March 28 — “Angels Fallen” by The Darling Buds

The Darling Buds

If you only listen to one song today, make it “Angels Fallen” by The Darling Buds (1992, from the album Erotica).

The Darling Buds, who were named after the HE Bates novel The Darling Buds of May (which was itself named after a line of Shakespeare poetry), were an indie-pop/punk band from Wales who made three proper albums between 1988 and 1992. They were part of the “blonde” scene within the “alternative” scene. That movement didn’t last long, but it was made up of indie (or, as we used to say, “alternative”) bands with a blonde female at the front, surrounded by brown-haired guys (see also : The Primitives).

Like a lot of bands of their ilk and of the era, they relied heavily upon the loud/quiet/loud thing with jangly guitars in some parts and heavily affected guitars (especially flange) in others. And of course, they used a lot of feedback.

The album from which today’s song comes was the final record from the band, and there was a ton of controversy surrounding it. Madonna had an album of the same name released in the same month, and the two albums had strikingly similar album artwork.

Here’s the cover of the Darling Buds album, which was released on October 6, 1992:

The Darling Buds : Erotica (6 October, 1992)

… and the Madonna album, which was released on October 20, 1992:

Madonna : Erotica (20 October, 1992)

It was talked about a lot. I mean A LOT. It was just a dumb coincidence. The Darling Buds had put out an EP in 1991 entitled Erotica Plays, which was a bridge between their previous album Crawdaddy and Erotica. That EP had one song from Crawdaddy, two that would later appear on Erotica, and one very good “b-side”,a bass-heavy song called “Love and Death”. The point of mentioning that EP is that if there was going to be a fight about it, The Darling Buds would have every reason to say that the title and artwork concept were theirs. Like I said, though, it was just a coincidence.

They enjoyed moderate success with each album, mostly in the UK. Never enough, though, to make them an indie household name. Even though they gained some serious traction in the US when their song “Long Day in the Universe” was featured in the movie “So I Married an Axe Murderer”, and even though they toured extensively with Erotica, they came to the conclusion that they were never going to really make it, and they sadly pulled the plug.

I’ll always have a sentimental attachment to The Darling Buds. They were the first band that I ever interviewed for the radio station. While it wasn’t catastrophic, it was far from “good”. It was by far the worst interview I ever conducted, and it had to be one of the worst they’ve ever given. In addition to being nervous about conducting an interview, I was very poorly prepared. I didn’t know much about them, and I didn’t bother to do very much homework. Dumb stuff like “What’s it like having the legendary Stephen Street produce your record?” and “what do you like and dislike about touring the US?”. Despite my bad interview, they were very nice. That concert was also one of if not the first time that I suffered from tinnitus after a show. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a lesson that I learned the first time. It took me a while to wise up and start wearing earplugs.

Here’s today’s song:
“Angels Fallen” by The Darling Buds

I love that it starts out without any nonsense. Gets right to the feedback and the heavily affected guitars. You think you might be in for a MBV-type ride. And then there’s that break at 0:22. Clean, jangly guitars, simple but thick drums, and clear, crisp vocals. This sort of goes back and forth for the rest of the song, with the changes coming in a quick, jarring fashion. It ends with one of the loud bits slowly fading to nothing.

I don’t want to try to make sense or meaning of the lyrics.

Curiously, Erotica isn’t available as a legitimate digital download. Not from amazon, not from eMu, not from the dreaded iTunes. It’s a really good record, though. You should try to score a used copy from a locally owned store in your area, or order a new copy from amazon here.