Stranger Than Fiction: A Brief Review Of The New Edward Ball (The Times) Compilation On Cherry Red Records

It's sort of odd that there hasn't been a comprehensive Edward Ball compilation until now. Given his brief time spent in the seminal Television Personalities, and his outsized presence on Creation Records in a crucial era, Ed Ball's been worthy of this sort of look for a long time. Thankfully, the folks at Cherry Red Records has rectified that omission in the market-place by issuing the extraordinary Edward Ball: It's Kinda Lonely Where I Am – Anthology 1977-2010. The 3-CD set covers not only Ed Ball's solo work, but his time with The Times, Love Corporation, Teenage Filmstars, and so on.

The early singles by The Times are smart, heirs to the same sort of English cleverness that fueled the best Television Personalities sides. "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape", "Red With Purple Flashes", and "Stranger Than Fiction" are catchy and smart, the kind of indie that was a bit smarter than anything on the charts, obviously. Those numbers and the superb "Heaven Sent Me An Angel" all sound like should-have-been-hits, while later gems like "I Hate Ibiza" shine a light on Ball's wide talents. Frankly, a set of stuff just from The Times would have been fine, but there's so much more here.

The Teenage Filmstars stuff, like the 1979 single "Storybook Beginnings", is very similar in terms of appeal to that of Television Personalities. There's a hint of pub rock to some of this, but I think that's a case of the resources at hand in the era then, and not Ball's intention. The material is bright and smart, with lots of hooks. I mean, if 1980's "I Apologise" sounds a bit like Joe Jackson and Squeeze, that's a sign of the times, and not necessarily Ball's desire to be part of that crowd. His ambitions, as shown by the breadth of this set, were always more varied and broad.

By the 1990's, with Creation Records broadening its scope, and releasing Loveless in 1991, things were up for grabs, with indie and dance, genres at once at opposite ends of the spectrum, suddenly bunk-mates. Ed Ball's project from those years, Love Corporation, managed to make a few distinctive sides, with "Palatial" being one of the better ones. The Danny Rampling remix here shines, as does the epic Andrew Weatherall remix of "Give Me Some Love". "Cathedrals of Glitter (Monkey Mafia Mix)" is another gem, and a track which seems to offer room for listeners both on the dance-floor and those off of it.

Edward Ball's career defies easy description. His talents were so varied, so all over the place, that he's a unique sort of musician to attempt to describe, especially to relative-newcomers. Of course, there's I'm not the only one who likely came in on his stuff with The Times, since I got into Creation in the mid-Eighties, but, having gone back and listened to more Television Personalities, there's no denying how vital the Teenage Filmstars stuff is. Edward Ball: It's Kinda Lonely Where I Am – Anthology 1977-2010 does a pretty good job at surveying the career of a criminally-underrated talent, and one whose skills burned hot in at least three decades, and in multiple genres and sub-genres

Edward Ball: It's Kinda Lonely Where I Am – Anthology 1977-2010 is out now via Cherry Red Records.