Adult Net - The Honey Tangle (1989) CD-Rip

After a five-year stretch of singles that ranged from terrific to terrible, the long-play debut of the Adult Net was released in 1989, concurrent with Brix Smith's departure from the Fall. Rather unsurprisingly, that range in quality is maintained here on the album as well, although the overall sound of the album is notably different than anything that had come before. Many of the earlier Adult Net singles had been spiky marriages between guitars and electronics that owed much to the raincoat-clad heyday of Factory Records, but all of Honey Tangle is glossy, jangly, sweet-natured pop music that would sound perfectly at home in the Top 40 radio play lists of some alternate universe. At its best, which would be the twin singles "Waking Up in the Sun," a glorious haze of lightly psychedelic pop given a Phil Spector on acid (over)production job to obscure the fact that the lyrics just might possibly be a suicide note, and the more propulsive "August," which features a la-la-la chorus that most of the Sarah Records roster would kill for, the album is an unapologetically glossy pure pop feast taking its cues from ABBA to the Zombies. At its worst, it's much the same only the songs aren't nearly as good. (The nadir is a terrible version of the Grass Roots classic "Where Were You When I Needed You" that sounds more petulant than heartfelt.) Still, the hits just barely outnumber the flops, and even the worst tracks sound pretty good as long as you're not paying too much attention.