Enchanted by the Pearlfishers

(I wrote this in 2005. I know that was eons ago, but this album is a classic one and deserved to be given its just publicity, even in an obscure blog like this. Buy if you can still find it.)

Exactly one week ago, I bought the Pearlfishers’ LP The Young Picnickers. I bought it entirely on the might of one of its singles, We’ll Get By, a magical pop song that I first heard three years ago in the promotional CD A Bag Of Goodies which was burned for me by an indie-pop music loving friend (Wez, take your bow). That song instantly became one of my favorites, and was one of the first songs that I encoded in my archaic cellphone-cum-mp3 player’ playlist and which is still occupying a firm space there up to now.

The album’s title is taken from one of its tracks, a fine, soothing instrumental that can generally illustrate the innocence, optimism, poignancy and sweetness of the whole album. Actually, you can feel that kind of atmosphere right from the start, with the opening song, We’re Gonna Save The Summer. David Scott, the band’s all-purpose leader, for our information, is a self-confessed Beach Boys admirer, and this song will clearly back up that claim with its very 60-sh summer sound and lyrics. When they promised:
We’re gonna save the summer
how many miles would I go for my love?
through the storm, through the storm
will I walk on the paths of her loneliness?
where I don’t belong and where I’ll never be
‘cause all my life I’ve never cared
I’ve been floating in the air
feeling I’m old and young at the same time
but now, you know, I’m not so sure
what’s gone wrong and what’s the cure
how can we chase away all of the dark clouds?
You know there’s no doubt they will.

It is followed by An Ordinary Day Out In The Suburbs, a fine pop song about hope, love and living in a suburb. Third song is the single, We’ll Get By. Now, why did I like this song so much that I have to purchase an unheard LP for it? Here’s a little explanation. A perfect song for me is a combination of a beautiful lyric bathed in a wonderful music. Moz in his Smiths day supplied me with these songs in a regular basis. This one is close to that perfect song. Imagine this lyric in a light, shimmering pop sound:
we can live with the magic
we can live with the magic
been around the world, seen a lot of things
done a lot of thinking ‘bout the way I live my life
and the way I live my life
is my concern
because we’re living in a world of geniuses
telling us what to think
even though we won’t be geniuses
we’ll get by
though we haven’t got a clue
we could always have fun finding out
learning something new about each other every day

But as I found out, this is not the only near-perfect song that I was going to hear from this surprisingly excellent LP. If I thought it would still be the best song in the album when I bought it, then I was wrong. Maybe, I didn’t really know David Scott that much. Because when I heard You Justify My Life, the money I spend in getting this CD was immediately returned to me.
when we met I’d already died
or was living as a zombie
then you came and kissed me alive
I was growing straight and true
and if there’s a God above
then I know you’ll understand
when I say he put me here for you
and making love is the way that we’ve learned
‘bout each other
it’s the way part of you can become part of me
part of living, feeling free
all my past sins you forgave
wanna thank you from the heart
for this wandering soul you’ve saved
you justify my life
and if you’ve got to leave then I’ll understand
but I hope you can just pretend
that you really want to see me one more time
really want to see me one more time
really wanna see you
I’ll come and worship every day
really wanna see you
you’re the light that’s shown me the way
This track is a Prefab Prout-like creation embedded in a happy, wistful indie pop sound. Another song that equals this is Over & Over, this time, a Burt Bacharach-ish ballad that seems to be interpreted both by the Stylistics and Paul Heaton. Listen and be captivated when David Scott croons these lyrics:
but when I’m right
you make me feel as if I’m wrong
and when I’m wrong
I’m the first one to know
But it is when he cries it’s such a waste of time/ your love is just a waste of time that the song’s highlight emerges

The rest of the LP is all top-notch, that I can’t find any which I don’t like. The bubbly Every Day I Read Your Stars can be about you or someone you know who usually read the horoscopes of the people they are interested with. Actually, I know some people who do this, as if their path will be romantically intertwined by the stars. (if I tried I could be someone/ who appeals to you/ so I’ve got to find a way/ to be part of the things that you are/ it’s the only way, it’s the only way/ yes it’s the only way/ scorpio, Capricorn/ every day I read your stars).
The somber, narrative Stella Painted Joy is a five-minute tale of a lost childhood love (Stella fell in love with a man of twenty/moved into his single bed/I was signing on, she was in the suburbs/making toast and giving head/stella where’d you go?/please give me an answer) .

Blue December and Strawberries In The Snow are both wonderfully melancholic love songs, while Once There Was a Man and Battersea Bardot are a showcase of the band’s plain power to create upbeat and highly listenable pop songs.

I rarely do this, praising every song off an album, but this one is an exception. Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry (please read my posted review), Belle & Sebastian’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress (please wait for the posting of the review in the coming months), The Sunday’s Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (same with B&S), and Prefab Sprout’s The Gunman and Other Stories (same with The Sunday), although they were all good albums, there were songs there that I never really liked, or I would rather skip in the set list.

I know most of you haven’t heard of this indie-pop band , but now you have read this review, give yourself a chance. If you are fond of indie-tweenie sounds and some Club 8’s poetry and poppiness, then it will be impossible for you not to embrace this LP. If I were only a high school or college student who have never met Morrissey yet when I heard this, I would have surely collected this band’s every creative whim and tears. But as fate would have it, I was already engaged to His Holiness when I discovered David Scott. Nonetheless, the fact remains: this album, released in 1999, is a collection of flawless pop music compositions that should light up and stir your mood and emotions.

PS:
If you ever decide to look for this scarce LP in the Tower Records but unable to find it there, since I think what I got was the last stock, then I can be generous enough to lend you a free bootleg copy, so you can at least finally relate with this reviewer’s enchantment.

Written 7/16/05