences -- Iggy, Lou and Bowie on a daytrip to Glamland -- emerged a vibrant brew of textured, dramatic Day-Glo beauty, and even their foes were suddenly looking forward to their debut album, if only to discover whether it was all a ghastly fluke. It wasn't. Ignore the cover (which is hideous by anybody's standards) and make straight for the opening "Restless." Marred only by an implausibly obtrusive girlie chorus, "Restless" introduced a Furs-meet-Spector Wall of Sound that doesn't let up, even when the Lulus dip into the horror show hoedown of side two's epic closer, "Heavy Angel." The trip en route, meanwhile, is spellbinding: "Hyena," an incredible cover of the Stones' "Jigsaw Puzzle Girl," the raucously mesmerizing "Brainburst" and, best of all, "Subterraneans" -- still one of the all time great rock & roll street anthems, with a guitar line that Keith Richard would have been pleased to call his own. Looking back on Flesh for Lulu from a distance of 20-plus years, it's easy to see why the British weekly Melody Maker once proclaimed its makers as "[possibly] the most important band we've got." It wasn't the most fashionable thing to say, and the Lulus themselves did their best to dismantle such praise when they started chasing the Yankee dollar. For a year or two after the release of this album, though, there was a lot of truth in that declaration, and Flesh for Lulu still wears its scars proudly. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide