Any Day Now + Under Glass (Legendary Pink Dots)

spook <spook@netexp.net>

Not so coincidentally, ANY DAY NOW happens to also be my favorite LPD
album-- particularly the CD version, which contains two extra cuts,
"The Light in My Little Girls Eyes" and a remake of "The Plasma Twins".
(The album version has bigger artwork, of course, as well as a larger
surface for rolling things...) It was recorded in 1987 (lord, can it
really be close to ten years ago?), and stands the test of time quite
admirably...it still seems fresh and inventive.

The album opens with "Casting the Runes", an out and out goth-fest
about a reincarnated witch who terrifies the villagers where she lives.
The song is based around a sequenced plink-plink-plink-plink, plink-plink-
plink-plink kind of riff that Edward was very taken with in those days,
over which is laid a swirling violin solo courtesy of Mr. Wright. The
whole album, in fact, showcases Patrick's beautiful string work, and
is very dense and lush, musically.

Another thing to keep in mind is that nearly every song on the album
is a downer, subject-wise (songs about the starving poor, shipwrecks,
and nuclear devastation) BUT through the music and choice of wording,
comes across very clever and amusing. Almost like an Edward Gorey
cartoon set to music.

The next two songs "A Strychnine Kiss" and "Laguna Beach" are not
particular favorites of mine, so I'll let someone else discuss them.

Next up is "The Gallery", a fun, almost nursery-rhyme sounding song
where Ed sings about his building (apartment? wing of an asylum?) and
the people who live there. Great sound effects and lyrical imagery
(e.g., "peeping at the mentholated man who spits in a can")

"Neon Mariners" follows, a dirge-like song about an ocean liner sinking.
(Q--What's the difference between Madonna and the Titanic? A-- only two
thousand went down on the Titanic...) Here, Edward parodies himself
by singing a reworking of his own lyrics as "Dance in brine, Dance in
Seaweed".

"True Love" is next, another one of those plink-plink-plink-plink things
(my knowledge of musical terminology continues to astound) with a great
screechy violin counterpart. The song is a hymn to codependent obsessive
love (" If love is really blind I'd pluck out both my eyes for you"-- a
Hallmark moment to be sure) that gets increasingly intense as the music
builds. This is followed by "The Peculiar Fun Fair", a 32 second instumental
ditty that is much as the name implies.

The next 3 songs "Waiting for the Cloud", "Cloud Zero", and "Under Glass"
are thematically linked (both musically and lyrically) and are really one
seamless piece with 3 movements. IMHO, it's the best thing the Dots have
ever done-- a very haunting piano solo and increasingly impressive violin
work that builds, quite literally, into a symphony. The lyrics detail
a group of survivors after a nuclear bomb, and how they're all just waiting
to die when the cloud passes their way. The orchestral arrangement gives
way to psychedelia, with the electric guitar becoming more pronounced than
anywhere on the album, and then fades back into an orchestrated dirge
(there's that word again) as an AMAZING sound effect of a baby screaming
bleeds through. The baby is quite unmistakably Edward. This is followed
by a dissonant and sparse piano and sound-effects piece ("Cloud Zero")
and then the band simply rocks out ("Under Glass"). This song has a lot
to say about how a person lives out their life-- according to Edward,
in a state of fear and desperation, letting others "put you through the
mill", while simply waiting for the end to come. (The same idea, with
disease taking the place of warfare, is explored on "Just a Lifetime"
from CRUSHED VELVET APOCALYPSE). Pretty heady thoughts for a song you
can dance to...

"The Light in my Little Girls Eyes" is a fun song about a hallucinatory
lovemaking session. Wonderful violin, and pretty much captures what
a loving relationship should be like (although perhaps with not so much
cannibalism).

"The Plasma Twins" is a re-recording of an older LPD song (the original
can be found on THE LEGENDARY PINK BOX) about sex and vampirism, two
subjects I'll wager are dear to the hearts of most folks on this list.
With lines like "I'll show you all my muscles if you give me your
corpuscles",I can't imagine anyone not having a good time. A really
fun ending to a truly brilliant recording.

There ya have it. One guy's opinion. Peace, love, sing while you may,
blah blah blah, over and out.

spook

Rex <richwill@xsite.net>

Underground Magazine December 1987

Reviewer: Ripley.