Thursday, April 16, 2009

McCarthy


McCarthy - Red Sleeping Beauty, 1986

McCarthy was Tim Gane's band before Stereolab, and I feel like there are slight hints of what was to come with Stereolab's sounds; The intro is long, the background vocals and instrumentations are compelling, and the song is practically perfect... the instruments and voices are just different. I really don't know much about them, but upon stumbling across this track, I think I am in love. This was their second single and it's so jangly and progressive; Pale Saints sounded a lot like this 4 years later.

The sounds and fairytale lyrics mixed with the singer's dreamy voice produces romantic and beautiful feelings. I always like a bit of romance in what I listen to. Wikipedia says, "The song is believed to have been written as a protest to the Margaret Thatcher government." Interesting. I must own their records. It's a new mission in life.

Although this song came 20 years later, the wacky background vocals that go "ah uh ah uh ah uh ah uh" remind me of Stereolab's "Kyberneticka Babicka".

I love the album cover.

1 comment:

David Lawrence said...

glad you picked up on the Pale Saints similarity on this song. their other songs don't seem like such a huge influence on the Pale Saints as Red Sleeping Beauty. I don't doubt the Thatcher reference in their lyrics as McCarthy are certainly the most political pop group I've ever heard. Good luck finding their records! they're hiding from me...