Shirley Lee - Dissolving Girl

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 7 / 7 / 2009

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Review

Shirley Lee is the solo offshoot for those songs of the Spearmint lead singer that he deemed too personal for release within his full band. Here, we get two tracks from the album, and a bonus track. In the good old days (ahh…) this would be a double A-side with a B-side, but as this is a download only affair, the correct terminology escapes me. Before we go on with the review, I will observe this - there are currently two male members of Parliament who have girls' names (Environment Secretary Hilary Benn and Labour backbencher Lindsey Hoyle), but as far as I know Shirley Lee is the only such-afflicted indie band member. Further suggestions on a postcard, please… Anyway, back to business. 'Spiralina Girl’ is worth its 69p and more, a delicious pop song which captures, which a neat tint of irony, the slight absurdity of teenage love affairs alongside the excitement. As someone who has, up to this moment, lived entirely unaware of either Spearmint or Shirley Lee, this makes me wonder what I have been missing. Its fellow album track, ‘Dissolving Time’ rattled on nicely, with some fuzzy keyboards setting the tone. I, however, suspect that this one would have been better off left as part of the album, because it never quite catches fire like its partner. Meanwhile, there were probably good reasons for leaving the bonus track, ’Restless Soul’ off the album - catchy it is, but a stream of expletives don’t leave any positive impressions. If you really must hear someone say ‘cunt’ over and over again, maybe it’ll be up your street. I’d recommend the album, on the strength of this, and yet this single seems surplus to requirements.

Track Listing:-

1 Dissolving Time
2 Spiralina Girl
3 Restless Soul