The Darling Buds were part of a strange indie phenomenon in the late 1980’s – guitar bands with blonde female lead singers (along with The Primitives & Transvision Vamp). Originally from South Wales, the band released one self-financed single and was picked up by indie label Native. After two further singles they were signed by Sony imprint Epic and in the January 1989 released their debut long-player “Pop Said” which reached No 23 in the National album charts. The album contains the four hit singles ‘Let’s Go Round There’, ‘Burst’, ‘Hit The Ground’ and ‘You’ve Got To Choose’.
Better late than never, this album has managed to win me over lately, and give me a sugar high not unlike ingesting cotton candy and candy apples at the summer fair. The Darling Buds' first studio LP is a potent mix of Blondie and Velocity Girl. Not as streetwise as the former but rougher than the latter, it's a solid collection of 12 straight-ahead pop-punk songs, some of which were re-worked and glossed up from earlier EPs released on the Native label. I definitely hear the influence of shambolic, C86 indie pop bands like Talulah Gosh and The Flatmates. It's not earth shattering, and the relentlessly upbeat nature throughout could be better taken in moderation, but the excellent performance from this Welsh group makes for a fine debut. But this stands apart due to the slick production, and general three chord simplicity of the songs. Singer Andrea Lewis' coy yet assertive phrasing on songs such as "Big Head" and "You've Got To Choose" send the overall mood into the pop bliss stratosphere. Rarely does a band sound this confident and focused on their first full-length.
Better late than never, this album has managed to win me over lately, and give me a sugar high not unlike ingesting cotton candy and candy apples at the summer fair. The Darling Buds' first studio LP is a potent mix of Blondie and Velocity Girl. Not as streetwise as the former but rougher than the latter, it's a solid collection of 12 straight-ahead pop-punk songs, some of which were re-worked and glossed up from earlier EPs released on the Native label. I definitely hear the influence of shambolic, C86 indie pop bands like Talulah Gosh and The Flatmates. It's not earth shattering, and the relentlessly upbeat nature throughout could be better taken in moderation, but the excellent performance from this Welsh group makes for a fine debut. But this stands apart due to the slick production, and general three chord simplicity of the songs. Singer Andrea Lewis' coy yet assertive phrasing on songs such as "Big Head" and "You've Got To Choose" send the overall mood into the pop bliss stratosphere. Rarely does a band sound this confident and focused on their first full-length.
