The Darling Buds debuted a year too late for
C86 and released their last album just before the U.K. press threw down the Britpop gauntlet. In a way, the Welsh band helped build all but the joints connecting NME's pivotal cassette compilation to the Union Jack-waving movement that took hold in opposition to stateside grunge. They were grouped instead with a few peers by a journalistic neologism so frivolous -- based on the hair color shared by singer/songwriter
Andrea Lewis and her fellow frontwomen -- that it isn't mentioned in the sleeve notes of
Killing for Love. As demonstrated by this five-disc box,
the Darling Buds were simply among the sharpest guitar-pop bands of their time. From 1987 through 1992, they put forward a clutch of singles and three albums brimming with a wide variety of sweet and sour love songs performed with ebullience to spare and a bit of attitude. Contrary to their name and melodic sensibility, they weren't lightweight. The guitars were sometimes as dirty and cutting as those of
the Jesus and Mary Chain and many Seattle bands, and
Lewis' voice rang through them as clear as a bell. Moreover,
Lewis could issue a stern ultimatum and was bold enough to sing poetically about onanistic pleasure on an album titled
Erotica, released weeks before
Madonna's like-named LP.
Killing for Love is a comprehensive and neatly organized anthology. Its first disc is based around
the Darling Buds' self-released first 7" and two subsequent singles for the
Native label. This indie phase was highlighted by early support from BBC DJ
John Peel, for whom the band would record three sessions (unfortunately not included) before and after "Shame on You" landed on his Festive Fifty for 1988. The second, third, and fourth discs respectively present
Pop Said...,
Crawdaddy, and
Erotica, the band's
Sony-distributed LPs, as expanded editions filled out with B-sides and alternate versions. Scattered across those three discs are seven charting U.K. singles including the super-charged Top 40 entry "Hit the Ground," followed by identity-retaining crossover dance singles "Tiny Machine" and "Crystal Clear," and the driving "Sure Thing." Most of the previously unreleased material that comprises the fifth disc (and part of the first) is intriguing. It goes all the way back to an early three-song demo recorded by
Mekons Jon Langford and
Robert Worby to post-
Erotica demos produced by
the E Street Band's
Roy Bittan. Finishing off the final disc is the whole of
Evergreen, an inspired 2017 EP with
Lewis backed by new
Buds. ~ Andy Kellman
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