If Grease 3 ever gets filmed, The School would do the soundtrack and it’d be a global success.
Their new ep, Let It Slip, is about crushes and kisses and recriminations, it smoulders as much as it struts, and it creates finger-snapping soulful grooves and sets them in endless summer days and nights.
I can hear Big Star’s melancholy and Camera Obscura’s soul-soaked pop and The Chiffons’ exhilaration and it sounds bloody great.
Their first single, All I Wanna Do, had many people excited a couple of months ago, but I got my pants in a wad over it. Not because I don’t need another song using the Be My Baby drumbeat (I don’t, but every girl group-influenced band starts there) but because I already own Tracey Ullman’s version of They Don’t Know and didn’t need another one.
Given the high quality of Let It Slip, I’ll put All I Wanna Do down as a false start and look forward to more of this top pop.
As an aside, 18 years ago there was a band called Love, who released a one-sided single, Welsh Girl, on Fierce. Bloody great it was. Rumour maintained it was really Hue Pooh Stick. Oddly enough, the sleeve to Welsh Girl features a girl with long blonde tresses surrounded by records. No, I don’t have a scanner or a camera, so you’ll have to take my word for its thematic similarity to the Let It Slip sleeve. But I do have a cd recorder, so here’s Welsh Girl by Love.
7 comments:
We should compile a list of "lying down surrounded by records" - I feel there are loads though I can't call any to mind! Wasn't there an Alternative TV one, years ago?
As for the School, I agree that this one's better than the last effort but, blimey, this seems to me to be a long way inside your / their comfort zone. I mean, there's nothing *wrong* with it but I do feel like I've heard the same thing attempted a bazillion times, and achieved better half a bazillion.
Ric Menck was clutching the same Big Star album on the back of the Choo Choo Train single, Perfect Day, on Picture Book. That's a thematic starter.
As for The School, if making hip-wrigglin', finger-clickin', rump-shakin' girl group pop with great tunes is my comfort zone, then bring it on.
Instant pop greatness - and make no mistake, this ep is great - is so easy to get wrong and so difficult to get this right. I know - I've heard it got wrong, like you say, a bazillion times. But this feels and sounds right.
Here's a couple more to add to the list: Bringing It All Back Home; All Around My Hobby Horse's Head (the first Slaughter Joe LP!), which -to tie everything back nicely- not only features the Fierce edition of Charles Manson's LP, but also an LP by (the other band called) Love.
Awww, what's wrong with "Not because I don’t need another song using the Be My Baby drumbeat" and "They Don't Know"
I really don't need to hear the Be My Baby drums again. Just 5 for starters: Just Like Honey, 80s Fan, Just A Dream, Ronan Keating, Comb Your Hair.
Being the JAMC obsessive that you are, you'd be able to name 2 or 3 other JAMC songs using the BMB intro.
I'm sure others will be able to name a similar number of Aislers Set songs using it.
They Don't Know is a fine song. I just don't need another version, or a song that rips it off. Still, the Let It Slip ep is great, isn't it? Phew!
not needing to hear that drumbeat again - is like not needing air!
:-)
Not heard the new EP yet, mind!
So speaks a JAMC obsessive! I'm happy with hearing that drum beat again on, um, Be My Baby...
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