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The Prime Mover of the Manchester Scene

Paul Janssen | 12/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Manchester Scene, that's Buzzcocks, Fall, Joy Division, Smiths, James etc. At the beginning of it all, however, you find Howard Devoto, who with his second band Magazine (after he'd left the Buzzcocks) led the way to all the great new sounds surfacing in those exciting days. The superbly titled `Unanswerable Lust' from 1988 marked his return to the music scene after a five year hibernation. For Luxuria he had gotten together with multi-instrumentalist Noko and wow what a combination they were! `Unanswerable Lust' is vicious, moody and bitingly witty, but above all it's wildly romantic. This is grand passion endlessly twisted, endlessly refined - endlessly loathed, endlessly loved. The whole thing's positively scary at times. Think about de Sade and Proust rolled into one and you get an idea what `Unanswerable Lust' is all about. There certainly is not a weak track on this album, so it's hard to give highlights. Perhaps the exquisite 'Mlle' sums it all up with its exuberant imagery, its tongue-in-cheek pathos. "He's so pretentious" some people say about Howard but what the hell is wrong with that when you deliver it just at that level. Ideas crammed onto this album are enough for ten albums by any other artist. Probably the only thing to top this one is its successor `Beast Box', the only other album Luxuria ever made, released in 1990. So come on, don't be stupid, buy them both!"