The Only Ones – Even Serpents Shine (1979)

This is The Only Ones' second album (taken from a 2CD set which includes their first three albums). They are a band I saw, almost certainly on this tour, and remember it as a fine gig. But I haven't really listened to this album that much, let's find out why.

In short, it's a decent listen, without any obvious stand outs, and certainly without a rock classic like Another Girl Another Planet among the songs, which means it suffers by comparison with the debut album. From Here To Eternity kicks off, a slower Peter Perrett drawl, followed by the up-tempo peak of the first half, Flaming Torch. You've Got To Pay and No Solutions flow by quickly, before the much slower, doom laden Inbetweens. If this cry of despair is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, (as was No Peace For The Wicked on the debut), the humour is very well hidden, but the brighter Out There In The Night ends the first half, feeling a little more optimistic, even if the lyrical content isn't.

So, into the second half, with the enjoyable Curtains For You, still that drawl of despair, but there's a dip into ordinariness, with Programme and Someone Who Cares, and it's left to the rocking Miles From Nowhere to save the day, a fine song with some top guitar work. There's a mostly instrumental song (called Instrumental) to finish, which is decent enough, without being over-inspirational, and I suspect is only there to bulk the record out to a just-respectable 35 minutes.

So, a decent enough album, possibly suffering from second album syndrome, and certainly lacking any massive stand outs. But there's nothing awful, either.

Link to full album

3* - some decent songs, but lacks the impact of the debut album