Although W&H have been screaming the virtues of THE NEEDLES' magnificent, drilled-as-fuck, new wave/ power pop sounds for what seems like decades now, most of the great unwashed still remain reluctant to embrace their brilliance en masse.
S'alright, say Dave Dixon and his cohorts. They'll get it sooner or later, so let's hit 'em with another perfectly-aligned, pin-pulled'n'primed three-minute grenade and knock out further defences. If we keep plugging away they'll capitulate eventually. And so they (meaning 'we') should, as 'Girl I Used to Know' and its' attendant tracks (bear this part in mind as we'll be returning to it shortly) make like yet another nigh-on perfect three-track offering from the finest Aberdonians-cum-Glaswegians doing the rounds out there at present.
'Girl I Used To Know' will surely be hugely familiar to those of you (and I'll be counting, that show of hands had better be impressive now) who took the sensible option and succumbed to The Needles splendid 'In Search Of The Needles' debut. This version has been nominally re-mixed for single release and while you do notice the improved clarity, the pin-sharp drum sound and the elevation of Dixon's ultra-charismatic young Costello-via-Joe Jackson vocals in the mix, what's far more important is that this time it ought to be heard blaring from radio stations up and down the land. So get your fingers out, right?
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Track 2 is another 'New! Improved!' mix of an album fave, the frenetic'n'tense 'Dead Or Alive', but the immediacy, urgency and irresistibility are still carefully bottled and again the tune benefits from its' punchy re-tooling. The one thing that floors me, though, is the appearance of new tune 'Only If You Want Me To' as the third track, ostensibly to make up the numbers. Not because it's remotely below par, mind, it's the exact opposite: in fact to these ears its' piano-fuelled 'My Aim Is True'-style bittersweet romanticism and chorus to wipe out London boroughs for is arguably the greatest song they've (as yet) laid down.
One can only marvel as to why the shaggin' hell it's tucked away here where probably not that many will hear it. Is this a typically cavalier gesture from a band confident thay have another 20 of this variety tucked up their collective sleeves or simple foolhardiness? On the evidence presented thus far, you'd think twice about dismissing the former option too quickly, I can tell you.
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