Shirley Lee - Shirley Lee

  by Dixie Ernill

published: 11 / 2 / 2009

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Cards on table, I’m a fan of London’s criminally undervalued Spearmint. Over the last dozen or so years they have been responsible for some quite brilliant records. Ranging from classic pop moments such as ‘We’re Going Out’, ‘Flaming Lips’ and ‘Sweeping The Nation’, to more considered offerings such as narratives ‘Mr Marsden’, ‘Last Bus Home’ and ‘Songs For The Colour Yellow’. Not forgetting the epic ‘First Time Music’ from their last LP. Accordingly, reviewing front man Shirley Lee’s debut solo offering should be a fairly enjoyable and straight forward affair. After all, it just going to be another Spearmint album, right? Wrong. Despite featuring various members of Spearmint in addition to Shirley Lee, this isn’t a Spearmint album. It is very much a Shirley Lee record. In the whole this album is not as immediate as previous Spearmint efforts, but it certainly grows over repeated listens and what it lacks in instant accessibly, it more than compensates in the starkly personal nature of the tracks. ‘Reservoir’ for example, is a gentle tribute to Shirley’s late father and almost the opposite to Glasvegas’ ‘Daddy’s Gone’, while ‘The First Time You Saw Snow’ recalls the time when Shirley’s girlfriend from New Zealand first experienced snow. It sounds better on CD than written down! There are a few songs that do sound like vintage Spearmint, such as ‘Smitten’, debut single, ‘The Smack Of Pavement In Your Face’ and ‘Upside Down On Brighton Beach’, but on the whole this record is more like a quieter cousin to Spearmint rather than a equally boisterous sibling. There is also a rather fine instrumental track midway through the LP, the charmingly titled, ‘London Ghost Stories’. That was to be the title of the LP too until Shirley changed his mind. But what’s in a name? This is still a solid collection of songs regardless of what banner it parades under.

Track Listing:-

1 upside down
2 dissolving time
3 spiraline girl
4 the lights change
5 come on feel the lemonheads
6 the smack of the pavement in your face
7 london ghost story
8 walked away
9 smitten
10 the first time you saw snow
11 the traffic in the street
12 the reservoir
13 the last song

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