eMusic Review 0
Forget her weirdo-Bowie-girl onstage affect: Lene Lovich's voice would have put Stateless, the singer's 1979 debut, in the new-wave clouds by itself. Sometimes, as on "Tonight," she put her lyrics over like a Patti Smith who'd studied German theater; sometimes, as on "Too Tender (to Touch)," she came across as the Patti Smith who'd collaborated with Bruce Springsteen. But mostly, Lovich had a squawk that was as deliberately deployed as that of the later Cyndi Lauper, or the contemporary B-52's' Cindy Wilson, only huskier. But Stateless is also a first-rate party record, and not just because Lovich — the daughter of a Yugoslavian dad and English mum who split Detroit at 13 for Hull before scrapping through London — has a thing for oompah rhythms. (See "Say When" and especially "One in a Million," which could have been written for Oktoberfest.)
Lovich was a real original, and in a way Stateless might have been her greatest stumbling block: it sounds so much like the culmination of a lifetime, and so squarely of its time and place, that it froze her permanently. But it's a wonderful freeze-frame. She was as fond of rockabilly beats as beer-hall ones, as "Lucky… read more »
