The latest releases reviewed.
MICRODISNEY Daunt Square to Elsewhere - Anthology 1982-88 Castle Music ****
There have been a few Irish bands over the years that should be, if not still with us, at least respected by anyone who claims to like terrific pop music. Cork's Microdisney were one such; driven by the twin efforts of vocalist/lyricist Cathal Coughlan and guitarist Sean O'Hagan, Microdisney left Cork for London in a (as it turned out) deluded effort to rid the world of bad pop music and replace it with good stuff. This the band did in the 1980s through albums as fine as The Clock Comes Down the Stairs, Crooked Mile and 39 Minutes. Over the course of a double album, we come to the conclusion that, following a rocky start, Microdisney mutated into a lyrically vituperative and quite subversive pop group. Bilious they might have been - shafted as they were by the music industry and their own self-lacerating disdain - but they were also quite brilliant. TONY CLAYTON-LEA
Download tracks: Town to Town, Mrs Simpson, Rack
VASHTI BUNYAN Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind Fatcat Records ****
Bunyan's progress as a 1960s pop/ folkie stalled soon after she began; in truth, she was one of many pretty, fragile and shy middle-class young girls dangerously attracted to the idea of hanging out with The Rolling Stones in Swinging London. But the reality seemed to frighten Vashti, and she quickly faded into the background from whence she came. Recently, though, her name has been mentioned in hazy dispatches from the freak-folk brigade, and this collection of singles and scratchy homemade demos suggests how brilliant Bunyan could have been, with a little luck and direction. The title track (a superb Jagger-Richards knock-off) is so 1960s Britpop it instantly transports the listener back to a time of black-and-white TV sets, Harold Wilson and Marmite; the remainder are simply some of the loveliest Britpop songs you'll hear this year. Or, for that matter, in 1966. www.fat-cat.co.uk TONY CLAYTON-LEA
Download tracks: Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind, Winter Is Blue, Go Before Dawn
