The Sound >> All the cages that we built

The Sound - "Burning Part Of Me"

(Statik Records, 1984; Renascent Records, 1996)

Continuing with the burn theme, here's one of my all-time favorite songs.  This album, Heads And Hearts, was originally issued on the pseudo-indie post-punk label Statik Records, which was also home to The Chameleons.  It was reissued/remastered by Renascent Records in '96, paired up on one CD with their Shock Of Daylight EP, making for one of the most excellent compact discs ever released.  (Renascent was founded just to reissue The Sound's music, and that CD I just mentioned was its inaugural release.  It later branched out into equally awesome stuff like The Comsat Angels.)  To say that singer/guitarist Adrian Borland was a mercurial and brilliant guy is an understatement.  I'd say he and Steve Kilbey (of The Church) are my two favorite lyricists, and Suzanne Vega is up there too.  His suicide was foreshadowed in many of his lyrics, and I would prefer if people did not look up the manner in which he did it; as he sang in the explosive first song on Heads And Hearts: "Whirlpool / It takes the best of us."  The double meaning of the phrase "burning part of me" (when you read it by itself with an implied "a" in front, vs. when you add "she's" to the front) is just one subtle example of his skill.  Much like this song, his life was way too short, but sometimes you have to just show up, do something awesome, and then get out.

Photo I took facing NW just after sunset at Lake Pontchartrain ca. early '07, just west of the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner.  The sun was already below the horizon, hence the lack of color saturation.

Planets with similar climates: The Chameleons - "Second Skin" (1982), The Comsat Angels - "More" (1982), Necropolis Of Love - "Talk" (1984), Peter Gabriel - "Red Rain" (1986), Sunny Day Real Estate - "In Circles" (1993), Concrete Blonde - "Dance Along The Edge" (1986).