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Love/Hate: Blackout in the red room
11/11/10 || sly
Met a little girl
Just thirteen
She’s a knock-down blue-eyed
Slut psycho-virgin tease
Rock queen, thirteen, buxom
Blonde, bad dream
Let me touch your cookies
Let me eat your cookies- Now.
-Jizzy Pearl of L.A. Guns, Ratt, and Love/Hate
Oddly, this review is one that has presented the most difficulty for me. Aside from being distracted by a long Serbian vacation, I have been putting off the writing of this piece due to sheer lack of knowing what to say.
There are times in the life of a writer when the words simply won’t come. But there are other times when the words are far too plenteous to be easily processed and organized. I desire so strongly to convey a sort of importance that I seem to have found in this album that I am somewhat uneager to try to put it into words.
But fuck it.
From the first moment I picked up the album my attention was drawn to the bright, bizarre, and ambiguously dismal cover art. It depicts four strange figures sitting back and partaking of booze and various drugs. Love/Hate is the name of these guys? Blackout in the red room? Sounds intriguing enough.
Let’s travel back about twenty years now…
It’s 1990. Fucking Vanilla Ice is running around with “Ice Ice Baby” and Tool is in its tender stage of conception. Guns N’ Roses have already proven that dudes don’t need makeup anymore; bands are beginning to take on a darker look, and the zaniness of the ’80s is being exchanged for a more subdued turbulence. Basically, the popularity of heroine is overtaking that of cocaine. The eighties had utterly exploited many genres and bled them dry. Punk, thrash, hardcore, hip hop- they were used and abused and thrown to the curb like a strung out hooker.
Enter grunge. Up and coming bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam were taking over the scene, and there was hardly any room for that leftover sound of the glam/sleaze style. The ’90s had come, and with them a sort of all-pervading “safe” feeling- a mode that already dismissed a group like Love/Hate before they could start. Their era had passed; the thrill of danger was gone. They were too scary and fucked up for their own good. But these guys did what they had to to make their band known.
The entire album is a collection of crazy riff after crazy riff. It is reminiscent of heavier songs from The Crüe, GNR, and L.A. Guns, played with a ’70s style and an almost punkish urgency. Every musician is adept and the band is tight, but it’s Jizzy’s voice and Skid’s writing that really steal the show. The drum sound is more or less a product of the genre, but Mr. Gold hits ‘em fucking hard.
With lyrics about drinking, partying, and having sex with 13-year-old girls, this album calls not for a 12-pack but rather a bottle of Jim Beam and some dirty, pissed off, hardcore fucking. Here you will find no ballads, but you will find a song devoted entirely to pot. Whilst Dio sang of dragons and fairies, these guys were getting as fucked up as possible and reflecting their lifestyle in the music. The result is raw virulence. But while the overall feeling is crude and reckless, the production is quite polished. Every track is on par with the next, except maybe “Tumbleweed”. Still it doesn’t throw off the album; it’s simply not my favourite.
“Blackout…” is a whole package: cover, sound, lyrics, etc… You really either get it or you don’t. It’s love or hate.
Despite all of this, and supporting bands like AC/DC and Dio, why did Love/Hate remain rather under the radar? Maybe they were too racy and dangerous, maybe it’s because their label virtually hated (and eventually dropped) them. Maybe if they had appeared on the scene five years earlier they would have made it.
As far as I can see, they are still vastly underrated, (I could find only one other real review for this album), and deserve a good listen.
- Information
- Released: 1990
- Label: CBS Records
- Website: www.lovehate.com
- Band
- Jizzy Pearl: vocals
- Jon. E. Love: guitars, sitar
- Skid: bass
- Joey Gold: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Blackout in the Red Room
- 02. Rock Queen
- 03. Tumbleweed
- 04. Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?
- 05. Fuel to Run
- 06. One More Round
- 07. She’s An Angel
- 08. Mary Jane
- 09. Straightjacket
- 10. Slutsy Tipsy
- 11. Slave Girl
- 12. Hell, Ca., Pop. 4
