Nivens - From A Northumbrian Mining Village Comes The Sound

  by Dixie Ernill

published: 18 / 5 / 2006

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Review

Those workaholics at Berlin’s Firestation Records have come up trumps again in their mission to ensure that every English jingle-jangle pop band from the mid-80's enjoys a second spell in the limelight. This time it’s the North East’s Nivens that are given the opportunity to have their entire recorded output neatly packaged onto one handy CD and in the main they do it justice. Like a cross between the jangle of vintage Brilliant Corners and Postcard-era Orange Juice, but with a distinctive vocal that leaves the listener in no doubt as to the bands roots, Nivens (originally the Nivens) were typical of so many provincial bands formed in the 1980s. Of the 19 tracks included here, it’s the ones that were released at the time that stand out, but only because of the slightly better sound quality than the demos. 'Beautiful', the lead track on the 'Dialect Drug' EP, still sounds ace 17 years on and other gems, such as 'Let Loose Of My Knee' (their debut release), 'Yesterday' and 'Northumberland', have also aged rather well. Of the demos, 'Tidal Waves', 'San Francisco' and 'Judy Garland' are probably the pick and would all have been worthy of single release, which may have been a possibility if the legal threat from another, supposedly more high profile, the Nivens (from Norwich) had not brought a premature end to the band.   There are rumours that Nivens will reform for a few ‘memory lane’ gigs. I for one will be keen to see them if it happens. They may not be a national treasure, but Nivens are like finding a fiver rather than a ball of fluff down the back of the sofa and that is a decent result.

Track Listing:-

1 Yesterday
2 I Hope You'll Always Be My Friend
3 Tidal Waves
4 Tales From A Dufflebag
5 Christine Norden
6 It's True
7 Summertime
8 San Fransisco
9 Judy Garland
10 Let Loose Of My Knee
11 Sweet Adolescent
12 Room Without A View
13 Beautiful
14 The Necessity For Spastics In 20th Century Culture
15 Northumberland
16 I Love Me
17 Sweet Adolescent (Wah Wah Remix)
18 I Love Me (TV Mix)
19 It's True (Outro)