I can't believe I haven't posted anything yet from this album, one of my Top 5 or so of the 1990s. The Bardots' biggest claim to fame was, I think, a family tie between them and the only slightly less overlooked Adorable. I say this because the only people I know who ever heard of them were Adorable fans. I'm talking serious Adorable fans, the kind mad enough to seek out anything even tangentially related. Which explains why the Bardots were such a complete commercial non-entity. I mean, how many serious Adorable fans do you think there ever were?
And it's a real shame, because the Bardots had some truly fine songs on their debut and a whole album's worth on their follow-up/swan song V-Neck. Simon Dunford's voice reminds me a lot of Brett Anderson's, but he was a much more talented songwriter and V-Neck is full of sharp, introspective lyrics. I really think it's an incredibly accomplished record, and wonder what more they could have come up with if Simon hadn't taken early retirement from the music business. Sadly we'll never know.
They played a one-off reunion gig in their hometown of Norwich earlier this year, but it was impossible for me to get to. Fingers crossed for another.
No comments:
Post a Comment