Various - Sound of Leamington Spa (Vol 3)

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 4 / 9 / 2003

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So, here we are – one and a half years after the release of the second volume of the great 'The Sound Of Leamington Spa' – and the third one has just been made available from the manufacturers in Germany. As you might have guessed, this is where we get even more of that delicious, obscure guitar pop that made England so great during the glorious 80’s. And just as with the second volume, there are not many songs that you can hum along to when listening to the record for the first time. When I browsed through the play list, I recognised the names of four bands, and had only heard a song by two of them. So, I was in for a great treat when I popped the CD into my CD-player. Or so I thought… Well, don’t get me wrong now, because this is one good collection of songs. Make no mistake about that! But when listening to it all, you can hear that we are getting deeper and deeper down into obscurity. Most of the bands featured here only released a single or two, and didn’t get famous in any way, and in some cases there’s a reason for this. They just aren’t good enough. On the other hand, there are some bands here that surely deserved a better destiny than the one they received. I can almost guarantee that you have never heard of the band Me and Dean Martin. Right? Well, you should have, because their song here, 'Me and My Paisley Shirt' is a really good one. But maybe you have heard of bands like 1000 Violins and Snowbirds? If not, you definitely should have! They were the only two bands I had heard in advance, and they also appear to have the two best ones on this compilation too. Even though I admire the hard work behind these records (especially the great, informative booklet!), I also hope that this will be the last in the series. Looking back, I now realise that the first volume was a fantastic compilation, and the second one was also very good, but not as good as the first one. And now the third volume is also very good, but not as good as the first one, and maybe not even as good as the second one. Are you following me here? That said, I really think though this is a good investment if you are into 80’s jangle pop. And aren’t we all ?

Track Listing:-

1 Candidates : Sound of Summer,
2 Pure : Aspidistra,
3 Accrington Stanley : The New Me,
4 Morrisons : Listen to Your Heart,
5 1000 Violins : Start Digging My Grave Sugar,
6 Bloody Marys : Stain,
7 Me and Dean Martin : Me And My Paisley Shirt,
8 Bounce the Mouse : Will You Ever Say,
9 Exit 13 : Perfect Dream,
10 Waving At Trains : Sylvie,
11 Thin Gypsy Thieves : Perfection,
12 Passengers : Sometimes,
13 Snowbirds : Motorcycle Baby,
14 Deddingtons : The Last Day,
15 C Saim : Give and Take,
16 Onionhead : It Comes Around,
17 Honeytrap : Peace in a Picture,
18 Chairs : Brave Little Soldier,
19 Irregulars : Against the grain of my Life,
20 Chalk Giants : Pushing Gary Down

Label Links:-

http://www.firestation-records.de/
https://www.facebook.com/firestationrecords
https://www.youtube.com/user/FirestationRecords/videos

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