HOLLY JOHNSON: BLAST
(MCA, 24 mins)
It’s not every pop star —
Compare, for example, Relax with the black and white snogging of Heaven’s Here; very Athena posters, very heterosexual and tasteful, very dull. Elsewhere Holly goes “ridin’ the love train” with some unoriginal animation, while Americanos shows less imagination than most ads for “blue jeans and chinos”, with some tame satire about TV game shows. Both versions of Atomic City feature Richard O’Brien as guest and musical echoes of Yello and, indeed, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, with Holly’s vocals floating over an immaculately layered mix. But really to take the idea of 1999, apocalypse party now, and then add astonishingly banal lyrics (radiation rhymed with power station, “Beat the system with your points of view” and so on), and some tired Max Maxish bits, is not enough to deliver the promised blast. ☆☆
Duncan Webster