Consumer Guide Album

Plasticland: Plasticland [Enigma, 1985]
The fairyland psychedelica and many-hued outfits on the cover led me to dismiss the music as camp satire or idiot nostalgia. But "Euphoric Trapdoor Shoes" and "Rattail Comb" work for their laughs, and other songs achieve an even greater complexity of tone. The group's Anglophile diction can be prissy or sarcastic or acid-wild; their music is gimmicky and even silly sometimes, but like "She's a Rainbow" or "Itchycoo Park" it's also melodic and pleasurable and strong. Almost alone among the neopsychedelics, they actually have something to say about the '60s: they understand that to write lines like "Loneliness is a sad companion/Loveliness is all she feels" may well mean you're foolish but doesn't necessarily make you a fool. B+