Microdisney:
Everybody Is Fantastic:
Cherry Red:
Out Now:
★★★★
Irish angst-pop outfit Microdisney didn't really fit in, if you know what I mean. Their melodies suggested that the accompanying lyrics and attitude would result in fluffy bunnies and agreeable major-label mainstream dalliances. Thankfully, head honchos Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan opted not to sully their creative reputation with so much as a radio-hit or a collaboration with some failed pop-stars - instead they wrote about them on the sublime dig-in-the-ribs, 'Singer's Hampstead Home' for the later album '39 Minutes'.
But that was some years after delivering their sublime, but somewhat subdued, debut album for Rough Trade. Originally released some 30 years ago, 'Everybody Is Fantastic' is a remarkably astute indie-pop album that eschews 'real' drums for electronics and sounds for all the world like The Smiths let loose in a drum-machine showroom. Somewhat clunky, ugly even, some of Microdisney's debut is sluggish and droll until a few songs in when sensitive single-to-be 'Dolly' pipes up. Here is a masterpiece, one of those under-stated songs that sounds like loads of songs chucked into a bubbling pot, then dished up as a single in the hope of radio-success. It sort-of worked - I remember Kid Jensen or Richard Skinner airing this a few times. I remember struggling to find the blighter in a record-shop. Hey ho.
But there were better, more soulful, songs on EIF - I can think of three for sure. 'Sun', with its great opening lyric 'I drink gin like a 1960's wino', 'Sleepless' displaying its creator's future path taken with the faultless follow-up album, 'The Clock Comes Down The Stairs' and the storytelling chops of 'This Liberal Love', all adding up to where Microdisney ended up.
I'm still at a loss as to how this fine Irish outfit slipped by the wayside commercially speaking and can only revel in the delights of this fine re-issue and its two other subsequent releases. Perhaps 'Everybody Is Dead' could have been the unlikeliest of hits had it been tidied up for radio. Maybe 'Dolly' needed some money behind it. Maybe...maybe. Great music though, nonetheless.
Everybody Is Fantastic:
Cherry Red:
Out Now:
★★★★
But that was some years after delivering their sublime, but somewhat subdued, debut album for Rough Trade. Originally released some 30 years ago, 'Everybody Is Fantastic' is a remarkably astute indie-pop album that eschews 'real' drums for electronics and sounds for all the world like The Smiths let loose in a drum-machine showroom. Somewhat clunky, ugly even, some of Microdisney's debut is sluggish and droll until a few songs in when sensitive single-to-be 'Dolly' pipes up. Here is a masterpiece, one of those under-stated songs that sounds like loads of songs chucked into a bubbling pot, then dished up as a single in the hope of radio-success. It sort-of worked - I remember Kid Jensen or Richard Skinner airing this a few times. I remember struggling to find the blighter in a record-shop. Hey ho.
But there were better, more soulful, songs on EIF - I can think of three for sure. 'Sun', with its great opening lyric 'I drink gin like a 1960's wino', 'Sleepless' displaying its creator's future path taken with the faultless follow-up album, 'The Clock Comes Down The Stairs' and the storytelling chops of 'This Liberal Love', all adding up to where Microdisney ended up.
I'm still at a loss as to how this fine Irish outfit slipped by the wayside commercially speaking and can only revel in the delights of this fine re-issue and its two other subsequent releases. Perhaps 'Everybody Is Dead' could have been the unlikeliest of hits had it been tidied up for radio. Maybe 'Dolly' needed some money behind it. Maybe...maybe. Great music though, nonetheless.