I think a lot of people, myself included, forgot that the first Love Tractor album was made up of instrumentals. And I think a lot of people, including me, forgot just how fantastic this Athens, Ga. band was then, and remain now. Love Tractor, out now via HHBTM Records is still a classic, and it's one which has been lovingly remastered by David Barbe (Sugar) and Bill Berry (R.E.M.).
Love Tractor, made up of guitarist Michael Richmond, bassist Armistead Wellford, drummer Kit Swartz, and guitarist Mark Cline, owed more to Talking Heads than to The Byrds, and while they'd eventually be lumped in with R.E.M. and other jangle-y acts from Athens, Love Tractor had a propulsive force that made their brand of buoyant pop something altogether less mysterious and more accessible than some early recordings by contemporaries R.E.M. "Buy Me a Million Dollars" has a spry twang to it, while "Motorcade" has more rhythmic heft and force. This one, like the sharp "Wheel of Pleasure", mixes the sort of white boy funk we might have heard from U.K. bands like A Certain Ratio in the era, with a uniquely off-kilter vision of what alternative music could be. Imagine Durutti Column deciding to be a dance band and you'll have some idea of where this goes.
Still, some of this is more contemplative. "Fun to Be Happy" is restless and furtive, light guitar-hooks peppering this one, while "Tropical" faintly echoes early New Order with its darkly appealing grooves. Everything here is compelling, with each cut pursuing a kind of pristine, perfect music that suggests a prog rock-like seriousness mixed with a sly playfulness that renders this record unlike anything else you'd have heard in 1982. It still sounds fantastic, with the drums popping appropriately, and the riffs jangling when necessary and chiming when required.
Love Tractor by Love Tractor is out now via HHBTM Records.
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[Photo: HHBTM Records]