Tompaulin - Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 28 / 3 / 2004

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Review

'Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt' is Tompaulin's second album and collects together all the tracks from the band's singles to date that they still own the rights to. It bypasses the 'My Life at the Movies' single, but includes 'North' from that disc. The CD opens up with 'Slender' from the vinyl version of their second release, the 'Carcrash EP', and is one of Tompaulin's finest moments. 'Slender' starts off slowly with frontman Jamie Holman starting off on vocal duties, before his co-singer Stacey McKenna carries on. Within two and a half minutes this easily becomes the best thing since the Velvet Underground. 'It's a Girl's World', the title track of their third single, is a duet between Jamie and Stacey . It is a more mellow affair and is as perky as a Sunday morning. "North' is a happy little bunny of a number and is as joyful as a teenager's first kiss 'Second Rate Republic, which also appeared on 'It's a Girl's World, is soft and acoustic, as is 'Wedding Song', the B side of their first record 'Ballad of the Bootboys'. 'Swing Low Stuart' appeared on their last single "Give Me a Riot in the Summertime' which came out in 2001. It is a cool baby of a track with perfect drums, deep bass and understated guitar and a sexual tale to go over the top. It is sung beautifully by Stacey and then two minutes in becomes instrumental and experimental in the vein of the Velvets' 'Sister Ray'. This is followed by 'The Ballad of the Boot Boys', a tale of life in the band's home town of Blackburn. Again, this is acoustic based with a pleasant Velvets jangle. Released originally on vinyl, it appears here for the first time on CD. 'Them vs Us', which appeared on the CD version of the 'Carcrash EP', is a perfect marriage of voices and instruments. While sounding very much like something from the 60's, it is also very much of the new century and is once more very cool. 'The Sadness of Things' from 'Give Me a Riot...' is an anthem for the bedsit generation, while 'My Perfect Girlfriend (Demo)' from 'It's a Girl's World' sounds as basic as basic can get, with the only words being "Debbie Harry" shouted over and over again by Stacey and the instruments sounding like the Cure did in '77. 'My Life as a Car Crash' from the 'Carcrash' EP is a wonderful piece of songwriting going slow, fast, slow, fast, slow and being perfectly formed. The album ends with the fab piece of songwriting that is 'Give Me a Riot in the Summertime'. Tompaulin are currently working on a third album, provisionally entitled 'In the Black', which will be out later this year. For anyone who missed Tompaulin first time around, 'Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt', however, is a very good place to start

Track Listing:-

1 Slender
2 It's A Girl's World
3 North
4 Second Rate Republic (Demo)
5 Wedding Song
6 Swing Low Stuart
7 Ballad Of The Bootboys
8 Them Vs Us
9 The Sadness Of Things
10 My Perfect Girlfriend (Demo)
11 My Life As A Car Crash
12 Give Me A Riot In The Summertime
13 VIdeo-1 Slender
14 VIdeo-2 It's A Girls World