There was a certain kind of indie band in the late 80s and early 90s that was very popular. A little noisy but with good pop sensibilities and a cute female singer, preferably blonde. There were plenty of these bands around of which The Darling Buds were one of the best examples.
"Sure thing" was a single from their final album. It doesn't break new ground in any way, its a nice enough song with a bit of noise and a great pop hook. By 1992 however the winds of change were howling across the British indie soundscape (er, if that makes any sense?) Bands like the Darling Buds were becoming a bit of an anachronism. I recall they tried to rough up their image a bit but their day was over and this was their last UK single release
I was onto The Darling Buds pretty quickly (for a Yank), picking up a copy of the Pop Said CD when it was released over here. Many years later, I come across the song "If I Said", a nice little bit of Shoegaze that pre-dates Pop Said. It reminds me of the single version of "Thru the Flowers", a bit of Shoegaze from a Pop band. So, I'm wondering are there many other examples like these two songs? If so, I'd be very interested to hear about them.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest i haven't listened to them a great deal, they were fading away when i was first getting into music. They probably did include influences from what was then-current though in their general output.
ReplyDeleteI did not mean to focus on The Darling Buds; I mentioned them and The Primitives as examples of Pop bands who had released Shoegaze sounding songs at the beginning of their careers before concentrating on Pop. I was wondering if you knew of any other bands from outside the genre who had taken a run at doing a Shoegaze song?
ReplyDeletegot it! been racking my mind for examples but can't think of any off hand, unfortunately most of my early 90s indie went into a bin during an ill-judged clear out in the late 90s so can't check. if i think of any i'll post...
ReplyDeleteBeen there... If you come up with anything, do let me know. Thanks.
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