Plastique Valentine (#84 in a series)- Ian Hunter

The Plastique Valentine series, the internet, and life, in general need more Ian Hunter.

I love Ian and he's still cranking out critically acclaimed albums. I saw 2007's Shrunken Heads on a couple year-end best of's, and last year's mr President cracked the Top 200 on the US Album charts.

I've bought a bunch of his old records cheap through the years, and I would point you to Short Back N Sides (produced by The Clash's Mick Jones and featuring appearances by Mick Ronson, Todd Rundgren and Clash members and collaborators) before the album this was named after.

Still, a fun tune.

Raised on Radio #24- Adam Ant

Adam Ant, for a time would probably have been one of my favorite musicians.

I think this is weird now, because I only remember the radio ever playing two of his songs.

Only one of his songs from his heyday cracked the Top 40 ("Goody Two Shoes", of course, though you probably wouldn't have expected it only made it to #12. "Strip" stalled out at #42.) He was a regular on MTV of course (so it's possible I saw "Stand and Deliver" or "Prince Charming" which undoubtedly would have gotten played).

I just remember the two songs though ("Desperate but not Serious" did make the US Top 100 at #66, though I don't particularly remember it).

In any case, so powerful were those songs that I thought Ant was great. It's bizarre of course- Ant's piratewear is particularly feminine and he often lost his shirt on stage. That, and of course, the fact that at age 9 my favorite song was explicitly about stripping.

In 1990, he returned with "Room at the Top" which broke the American Top 20 (#17)and maybe not surprisingly, its video of busty wenches crawling on the floor got regular airplay. Ant was also appearing in tons of tv shows.

In later years, I went back to Ant, as he was being championed by the likes of Trent Reznor (Reznor covered early Ant songs like "Physical (You're So)" which translated well into Nine Inch Nails cover versions, though I suspect Reznor's story is like mine and he didn't pay attention to 'early UK-only Ant singles that sold a couple of thousand copies' until he was drinking age.

Besides the classic stuff, I also really dug the 1995 comeback record Wonderful. It is a bit of a jump to get to Adam Ant, the mature singer-songwriter years, but it mostly succeeds, with help from Morrissey collaborator Boz Boorer. It also didn't do too bad (The single broke the top 40 at #39 and got plenty of video airplay)

Ant has had a rough patch struggling with mental illness and some very public episodes. However, he is making another comeback. This time with an album cumbersomely called Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter .

It's gotten generally good reviews, though what I have heard from it doesn't really do much for me.

Adam has been giving a lot of interesting interviews lately, and surprise, is living in rural Tennessee.

So something old and something new. One of my favorite songs from way back when (which has been slightly forgotten) and the new single (which is good, though likely won't sell many albums).