2000 Great Songs #1341: Devotion
England's Glory only recorded one proper album , a collection of glam-ish rock shelved in 1973 and only seeing release many years later after frontman Peter Perrett received a little more attention with his post-punk/new wave act The Only Ones (of " Another Girl, Another Planet " fame). The band also included Perrett's brother-in-law, who went on to be the original bassist for Squeeze . Album opener "Devotion" sounds like a bonus track from Lou Reed 's Berlin (also from 1973). There's a deceptively jaunty, jangly guitar riff before it slips into darker territory, Perrett firmly in Reed mode (or maybe the Violent Femmes ' Gordon Gano on some of that band's darker songs), and then it pivots into something... strange, like an amateur off-off-Broadway production of a wacky glam musical, out-of-tune backing vocals and all. It's an odd little song, kinda off-putting and over before you know it, but there's something about its unvarnished ...
