"And Guess What I Found..." Part 3: 61-70

 

Very little disagreement last week again, although I suspect there'll be more later on...

Anyway, let's plough on!

70 Au Pair

(B-side of Kerry Kerry, 1998)

The Cinerama years might have seen David broaden his musical approach, but the lyrics continued to plough a familiar furrow relating to jealousy and infidelity. 'Au Pair' is a predictably sordid little tale of a middle-aged man's dalliance with the home help, replete with some of his trademark dodgy rhymes: 'silky' and 'guilty' and - ironically - 'corny' and 'horny'. 

It's a breezy little tune, featuring some nifty guitar arpeggios, nicely melodic piano and trumpet parts and a deft spot of wah-wah, but overall it's a rather slight concoction.

69 London

(B-side of Manhattan, 2000)

A cover of a Smiths b-side (of 'Shoplifters of the World Unite') that slows the frantic original down to an almost soporific pace. It's rescued from being a dirge by the sweetness of the intertwined vocals and the random interjections of radio static and mysterious voices, taken from the short-wave recordings of the Conet Project. 

68 Mars Sparkles Down On Me

(John Peel Sessions: Season 3, 2007)

A decent enough if unspectacular DLG tune; this version is marginally preferable to the TWP one because of its relative sparseness and sharpness that suits the song pretty well. I still don't understand how Mars might 'sparkle' though.

67 This Isn't What It Looks Like

(B-side of Careless, 2002)

A solid if unspectacular b-side. It's a rather predictable tale of (denied) infidelity with some seriously clunky lyrics: 'I know she's got a model's face / and she walks with poise and grace / but that's not why she's in our flat'; 'I didn't notice that her blouse had come undone / I didn't ask her round for fun'.

The classical guitar and trumpet work nicely enough and the up tempo sections are vaguely rousing, but the melody is a little pedestrian.

66 Mystery Date

(Valentina, 2015)

A rare occasion when a Valentina arrangement suits the song; this reimagining of 'Mystery Date' as a heart-wrenching piano ballad generally works well, and the coda (featuring dialogue by Muni Loco aka Muni Camón) is a nice touch.

The piano is by José Ramón Feito, who was the driving force behind the creation of the Cinerama Valentina.

65 As If

(B-side of Quick, Before It Melts, 2002)

Straightforward piece of relatively poppy jangle (with shards of gnarly, distorted guitar thrown in from time to time) that builds impressively in the final third. 'His skin has touched your skin / he's seen your secret grin' is about as Gedge-like as any opening line gets; 'cause you had sex for goodness sake' is strangely hilarious; rhyming 'scrappy' with 'happy' is touchingly daft. A song to be fond of, if not rave about.

64 Swim

(B-side of Health and Efficiency, 2001)

An agreeably taut and energetic tune, albeit one where David basically recycles the 'let's go skinny dipping - go on, your boyfriend will never find out' lyric from 'Skin Diving'.

63 Stop Thief

(Valentina, 2015)

For my money the second best track on the ill-advised Valentina. I placed the original resolutely mid-table in Suddenly It's Tuesday, praising its mesmerising melody and the emotion DLG expressed in his vocal, but criticising the awkwardly hesitant closing passage.

Here, the relatively unfussy arrangement actually elevates this version above the original, the swirling strings matching the emotive melody well. The banjo is a nice touch too, broadening the palette of an album otherwise overly awash with strings and horns. 

62 Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

(B-side of Kerry Kerry, 1998)

'Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' (the phrase came from an Italian journalist's description of James Bond) by Shirley Bassey was originally intended to be the main theme to the 1965 Bond film Thunderball.  The producers then decided to use a re-recorded version by Dionne Warwick, but Bassey threatened to sue and in the end neither were used and the song was replaced by Tom Jones' 'Thunderball' (during the recording of which Jones apparently fainted after holding the final note at 2:26). Johnny Cash also submitted a song called 'Thunderball' but it was rejected.

This is all circumstantial, of course, as the Cinerama track is a Gedge original and not a cover of any of the above, but given the whole Cinerama ethos you can certainly see why he was attracted to the title. We're on familiar DLG territory with the lyric ('if she finds out that I've been underhand'), although 'you're just the female version of me' is an intriguing line.

Although the song overall is a little lightweight, it's a strong melody and Sally's breathy backing vocal blends effectively with David's lead. It's easy to forget the overall strength of the Cinerama back catalogue, and it's notable that, only about a quarter of the way through the list, we're already on to some pretty strong material.

61 Hate

(Va Va Voom, 1998)

Cinerama's debut album was short on noisy guitar crescendos, but filled with carefully delicate arrangements and lovely melodies. Although 'Hate' is not exactly a stand-out track, it's still a tidy little number, guided by a gentle marimba refrain and embellished with reserved strings, dabs of slide guitar and the odd tasteful splash of Hammond organ.

It's an intriguing lyric too, the rather embittered words (' I hate your style / and your smile /  and I regret / that almost everything about you makes me wish that we'd never met') forming an effective counterpoint to the overall atmosphere of genteel melodicism.

I'll sign off this week with a little self-promotion: if any of you are Fall fans, then I do a weekly radio show featuring Fall and Fall-related music that you can find here.

See you next Wednesday!

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