Songs For Swinging Lovers

Radio Stars’ debut album appeared hot on the heels of two tremendous singles, “Dirty Pictures” and “No Russians in Russia” (from the Stop It EP). Neither track made it onto the album (although early pressings included a bonus 45 coupling the two), but they were scarcely missed as the band sauntered through a dozen tight, punk-inflected odes to some decidedly unpunky subjects: “Eric,” about a man named Eric; “Macaroni and Mice,” misgivings over the contents of certain foreign-owned restaurant menus; “Nice Girls,” about nice girls; and “Good Personality,” about ugly ones. Also featured is “Nervous Wreck,” Radio Stars’ first hit single and positively the only record in history to feature the word “electroencephalograph” as an intrinsic part of the chorus. Musical puns also abound: “Nice Girls” opens with a grinning lift from “Pinball Wizard,” while “Buy Chiswick Records” delights in spinning utterly out of synch with itself. Amid such madcappery, the British tabloids could not resist hauling out a few examples of supreme bad taste with which to whip the band. “The Beast of Barnsley,” a churning, near-military paean to a period serial killer, drew anguished commentary from the killer’s wife, who claimed she could no longer go to a pub in case the song turned up on the jukebox. Radio Stars promptly placed the song on the B-side of its next single, in the hope that it would. The maniacal chant “Arthur Is Dead Boring (Let’s Rot),” meanwhile, started life as a disrespectful assault on the recently deceased Elvis Presley, but was renamed to avoid the attentions of the King’s grieving followers. Alternating between fast songs and faster songs, short songs and shorter songs, Songs for Swinging Lovers never loses sight of the melodic genius that has always been songwriter Martin Gordon’s calling card. Indeed, it is that sense of melody that not only ensures the album’s longevity, but confirms it as one of the few punk-era albums not to have become horribly dated by the passing years, while the jokes and light-heartedness remain equally fresh. – Dave Thompson