“There is a light and it never goes out” sang perennial indie crooner Morrissey. He obviously has never been into my kitchen. There are six halogen spotlights, of which at any given time at least two will not be working. I suppose there are other factors that would also make it obvious that Morrissey has never been into my kitchen. However, I did meet him once. Actually, that’s not strictly true: I stood next to him in Tower Records whilst he looked at Bobby Vee CDs in 1996. Whatever the story, there’s always two ways to spin it, and it’s usually better to look at the brighter side of the coin. Here’s an optimistic top nine for the indie aficionado. I have no doubts that you’ll be able to suggest several options to make it ten.
George Michael had ‘Faith’, Geldof and Ure had Charity. The House of Love gave us ‘Hope’. Taken from their lauded, self-titled first album (the one on Creation Records), this is classic 1980s indie pop at its best. I reckon they lost their way after their third self-titled album (the one often known as ‘Babe Rainbow’, but on their recent reformation-line-up albums they still show glimpses of the genius of old.
Another band rising to fame in the late 1980s were The Wedding Present. Tales of love and loss played over three chords – usually A, D and G from what I worked out as an adolescent – fast and furiously became their speciality. It must have taken a fair amount of positive thinking to convince their record label that they could match Elvis Presley, but by featuring in the Top 40 over 12 consecutive months with a different song each time they emulated ‘The King’. They left their label not long afterwards, but didn’t give up. Although a few years later they did give ‘Up’: a great b-side from their Cooking Vinyl years.
I reckon Lee Mavers, songwriting force behind The La’s, has got the music business sussed, and die-hard fans of the band must be amongst the most optimistic people in the world, still hoping for that occasionally-promised second album. But Mavers is canny: write one great album, express dissatisfaction with it, threaten to rerecord it, sporadically assemble musicians to perform a gig or two, dangle some unrecorded songs to the world, and live off the royalties of several ‘new’ releases of the same songs. What a ‘Feelin’’ that must be.
There’s nothing that can lift the spirits more than a bit of time to do what you want to do. Even if that means doing nothing. I love the Trash Can Sinatras, and they have soundtracked many an idling minute for me. When their label Go! Discs was swallowed up by Mercury in 1996 they found themselves homeless with too much spare time and too little to do. Unfortunately they appeared to do even less than very little for eight years before their next album, the gorgeous ‘Weightlifting’ was released. From that album, here’s the wonderfully uplifting ‘Freetime’.
When The Beatles sang ‘I read the news today, oh boy…’ I reckon they had it about right. My youngest son screams in (I think) mock horror every time Boris Johnson appears on TV. When I was younger the sight of Maggie Thatcher had the same effect on me. It was hard being northern and working class in those days, but the hopeful sentiments of McCarthy’s ‘Red Sleeping Beauty’ ring true today just as they did then.
Some people take their spiritual uplifting from religion. Others get it from the joy of the world around them. As the band’s career seemed to be heading down the pan due to record label indifference back in the late 1980s,James’ Tim Booth was inspired to write ‘What For’ by a huge flock of starlings dancing in the twilight of the Manchester. Both the song and the inspiration behind it never fail to cheer me up; whether you’ve heard it before or are hearing it for the first time, I hope you’ll agree.
Similarly hopeful is this track from New York’s Nightmare of You. Critically acclaimed when they first burst onto the ‘scene’, whichever scene that was, back in 2004, they came into prominence in my household thanks to inclusion on 2007’s FIFA PlayStation game. Since then their musical workrate makes The Trash Can Sinatras look prolific. ‘Someday but not today’ is taken from their second and most recent album, released in 2008. No video for this I’m afraid, but click on the link to the song. It will be worth it, I’m sure. Listen here.
“You’ll desert me like the others/ You’re irresistible I insist/ Our love may not be perfect/ But then whatever is” sang the old romantic Davey Woodward on The Brilliant Corners’ 1990 album ‘Hooked’. From politics to poverty, there is always a rose at the end of every stem of thorns. That doesn’t mean I can always see it, of course, and I’m sure my alleged Celtic ancestry means my default position is to see the cloud not the silver lining. ‘Positively Lips’ is a hidden indie gem, and those who like it could do worse than to see The Brilliant Corners in their last ever gigs this year.
And if none of the above have raised your spirits, then I challenge you to listen to this last song and not feel even a tiny bit better than you did before. Even As We Speak hailed from Australia and their UK releases were given a home by Sarah Records. ‘Beautiful Day’ was their third single, released in 1992, and what a belter it is.
So there we have it: the first nine of the Top 10. Over to you for the last one.
Go on, I know you can do it!
John Hartley
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