Kicker - Don't You Listen (to What's His Face)

From Our Wild Mercury Years from 2006. Kicker were one of the bands on the Comet Gain family tree, and to my ears their main distinguishing feature, at least on this album, was the focus of their '80s retroism. There's little C86 here; instead the bands they remind me of are the ones a couple steps closer to the mainstream of alternative pop (or whatever it was called back then) - think of people like the Lilac Time, Lloyd Cole and I even hear Fairground Attraction in spots. It's not really my favourite thing that the personnel involved have ever done, but it has its moments.