A place in the sun (Marine Girls) (LP 3090)

Marine Girls  Lazy Ways (Vinyl, Music world/ Cherry Red Records, 1983) ****  

Genre: Indie-pop 

Places I remember: Hastings music shop, now gone burger.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Love To Know

Gear costume: A Place In The Sun

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: I have already written a post for the first Marine Girls album (1981's Beach Party), Lazy Ways is their second and final album. The band had already broken up by the time it came out with Tracey Thorn starting a solo career before starting Everything But The Girl.

The threesome (Thorn plus the Fox sisters) made a lot of progress in the two and a bit years between albums. The sound is light and breezy but not lo-fi. The guitars strum and the vocals are affective because they lack professionalism at this stage in their career.

It's indie-pop 1983 style to (almost) perfection. In NZ, a long way away, in Dunedin, a group called Look Blue Go Purple started up with a similar aesthetic. They'd last a little longer (1983 to 1987). If Marine Girls strike a chord you will want to also check out LBGP.

Where do they all belong? A lot more to read about my Tracey Thorn (when we get to T)/ Everything But The Girl obsession.

Times we used to spend (Marine Girls) (LP 296)

Marine Girls Beach Party (Vinyl - Whaam/Cherry Red, 1981) ***

Genre: English pop/rock  

Places I remember: record stall in Greenwich Markets - 25 quid.  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: All Dressed Up




Gear costume:  In Love, Fridays 

Active compensatory factors: Reading Tracey Thorn's Bedsit Disco Queen has been a delightful experience this week. That meant, as is my wont, a search for her recorded stuff.

Shazam - a trip to Greenwich Market saw me walking away with four Everything But The Girl albums and this one - her first tentative steps in what has become, against her better judgment, a music career.

I also managed to grab a signed copy of her third book, Another Planet from Waterstones in Canary Wharf. This will be joining my signed copy of The Language of Life when I get back to Nu Zild.

There are adjectival things about Tracey that strike a chord in people: genuine; self-deprecating; charming; funny; normal. Plus she's a hell of a singer with a unique style.

The Marine Girls album is yet to see her find her voice - instead it's lo-fi indie pop which is really catchy in a Violent Femmes sort of way. Easy to see why Kurt Cobain rated them in his diary!

Needless to say, my wife wasn't won over (can't you put some nice classical music on?).

I like the naive charm on offer here but, okay, I can't see it getting much airtime compared to EBTG albums.

Where do they all belong? Early doors. She was off to Hull University and a dramatic encounter with Ben Watts next.