Review by Dave Liljengren

There's a scene in the Franco Zeffirelli film, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, where young Francis of Assisi is called before the Pope. The 1973 film presents Francis as more of a childlike hippie than a monk. ("Mellow Yellow" folksinger, Donovan, provides the soundtrack.) The Pope, played by Alec "Obi Wan Kenobi" Guiness is impressed by the earnest young man and endorses his efforts, saying something to the effect of, "We talk so much of original sin that we've forgotten about original innocence."

I was reminded of that line while listening to Blue Collar Love. Catchy, melodic, at times sweet, and often dwelling on romance, the eleven songs on Everything But You are the epitome of pop rock original innocence. As the instant representative of the edge-glorifying rock-crit theocracy, I am left, like Zeffirelli's Pope, to say that in the holy name of innovation I have focused too sharply and for too long on the dour, chaotic and phantasmagorical elements of new music and have forgotten the power of zinging hooks crisply rocked out.

Until now. With an abundance of taut, trebly, occasionally new-wave-ish, rhythm guitars underlying chiming leads and the breathy vocals of singer-guitarist Amy Alsopp, this disc is reminiscent of the obscure 1980 release, Mad Love, by Linda Ronstadt, a hunk of vinyl which had the "Different Drum" singer covering three Elvis Costello songs, most notably, and perhaps least successfully, "Girls Talk." An important distinction between the works that Everything But You is more consistent. BCL can write and play at every tempo. "Superglue," is a pensive lament about the horrors of being young and beautiful; "I've got money, I've got friends, I'm like superglue," Alsopp sings. The mid-tempo, "Everything But You," is enriched by some Phil Spector handclaps on the back end. The lightning-fast, "Sorry," is a frenetic ditty of memorable anger. Adroitly produced by the band, BCL's songs jump from Everything But You like newborn trout in a spawning stream. Pop mavens across the universe will find something here to write home-- or to an internet newsgroup-- about.

The Blue Collar Love Website

*****

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