I was an early fan of John Cooper Clarke, having heard and liked Disguise In Love a couple of years earlier, and bought the 10" clear vinyl Walking Back To Happiness in the late 1970s, with half an eye on it becoming a valuable collectors item (UK copies currently from £6.25 + p&p on Discogs).
Snap, Crackle & Bop was the second album with the musical accompaniment of the Invisible Girls and I never got round to buying it until last month in a Music Magpie trawl. My copy appears to be signed by the good Dr Clarke; I'm unsure whether this adds to or detracts from the value.
Kicking off with the old favourite, a clanky accompaniment to Evidently Chickentown, followed by Conditional Discharge, which while, not one of JCC's most memorable poems, works well with the music. Sleepwalk relies more on the words, again not a masterpiece, while 23rd is a JCC list of insults (see also Twat, which seems only to exist without music, and has far more impact). The first half peaks with the lovely Beasley Street, a fine poem which catapulted JCC into the GCSE English Literature syllabus, and where the music enhances without over powering.
There's a rock'n'roll start as we metaphorically flip the disc, 36 Hours, a bouncy tale of time spent incarcerated, followed by Belladonna, turgid and unremarkable, only brightened up by some lovely Vini Reilly guitar. The It Man bounces us back to life with another hearty character assassination. Limbo (Baby Limbo) lacks the impact of the live version on Walking Back To Happiness, an anodyne tune adding little, and sadly, the album ends glumly, with the plodding A Distant Relation.
It's interesting how the music sometimes enhances and other times distracts from Clarke's words, and this album shows us both. But there's enough that's lovely to make this a worthwhile listen, even if as a second album it no longer has the novelty that the Invisible Girls brought to Disguise In Love.
3* - some of Cooper Clarke's finest brought to life in music, but it doesn't always work.
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