Love Is Forever - Biff Bang Pow!

Year Released: 1988

Label: Creation

Year Bought: 2024

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the only reason to start an independent record label is to put out your own music.

I present as evidence, Love is Forever, the fourth album from Biff Bang Pow! You might not have heard of the group, but you've heard of their singer and songwriter: Alan McGee.

Released on his own Creation Records label - obviously - the album sees McGee indulge his love of 60s guitar pop.

Side A (tracks one to five if you're streaming) has hints of The Smiths, The Byrds and other wall-of-sound guitar bands, but nothing really sticks in the mind.

'She Paints' is the pick of this side, with a guitar intro that sounds a bit George Harrison. An acoustic ballad, McGee delivers the tune in a sort of hushed style, a bit like an early Bobby Gillespie (whom McGee had known since school). "Country girl, you're my obsession," he sings at one point, beating his old friend to the topic by almost 20 years.

Side B is better than Side A (if you're streaming, the original album stops at track 10 'She Went Away To Love').

'Ice Cream Machine' and 'Electric Sugar Child' represent a more aggressive tone, with grungy guitars, and reverb heavy drums. Indeed, this is more like the music that Creation was known for, with the ending of 'Electric Sugar Child' echoing the feedback-laden debut single 'Upside Down' by The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The pick of the record for me is 'Startripper', with a melody that sounds similar to early Primal Scream, and wouldn't sound out of place on the NME C86 tape that defined a generation of indie bands. Unlike other songs on the record, this song feels like it finishes too soon.

Love Is Forever feels half-finished in some ways and there's a demo quality feel to most of the tracks. Perhaps McGee was losing interest. The big group on Creation at the time this was made and released was House Of Love, who mined similar influences but came up with more gold. Soon shoegaze would take over properly, and then McGee's love of acid house.

But who cares. Why start a label if you can't indulge yourself, right?

3/10

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