FDF Volume 2 Issue 139: Soup Dragons - Lovegod

By: March

Album - Love Dragons
Artist - Soup Dragons
Key Players - Sean Dickson - vocals, guitars and programming. Jim McCulloch - guitars and backing vocals. Sushil Dade - Bass. Paul Quinn - Drums
Produced By - Sean Dickson and George Shilling

Release Date - July 12, 1990

What caused me to blow off the dust? - I think I heard "I'm Free" in a commercial honestly and it got me to thinking that it had been a while.....

Overview - This was the second release from Scottish alt/dance rockers "The Soup Dragons". The band would have some rock-dance cross over appeal and crack the US charts with a single off their next record in "Divine Thing". The band would disband in 1995

FDF Comments (aka the songs) - Perhaps the bands most known song, a cover of the Rolling Stones "I'm Free" opens the record. the track features Junior Reid on a verse worth of lead vocals. "Don't be afraid of your freedom!" It has a bouncy electric feel to it and a little smattering of a guitar solo, but the hook is sort of the back beat and Reids vocals. A delayed electric sounding drum opens "Mother Universe". The song has deep laid back vocals, with a little growl to them and the song has a sort of plodding back beat. The chorus gets that "airy" feel with sort of whispered vocals over the guitar line. "Backwards Dog" opens with a similar feel to the more up tempo Jesus Jones songs of the time. Grinding guitar and vocals sung at a rapid pace. This is the hardest/fastest song so far on the record, its not over the top, but quick compared to the prior tunes. We slowly fade up on "Softly" with some looped spoken words and laughter. The single guitar note, complimented by an acoustic guitar drives the song. It is a mid tempo affair with the vocals again sort of hushed and deep. A more similar sound for the time can be found on "Drive the Pain". Dickson begins the vocals after just a few short bars of music. The guitars chime out chords to a marching drum beat. There are some programmed keyboards and you can hear some percussion instruments on this track as well (wood block for example). "Lovegod" has a more driving guitar and cool sounding delayed choppy guitars to boot. It falls into a more "Manchester" sound that was popular at the time. It is a mid tempo affair once more with the hook being the grinding guitar and the cool outro on the tune. A trippy fad up with guitars opens the aptly titled "Dream-e-Forever". Again, the vocals are slow and deep and its a very short track. Vocals start at the outset of "Sweetmeat". Percussion instruments and a single guitar compliment Dickson. It has some good backing vocals on this track in the first verse, it sounds similar to the opening track with sort of the same back beat feel. They sort of over do it with the repetition of the song title near the end and it fades out with some spoken word sample(s). A jet fly over brings up "Kiss the Gun" We rock a little hard on this track as well. Again, sounding like EMF (FDF on "Schubert Dip") a little bit and flashes of the Stone Roses (FDF looks at "Second Coming") too this track packs a little more punch the record could have utilized more. The band seems to hit their stride as "Love you to Death" begins. We are more up tempo for another song and the vocals are strong. The band doesn't rely on any one member to carry a song. The bass is sort of no existent from a "bass fill" meaning. Its there, but nothing really punches it up. The drums and guitar are crisp overall, and have been on the record up to this point.. We keep the tempo up on "Beauty Freak". The drums are as quick as we have heard up to this point and the guitar runs this delay/loop underneath the drums and verses. There is a little backing vocal harmonies at times as well. This wraps up the record and there are a few "bonus" tracks. The first is a "dub" version of "Lovegod". The other track is "Crotch Deep Trash" another more rocking track. The band sort of relies on repeating the song title over and over, sung over a sort of repetitious drum and guitar line. Its nothing to write home about.

Where are they now? - The band has worked in various bands and other projects over the years according to their Wiki page. Singer Sean Dickson has updated the bands myspace page with news that their label is keeping "their music" even though they have been label less for over 10 years. The band hopes to release a best of collection.

FDF Personal Comments (aka the Live experience) - Never saw the Soup Dragons live.

FDF Overall Take - Upon the re listen I wasn't really surprised or felt like I missed anything after a few years of not listening. Its "okay" but I didn't miss it and not sure how soon it would be before I listen front to back once more. Others may love it, and that is fine too.

Links
The band on myspace

Curious? Check out some MUSIC!

The mp3's have been removed.

Lovegod
Kiss the Gun
I'm Free

Tracks taken from "Lovegod" which you can buy here.

Disclaimer - For the most part songs listed you can find on iTunes or your local cd shop. The idea is to give you a little taste of the music. Please support the artist buy purchasing some of their work. Songs are posted for about 1 week but can and will be removed at the request of the artist, band, band management etc. If you are one of those persons contact me via the email link in the profile and they will be removed as soon as we are made aware of the request.