Search - Fra Lippo Lippi :: Early Years

The Norwegian Contingent

Mark Champion | San Antonio, TX United States | 01/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Norwegian duo-into-a-trio started out as Joy Division/The Cure wannabees on their debut. 1981's IN SILENCE (see? told ya), from the morbid cover to the atmospheric set-pieces inside, has all the hallmarks of slavish imitation, but is certainly an enjoyable record for all that. 'Quiet', with its insistent and repetitive ascending bass-and-drum riff and mellow flute, is arguably its best track but none of it is awful by any means and there's no reason to resent Fra Lippo Lippi's tribute to their favorite bands. By their second album, 1983's SMALL MERCIES (there they go again!) the duo had acquired a putatively better singer and morphed into a more polished outfit that still maintained a fairly Factory Records ambience. So what's this CD? Well, it's a compilation of those two albums in their entirety along with two brief Enoesque piano instrumentals. There are a few odd things about the formatting, though. To begin with, the cover - - while certainly not shoddy in and of itself - - not only does no justice to the originals, it completely ignores them. Gone are the leering corpses of IN SILENCE (maybe just as well); gone the beautiful waterway photography of SMALL MERCIES (scandalous). Instead you get a stark black-and-white abstract that looks more like something from a comtemporary Wire album. There's probably a good reason for this, but it's still disappointing. As for the CD itself - - for whatever reason, the tracks from SMALL MERCIES actually precede those of IN SILENCE, with the two instrumentals tacked on to the end. These two tracks were the B-side to the original version of 'Now And Forever', which does not appear here at all and which actually was released as a single in 1982 as a stopgap between the two albums. The CD clocks in at a hefty 78-plus minutes and the trio re-recorded the song for SMALL MERCIES so the exclusion is understandable. The time constraint also precludes the inclusion of the two live B-sides from the twelve-inch single 'The Treasure' and the follow-up single 'Say Something'/Out To Sea'. An early compilation track, 'Fabric Wardrobe' and the 1980 four-song instrumental 7-inch, TAP DANCE FOR SCIENTISTS, are also absent. So . . . not quite a comprehensive collection, but heck - - at least this stuff is available again. As a document of obscure early-80s post-punk it's invaluable. But you really should try acquiring the original covers. Mock-disturbing on the one hand and quasi-lovely on the other . . . kinda like the music."