ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Saturday, October 6, 1984
Page 5
Records
Talk Talk - It's My
Life EMI America
Hail to the next great songwriter of
the generation, a British lad named
Mark Hollis who looks as if he'd be
checked for identification at any bar he
walks into, but who possesses enough
songwriting and vocal talent to
challenge anybody else on the music
scene today. Mark has been in two dif-
ferent groups in the last three years,
the former -one TALK, TALK (a lively
and upbeat syAthesized sounding band)
and the latter one TALK TALK (a very
tight acoustic sounding band).
The former group, TALK TALK, first
made waves in the U.S. when they
toured with Elvis Costello during the
summer of 1982. With all the band
members dressed in whiten shirt/black
tie uniforms and the stage covered with
long cages of aluminum that com-
pletely separated all the personnel, the
group presented itself as a gimmicky
new fad whose generic fashion was as
important as the music.
The latter group, TALK TALK,
made even more waves in, the
U.S. when they toured with the
Psychedelic Furs this past summer.
This tour featured a conventional stage
with band members sporting whatever
attire suited them at the moment. This
group was more serious about the
music and more mature in its ap-
proach.
The new TALK TALK album, It's My
Life, features three new musicians,
only one of which stayed in the band.
Robbie MacIntosh, the Pretenders new
lead guitarist (and potential death cur-
se victim), handles all the guitarwork
on the'LP and plays all his licks and fills
acoustically.
Morris Pert, percussionist extrador-
dinaire who has worked and traveled
extensively with Peter Gabriel, han-
dles the same chores on the TALK
TALK album and proves again his
- phenomenal versatility. The per-
cussion mixes perfectly into the music
without dominating the general sound
or, conspicuously showing off in the
background.
The record is produced by Tim
Friese-Greene, a new group member
who also plays keyboards and another
young phenom who resembles closely
Steve Nieve the Attraction in his use of
quick fills on a grand piano and bizarre
orchestration techniques. Tim F-G
recently produced Blue Zoo, a pop
group that never quite made it in this
country (what else is new?).
Despite the presence of an all-star
line up, Mark Hollis, (lead volcalist)
still steals the show. His melodies are
soothing, beautifully fragmented, and
carefully worked into the music. Hollis
is a refined and classy version of
R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, yet still a
cheerful chap with a good sense of
humour and a tremendous amount of
personal warmth who makes every
listener feel like a best friend sharing
his intimate secrets. Hollis, who played
some guitar in concert, has emerged as
an important force in music, a rare
breed who remains apolitical and soft-
spoken enough not to isolate anybody
from his art.
The It's My Life album is good for
any mood or situation, mellow or ex-
citing. We're sure to 'see more good
things from Mark in the future.
- Andrew Porter
Daily Photo by DOUG McMAHON
Black and decker
Local favorites Tool and Die perform Thursday night at The Blind Pig.
Irreconcilable Differences settled
By Emily Montgomery
N
Warner Bros. is billing Irreconcilable
Differences as a comedy. It isn't. But it
is a witty, yet touching drama of how an
individual's needs for success can
break up a marriage and leave one's
children neglected and feeling unloved.
The film stars Shelly Long
("Cheers") and Ryan Q'Neal as Lucy
and Albert. When the filni opens, the.
couple is being sued for divorce by a
third Brodsky, their daughter Casey,
played by that adorable little pout
mouthed girl from E..T., Drew
Barrymore. As the testimony begins, a
series of flashbacks, going back to the
time when Lucy and Albert first meet,
fills the viewer in on the events leading
up to young Casey's discontent.
"If I'm not going to be totally nuts
when I grow up, I'd better get out of this
family while I still have a chance."
Casey pleads on the witness stand. At
first the audience is led to believe she's
just exaggerating, as children tend to
do. But by the time the Brodsky family
history is complete, they become
believers.
What could be so terrible, you ask?
Well, you'll have to see the movie to get
the whole story, but it all starts when a
film buff from California (O'Neal) falls
in love with a scatter-brained hopeful
writer ,from Pittsburgh. They marry,
and have a child (Barrymore) whom
* they both love very much, until success
comes along and spoils it, or, rather,
them.
Lucy and Albert get the chance to co-
write the script of a movie ironically
titled An American Romance, which
is a big success (there's that word
again). But when Albert, also the
movie's director, gets all the limelight,
troubles begin to brew. And the Brod-
sky's begin to grow apart. While they're
busy fighting, Casey is being raised
almost entirely by the family's Puerto
Rican, live-in maid, Maria. Casey tries
to express her disapproval by refusing
to speak English around her parents,
using the native language of her "new"
mother in one amusing, yet poignant
scene. Lucy and Albert, however, still,
fail to see the consequences of their
deeds. They have too many problems of'
their own.
In their next film effort, a remake of
Gabrielle, they work together up un-
til the time that Albert has an affair
with "Gabrielle," a chesty starlet and
their live-in guest, Blake Chandler
(newcomer Sharon Stone.) Lucy sums
up her anger, as she tells little Casey,
while they sit in the car ready to leave,
of 1
Ryan O'Neal and Shelley Long portray :a couple divided by success in 'Irreconcilable Differences.'
"She'll be drinking out of glasses that I
stood in line to buy."
At first, Lucy fails and Albert has the
success. Lucy drowns her sorrows in
King-dons and Haagen-dazs ice cream
("Cookies 'n' Cream?") Thirty pounds
later (pretty fake looking on Long's
small frame), she sits down and types
out a #1 Best Seller. Albert, at the same
time, is catering to his new, talentless
wife's whims and sinking all his money
into a billion dollar, megaflop-a
musical rendition of the Civil War. In
the meantime, Casey gets pulled back
and forth between the two, drilled with
questions by both about each other's ac-
tions.
Conditions escalate along the same
lines until Casey finally decides that
she can no longer stand to live with
either of her ,parents and decides to
seek legal guidance in obtaining a
divorce.
Irreconcilable Differences is a love
story of sorts, pitifully sad, however,
because even though the audience feels
a deep sense of love between all three of
the main characters, it's clear that
these characters are either not aware
of it themselves or don't know how to
express it.,
Shelly Long is wonderful as Lucy, a
character who changes from scatter
brain to manic depressive to "suc-
cess"ful writer/celebrity. Yet Long still
manages to keep the transition smooth
and adds her own flair. Ryan O'Neal is
the best he's been in a long time. And
Drew Barrymore is showing the signs
of a real actress in this, a more serious
role for her. As she gives her speech at
the end about how children are not pets,
"like a dog you forget about most of the
time, until you feel lonely and then you
remember how cute he is and pay at-
tention to him and pat him," one feels
the urge to grab her and take her home
with them.
I don't know why Irreconcilable Dif-
ferences is being advertised as a
comedy, maybe its makers didn't
think people would want to see it for
what it is. Regardless, it merits
viewing.
MICHIGAN STUDENT ASSEMBLY NEEDS YOU!
Positions are now available on the following Regental and University Committees:
STUDENT LEGAL SERVICES
RESEARCH POLICIES - One grad student needed
k- AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
UNIVERSITY COUNCIL
Stop by the MSA office for a full listing of open committee positions.
Applications are available now.
DEADLINE for submitting applications is WEDNESDAY,
OCTOBER 10, 1984 - 5:00 P.M.
For more information contact Laurie Clement, 3039 Michigan Union, 763-3241
r1
They were a family
torn apart by
temptation...
kept apart by pride...
l