by Kelvin HayesThe production, performance, mixing, running order, and sleeve on First Love: Last Rites all add up to an outstanding piece of work, both lyrically and sonically. Peter Kingsbery and Anna LaCazio are on fine form vocally, while John Pierce and Pat Mastelotto are awesome as the rhythm section. Rhett Davies' production is (arguably) the best of his career to date, including Roxy Music's Avalon and King Crimson's Discipline and Beat. First Love should've been huge, but sadly, Cock Robin were victims of the dreaded record company -- poorly promotion and the wrong choice of singles meant a premature end, but what a way to say au revoir. Why on earth "For Experience Sake," "Win or Lose," and "My First Confession" were kept as album tracks is a mystery more oblique than the one Kingsbery sings about on "Worlds Apart." In America "It's Only Make Believe," better left on the best-of, was unwisely added. Songs detail misery ("Everyone's so happy, beautiful and happy," from "Stumble and Fall") and past mistakes ("The past is crowded, with quite a lot I'm not too proud of," from "My First Confession"). "Hunting Down a Killer" seems to be a cousin to Magnum PI, while "Manzanar" (a Californian concentration camp for the Japanese captured at Pearl Harbor) depicts America's role in war ("Full moon over Manzanar, a little piece of the rising sun"). And then there is "Worlds Apart," a beauty that unfortunately appears to throw light on what became their end game. All in all, First Love: Last Rites is a masterpiece.