Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

These three kept it quiet -- Young Marble Giants were an underground band in the strict sense that they sounded like they were under the floorboards, sending the most stripped-down keyboard bleeps and vocals through the cracks. Their one album, Colossal Youth, was a hit in the U.K. postpunk scene of 1980, but its cult has just kept growing over the years. Alison Statton's vocals are muted and enigmatic, suggesting assignations for sex or espionage, over Philip Moxham's whispery bass and his brother Stuart's warm, burbling organ and taut rhythm guitar. “Credit in the Straight World” is creepy and defiant, possibly about a drug deal gone bad, but an ominous warning about the world that's out to get you -- no wonder Courtney Love covered it. “The Taxi,” “N.I.T.A.,” “Choco Loni” and “Searching for Mr. Right” defined the band's urban malaise, expressed in ways that were prim and polite. This set collects all their studio work -- an album, an EP, demos -- and a Peel Session. Generations of indie aesthetes have heard their own secret heartbeats in this music --your turn.