amoral compass

All I ask is a decent playlist and a theme to steer it by, though it would be wise to bring along some supplemental navigation materials, just in case:

The Fall - Hit the North (from a 1987 single; collected on The Frenz Experiment, 1988) - While I do not approve of violence, I have to admit that the North has been asking for it lately.

The Stone Roses - Driving South (from Second Coming, 1994) - Second Coming is fairly often cited as a textbook example of the "sophomore slump." I'd argue that designation stems more from absurdly high expectations than the actual quality of the material on the album, which was decent enough if not quite groundbreaking.

On a different note, whenever I listen to this track, I keep expecting Toni Halliday to chime in during the fuzzwash with "My name is FAIT!"

Lone Justice - East of Eden (from Lone Justice, 1985) - Another respectable effort marred by external forces -- in this case, a relentless juggernaut of promotional hype that ultimately translated into mediocre album sales, one hit single, and an overplayed music video for said single.

For years I wondered about the frequent application of the cowpunk genre tag to Lone Justice, as "Ways to Be Wicked," the above-mentioned hit, had a fairly mainstream country-rock sound, and didn't really fit the rough-and-tumble definition of cowpunk as I understood it. It wasn't until a few years ago, when I finally got around to listening to Lone Justice's debut LP in its entirety and heard today's featured track that I realized the label does apply to some (not nearly enough) of the band's work.

Pet Shop Boys - Go West (from a 1993 single; collected on Pop Art: The Hits, 2003) - If Lenin fronted the Village People, and renounced violent revolutionary action in favor of meticulously-crafted pop music...