It’s old fashioned pop that manages to capture an audience without any ego or bluster. The singer has something of Marc Almond’s theatrical delivery too.
It’s old fashioned pop that manages to capture an audience without any ego or bluster. The singer has something of Marc Almond’s theatrical delivery too.
Nancy (an extended dream sequence dir. by Pete Gallagher)
In My Laboratory (featuring an actual P(M)UPPET crafted by the drummer dir. by Danny Helme)
(Sotones)
I’m not normally one for videos, for reasons far too tedious to explain (but I’m sure somewhere deep in your soul you understand). I should know, as I’ve been in two pop videos, and both experiences were possibly the biggest waste of time (in terms of an end result) that I’ve been involved with. However these videos caught my imagination – a visual imagining for once not gauche, full of its own importance or dripping with cod-sentiment or even too silly (I must point out that one vid has a muppet in, something that is inherently silly however you look at it), but overall two videos with a clear, believable narrative. Good grief.
I’m not one to review singles either, but the music is damned good, too. Nancy is a fine spooky tale – mainly acoustic, but with a nice line in sound effects (brushed cymbals, wibbly electronics now and again) to burnish the atmosphere. The thing builds up very nicely to a sudden climax. It’s old fashioned pop that manages to capture an audience without any ego or bluster. The singer has something of Marc Almond’s theatrical delivery too. In My Laboratory is a quirky afterthought, a bit like a gothic take on Breakfast Time’s plod or maybe Fun Boy Three at their most music hall. Grand!