Although rather easier on the little grey cells after the brain-flaying melodrama of THE SCARAMANGA SIX, BEING 747 are no less tempting a proposition as this debut 4-track single admirably – if more slightly subtly – proves.
Actually, BEING 747 have claws in THE SCARAMANGA SIX camp, too, as their line-up also features the Morricone brothers doing frenetic juggling acts between keyboards, bass and drums to augment undisputed leader/singer/ songwriter DAVE COOKE.
“Weathergirl” itself kicks off and is both immediate and quite lovely. Samples of thunder and lightning frame teardrop vibrato guitar and an easy skanking rhythm with a full-blooded organ supporting Cooke on the chorus. Wow. Wonder if this ever made the earth move for SVEN and ULRIKA folks?
“Mind Of A 12-Year Old” comes next. Janglesome and familiar, it has definite echoes of BENNY PROFANE’S “Man On The Sauce” (delve into your Scouse pop yearbook), with the off-beat keyboard whooshes easing it into a swinging chorus and overall it’s a winning mix of innocence and cynicism.
The final tracks, “Use Your Friends” and – especially – “Lover No.1” are rather more souped –up. “Use Your Friends” has echoes of both PULP and BABY BIRD’S Steven Jones and the great chorus: “Chew them, use them, spit them out!” rattles around for ages afterwards. An ambitious fucker’s anthem if ever there was.
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“Lover No.1” is BEING 747 at their least civilised. Again, there are enticing vibrato guitars and a ”Nuggets”- style beat group atmosphere, only for this to be dashed by the grunge-y maelstrom of the chorus.
Unclassifiable and (stretching a point) “quirky”, BEING 747 may become all things to all people, but as the old Chinese proverb your reviewer’s just coined says, it’s a foolish man who walks backwards into the cave of the snow cat, so don’t dare take your eyes off this lot either.
Like a meteor cannoning into a mountainside, you could say WRATH Records have arrived.
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