TPOH: Love Junk
Love Junk was a miracle record for me.
Released in 1988, it was the antidote to Hair Bands and the Paula Abdul-beginning-of-the-end prefab acts. It was all unslick guitar and yelling, and I had to sit down the first time I heard "Looking For Girls" -- blown away by the women singing backup to this lewd singer. It set the whole thing on another level.
The whole record was balanced like this. The name of the band was great, a long, original, slightly pretentious name, with the acronym conveniently blasted across the cover in case you couldn't figure it out. And in tiny letters at the bottom, the subject matter: Love Junk. The sound was a KISS meets REM kind of thing; music for teenaged boys, made engaging to an older crowd through its funny, articulate, wry lyrics and subject matter. Not a lot of bands were making music for the portion of the market who wanted this in the late 80's. The long-lasting loyalty of The Pursuit of Happiness' fans is surely in large part due to that.
This is the ultimate TPOH record, and anyone wanting to get into the band should buy this one. Songs on Love Junk range in sound and tone from temper-tantrum punk-flavoured rock (Hard To Laugh, Ten Fingers, Killed By Love) to power-pop (She's So Young, Down On Him), and include the song that gets this band labelled as one-hit-wonders by many, I'm An Adult Now. And no ballads.
The songs have an energising immediacy: Berg's strengths as a writer are his conversational style and disarming honesty, and these are present in the album's best songs. Looking For Girls is brutally honest in a way that could get one in trouble, as is Man's Best Friend (a sort of love song to a friend's girlfriend). Down On Him is my favourite lyric for broaching the kind of personal sexual power issues that nobody else sings about. Maybe Ani Difranco.
do you hide inside yourself so that you don't bother him?
do you laugh and shrug it off when resentment begins?
you know he doesn't give back as much as he could
would you slit your throat to sate him?
I don't think that you should
go down on him again
- Down On HimTodd Rundgren produces Love Junk, and his pushing the band to record their first album live from the floor pays off. The sound is fantastic. An essential album, an overlooked album, this is highly recommended.
TPOH: Love Junk. Chrysalis, 1988.
Review by jep clayton, BadMonkeyX. 1st issue, January 2001.
