Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Three O'Clock - Seeing Is Believing

If you were hoping for something a bit more Irish today, forget it. I find St Patrick's Day an absolutely loathsome holiday, and always spend it hiding indoors from the drunken mobs that terrorise the city centre. And I don't mean the American tourists in leprechaun hats.

So here's something a bit cheerier instead. I've posted a number of Three O'Clock songs but it seems I've skipped over their first full-length album, Sixteen Tambourines. Released in 1983, it marks the point at which the Three O'Clock finally and firmly rejected their punk origins, instead opting for winsome psychedelic pop that could be placed as easily in the children's as in the indie section of your local music store (well, maybe not "A Day in Erotica").

I actually think of this album as twee before "twee" existed. It's a bit more slickly produced than you usually get in that genre. So, hi-fi twee, maybe. It's still a record that any self-respecting tweehead should own.

This is my favourite track on the album, mainly because the chorus sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it. Still.

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