Odd Ditties

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!