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Released on 8th october 1990 on
Avalantic Records on LP / MC / CD formats. At the end of the decade
the UK alternative music scene was going through dramatic change.
There was a history of underground music genres bubbling under the
main single & album chart, with the bigger acts of those
genres occasionally breaking through into the charts alongside the
mainstream established acts. Remember this was back in the 1980's
when single sales were still significant enough to represent a
challenge for any underground / Indie act to break the Top 40. The "alternative"
or "Goth" genre had enjoyed a pretty unrivaled run as
the largest of these genres for the majority of the 1980's, with
bands like The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, All About Eve, The
Cult all breaking into the Top 40 charts. However towards the end
of the decade, "Goth" was suddenly replaced as the top
dog by a number of emerging genres. The "second
summer of love" saw Acid House & Dance break out from
the underground of illegal raves and clubs into the mainstream
charts. "Shoegazing"
bands dominated the Indie Charts, and Madchester
exploded in the late 80's / early 90's. Suddenly bands like The
Mission who were previously untouchable, suddenly found themselves
torn apart by personnel changes, and in the desire to innovate
their sound, released disastrous albums like "Masque"
where they attempted to associate themselves with the new younger
credible bands on the scene like Utah
Saints. Unfortunately they only succeeded in alienating their
existing fan base, and failing to attract any new fans in the
process. The Rose too faced this new
market dynamic, their response being "String 'A' Beads".
Indie rock was quickly picking up the dance influences, and bands
like Jesus
Jones and EMF
suddenly were becoming huge mainstream acts. The Rose had
experimented in the studio with tracks like "I
Believe Dub Track 1990", and "Stringa" saw
the delivery of 10 new tracks, drawing from this new sound and
marking a significant shift from the previous album, "Never
Another Sunset". The musical dynamic of the
band had changed significantly. With Paul as the single guitarist,
compositions were much simpler and cleaner. The bass became to the
forefront in songs to compensate for the loss of the second
guitar. Most notably the fresh approach to the drumming sound from
Andy Porter sought to add the dance / electronic element to the
sound, via the heavy use of electronic and sequenced drums. The album opens with "Your
Lights On", which is a strong, fast paced catchy
song, doing a good job of teasing up the rest of the album. The
opening verse always slightly irritated me lyrically as Phil
chooses to use a couple of phrases that are indelibly linked with
The Doors & The Stones: "Come on baby light my
fire take me right away / I need your satisfaction girl, I need it
here today" Next up we have "All
We Want" which is another solid, simple, straight ahead
tune. "Make It Right"
slows things down, and has a catchy piano hook but Phil's vocal is
very deep on the verses. "If You Only Knew"
builds nicely. This then seamlessly runs into the short, acoustic
"A Certain Truth". The title track "String
'A' Beads" is dominated by the dance style drum beat, and
rhythmic guitar playing, but is a highlight of the album.
"String 'A' Beads" is Yorkshire rhyming slang for Leeds,
the bands home town. The song opens with a great lyric: "We are what you want
now, we are what you need / Fly me out to LA man, no take me back
to Leeds / Home is where is the heart is I heard somebody say /
Well my heart is in the gutter, that's surely Leeds today" "If It's Right For
You" is another straight ahead song, not one of the
stronger on the album, and Phil struggles to adapt to the tune. "A Second Sight"
was only available as a bonus track on the CD. It's ok, but
doesn't stand out. Even though the complexity
of their earlier work had been stripped away, "A Different
Child" carries on the bands history of delivering
touching ballads. A beautiful song with a compassionate lyric it
works really well. Phil often joked his knew how to reach out to
the girls with his lyrics, this one shows why! "Be True To Your
Love" closes things out with a quality up tempo dancey,
with a real catchy guitar line. It feels fresh and is Phil's best
performance on the album. There is a remix of "Lights
On" on the CD which is basically an entirely new song,
reworked and remixed by Jon
Dasilva who was an up and coming DJ / Producer, DJ'ing
at Manchester's Haçienda,
which the band felt was a bit of a coup at the time. Although ignored in the UK,
and with no UK tours to promote the record, the album quickly
outsold "Never Another Sunset",
with it being especially well received in mainland Europe.
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