Amy and the Angels’ “I Hate Being in Love” is essential 80s Punk/Avant/Art rock, recently reissued as part of a 2018 complication on Edmoon records.
A personal account of the trials and travails of the intimate sort, the lo-fi DIY aesthetic captures all the energy without any of the alienation which would be afforded by more gloss and polish. Excised from all of the studio-based hallmarks of the era, it sounds like a track of timeless garage perfection.
The immediacy and rawness of the accumulated individual details are built into highly captivating melodic phrasing. The melody always curves off at complimentary but orthogonal angles, elevating the construction of a surprisingly elaborate structure.
There is always one more twist or additional variance to raise the stakes: the additional rhythm guitar pushing the chorus, the backing vocals adorning the final outro refrain, the intermittent accents of cries/groans to express the ineffable objections. Across the relatively brief runtime expectations are regularly subverted and it is enriching. There’s just so much great craft to this thing.
Plainly & Painfully 