Flowers : Can't Help Myself
On October 10, 1980 the Australian band Flowers released Icehouse, a post punk/new wave effort that produced three Top 20 hits in their home country, including "Can't Help Myself", "We Can Get Together", and "Walls". The album went 5 times platinum in Australia and 3 times platinum in New Zealand .
So as not be confused with the Scottish band of the same name, in 1981 when the band signed with Chrysalis they named themselves after the opening track on their debut, re-recorded the album, and released it in the UK and US, where it hit #83.
In her 1981 Sounds review, Betty Page wrote
"...anyone knows you only have to think about making an album in Australia and it goes gold, but you punters shouldn't let those silly Bruce-Fosters-and-Kangaroo-based prejudices mar your objectivity with regard to this one...Not an album that smacks you between the eyes, but a real warm grower that creeps up from behind and forms a romantic attachment with you . Super for softies! Icehouse have been compared with everyone from Genesis ands T.Rex to Talking Heads and Television, but musical influences don't matter, it's the essential feeling imbued in Iva Davies' songs mixed with a fresh exhilarating pop/rock sensibility that does. There is no life inside the Icehouse."
Like New Musik, this is a band I don't remember ever hearing until this year when I decided to take a deep dive into 1980. Both may be a bit faceless but every time a track from these bands has popped up on my playlist I've been delighted. An absolute grower!
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