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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It's Immaterial represent a brilliant musical dead-end. No-one bought their records, no-one copied them and so what could have been the beginning of a fine tradition of English song fizzled out with their second album. I remember hearing them perform 'Driving Away From Home' on the Tube TV programme and thinking it was a nice ditty but a bit of a novelty record. Listening to it now I'm struck by how fresh it still sounds. But I think what tempted me to shell out my £5.99 in Our Price 15 years ago was the dead-pan title and the bleak smiling clown's face. I didn't know what to expect but what I got was a jewel of an album that packs a Ken Loach film into four or five minutes time after time after time. Razor-sharp lyrics, a singer-cum-actor on the vocal, and an eclectic mix of musical influnces from skiffle to salsa to songs that don't sound like anybody else in the slightest (like Space). If Morrissey wrote from the perspective of a persecuted young artist struggling with his sexuality, then It's Immaterial wrote songs about being an impoverished young dad in his twenties, about travelling salesmen "Ahh me/ I need a lucky break/ And I won't hesitate", about cramped housing and crampled ambition. Then just when you thought you understood where they were coming from, off they go with a bestial trumpetty funk of Ed's Funky Diner. I still think it's one of the BEST songs to play EXTREMELY LOUD when you're getting ready to go out to a party and you're trying to drum yourself into a positive mood.
It's Immaterial could and should have sired a branch of British music but they spawned no immitators. I've no idea what became of them, but their second album 'Song' was even better and if anyone wants to gift me a copy I'd be eternally grateful as mine is lost. If Edith Piaf had grown up playing guitar and living in Birkenhead in the 1980s with some talented musician friends she might have come up with something like this.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I wasn't in any way expecting what I found on this Album when I bought it in 1987, but to say it's one of my Top 20 favourites of all time would slightly understate the case. There is something indefinable about the music here that both captivates and unsettles, with the chart-entering 'Driving Away From Home' bearing litle resemblance to the rest of the selection.
This is an intelligent and extremely well-realised Album that belies its simplistic origins. For those of you who are genuinely moved by soaring harmonised vocals (courtesy of The Christians), rolling Spanish guitars and tongue-in-cheek meanderings, I would seriously recommend this to you. It's TheThe, Alanis Morissette and World Party all combined, and has a humour that is slightly left-of-centre.
It's Immaterial undoubtedly knew they'd produced a winner for Siren Records, but in the same way the album is produced they would have just winked and acknowledged it all with a wry smile. Recommended.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As the other reviewer hinted, It's Immaterials first album was a truly 'lost' 80's gem. Songs like Space, Better Idea, and Lullaby pointed at an English sound that few others were producing at the time, and that dated so much better than all the other pompous bollox that was firing out of those late eighties speakers. But it's their second album, 'Song' that was even better, being both bleaker and more melodic than their first offering. Homecoming and Heaven Knows are beautiful 'Blue Nile meets Black' melancholia, and still sound as sad and almost suffocating as they did when this album was first released. Nice cover too. Grab it if you see it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Wikipedia Gifted Me This Gem
I have seen this album a thousand times on countless record store shelves. The artwork is fascinating, the title compelling and yet I was too stupid to give it a spin. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Warren BONES
they must have had a lousy agent
I found this cd whilst trawling on i tunes. Played a couple of tracks. Then a couple more. Finished up replaying all of them. Bought and downloaded it. Read more
Published 21 months ago by beau nydle
Life's Hard
Picked this up a local record shop in the late 80s and it seems from what everyone else says that this was a good move! Read more
Published on 16 Feb 2010 by Michael Field
Sheer brilliance
I don't often use the phrase "criminally ignored" but I am going to here. Forever dubbed with one hit wonder status (which isn't strictly true) its hard to believe that only a... Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2008 by S. Reid
amazing amazing amzing
What can I say . This album blew me away when it came out and should have been a number one for many weeks. It is a pure engish sound and dates so well. Read more
Published on 4 April 2007 by Mr. C. M. Beattie
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