They Do Feel Strange 7"
Unisex
Double Agent 1996
DA010

This record came from the discount 45s bin at King Kong Records in Osaka, and on first sight all I knew about it was that it was a dollar and the sleeve art was all right. Little did I know that when I got it home I'd end up playing it about twice a day, every day, for about a year, and it would end up cheerfully boring it's way into my heart, probably for eternity.

After a couple more years and some intense and often fruitless googling I learned that Unisex are Stephen Lawrie and Jo Doran from The Telescopes, and Nick Hemming, who later did the music for A Room For Romeo Brass. They have two other releases (both also on Double Agent) the Deadlock EP and a full-length album, called Stratosfear. Sometime in 2003 I ended up buying Stratosfear and it wasn't very good. Much more trip-hoppy and ambient than you'd expect.

They Do Feel Strange, however, is beautiful. I'd say it's even better than The Telescopes. The A side (which is in E, my very favorite key) is driven by this bright, fuzzy electric piano with this nice '50s pop rhythm and what can only be described as "whimsical" ascending scales in the transitions. Then the bass picks up playing the same notes and it's just so happy sounding. The lead guitar's got a little bit of wah wah on it and is plucked at every chord change. This element at least does have a sort of Oasisy sound, but considering this was probably being written and recorded shortly after Morning Glory came out, they've kept it impressively subtle.

Unlike in The Telescopes--where she just kind of makes sounds vaguely related to something else that's going on-- Doran spends the whole song "la la la la"ing, "oooooooh"ing and "AHHHHHahhhhAHHHH"ing over Lawrie's snotty, droopy "want somethin' for nothin', anythin', you don' care, just as long as it's somethin'".

The bridge has these two little bluesy solos, the general idea of which was clearly pilfered from Big Star, but it's still so good.

Lyrics aside, this song is a brief masterpiece of Shoegazers falling off their own bandwagon and landing gracefully on the Brit pop one.

The B side, Man About Town, is a little darker and even more Oasisy, and also makes heavy use of scales, this time descending. The guitar is the force behind this one, and most of the lyrics are "nahnahnahnah"s. Just your standard tune from 1996, a little more angry and like the Telescopes... nothing to really right about, except that Doran's voice contrasts really well with Lawrie's in the chorus.

Of the records I've written about, this is by far the most affordable and available, and it's highly, highly recommended. Go buy it!

Mouth Music
Chris White
Charisma 1976
CAS 1118

Chris White of the Zombies, produced by Shel Talmy... should be golden, right? Well it's not.

He really sparkled as a songwriter in the Zombies ("Butcher's Tale", "Nothing's Changed", "I Don't Want to Know"), he's a great producer, and his voice isn't totally awful... but for some reason this album is almost unlistenable. Perhaps not that extreme, but it's almost made that bad by how disappointing it is. I just can't believe that he and Shel Talmy listened to it upon completion and then nodding to each other agreed, "Yes, all right, that's perfect."

If you listened to it without knowing anything about it, you'd think it was the Beach Boys' worst album, recorded in the late '70s without Brian Wilson. There are, throughout, ridiculous vocal effects and bad '70s synthesizer solos, and all this is gussied up with totally incongruous strings and brass. Some of the songs sound almost like they're trying to be baroque funk. Ugh.

Each song has a gazillion vocal tracks, and for reasons which were probably lost in the '70s, he feels the need to harmonize with himself endlessly and needlessly. He even sounds kind of like Mike Love.

The worst thing is that his charm as a songwriter is totally lost. For the most part these are just bland, conventionally structured pop songs, totally lacking in nuance and inventiveness. Every time a glimmer of talent begins to shine through, it's obliterated by some disgusting and heavy-handed concession to what may have been marketable at the time. Mediocre songs poorly arranged and poorly produced.

If you find this album somewhere for a reasonable price, then by all means buy it. It's an interesting thing to have around as a conversation piece and the Charisma label is cool looking, but don't go out of your way to procure it.

Song Highlights: "Driftin'" and "Spanish Wine", but even these are not very good.