Radio Hits

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Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 28:50

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Michelangelo Matos

eMusic Contributor

04.21.06
A musician who crafts songs shot through with the glee of a six-year-old sneaking a cookie past the babysitter.
1994 | Label: Damaged Goods / state51

Plenty of bands start out as extensions of pure fandom, but few artists wallow in fan culture the way pitch-imperfect Welsh smart aleck Helen Love does. Take, for instance, "Punk Boy 1": "Do you feel yourself sigh when he passes you by/ Or do you grow 100 feet tall/ Go bang-shang-a-lang/ Every time you see him?… If you don't, he's not a real punk boy." By the same token, if a song doesn't contain the chintziest Casio sounds, the tinniest drum machines and the cheesiest guitar imaginable — all shot through with the glee of a six-year-old sneaking a cookie past the babysitter — then it isn't a Helen Love song. Not to mention the many, many references to beloved bands, from "Formula One Racing Girls" ("I don't care about you/ I've got my Huggy Bear T-shirt on") to the self-explanatory "Summer Pop Radio," "Joey Ramoney" and "Rockaway Beach for Me Heartbreak Hotel for You."

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Damaged Goods

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic Contributor

The songs may change, but the sound remains the same: garage rock of every stripe, sometimes speedy and played on cheap synths, sometimes full-on guitar-bass-drums with someone screaming over it. Either way, this is what the London label Damaged Goods specializes in, and like a lot of hardline punk-and-related labels, it does consistent business by sticking to its roots. Damaged Goods 'most famous artist is undoubtedly Billy Childish, who began his career in the late stages… more »

They Say All Music Guide

Helen Love’s first CD is a straightforward repackaging of all of the Welsh quartet’s singles and EPs up to 1994. Bashing through 14 tracks in just under half an hour, Radio Hits sums up Helen Love’s early style, a mix of unabashed Ramones worship (“Joey Ramoney” and “Greatest Fan” are just this side of stalking, and it’s plainly obvious where guitarist Sheena got her name) and kicky Rezillos-style trash pop. The group’s lo-fi sound and pointedly minimal chops sound more like affectations than genuine crudity, but there’s so much bratty fun in songs like “Formula One Racing Girls” and “Punk Boy 1″ that the posturing is mostly forgivable. The best tracks here all come from the 1994 10″ EP Summer Pop/Punk Pop, with the glorious “Summer Pop Radio” among the best things the group ever did. 1997′s Radio Hits Volume Two would gather the rest of Helen Love’s Damaged Goods releases. – Stewart Mason

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