Flesh for Lulu

"I May Have Said You're Beautiful but You Know I'm Just a Liar" is not only one of the longest, and funniest, song titles in indie history, but it also perfectly sums up Flesh for Lulu's fabulous musical excesses. A slab of chaos ground into the grooves, "Beautiful" opens the five-track Blue Sisters Swing EP with fitting panache. The song runs rampant from the hooky chorus into a mogadon stomp, then stagedives into a Stooges-like concoction of utter musical devastation. Fittingly, enough, the EP closes with a rip-roaring live cover of the Stooges' own "1970 (Feel Alright)." And it says something about the group that Flesh's live cover is actually more restrained than the Stooges' influenced one created in the studio. But the band's musical contradictions were their glory. To go bungee jumping from "Beautiful" into the acoustic abyss of "Who's in Danger" just further drives home the point. Lou Reed goes C&W, anyone? Obviously, Flesh loved playing fast and loose with genres as well, but no matter how odd the combo, the group always managed to hang a great hook somewhere within -- thus, the catchy chorus of "Black Tattoo" rolling around a punkabilly-goes-goth number. That song must have been a bit of a stretch for new bassist and ex-Specimen member Kevin Mills. And Flesh were stretching far, for although lumped in with the newly emerging gothic movement, it was never a comfortable fit, and one the band were trying hard to leave behind. Although the lyrics to the remaining track, "Anti-Social," didn't particularly help their cause, as it spoke equally to the goths as the punk rockers the song is obviously aimed at. Perhaps "Postcards From Paradise" would do the trick, but that was still to come; in the meantime, this EP made Flesh's intentions very clear. ~ Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide