Various - A Boy a Girl and a Rendez-vous

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

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Review

American label Red Roses For Me usually puts out fanzines, but now they have put together a compilation CD of twee-pop from around the globe, and as usual with these kinds of compilations (and to be honest, every kind of compilation) the results are quite varied. Some of fifteen bands included here are new to me, and some are old friends. And I must say some of these new talents are quite good. The Dudley Corporation's 'Swanniesong' is a nice mid-tempo tune, and also Bart & Friends (featuring Cat's Miaow member Bart and Mark Monnone from Lucksmiths on drums!) offers a great song in 'Tokyo'. I really can't hate a song that is a mere one minute long. More songs should be that short. Also among the other "new" bands that sounds interesting are Tree Fort Angel, a band that sound like they're from Germany, but I guess they're not. Apparently, they don't exist anymore, and one member has formed The Saturday People, who have recently released a split single with The Clientele on Slumberland. Anyway, this song, 'Hope', sounds great, so maybe I will check out the retrospective album put out by Bus Stop. But as I said, not all the bands are that good, and I should mention those too. Callow and Lovejoy both play melancholic pop music, and the latter are not very far from Blueboy (and their name sounds like Blueboy as well…). I have heard that Keith from that band likes them, so I guess if you like Blueboy, maybe Lovejoy is perhaps up your alley. I don't hate this, absolutely not, but it just doesn't light my fire. The Jordans' jazz-folk acoustic song isn't that great either. That can also be said also about Aberdeen, who cover Biff Bang Pow!s 'She Never Understood' and make it sound like a Sonic Youth number and The Zambonis, who tries to make a "sing-along-in-the-pub"-song, with their 'Great Zamboni Of Devotion' I don't think, however, that they do it very well. The only good beer drinking song ever made in the world of twee-pop is 'Beer Nut', which can be found on The Lucksmiths' album 'Happy Secret'. And that's a fact! Now we move on to my "old friends", as I called them in the beginning of this review. The Aislers Set kicks off the compilation with their lovely 'Hit The Snow', which can be found on their brilliant album 'The Last Match'. Buy that if you haven't already. The song even has handclaps, which is something that often melts my heart. The one man band White Town also contribute a nice song, entitled 'She Left For Paris'. You can hear this is the same man that had a world-wide hit some years ago with 'Your Woman', which is also a great song. Watoo Watoo, The Sugargliders and The Arrogants all contributes songs that are okay, but not much more. And finally, we have The Lucksmiths. As you may have noticed in my review of their 'North American Summer 2001' 7" single , which also appears in this issue of Pennyblack Magazine, I am big fan of this trio, but I was actually a bit confused when I first heard , 'Mars', their contribution here What had happened to Tali White's voice? Had they begun experimenting with vocoders? Of course I was wrong. Some days later, I read in a Candle Records newsletter that Tali recorded his vocals over the phone from London, and as most of us know, the telephone doesn't make the best sound quality in the world, especially if you phone from London to Australia. The song is quite good, anyway, but it's a bit too long (almost five minutes). But I can't give the Lucksmiths bad reviews though. So, to sum it all up, this is a good compilation, and I think it's really worth the money it costs. But the best song of all, the Aislers Set one, can be found on another album, which is even better. Enough said about that though. If you're still not sure if to buy this or not, check out the label's website, where you can download MP3 samples from all songs. The address? www.redrosesforme.com.

Track Listing:-

1 The Aislers Set - Hit The Snow
2 The Dudley Corporation - Swanniesong
3 Callow - Lessons In Shut Eye
4 White Town - She Left For Paris
5 Watoo Watoo - Picture of a Lost Friend
6 The Sugargliders - Surprised
7 Lovejoy - Live Alone Forever
8 Bart and Friends - Tokyo
9 The Windmills - Bad Luck Charm
10 The Jordans - Bus
11 Aberdeen - She Never Understood
12 Tree Fort Angst - Hope
13 The Zambonis - Great Zamboni of Devotion
14 The Arrogants - Nothing Good Will Ever Come of Thi
15 The Lucksmiths - Mars