Not probably a much remembered record. But the first Undertones album I bought. Their swansong when they'd pretty much outgrown the audience they grew up. They split shortly thereafter, largely as a result of its lack of commercial success, as well as a growing distance between Feargal Sharkey, their remarkable, warbling vocalist and the rest of the band. Still an LP with a thoughtful, introspective and beautifully crafted sound which I suspect has been unfairly, ignored, neglected or forgotten by most.
The Undertones were always a band slightly apart. Not least because they hailed from Derry, in Northern Ireland in the late seventies which was a world away from the London Punk scene which inspired their birth and gestation. They experienced first hand the height of the troubles but didn't much sing about them, at least explicitly as their whole reason for being was to escape from it to simpler, purer pleasures. They were one of the truly great pop bands.
Their early singles and albums had been joyous, melodic jewels brimful with the hormonal rush of teenage years. Songs about love and lust, Mars Bars, the pain of loss, the sheer rush of being alive and discovering the world for yourself for the first time. Blessed with the talents of three songwriters as well as the unique presence and gorgeous voice of Sharkey they sold no shortage of records and found an audience beyond UK shores as their package was by no means uniquely British, fired up as they had been in their early days by the classic sixties American garage sound.
But their horizons broadened as they overcame their spots as did their record collections and this was reflected in the sound of their albums which matured and for the main part became more introspective and thoughtful. To some extent I have my older brother to thank for turning my attention to them. For the most part our age difference indicated the changing of the guard that Britain was undergoing at the time between 1977 and 1982 the years I spent at secondary school.
I never took much to his Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin and Wishbone Ash albums. They spoke of a world I was never to become part of. Starting secondary school and witnessing bearded, impossibly grown up fifth years who in fact represented a vanishing world as all of this was taken to the sword and usurped by Punk and New Wave. But my brother did have the first Undertones album which he's since past on to me and I'm grateful. Listen to that record and then this one and it illustrates as well as anything the difference between being seventeen and twenty two.
As a young boy I was also intimidated by the extreme side of Punk, early representatives of which began to sprout up and multiply on the streets of Richmond in South West London where I grew up. The visual impact of the way these early convents dressed was fully designed not to be understood and slightly terrify the likes of me, products of loving middle class families brought up on my parents Frank Sinatra, Carpenters, ABBA and John Denver records. In 1977 I was far more interested in Bugsy Malone than The Sex Pistols.
As 1978 became 1979 however, bands like Buzzcocks, Undertones, Elvis Costello & The Attractions and Blondie began to make inroads into the charts and onto Top of the Pops. This was much more amenable to me and The Undertones in particular began to worm their way into my affections. Listening to their records now, it seems they rarely put a foot wrong.
By 1983, and the release of their fourth and last album, they'd lost their way commercially. Perhaps their audience wanted them to stay teenagers forever. But instead they'd discovered a new blue eyed soul sound, still poppy and immediately accessible, but decidedly grown up. The arrangements of the songs on The Sin of Pride invite the adjectives sophisticated and mature. They'd been listening to and taking notes from Smokey Robinson in particular. You couldn't choose a better tutor. Augmented by different instrumentation, arrangement and orchestration, it's an ambitious record that fitted well with the contemporary chart sounds of The Human League and ABC.
But these people were having Top 20 hits. The Undertones no longer were. I'd argue that this wasn't down to the quality of the records they released, The Love Parade sounds like a Top Ten single to me, but because they'd already had their time in the sun and the charts and seemed old hat by now. Their fanbase was moving on to pleasures new.
I think the core of this album and what makes it an unrecognised minor classic are the slower tracks where Sharkey's voice really connects and The Undertones reveal their maturing souls. Love Before Romance, Soul Seven and Save Me, are beautifully crafted songs. Elsewhere there are countless examples of the kind of thrilling guitar driven pop nous they'd already amply demonstrated over the preceding years and were merely in the process of refining.
The Undertones are now back on the road, without Sharkey, who probably sensibly decided that he didn't want to be in a field singing Teenage Kicks as he made his way through his fifties. I imagine they play very little from this record and that there's little call for it from a crowd reliving their youth through them and waiting for them to play Male Model one more time.
I think that's a shame though. Listen to these eleven songs. Perhaps the horn arrangements and soulful backing singers ground it in its time and place it slightly but the love it's crafted with doesn't date for a moment. Thoughtful lyrics, great vocals from Sharkey and the rest. Smartly produced by Mike Hedges and the band themselves. An excellent pop album. And like so many of the things I post on this blog a record that's properly recognised and remembered in a universe far from here!
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