Tuesday, June 16, 2020

In Lurve With "Lux"



Thurman were one and done in 1995, but what a show. This record, unlike so many others from the U.K. during the 90's has stayed with me and has aged rather well. It seems as if I inadvertently celebrate the anniversary of its release by taking it out for a drive or two every year. I did so yesterday, and I'm feeling that today, as well, "Lux" and I will have some fun.

"Lux" kills me in the best ways. It's the best of Marc Bolan, early-to-Ziggy Bowie and the campier side of Ray Davies all on one glam-tastic platter. A few seconds into my very first spin, I recall feeling a bit jarred. It was The Rutles doing glam, times ten. But as the record continued, I found both the songs and the performances to go much deeper than parody. Just listen to those chords changes and that infectious chorus on "English Tea."


I wish I could tell you more about Thurman, but their history means little. They came from a metal group called 2 Die 4, broke up after "Lux" was released and formed a band with ex-Nubiles members called The Four Storeys.

Feel better? Yeah, neither do I. Just listen to "Lux."












11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glam-A-Slam - I love it!

So much that I'm willing to suffer through probably a two month wait for it by ordering a vinyl copy from Spain.

Randy

P.S. Your Joe Jackson 5 picture gives me the heebie jeebies.

Sal Nunziato said...

Randy,
Glad you like Thurman.

And you are not the first to find the JJ5 creepy. Retired that one early.

Whattawino said...

I love this Thurman album too! Some dude that owned a CD store once gave me a copy and It’s great to see it featured right here at BW.
Lux Rox!

FD13NYC said...

I like Thurman!!

Shriner said...

I had forgotten about this one. I remember getting it as they were in Borack's PowerPop 200 book. Spinning it now and it's as good as I seemed to remember. Someday I should hunt down those Singles/EPs to see if the additional ones are as good as this album.

Sal Nunziato said...

Shriner,
I have the English Tea 7" and neither of the two b-sides were memorable.

Was this really in Borack's book? I know the whole "is it or isn't it" power pop thing can be annoying, but to my ears, Thurman are about as power pop as Ike & Tina Turner.

Shriner said...

"Lux" was 174 in the first edition of the PowerPop 200 book. They were one of the 40-or-so that didn't make his "2.0" version of the book. Unfortunately, I never had a copy of the first edition (I read a library copy and took copious notes at the time), so I don't have a write-up handy, but in his 2.0 book he does make mention of a few albums specifically that he couldn't figure out why they were in the first book...

I found copies of "Talk To Myself" and "Famous" back in the day and IIRC the other songs were decent enough. I'll have to spin them sometimes.

Bill said...

Haven't heard of the album or the group, but it did get my toes a-tappin' this afternoon.

hpunch said...

You put a track by them on Burning Wood sometime in the past, and I loved it. I bought the album and loved the whole thing. Now I want to here those B-sides.

M_Sharp said...

I like the T Rex influence, good songs from a band I never heard of. I didn't know the Galaxies SOTD either, YouTube has most of that album, it's excellent. Thanks!

dogbreath said...

Never admitted to liking Thurman (I was in a HEAVY! phase around then) but there's some good stuff on that album. And isn't a "Cheap Holiday" something we could all do with right now to get away from all this? Cheers!