Magnum Cum Louder

Certain Songs #625: Hoodoo Gurus – “Shadow Me”

August 17, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Magnum Cum Louder
Year: 1989

I don’t know. While the vast majority of the songs I write about were singles, or at least major album tracks, occasionally I hit upon a song that was neither, and yet speaks so deeply to me that I can’t help but write about it.

Like “Shadow Me,” which is on the list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Hoodoo Gurus Division, and yet is a song that I expect to get little to no reaction when I post it. But I don’t even care: except for the utterly god-like “Bittersweet,” it’s my favorite Hoodoo Gurus song, and pretty much always has been.

Certain Songs #624: Hoodoo Gurus – “Come Anytime”

August 16, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Magnum Cum Louder
Year: 1989

After the massive utterly 1980s sound of Blow Your Cool! didn’t raise their profile one whit in America, the Hoodoo Gurus retrenched a bit, changed record labels, and followed it with the more restrained Magnum Cum Louder.

Of course, that “restrained” is relative, but at least the drums sounded like drums again, and the spaces between the acoustic guitars and electric guitars were more defined.

And Magnum Cum Louder sported their only #1 U.S. Modern Rock song (for whatever that’s worth), the pure pop “Come Anytime.”