gullbuy music review

The Suburbs

title

Credit In Heaven

label

Beejtar Records

format
2xCD

The Suburbs CD coverCredit In Heaven was the 1981 second record by The Suburbs, following up their debut LP In Combo.

The Suburbs were a Minneapolis post-punk band that formed out of the punk band Suicide Commandos. Their sound was sophisticated, and their live shows were enormously popular.

The Suburbs broke the mold on Twin Tone by releasing their second LP as a two LP set. The record had a lot of variety in the songs

  • Tired Of My Plans opens up this 2 LP set with guitars as high-strung as the Scottish band Josef K
  • Faith has angular vocals that may remind you of Talking Heads
  • Tape Your Wife To The Ceiling has a rock n' roll boogie sound with piano like Willie Alexander played for so may years with the Boom Boom Band
  • Macho Drunk sounds a bit like Devo's Slap Your Mammy from their debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo LP
  • Ghoul Of Goodwill is a strange slow song that didn't catch me at all
  • Dish It Up brings things right back on track as a quirky rock track.
  • Mommy has dissonant guitar and sax breaks not miles away from James Chance or Defunkt
  • Cigarette In Backwards has deep vocals that I don't like too much, though they do have a slight Peter Dayton (La Peste) sound, as I mentioned in the In Combo review
  • Girl Ache continues in the 'cool cat' sound with a mysterious track that is a bit more catchy than Cigarette In Backwards. In the music there is even a hint of the drama that songs such as Echo & The Bunnymen's Killing Moon had.

Moving onto the second LP (now CD) in the set, the feel is the same as the other disc. The second disc is not an out takes, live, or rarities disc - like The Clash did with London Calling, the second record is more fully formed studio work, with Music For Boys providing the highlight, Dish It Up coming in as second favorite, and the awesome title track closing out the set in wonderful style.

---Carl, March 15, 2006