by Jonathan Ball
Love and Rockets' Earth, Sun, Moon reins in the rampant excesses of Express while remaining psychedelic; the near white-out of the cover gives a clue to the music, as many of the songs emerge from a soup of white-noise guitar distortion. Much of the record addresses, in its nebulous fashion, hope and disappointment; the title track and &Youth& are two of their most simple, yet most affecting songs. Not a &normal& pop record by any means, it's more straight-ahead than their previous work and includes the upbeat single &No New Tale to Tell,& a college radio hit that set the stage for the band's popular breakthrough a year later.