Consumer Guide Album

Joan Armatrading: Walk Under Ladders [A&M, 1981]
Where Richard Gottehrer is attracted to Blondie and the Go-Go's, Steve Lillywhite's meal tickets are U2 and the Psychedelic Furs. And in a singer-songwriter whose large voice creates a grandiose impression that does less than nothing for her terse habits of speech, the switch from one to the other is the wrong kind of big deal. B-