So here are three recent(ish) arrivals. First there is the long-awaited and eagerly anticipated 7” from Alpaca Sports. Dare I say it disappointed me slightly? I so wanted it to be perfect. But that sleeve... it’s really just not my thing. It makes Alpaca Sports seem twee, where really they are so much classier and stylish than that. In my head the single was sleeved like the glorious Boat Club single I snuck out on ‘i wish i was unpopular’ way back. Something bright and smooth. Glistening. Instead we get...
Of course I do not want to be mean to the artists, but whilst I know it is all a matter of taste, such things matter more than you realise. Illustration is such a difficult art. If it had been, say, a Wendy Smith drawing it would have fitted. Perhaps we should run a ‘design a new Alpaca Sports 7” sleeve’ contest? Actually the poster-frame still from the video would have been pretty fine. Still, it sounds glorious of course. Isn’t that all that matters? Ah, if only, if only... Anyway, regardless of whether you like the sleeve or not, it would appear that if you had not already ordered a copy of the 7" you are already too late. It is still available as a digital release of course.
The 10” is one I had ordered at the same time as the Alpaca Sports, and is the ‘Sorry’ EP by My Darling YOU! I had this as a digital release for some time but it had escaped me that it was on a 10” vinyl format too. When I saw that, I had to have it. Well, these things happen...
And the Just Joans album? I admit that I thought I did not like Just Joans. Indeed, just to be sure, I went back and listened to some older recordings. I was right.
So what happened? What makes me think now that ‘Buckfast Bottles In The Rain’ is a minor classic? After all, most (all?) of these songs are new recordings of tunes released some years ago. What makes them more palatable now? Perhaps it is the fact that the new recordings are simply more proficiently played and better produced (though that would perhaps be over-stating the case somewhat...)? Perhaps too it is the context in which they sit - a ‘concept’ album telling tales of those years spanning the end of school and the first years of university (the vinyl album makes this even more obvious, with a side for each set of songs). There is, after all, something very poignant about those times, particularly for old timers reminiscing. And if the details or time and place are hardly the same (mid ‘90s, Lanarkshire) then the ideas (parties in a friend’s house when parent’s are away; the delicious boredom of endless summers; the awkward growing away and apart from old friends) are timeless and universal. Indeed, the three songs that capture those moments (album opener ‘Coia’s Empty’, side one closer ‘East Kilbride (All Summer Long)’ and album finale ‘What Do We Do Now’) are for me the brightest gems in the box; each one sublimely suffused with just the right amount of cheap cider, stolen perfume and evening sunsets.