Adorable - footnotes 92-94 (Cherry Red)

Back in 1992 i didn't know anything, i was simply a useless student with bad hair (nowadays a useless worker with bad hair) desperately trying to make sense of the indie pop scene i had recently discovered and wondering what path to go down. Then Adorable came to my attention with their incendiary single "Sunshine smile", pseudo-psychedelic feel and look exploding into mass guitar thrash and energy rage. It all suddenly made sense.

Adorable were one of Creation's "great white hopes" in the early 90s, following on from the shoegaze scene when that fell apart. Briefly Adorable shined with a string of amazing singles like "I'll be your saint" and the surpassable "Homeboy" with its bass heavy melody erupting into a sonic guitar attack of nuclear war proportions. The music press hated them of course but that alone should tell you that Adorable were pretty good. In fact they were more than that, they were brilliant.

Not flawless perhaps, this collection of tracks from their singles, can get a bit samey at times but when they were good, they were great and most of the time they were way better than that.

MV : "Halfway down the stairs" by Robin the frog (The Muppets)

Top Of The Pops (02/06/1977)

Noel is here to announce the hottest sounds, the Sex Pistols excitingly appear at 11 in the top 30 run down, of course they won't get to play on the show but we start with some fancy piano...

Elkie Brooks - saved
Well this is rather fun, a bit of retro (even for 1977) boogie woogie. Nowadays you can see this sort of thing every week on Jools Holland's show but back then it must have seemed quite unusual. Elkie screeching partway through the song though is rather terrifying.

Noel loves it, even getting the audience to cheer again. It was good but not that good Noel. No punk this week but something perhaps even more odd...

The Muppets - halfway down the stairs
A green frog (not Kermit but Robin) sings sadly halfway up the stairs. It isn't up or down or something. It is actually is rather odd but a good odd, kinda.

The Four Seasons - rhapsody
Frankie Valli is here but not in a matching suit with the rest of the band to show that he is the star yeah? The song itself is a bit formless like they've mixed several other bits of song together (and the whole is not really greater than the sum of the parts in this case), it doesn't half have an album filler feel about it.

Twiggy - a woman in love
Twiggy's country song from last year was a surprise (as in it was pretty good), and this is more of the same.

Jesse Green - come with me
Noel makes some strange comment about Jesse's name which falls flatter than week old cola, nice song and nice wide brimmed hat too.

Marvin Gaye's "got to give it up" is presented by Legs & Co who definitely fulfil their "something for the Dads" brief by gyrating in swimsuits on stage with some sexy silhouettes.

Carol Bayer Sager - you're moving out today
Carol's lovely kooky performance from a few weeks ago.

The Strawbs - back in the old routine
Some kind of genial country rock, can't really say this week's show is a vintage one. Anytime Twiggy's song is probably the best on the show you know you are in trouble.

Noel interviews the Alessi brothers and we go into the number one which Noel calls "fabulous" but surely its:

Rod Stewart - the first cut is the deepest
Same footage again, noticed though for the first time how dead Rod's eyes are while he is singing it. Even he is bored of this song!

MV : "Heaven can wait" by Tender Objects

Downdime - satellite distortions (Dufflecoat)

Harder than much of what Dufflecoat Records releases but in my opinion one of their best releases yet. Leeds' Downdime produce exhilarating indie noise pop such as on the driving "Satellite distortions" with its amazing chorus, losing you in a sea of fuzz noise. Other highlights include "Carousel" which has a cute twee beat along with the psychedelic noise. "Catapult your arms" has a rollicking beat and essential pop noise melody, exploding with energy.

This is all just the warm-up though, "Run across the Sun" is a masterpiece, a beautiful track that takes us on a layered sonic journey through noise, pop melodies, power and er... more noise. One of the best songs you'll hear this year, or maybe any year and thats no distortion (sorry).

Available soon on Dufflecoat Records.