It's Kinda Lonely Where I Am: Anthology 1977-2010

Edward Ball

Released on 21/10/2022 by Cherry Red Records
Main artists: Edward Ball
Genre: Alternative en Indie

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Language available : english

Lurking behind the scenes of loads of brilliant pop during a span that stretched from the late '70s through the mid-'90s, Edward Ball had his talented fingers in an impressive number of pies. It's Kinda Lonely Where I Am is a career-spanning overview that focuses on the bands that Ball led throughout the years. From the mod pop of "O" Level to solo works that posit Ball as a Britpop sage, the variety of styles he applied his talent to is breathtaking. The Times alone went through a myriad of changes as documented here. From their early days as situationist pop visionaries (as displayed on the classic "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape") and mod revivalists on through to sophisti-pop happy lads, rafter-scraping dream poppers, and dancefloor chancers, just a sampling of his work with them would be enough to leave heads spinning. Throw in tracks from his ecstasy-fueled dance-pop project Love Corporation, which felt like a cash-in at the time but actually turned out some classic tracks like "Palatial" and "Give Me Some Love," the oddball shoegaze group Teenage Filmstars, and those released under his own name -- which tend toward confessional acoustic ballads -- and it's clear that Ball had a wandering, almost overactive muse. His reincarnation as a sensitive balladeer was one of his more surprising turns given the snarky, sometimes not-so-serious bent of his other work. Songs like "If a Man Ever Loved a Woman" and "Never Live to Love Again" are very much in the vein of the work his old mucker Alan McGee was doing at the time with Biff Bang Pow! Not too surprising since McGee and a bunch of Creation people like Martin Carr and Andy Bell were helping out. The scattershot nature of the track list does even more to point out the maturity of these later songs, as often one of these heart-tugging acoustic tracks is followed by a goofy piss-take like "O" Level's "We Love Malcolm." Then that tune might be followed by a noise-damaged shoegaze track that's completely backwards or a French-language, smoothly Balearic version of New Order's "Blue Monday." This kind of approach truly highlights the anything-goes attitude Ball always seemed to bring to his music, and it makes for a bracing, surprising listen. He might not have been a visionary or a genius, but he knew his way around a good tune and he was always up for a lark, and that is definitely worth celebrating.

© Tim Sendra /TiVo

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It's Kinda Lonely Where I Am: Anthology 1977-2010

Edward Ball

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