Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (1979) [Re-release 2001 with bonus tracks] RESTORED

Singles Going Steady is a compilation album by the Buzzcocks, featuring their UK single releases from 1977-1979, along with their corresponding B-sides. In 2003, the album was ranked number 358 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The Buzzcocks emerged from Manchester's thriving punk enclave with a succession of startling pop singles. Tight melodies and highly memorable hooklines were enveloped in a breathless group sound full of purpose and drive which contrasted with singer Pete Shelly's dispassionate, almost throwaway, delivery. These eight singles, both a-sides and flips, covereda variety of subject matter, from masturbation ('Orgasm Addict') to 1981 nuspeak ('Everybody's Happy Nowadays'), without recourse to obfuscation. Such seminal recordings have ensured the Buzzcocks' place in a lineage just a bit below the Kinks and the Smiths as one of the best purveyors of the 45 rpm.

The Buzzcocks were proud proponents of late-1970s punk rock, with a name designed to shock and song titles like "Oh Shit?" and "Orgasm Addict" (both of which appear on this singles collection) . But in retrospect, it's easier to see what else they accomplished–some of the catchiest, most provocative pop singles ever. Pete Shelley expressed heartbreak and frustration ("Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have fallen in love with?" goes the catchy chorus on their biggest hit) without falling victim to lovey-dovey clichés. This definitive 1979 collection nicely captures the Manchester quartet's tight melodies, economic writing and appropriately fast pace.

~ Steve Knopper, amazon uk

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Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (1979) [Re-release 2001 with bonus tracks] RESTORED

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If Never Mind the Bollocks and London Calling are held up as punk masterpieces, then there's no question that Singles Going Steady belongs alongside them. In fact, the slew of astonishing seven-inches collected on Steady and their influence on future musicians - punk or otherwise – sometimes even betters more famous efforts. The title and artwork alone (the latter itself partially inspired by the Beatles' Let it Be) have been parodied or referred to by Halo of Flies and Don Caballero, which titled its own singles comp Singles Breaking Up. As for the music, anybody who ever combined full-blast rock, catchy melodies and romantic and social anxieties owes something to what the classic quartet did here. The deservedly well-known masterpiece "Ever Fallen in Love" appears along with Love Bites' "Just Lust", but the remaining tracks originally appeared only as individual A and B-sides, making this collection all the more essential. The earlier numbers showcase a band bursting with energy and wicked humor - the tongue-in-cheek "Orgasm Addict", details the adventures of a sex freak with a ridiculous fake orgasm vocal break to boot. However, the slightly more serious but no less frenetic singles are equally enthralling. "What Do I Get?" with its pained cry about lacking love, the deeply cynical "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" and Diggle's roaring "Harmony in My Head" are just three highlights on an album made of them. The final songs show the band incorporating their more adventuresome side into their singles, as with the slower, very Can-inspired "Why Can't I Touch It?", the semi-jokey stop-start thrash "Noise Annoys", and the Murphy's Law worries of "Something's Gone Wrong Again".

~ Ned Raggett, all media guide

Tracklist:

01. Orgasm Addict
02. What Do I Get?
03. I Don't Mind
04. Love You More
05. Ever Fallen In Love?
06. Promises
07. Everybody's Happy Nowadays
08. Harmony In My Head
09. You Say You Don't Love Me
10. Are Everything
11. Strange Thing
12. Running Free
13. What Ever Happened To?
14. Oh Shit!
15. Autonomy
16. Noise Annoys
17. Just Luck
18. Lipstick
19. Why Can't I Touch It?
20. Something's Gone Wrong Again
21. Raison D'etre
22. Why She's The Girl From The Chainstore
23. Airwaves Dream
24. What Do You Know


Project co-ordinated by Viv Barber & Nigel Reeve
Digitally remastered at Abbey Road, © 2001.
additional information see inside the booklet

Originally Released: September 1979
Re-Release Date: August 20, 2001
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Label: EMI International
Catalog No.: 534442-2