Peter Case: The Man With The Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar (Geffen)

PETER CASE'S debut album arrived in 1986 and the applause was thunderous. One could be forgiven for thinking that the new Bob Dylan had finally been unearthed. This was more than a little presumptuous. Peter Case was a raw precocious talent coming apart. Case sang about sin and salvation. His songs were run-down vignettes that insisted on their own type of isolation. Never quite gloomy but strolling along the dark side of the street with trouble in mind. Best of all, perhaps, was his rendition of The Pogues' 'A Pair Of Brown Eyes', sung with a longing that MacGowan could never quite carry off.