It’s nostalgia time again. I’ve previously posted on the very stupid decision I made many years ago to dispense with my collection of vinyl. One of my favourite records that was lost in the purge was The Bride Ship. I decided I couldn’t take a risk of this one being deleted and bought myself the CD version last week.
The Bride Ship is just as good as I remembered and invokes all of the same antipodean longing that The Triffids, Go Betweens and Nick Cave did so well as displaced locals abroad. Crime and the City Solution were never as lauded as their contemporaries which I’ve never fully understood. I suppose the band name itself is a bit stupid and I admit that until I had heard this record when I was still in high school, I had always assumed they were some early 1980’s English rap band like Brother D and the Collective Effort.
Crime and the City Solution were fronted by Simon Bonney and hosted the awesome Mick Harvey from the Bad Seeds and Birthday Party, Rowland S Howard from the Birthday Party and various blow-ins from Einstruzende Neubeten. By the time The Bride Ship came out Howard had left and some consider this record to be the start of the downward slide. Don’t believe them. They were as smart as the Triffids and this record in particular needs to be heard by more people.
For your listening pleasure the first track, The Shadow of No Man
Ducks Battle Satan 