Calvin Party - Godard's Girlfriend

  by Maarten Schiethart

published: 5 / 4 / 2008

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It's been well over four years since Calvin Party's third album, 'Never As Black', was released, but the wait has proved to be worth it. From their very manic start as Levellers 5 - who released two albums and, to avoid any confusion were told to drop the name - their sound has developed into a refined, streamlined type of pop music where twists and turns come naturally. Even the tracklisting appears as unorthodox when the second track to 'kick' in, is a wonderful ballad called 'Sleep On The Rug'. Any other band would have saved this till the end and would have stuffed half a dozen of so-so tracks in beforehand. Relationships are the theme for this string of little jewels of songs. Singer John Donaldson's reflections on those result in 13 tracks of near perfection. Yet when Calvin Party burst out on a wild rocker like 'Try', you'll hear the anger, clear and outspoken. Over a span of 18 years, only six albums have been released and on this most recent - 'Godard's Girlfriend' - the cohesion remains very lively. Gone are the lengthy Levellers 5 workouts from 1990, entered are sophisticated and touching compositions juxtaposing with thunderbolts of genuine Britpop. It must be remembered though that one of the very few extremely long tracks ever played by John Peel is their 'Springtime'. Calvin Party's craftmanship shows at these interchanges. In the world of Calvin Party the beauty and the beast make a happy couple. The vigour isn't waning at all, even after 18 years but indeed perhaps because they have 'just' released six albums. 'Godard's Girlfriend' is a trademark Probe Plus album. Produced without any further ado and, with intelligent yet not smug lyrics, these 13 tracks will tickle the primary senses; the words make great sense, the melodies continue to show new hooks and lines after repeated listens plus on top of this the band plays an immaculate set. In my book, Calvin Party is the only band to succesfully merge art rock with pub rock. So, to help out BBC Radio 1, this CD features two tracks that go into class A, seven go into class B and four become class C playlist tracks. 'Godard's Girlfriend' ought to be the numero uno on the media brainwash list.

Track Listing:-

1 History Girl
2 Sleep On The Rug
3 Just Keep Falling
4 Best Friend
5 Try
6 Godard's Girlfriend
7 Broken Flowers
8 Hey Nothing
9 Veronicas Song
10 Come On In
11 Shes Not There
12 Well Hell
13 Loss And Gain

Label Links:-

http://www.probeplus-store.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Probe-Plus-Records-282266208481556
http://www.probe-plus.co.uk/

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