Helen Love
Probably the biggest Ramones fans in Wales, if not the entire United Kingdom and maybe the world, Helen Love are heavily inspired by the simple punk sounds of their idols to say the least, but also add some surprising elements to forge a sound that is all their own. Early records had the lo-fi charm of the band singing along to a tinny AM radio cranking out sunny, funny tunes, but as they progressed, subsequent records added hardcore techno, glitter rock, synth pop, and disco to their sound, which made records like 2000’s Love and Glitter, Hot Days and Muzik and 2013’s Day-Glo Dreams oddball pop delights. By the time of 2020’s Power On, the band had rediscovered their poppy punk roots and, as always, their undying love for Joey Ramone, which came across as clearly as a power chord through a giant Marshall stack.
Formed in Cardiff, Wales, in 1992 the band consisted of the pseudonymous Helen Love on bratty shout-along vocals, Sheena -- who is, of course, a punk rocker -- on buzzsaw guitars, and Roxy and Mark on dueling Casio keyboards, which also doubled as drum machines. Their low-tech, high-energy sound landed them on the estimable U.K. indie Damaged Goods, where they released their statement of purpose with "Formula One Racing Girls" in 1993. (This single, it should be noted, coined the term "girl power" a good three years prior to the Spice Girls' media blitz.) The unabashedly adulatory "Joey Ramoney" followed in 1994, itself followed by "Punk Boy," a giant step melodically and lyrically that Northern Ireland's Ash later covered on their Crazed and Confused EP.
Helen Love's next step was the 10" EP Summer Pop/Punk Pop, a five-song celebration of "Summer Pop Radio" and related activities that are like a '90s U.K. indie answer to the Beach Boys' Summer Days (And Summer Nights). Released in 1995, the "Bubblegum" single introduced a new trick into the group's repertoire by unashamedly nicking the chorus from the Specials' "Much Too Young" for the flip, "Let's Go." The three-song Ahead of the Race CD-EP introduced the group to the digital era with a slightly mellower sound, but 1996's Beat Him Up was punkier than anything since the group's debut. Their final release for Damaged Goods, the four-song We Love You EP, was probably their strongest work, but a dispute with the label led to the group signing with the slightly larger Che imprint in 1997. The resulting EPs, Does Your Heart Go Boom and Long Live the UK Music Scene, were made without Sheena, but she was back on board for the group's first full-length album, 2000's Love and Glitter, Hot Days and Muzik. The album was reissued a year later by Damaged Goods with extra tracks added.
Apart from a holiday single (a cover of Joey Ramone and Debbie Harry's "Merry Christmas I Don't Want to Fight"), the group was quiet until the release of the Bubblegum Killers EP in 2005. Helen Love's next single, 2006's "Junk Shop Discotheque," was their first for new label Elefant. They followed it up with the vocoder-heavy It's My Club and I'll Play What I Want To in early 2008. After another single in 2009 ("Calm Down Dad"), the band took a bit of a break from recording. When they resurfaced in the summer of 2013 with a new single, "Atomic," the group sported a new synth pop-influenced sound to go with their pogo-ready punk-pop. Their fourth album, Day-Glo Dreams, was released by Elefant in July of 2013 and followed by a Christmas single, "Hark the Herald Angels," later that year. After two more singles for Elefant in 2014, "Pogo Pogo" and "Where Dylan Thomas Talks to Me," a tribute to Welsh poets Dylan Thomas, Vernon Watkins, and Nigel Jenkins, the group moved over to a new label, Alcopop! to release the 2016 album Smash Hits. After releasing a glam rock tribute to a Welsh footballer -- "A Boy from Wales Called Gareth Bale" -- later that year, the group took a bit of a break before returning with the 2018 single "Double Denim." After releasing the holiday-themed "Glitter Star" the band began working on their fifth album. It featured them returning to a more guitar-centric sound inspired by their rediscovery of early punk and power pop. After the release of a standalone single cheekily titled "Now That's What I Call Songs from My Teens," the band issued Power On in late 2020.
© Stewart Mason & Tim Sendra /TiVo
Artisti simili
-
Yeah Yeah We're Helen Love
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Damaged Goods Records il 23 giu 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Bubblegum Killers - EP
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Sympathy for the Record Industry il 14 feb 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Love And Glitter, Hot Days And Musik
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Damaged Goods il 24 set 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Where Dylan Thomas Talks To Me
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Elefant Records il 3 nov 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hark The Herald Angels
Pop - Pubblicato da Elefant Records il 19 dic 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
-
New Boy In Town
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Damaged Goods il 11 nov 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
This is my World
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Alcopop! il 28 gen 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
This Is My World
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Alcopop! il 7 ott 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Love And Glitter, Hot Days And Muzik
Rock - Pubblicato da Rhino - Warner Records il 3 giu 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
It's My Club And I'll Play What I Want To
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Elefant Records il 7 nov 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Radio Hits 3
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Damaged Goods il 24 set 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
It's My Club
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Elefant Records il 29 ott 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Come Out Sunshine
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Alcopop! il 7 giu 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Radio Hits 2
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Damaged Goods il 4 giu 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Radio Hits
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Damaged Goods il 24 ott 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beat Him Up
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Damaged Goods il 3 lug 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Day-Glo Dreams
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Elefant Records il 22 lug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Calm Down Dad
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Elefant Records il 2 feb 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo