Lovers and Other Monsters - In My Mood Balcony (1990, Den of Iniquity)

Shucks, there were some moments here so stimulating, I was tempted to reserve this as one of my Chanukah uploads.  Ultimately, Boston's long departed Lovers and Other Monsters weren't quite that consistent, but I'll get to that further in.  Those there's little of relevant details for these folks online, Lovers is billed as a duo on the back of ...Mood Balcony's album jacket, but in a live scenario I'm pretty certain they would have at least amounted to a trio.  Lead-Lover Tony Schinella, previously had a guitarist stint in the psuedo-industrial Sleep Chamber, though the Lovers premise was of an entirely-different, left-of-the-dial sort. 

What minimal press this combo garnered during their brief lifespan pegs them as Anglophiles, a la Echo and the Bunnymen and The Jesus and Mary Chain.  That's somewhat accurate in terms of depth and approach, yet they couched it in a Yankee pastiche recalling everyone from Galaxie 500 to Guadalcanal Diary.  They're wont to dip in and out of a few different styles, yet there's no particular tangent on ...Mood Balcony that you'd deem untenable.  The highlights are downright divine - the Paisley-inflected "Windows and Icing" would have done the Rain Parade more than proud, "Breathing Walls, Breaking Glass" scintillates with spindly guitarwork that sounds like it was ripped from Dean Wareham's hands, and "Nowhere Girl" is a wave/post-punk should've-been-anthem that 120 Minutes neglected to shoehorn into their playlist.  Am not crazy about the noir experiment, "The Dark Corner," and some of the shorter filler numbers, but don't let that dissuade you from a fine one-and-done LP of (mostly) keepers. 

01. Train of Thought

02. Breathing Walls, Breaking Glass

03. Around You

04. Girl Who Flies

05. All I Ever Wanted

06. Night Approaches

07. My Addiction

08. The Dark Corner

09. Windows and Icing

10. Nowhere Girl

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