From those crazy New Pop days when everyone was competing for the most startling transvaluation...
But you know what?
Dave McC (and Ross Middleton of the godawful Leisure Process) are right
The intro to "Too Shy" is gorgeous... And I thought that at the time.
(Both are way off in their counting, though - Ross says it's "the first ten seconds", Dave says it's fifteen - it's actually 45 seconds of delicious elasticated suspense).
There's an equally wonderful patch of airy-aqueous Level 42-aspiring fusion-cloaked-as-pop in the middle of "Too Shy", at around 2.16 minutes - misty curls of sustained guitar floating across the mix that could almost be John Martyn.
The song itself is promising: a subtle shimmy-shimmer through the verse, and even that odd "hey girl move a little closer" pre-chorus is enjoyably New Wave weird. But then all fizzles out with that rabbit-punch-feeble-chorus.
"Ooh To Be Ah" as pop James Joyce? A dare too far for me, but you have to salute the provocation
Lovely to see the former champion of Postcard turn against Orange Juice and Aztec Camera for their drift towards rockist orthodoxy...
Critics moved so fast those days, nothing stood in their way - values were provisional, metrics unstable, stances susceptible to reversal... whether through a major rethink or a skittish impetuous whim
