The Wasted Years

4CD with 20 page, hard back book. Featuring Bath Of Bacon, A Scandal In Bohemia, Sex And Travel and Distressed Gentlefolk. Remastered by Brian Pyle. The ‘Butcher’ delivered a gaggle of albums and many 45s for Glass from 1983 to 1986, the jacket notes on the dusty tome that recalls this period mentions Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased),Thatcher, DIY post-punk, LSD, surrealist cabaret, The Velvet Underground, a bottle of Cointreau or two, the Amstrad 7090 and Ronco’s Black Magic compilation. All that led to the The Wasted Years: Four albums, many visions... Bath Of Bacon was an experiment in sound, conjoining that Ronco platter to Todd Rundgren, a guitar from Wes Montgomery’s cupboard and mentions of imaginary monsters set to some funky chops. A Scandal In Bohemia took a “competent little rock band” with a bassist who’d served time in Bauhaus into a world chorused by multi-track vocals and bathroom ambience. Sex And Travel offered a broadening perspective. Competence and European travel beget a narrative akin to an impressionistic cold war spy movie, a “mess of styles” that became coherent. It’s an “accidental” concept album prone to fleeting melancholy. Distressed Gentlefolk, ahead of the original band’s demise through“fatigue and liquor” was the Butcher’s stab at making their “greatest album ever”. There’s a folky edge scratching away beside the inevitable romp through pop music’s historical lineage. Four albums, then. The ‘80s recast at an ironic party of malcontents. Indie pop as a soundtrack. Songs that shouldn’t fit together –but do. Wasted Years?