Lazy Ways/Beach Party

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Lazy Ways/Beach Party album cover
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Total Tracks: 30   Total Length: 61:03

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Lucy O'Brien

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
The band that gave Tracey Thorn her start.
1981 | Label: Cherry Red Records / IODA

The Marine Girls were three Hertfordshire schoolgirls who recorded their first album, Beach Party, in the garden shed. Early tracks sound amateurish, with some work needed on the harmonies, but the blueprint was there for a new strand of soulful English girl-rock. Singer/guitarist Tracey Thorn went on to form Everything But the Girl with Ben Watt, and collaborate with Massive Attack, while sisters Alice and Jane Fox created ’80s band Grab Grab the Haddock with Lester Noel (Beats International). The sharpest tracks on this compilation, like “Love to Know” and “He Got the Girl,” foreground Thorn's distinctive, husky voice, with Jane Fox playing a soft Lou Reed-style pulse on bass, and her sister Alice adding quirky percussion. Their Cherry Red follow-up, Lazy Ways, was more musically developed, with each song a quietly defiant meditation on love and loneliness, and their vocals spot-on.

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Oh Tracy Thorn...

glenn.oneil

Minimalistic but great - this was pre-Everything But The Girl for Tracy Thorn. Ben Watt the other half of EBTG also produced a solo LP "North Marine Drive", it's also very good if you can get your hands on it. Would love to see Tracy Thorn's new album on emusic. Triva fact: Kirt Cobain loved the Marine Girls and Nirvana used to play song 15 "in Love" (or so I've read)...

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Strong and Sensitive

OldManRiver

SWM looking for SERIOUS relationship with hot 18-24 year old female. I enjoy long walks on the beach and Friday nights at the Smackdown... My E-Harmony box # is 1287

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Wordly and rotten

yplust

I take umbrage with the comments made by the so-called leicaface. I challenge him to a duel.

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Naive and Super

leicaface

Quit counting your remaining downloads because this one's a must have Cherry Red classic. Well it changed my life anyway.

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They Say All Music Guide

The Marine Girls’ complete studio output is included on the superb Lazy Ways/Beach Parties two-fer; although Tracey Thorn went on to even bigger and better things as one half of Everything But the Girl, her previous group’s light, sophisticated pop remains utterly beguiling, as evidenced by such enduring performances as “Love to Know.” – Jason Ankeny