Sinister: Pretty Birds Fly Away

[PJMiller]

Hello. B&S get Record of the Week in El Pais newspaper. There's a picture of
Isobel thoughtfully trying to get the wax out of her ear with her finger, as
seen in the Cd booklet. The review would probably seem a lot better if we
hadn't read so many lately, but in the interests of trainspotterish
completism, here is a rough translation:

Bitter Softness: the British group distill whispering and studenty pop.

Since the beginnings of Al Stewart ("Bedsitter Chronicles", 1967), there has
been a school of singer-songwriters in the UK who express themselves with
crappy guitars and sing softly, so as not to bother the neighbours or out of
pure embarrassment. B&S act anonymously and make pop that is both homemade
and extremely refined that one expects of artistes that recorded for Cherry
Red or El records in the eighties. To avoid the sorry destiny of their
predecessors, the group reject thematic twatty tweeness, talk about love
with a certain rawness and show British audacity (in "Seymour Stein" they
take the piss out of the record company chief of the same name). At first
glance, they seem to be simple student troubadours, but they exhibit "hip"
sarcasm and unusual musical references (Motown! Acid Jazz!). In fact, their
perversity goes as far as "wasting" some of their best songs in the EPs that
they release between LPs. Curious, my dear Watson.

Diego A. Manrique

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I swear I didn't make that last line up. Conclusive proof that journalists
the world over are tuned in and turned on to Sinisterine activity. There's
also a half page advertisement, featuring an even greener Chris Geddes even
closer up. It looks like a still from Andy Warhol's film "Blow Job".

I bought "Here, My Dear" by Marvin Gaye. It reminds me a bit of "Exile On
Main Street", in so far as it's quite long and sounds like shit at first,
but then starts to sound really good. I like that, much better than the
other way round.

Bobby C


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