Album Review - Beautiful Reasons by The Cry (1990) (Label: Balance of Power Music)

Ask yourself this...were you the sort in the very early 90's that had permanently scabbed knees, a dislocated ankle, wore shorts designed for a fat lad, had a vocabulary consisting solely of 'dude', 'radical' or 'stoked' and used to hurling yourself onto dangerous things such as building sites and stair handrails on nothing more than an elongated roller skate?

If not then you were most probably not a skateboarder and will have no idea about this band or album. If you answered yes to the above then you may well worshiped this album as it was probably the soundtrack to the various skateboarding injuries your parents hoped their medical insurance would cover.

However it is all very strange as to how this band ended up being used on skate videos by notable skate institutions such as Hocus Pocus and Shackle Me Not as they were very far removed from the typical adrenaline fueled power-punk bands that skates dudes tended to adopt such as NoFX, The Offspring or any number of bands that the Jackass gentlemen suggested were relevant when they would not stuffing snakes, fireworks and all manner of unpleasantness into each others orifices.

Rather than referencing any semblance of punk, the sound of The Cry is an ultimately cool mix of the cool sparse and dark arrangements of early 80's post-punk (a track such as Twist of Fate certainly reminds me of post Pornography era The Cure) and the late 80's jangle sound of crystal clear chiming guitars. Added to this was the vocal delivery of a chap only known as Blaise who appeared to be five years ahead of his time, flitting about with a slightly deadpan, flat, British accent which (despite the band having roots in San Diego) which referenced a more high pitched version of some of the Britpop vocalist that came soon after.

The better moments of this superb album are the jangle moments. With the last four tracks (see Trees above which is arguably the most beautiful among stiff competition) of the album forcing this Pommie janglepop addict imto repeated listens over the years and virtually wearing out my cassette copy until someone with 'young skills' apparently 'ripped' it to MP3 for me.

Although to my knowledge the much talked about CD re-issue never happened, the digital download is now available on CDbaby and iTunes and can be listened to for free at Soundcloud as well. Grab hold of the chance while it is still there.

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