Hear Our Call In Everything You Do…The Mighty Lemon Drops ‘World Without End’ Turns 30
By: Peter Marks
There are many records out there scattered across my youth but there is none more bittersweet than what these four Wolverhampton residents unleashed on the world in 1988. Oh sure, they weren’t massive here in the US and you could be forgiven for noting their lack of photogenic appeal; The Drops weren’t concerned with image, they let their music speak and it should be noted that towards the end of the 80s this was rarer and rarer to see out of bands.
Sure, there were videos and the odd interview in magazines I had to buy at import prices -nothing opens one’s eyes more than when they first encounter ‘currency conversion- but they seemed concerned first and foremost with how their songs came across. Theirs were the ones which shook off the trappings of complacent adolescence for me; Paul Marsh didn’t write happy go-lucky words and the rest of the band, David Newton in particular, produced truly beautiful sounds. If everything else in your world was collapsing, this group gave you a shoulder to lean on.
It hadn’t been an easy slog getting to the point they were at on ‘World Without End’, Sherbert Monsters notwithstanding. Since 1985, they’d found themselves out there in the trenches playing and recording at a frantic pace. The papers slagged them off as Echo soundalikes and took particular joy in branding them ‘dour, dark… precisely what you’d expect from The Black Country’. I never got that out of what they did, perhaps it was their youthful exuberance which put the poison pens on edge; few things are more infuriating to the stagnant status quo as their cornerstones becoming irrelevant.
We all remember what shape The Bunnymen were in by the time the decade was nearing it’s end.
So along came this fresh-faced foursome with a record chock full of non-stop quality tunes with all the jangle you could ever ask for and suddenly things weren’t so bad. The Smiths had imploded the year before, INXS were now a household name with The Cure and DM not far behind… so nice to have something you could call your own again. My esteemed peers didn’t give Paul, David, Tony and Keith the time of day opting to instead fawn over glossy hair metal vixens like Lita Ford and Fiona; I often wonder if they get the same jolt when they hear “Kiss Me Deadly” that I do when “No Bounds”, “Crystal Clear” or “Head on the Block” plays now.
Actually, no I don’t.
They only had a few years left in them which would witness more highs (Laughter), a regrettable misstep (Sound…) and then a graceful exit (Ricochet) but right here is where they rooted me to the spot. You will never hear a finer slow-dance anthem then what they gave out via “In Everything You Do”. There isn’t a single dud on ‘World Without End’, in the lexicon of the day The Drops loomed large in the world of modern rock and for me they’re still an unassailable band who didn’t get their due but who cast very long shadows to this day.
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